Page 22 of Escaping Wonderland

Clinging to Shadow, Alice stared up at him with wide eyes. Her heart fluttered; she couldn’t tell if it was with startlement or anticipation.

He stood straight, lifting her with him and twirling her away along his arm. His firm hold on her hand stopped her with both their arms extended. She turned her head to look back at him.

How different would things have been if she’d gone into the Hatter’s on Shadow’s arm, if he’d led her through dances like these? Would his confidence, agility, and grace have forcedeverything else to fade away until only Shadow—only his eyes, only his mischievous grin—remained?

“No need to look so confused, Alice,” he said. “We’ve a long way to go, and little time. Or a short way to go, and more time than we think. Either way, we’d best be off.”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles before releasing her. He turned and started walking—in what she believed was an entirely different direction than he’d gone the first time—but now kept his pace easy.

Glancing down at her knuckles—she still felt the phantom touch of his lips on her skin—Alice sighed and started after him.

CHAPTER 6

Alice couldn’t be sure whether it was a lingering effect of the drugs she’d been given by Madame Cecilia or some aspect of the simulation, but she had great difficulty determining how long they walked. Minutes, hours,days; it all seemed the same, one way or another. Despite being barefoot—with only one stocking on thanks to Shadow—she never once stepped on anything rough or painful, and she felt surprisingly good even though her brain told her she should’ve succumbed to exhaustion long ago.

The trees and other plants remained mostly uniform throughout the journey, though a few different varieties popped up here and there. All of it was massive, all of it was a little alien, and Alice might’ve paid it more attention were it not for Shadow.

Her eyes drifted to him frequently. Though he never strayed too far, it was always difficult to say just wherehe’d be at any moment. He could be walking five feet ahead of her only to appear beside her in an instant without ever having moved. A few times, he roved a little farther ahead—twenty or thirty feet, maybe—only to suddenly walk past her from behind as though he’d been lagging the entire time. Whenever she saw him from the corner of her eye, his features were shadowy and indistinct—just like they’d been when she first glimpsed him at the Hatter’s.It was like he really was a walking shadow and not a man—analienman—at all.

Even stranger was his size. Again, she couldn’t be certain of anything, couldn’t tell if it was a strange trick of the inconsistent lighting, an effect of her odd surroundings, something to do with Shadow himself, or her own delusion, but his size seemed to…fluctuate.

Whenever he was near, he towered over her—she guessed he stood around seven feet tall. But when he was farther away, she found it increasingly difficult to judge his size. Sometimes, he walked beneath branches—without ducking—and had room to spare above the top hat, and when she walked beneath the same spot a moment later, the branch brushed the top of her hair. Other times, his hat bumped into foliage that she swore she wouldn’t have been able to reach if she climbed an eight-foot ladder.

To say it was disorienting would’ve been an understatement, especially when he always seemed a consistent size while he was close. Her mind insisted there was a rational explanation—dips and rises that she couldn’t see but which he was adept at traversing—but she knew that applying logic to anything in this place was a likely path to madness.

Nothing here made sense, and she would never be able toforceit to make sense.

Despite the matter of his possible size-changing, she found herself captivated by his body and the way he moved. He was tall and lean, with long limbs, but he wasn’t gangly or awkward; his movements flowed with preternatural grace, so smoothly that she sometimes had the impression he was morefloatingthan walking. For much of the time, he hummed softly, occasionally demonstrating dance moves directly out of an old Earth musical. His tunes were sometimes familiar, and sometimes seemed to beinspired by the various alien bird songs from the boughs around them—though she’d yet to spot a single bird.

An alien in Victorian clothing who phases around like a ghost and has the grin of a madman, butI’mthe crazy one?

Shewasthe one seeing it…maybe she was crazy, after all.

Alice was suddenly aware of the darkness that had settled over the forest. She came to a halt and frowned, surveying her surroundings. When had it grown so dark? She hadn’t even noticed the sun setting, hadn’t noticed the light fading, hadn’t noticed the sky changing color through the gaps in the leaves high overhead. She’d arrived in Wonderland at night and had emerged from the Hatter’s during the day—though she had no idea how long she’d been at Hatter’s Tea Party, no idea how long she’d been following Shadow through the woods.

Surely an entire day couldn’t have passed already.

She turned in place. A cool, gentle breeze brushed over her skin. The birds had ceased their singing, and unseen insects had begun their night music. Tiny glowing specks drifted through the air nearby, looking like little lightning bugs, but as one drew near, Alice realized they weren’t bugs at all—they were free-floating orbs of yellow light. She reached out her hand, fingers outstretched, to touch the orb.

The light passedthroughher fingers, creating a faintly tingling warmth as it did so.

“Curious…” she whispered.

It was like magic.

The orb’s light bathed Shadow’s face as he leaned in close. Alice started; he hadn’t been in front of her a moment ago, but there he was now, grinning, with that soft yellow glow highlighting his features.

“Curious indeed,” he said. “What do you suppose they taste like?”

“Um, nothing, I would guess. They’re just light.”

“Just light, Alice? One touch and you think you know everything about it?” He cupped his hand around the orb and swept it into his mouth.

It had been insubstantial when she touched it!

The light shone briefly through the tiny spaces between his fangs before he swallowed. His brow creased in a thoughtful expression as he smacked his lips. “A bit more sunshiney than I’d have liked, but I should’ve known.”

“They taste like sunshine?”

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