Page 36 of Escaping Wonderland

True to form, the king had arranged his guards along both sides of the path, ten in each line, with ten more having marched into Jor’calla’s home.

Nothing sounded more entertaining to Shadow in that moment than the thought of the king ordering his soldiers to attack only for all of them to simultaneously malfunction. The king’s face would turn a shade of red that by itself would’ve been enough to justify his most commonly used moniker.

All it would take was a few disconnected wires where each automaton’s neck met its head…

Shadow had only made it through the first line when the other automatons emerged from the building, dragging Alice and Jor’calla along with them.

Alice struggled against her captors like a cornered animal, displaying a ferocity that Shadow hadn’t yet seen from her—he was equal parts proud and aroused. But those feelings quickly vanished when he realizedwhyshe was struggling.

The Red King had no intention of being nice to her. The Red King wasn’t nice toanyone. He wanted something from Alice—likely wanted Alice herself—and he wasn’t the sort to stop before getting what he desired.

Neither was Shadow.

Shadow hurried along the second line of automatons, working as quickly as he could. Leaving the machines fully functional would only complicate his escape with Alice; even if they couldn’t do much to harm him, they could certainly harm her.

But his frantic pace wasn’t enough to keep him from hearing what the king said to Alice—about making her take him with her mouth. Jealousy and rage roared to life within Shadow. He clenched his fists, digging his claws into his palms, and involuntarily released a low growl that nearly revealed him to his foe.

When the king sliced open Jor’calla—a decent person, even if he was sometimes quite rude—only a minute later, Shadow knew he was out of time. There was no more room for elaborate plans, no matter how entertaining they’d be.

The threat to Alice was too great.

Shadow was creeping around the machine soldiers, meaning to sneak up behind his foe, when the king pulled Alice against him and kissed her.

Kissedher.

Hekissedher!

Shadow’s rage grew into something powerful and primal, sweeping through him from head to toe to the tip of his tail. It was heavy; it was fiery; it wasraw. For as long as hecould remember, he’d played his games with the denizens of Wonderland because those games werefun. And those people had looked at him like he was a freak, had called him the Grinning Ghost, the Faceless One, the Slinking Shadow. And he’d never hated any of them—not even the ones who’d been angry at him, who’d tried to kill him. It had all been too amusing.

But there was nothing amusing about this. There was no fun to be had here.

Even after witnessing the Red King’s cruelty over an unfathomable length of time, even after countless games—most of which culminated in violence—between Shadow and this man who called himself the ruler of Wonderland, Shadow had never hated the king.

Until now.

Shadow had planned to toy with the king for a little while before escaping with Alice. He’d planned to taunt and tease, and he’d been in a good enough mood that he probably wouldn’t have killed the man before going.

That was no longer the case.

Because the Red King had kissed Alice.Shadow’sAlice.

Snarling, he darted behind the king, sank his claws into the man’s scalp, yanked the man’s head back, and drew the gun from the king’s hip.

“Fuck!” The king released Alice and lifted his arm as though to reach back and stab Shadow.

“No more games,” Shadow growled as he jabbed the barrel of the gun just behind the king’s ear and pulled the trigger.

The boom of the gunshot echoed through the trees, followed a moment later by the light, splattering sounds of chunks of the king’s brain and skull raining on the forest floor nearby. Using his grip on the king’s hair, Shadow thrust the limp corpse backward.

“Shadow,” Alice rasped, her big blue eyes bright against her pale skin. An instant later, she lunged toward him, throwing herself into his arms.

He caught her in an embrace, but his attention was focused on the automatons beyond her.

The machines along the sides of the road snapped their heads toward him. Sparks flew from their necks, and small explosions blasted their heads apart in rapid, irregular succession. But the ten on the path—the ones who’d captured Alice and Jor’calla—just stared at Shadow with their glowing red eyes and lifted their weapons.

“Didn’t get them all, we’ll talk soon,” Shadow said quickly, lifting Alice off her feet and spinning her around so he was shielding her from the robots with his body.

She released a startled cry; when she repeated his name, it was with alarm.

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