Page 58 of Escaping Wonderland

Shadow returned his attention to real-Sithix and took another step toward him. “No more help. No running.”

Real-Sithix’s eye flared, the fear in them becoming dominant. He shoved off the shore as though to swim away. Shadow darted forward and dropped to one knee, plunging a hand into the water. His fingers closed around Sithix’s tail, and he squeezed to bury his claws deep.

Part of Shadow wanted to toy with Sithix—but it wasn’t the playful part of him, wasn’t the part of him that delighted in the games he played with the other denizens of Wonderland. This was something deeper, something primal; not the trickster but the beast that dwelled in the darkness buried in his heart.

He wanted to make Sithix suffer. He wanted to prolong this being’s death becauseno onewas allowed to touch Alice butShadow, becauseno onewas allowed to harm her,no onewas allowed to threaten her.

Sithix thrashed, churning the water. Shadow’s arm jerked, but he held fast, and—with a deep, rumbling growl—dragged Sithix toward land. Despite his struggles, Sithix couldn’t escape.

Shadow stood up, braced his feet on the stone, and stepped back, giving his foe’s tail a sharp tug. Sithix’s legs emerged from the water first. His right calf bled profusely as he scrabbled for purchase. Shadow took another step away from the stream, leaning backward with all his weight. Sithix’s torso slid onto land. He clawed at the stone slabs, breaking several of his claws in his desperation but failing to latch on.

With another great heave, Shadow dragged his foe farther back, leaving the water several feet outside Sithix’s reach. He snarled, “No running.”

Sithix twisted onto his back and kicked at Shadow with his left leg. His intact eye was bulging, his slitted pupil blown wide.

Shadow released Sithix’s tail and batted aside the boruk’s flailing legs. He dropped down atop Sithix, driving his knee—with most of his weight behind it—into Sithix’s gut, and drew one of the knives from the terrified alien’s belt.

The broken creature—formerly knife-Sithix—hissed from somewhere behind Shadow, who didn’t bother to look back. It was too late for Sithix to save himself. It was too late for Shadow to reject the crimson miasma that had consumed him.

Sithix threw up his arms, swinging, grasping, and scratching in a wild struggle.

This is real, Shadow thought.His terror is real.

Tightening his grip on the knife’s handle, Shadow swung it downward. He felt it bite flesh; that was enough to urge him on. He lifted his arm and brought it down again and again, and when warm, sticky blood splattered on his arms and face, he was driven even faster, even harder. Shadow roared his fury, hisbloodlust, his sense of helplessness; he roared with all his caring for Alice. And he kept the blade moving up and down as that roar ripped out of his throat, burying metal deep in flesh only to tear it out again. The squelching sounds of the knife’s impact were wholly gratifying.

“Shadow?”

The voice was familiar, but it was so soft, so far away…

And Shadowhadto keep attacking. He had to make Sithix pay, had to make sure he wasgoneforever.

“Shadow!”

His arm came down again; a jolt ran through the blade and up his forearm as the metal lodged in bone. Shadow stilled his arm. For what felt like a long while, he remained in place, shoulders heaving with his panting breaths, eyes fixed on his enemy without actually seeing. The red haze didn’t fade; it took some time for him to realize why.

He was staring down at a bloody, mangled, crimson mess—at meat so torn and tattered that it would’ve looked less damaged had it been put through a grinder. Shadow’s hands and arms were bathed in glistening crimson, and he could feel droplets of blood clinging to his face.

He could eventastethe blood—some of it must’ve splashed into his mouth through his painfully wide grin. That taste…it wasn’t unpleasant.

Shadow released the knife abruptly. His palm was slick with blood.

What is this? What…what am I?

He shoved himself back and landed on his backside in the grass beside the stone slabs, hands planted to either side of his hips. Rivulets of blood flowed from around Sithix, running over the flat stones to drain into the stream and drift away.

A gentle hand settled on Shadow’s shoulder, and he turned his head to see Alice kneeling beside him. Water-thinned blood trickled from the shallow cuts on her cheek and arm.

She’s mine. Mine!My Alice, my sweet.

Alice raised her other hand and cupped the side of his face. Her eyes were steady upon his.

“It’s done,” she said softly. “It’s over. He’s gone now.”

Shadow held her gaze, searching her eyes. She wasn’t lying, but her words still didn’t ring true to him; this felt somehow like a beginning, like everything had just started—and, ominously, like the worst was yet to come.

CHAPTER 16

Shadow didn’t know how to articulate any of his feelings, but that didn’t matter at that moment. OnlyAlicemattered.

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