Page 61 of Edge of Wonder

Something moved in the forest. Faces appeared out of the shadows, and a group of men bearing notched arrows stepped onto the sandy shore. A man wearing a navy blue top hat with a gold band stepped to the front. His hair was thick and ebony, hanging past his ears, and puffed out from beneath the bottom of the hat. He wore a blue trench coat with the collar popped, and gold buttons running down the length.

In his hand, he clenched a wooden pipe, and he pointed it toward us.

“On your knees, my friends.”

When we hesitated, the men behind him pulled back the drawstrings on their bows.

Sebastian lifted his hands to stop them from shooting, and slowly, we knelt in the cold sand. The man shuffled forward, bending to inspect us, then clapped his hands together.

“It is them.”

“Who are you?” I asked, staring at the reflective clasps on his boots.

“I’m Hatter. And you are Alice.”

“I know my name.”

“And I know mine.” Hatter grinned and knelt next to me.

“What do you want from us?”

“I want to have some tea.” He lifted the pipe to his lips and blew a puff of smoke in our faces. My eyes watered as I breathed in the acrid vapor. Sebastian coughed, and my chest ached as more smoke flooded the air.

Dizziness made my head swim, and I collapsed into the sand. Hatter’s boots were the last thing I saw before my eyes slid shut and I slipped into darkness.

Chapter 21

Alice

“Do you take sugar in your tea?”

My eyes peeled open, and I found myself seated at a long table with a linen white tablecloth and huge centerpieces filled with fragrant flowers. Teacups and saucers sat at the place settings and delicately painted teapots anchored each end of the table.

Rope bound my hands to the chair's armrests, and I twisted my wrists, trying to loosen the bindings. It was no use, and all I got from my effort was chafed, raw skin. Still dressed in my chemise and missing my boots, I tried to remember what had happened. The last thing I knew, Sebastian and I were standing on the shoreline, and then—

A rhythmic clinking came from the other side of the table. I leaned far to the left, straining the rope to peer past the flower centerpiece blocking my view.

Hatter.The memory of our abduction came rushing back. He swirled a spoon inside a teacup, the metal tinkling against the porcelain.

“Where are the rest of my clothes?” I asked while he took a sip from his cup.

His nose scrunched like a rabbit's as he placed the cup into a saucer and added another lump of sugar. “They’re being cleaned. Why you bathe in liquor is beyond me, but I can’t stand the stench. I prefer the herbal wonders of tea. Do you want some?” A maddening smile formed across his lips.

My neck had developed a kink from leaning so far over, but I answered his question with one of my own. “How would I drink it with my arms tied to the chair?”

Hatter tapped his spoon against his chin. “That’s a good riddle, isn’t it? I suppose the answer is, you can’t.” He snapped his fingers and a large mouse scampered out of an empty teacup. It climbed onto the armrest of my chair, then sank its teeth into the rope, chewing it straight through to free my right hand. When the mouse finished, it scurried back to its cup and curled into the bottom.

“There you go. Now, back to the question. Do you take sugar in your tea?”

I nodded. “Two, please.”

Hatter filled a cup with a steaming dark liquid, then dropped in two lumps of sugar. He slid the cup, sitting in a saucer, across the table and waited while I considered whether I should drink it. The odds were low that it contained poison. He could have already killed me a hundred times over. Why wait until I tried his tea? Picking up the cup, I took a tentative sip. The hot liquid was delicious, but it did little to put me at ease.

“Where are we, and where is Sebastian?”

“We are exactly where we’re supposed to be. Wherever you are is where you’re at.”

My teeth ground together at his nonsense answer. “No. I meant how far have we traveled and what is this place?”

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