Page 25 of Dark & Darker Still (Vane and Roc: Origin)
Twenty-Four
Alice
When Jade sees me on her doorstep, she pulls the door in and comes out on the stoop, wrapping me in a hug. I want to sink into her kindness, but I don’t deserve it, so I give her a half-hearted embrace.
“I need your help,” I tell her.
“Of course.” She steps back and ushers me inside.
Jade’s apartment is on the second floor of one of the Needle Harbor brownstones, so immediately when you walk in, floor-to-ceiling windows give a perfect view of the ocean.
“What do you need?” Jade asks and drops into one of the side chairs in front of the windows.
I take the chair beside her. “I need a card.”
She frowns at me.
Most of us displaced from Wonderland don’t talk about the cards anymore. We have no reason to. Their power is only good on the other side of the glass.
But there is one thing they do on this side, the one thing I need.
“Why?” she asks, the suspicion clear in her voice.
“I’m going back.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am. I can’t stay here. I?—”
Jade leans forward. “What is it?”
“There’s something I never told you. I never told anyone.”
“Okay.”
“And it might sound crazy.”
She blows out a breath. “Half of what we do is crazy.”
“When I was ten years old, I managed to collect a full court of cards.” I fold my hands in my lap as my fingers tingle.
It’s been years since then, but I still remember the way my body felt displaced, like I was neither solid nor real.
More spirit than living. “I don’t know if it’s something only a spade can do, but…
when I had the full court—a diamond queen, a club, a spade, and a heart—and I went to the looking glass in the Palace of Spades, it opened for me. ”
Jade’s eyes widen.
“I went to the Underland.”
She takes this in for several long beats, her gaze faraway.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” I wring my hands together. “I have to go back, Jade. I have to get Lainey back.”
“Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know. But I have to try.”
“You won’t know what you’re returning to.”
“I know.”
“The Queen of Hearts could have you killed.”
“I know.”
“Or worse, maybe there’s nothing to return to.”
“I know that too.”
“If you think this is a way to win Vane?—”
“No,” I stop her before she can go on. “It’s not that. He and I are done. I can never…he, I mean we …it’s over. But I owe it to Lainey. And to Roc and Vane.”
“To risk your life?”
“Yes.” There’s that familiar burning in my sinuses again. “My life and more.”
“Al—”
“Please, Jade.”
She inhales. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
She gets up and disappears into her bedroom.
When she returns a minute later, she’s carrying a court card.
The queen of diamonds. In Wonderland, court cards act like keys.
To doors, to realms, to magic, to power.
The queens are the most powerful and act, in a way, like skeleton keys, giving the bearer access to it all.
I’m aware of the importance of this act, even if Jade never planned to return to our home world.
“Thank you,” I say as she hands it over.
The card is warm and when I shift it in my grip, the hearts reflect the light shining in through the windows.
“How are you going to get the rest of the court?” Jade asks.
“I’m hoping Salty is feeling generous.”
Jade laughs. “He’ll drive a high price.”
“I figured.”
She turns serious. “But the heart?”
I stand up and make my way to the door. I don’t want to waste any more time.
“The heart will be harder. But she deserves what she gets.”
“Callista,” Jade says and I nod.
“Just be careful.”
I give her a hug. I made Jade’s place my first stop because I think I needed some hope. Or maybe I knew deep down she would never deny me a card, and now that the queen of hearts is in my hands, there’s no backing down.
I’m all in now.