Page 21

CHAPTER 21

Alice lay still, too disoriented and scared to move. She’d just woken from a nightmare—but the nightmare had been so vivid, had felt so real, that she wasn’t entirely certain she was truly awake.

The immense pain that she’d felt in that nightmare lingered, but it was merely a phantom of itself; the oddly cool sensation flowing through her veins was chasing it away. Swallowing thickly, she struggled to ease her breathing and slowly ran her hand along her abdomen to where she’d been shot. There was no blood, no wound, no pain as she applied pressure.

I was dying.

She’d felt it. She’d felt her heartbeat slowing, fading; she’d felt her lungs burning as she battled to draw in her final, desperate breaths; she’d felt ice creeping up her limbs toward her chest and had known it would steal whatever life remained in her when it reached her heart. And she’d stared at Shadow, who lay motionless beside her, his eyes empty and blank, throughout—she’d stared until he disappeared.

Over and over, Alice had repeated the words in her head.

This isn’t real. Shadow’s not gone, he’s awake. Shadow’s alive.

Before long, all she’d been able to do was whisper his name as she bled out.

There was movement in her peripheral vision; suddenly, Shadow was above her. Except…his face was thinner, sharper, and he was splattered with blood—a lot of blood. At least some of it appeared to be his own, trickling from a cut over his right eye and his swollen, split lower lip.

“Shadow, wh?—”

He slipped his arms beneath Alice and lifted her as he brought his mouth down on hers. His kiss was both familiar and foreign, reminiscent of the kisses they’d shared in the simulation while somehow being wholly new and unique. The sensation felt stronger, more powerful, more… real .

They were real.

We made it !

Joy surged within Alice, and she forced her heavy arms up to loop them around his neck. This was Shadow. Her Shadow. The one who’d been there for her from the beginning, who’d helped her, believed in her, and loved her even when he’d thought her mad. And he was here with her, in the real world, in the flesh.

He’d saved her.

Alice curled her fingers in his long, black and gray hair, parted her lips, and returned the kiss. She tasted his salty, metallic blood—along with something more undefinable, something entirely him .

“Alice,” Shadow rasped against her mouth before deepening the kiss and holding her tighter against him.

This kiss wasn’t about seduction or blazing desire—it was a grounding kiss, confirming that they were real, that they were alive, that they were together. They’d never kissed one another with such desperation and relief; no other kiss had ever been so comforting.

When they finally pulled away from one another, Alice searched his face, frowning at the cuts and swelling, at the first hints of bruising on his gray skin. Easing down on the cushion beneath her, Alice lightly touched the side of his mouth near the split.

“What happened?” she asked.

“The king and I found one another,” he replied, voice hoarse.

Alice’s eyes flared. The king ? She tore her gaze away from Shadow to take in her surroundings. Though she and Shadow were no longer in the simulation, they were still in Wonderland—or at least the asylum that housed Wonderland. “Where is he now?”

“Showed him true death.”

Perhaps it was wrong to feel relief over someone’s death, but she couldn’t help it now. Though she’d recently dealt with death when she’d lost her father, Wonderland had given Alice her first experiences with violence and bloodshed—the worst of which had been perpetrated by the Red King.

“We need to leave,” Alice said, gently brushing her fingertips over his cheek.

Shadow nodded and removed one arm from around her, leaning away to pick up a small black tablet from the foot of the pod—a gun lay beside it on the padded bed. He winced and held the device to her. “This has a map on it. Could you use it to find a way? I…my head is too fuzzy, and I can’t…I can’t remember enough.”

Pushing herself up with her hands, Alice took the tablet, but she didn’t remove her eyes from Shadow. “How hurt are you?”

He glanced down at himself for a few seconds before returning his gaze to hers. “I’m sure I’ve had worse. I just can’t remember it.”

Frowning, Alice settled her hand just over his hip and slowly ran it up over his hospital gown. He stiffened and sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth when she reached his ribs.

“Just a little tender,” he said in a strained voice.

“I barely touched it… Oh, Shadow.”

How badly was he hurt?

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “Barely felt it, thanks to all the drugs they must’ve pumped into me.”

Alice’s frown deepened, but she chose not to press him on the obvious lie. Despite the concern eating away at her from within, there wasn’t much she could do to help him while they were in this place.

She carefully pulled away from him and climbed out of the pod, keeping the tablet in hand as she moved. Her legs were unsteady at first, feeling terribly weak, but Shadow—holding onto the pod to anchor himself—offered her his arm in support. She was suddenly aware of every spot on her body where a needle had been embedded; they were highlighted by patches of numbness beneath which that strange, cold sensation lingered.

Alice looked around the room. She’d been drugged when they first dragged her in here, and her vision had been too blurred to see much of it. The pod had looked like a coffin to her at first glance; it might as well have been one, in the end, had Shadow not saved her in time. There was one pod to the right of hers, and at least twenty-five more to the left—meaning that, just in this room alone, there were nearly thirty people trapped in Wonderland.

How many of them actually belonged here? How many people in this facility were like Alice, imprisoned unjustly and against their will?

How many of them desperately needed treatment, real treatment, but instead were subjected to that surreal, chaotic, dangerous simulation?

She turned her face back toward Shadow. Why was he here?

Whatever the reason, Alice didn’t care, and she wouldn’t allow them to keep him here. Shadow was hers .

“Were there other guards or workers out there?” Alice asked, turning the tablet in her hands.

“I didn’t see anyone on my way here. The device said the security and reporting systems were deactivated. I think the king turned them off before he came for me.”

“This was his ?”

Shadow nodded. “And it’s totally unsecured. I was able to use it to override your pod and force you awake.”

An unsecured tablet that could override systems in this facility? Alice leaned forward and pressed a kiss on the corner of his mouth as elation warmed her, fighting back the chill that had settled into her body since waking. This tablet, so plain and unimportant at a glance, was their way out. “Good. I’ll figure out a way to lock the door so we can have a few minutes to think.”

She swiped her finger over the screen. It came on to display Alice’s picture—her file was open. Brows lowering, she skimmed the document.

Patient suffers from intermittent explosive disorder, depression, delusions, and paranoia. Family has reported violent outbursts and threats, and patient exhibited those tendencies while being transported to facility.

Alice tightened her grip on the tablet as disbelief, horror, and anger flooded her.

Family has reported …

Lies!

Tabitha and Jonathon had done this? Why ? Why would they have sent her here?

She pressed one of the tabs in the file marked Director’s Notes . Her eyes widened as she read.

High marks for attractiveness, but patient is too spirited. Will need to be broken in before suitable for play. Recommend time with patient Edward Winters (alias: the Hatter) for reconditioning.

Family unconcerned with wellbeing; would prefer loose ends tied up.

Candidate for cleaning program—family will not question patient death.

Alice’s anger and disbelief warred with one another. She didn’t want to believe she’d been betrayed, that her father had been betrayed. She was supposed to have been able to trust Tabitha—Alice’s father had meant for Tabitha to be a mother to her, had hoped Tabitha would one day care for Alice as though she were the woman’s own daughter.

Though Alice and Tabitha had never been able to build such a bond, Alice had never thought her stepmother capable of this .

Shadow placed a hand on her arm; it was only then that she realized she was trembling.

“Whatever that says, Alice, we can deal with it later. We need to go now, right?”

She would’ve agreed with him were it not for the links included at the bottom of the document—communication logs marked CLAYBOURNE T. Alice clenched her jaw and opened the logs. Stinging heat built beneath her skin as she read the communications, and her rage swelled to new, titanic proportions.

“ She did it,” Alice said in a low voice, “and she wasn’t even subtle about it.”

“Who did what, Alice?” Shadow asked, his hand tightening slightly.

“Tabitha. My stepmother. She bribed the director of this place—the king —to have me committed here. To make me disappear. My father left almost everything to me, and his will superseded what she would’ve inherited otherwise, which meant I would either have to die or be deemed incompetent to subvert his wishes. And it’s all right here.”

He frowned deeply; even here in the real world, even now, it was strange to see him without that grin.

“So, what do we do with this information, then?” he asked. “We still need to go, don’t we?”

“No, Shadow. We don’t need to go anywhere. We can stay right here. This”—she lifted the tablet—“is our escape route. We can contact the authorities and wait for them to come to us. This is all the evidence we need of the wrong-doings going on here.”

Shadow’s brow was creased with worry. “But I killed him, Alice. And killing someone…that’s not okay here, is it?”

Alice reached up and cupped his jaw. “He shot at you, didn’t he? That’s why you have the gun?”

He nodded. “I was out of the pod when he came in. He fired into the pod before he knew where I was.”

A fresh wave of relief swept through her; she’d come so close to losing him. They’d come so close to losing each other. If he’d taken any longer to wake himself up, they both would’ve been dead by now.

“It was self-defense, Shadow. You were protecting yourself. And no matter what, I will not let anything happen to you.”

She would fight for him in any way possible.

His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. He covered her hand with his own and brushed the pad of his thumb over her skin. “This is the only way?”

“It’s the right way.” She leaned forward and gently pressed her forehead to his. “Everything will be okay. I promise.”

He closed his eyes and slipped his arms around her. “I trust you. I love you.”

A different kind of warmth coursed through her; it soothed her, lifted her spirit, and made her heart race. “I love you, too.”

She embraced him, careful not to squeeze because of his ribs. The feel of him only reminded her how much thinner he was out here. He’d been just as tall in the simulation, and had been leanly muscled, but this…he seemed to have wasted away in reality. How long had he been imprisoned here?

When she finally—reluctantly—pulled back from him, she returned her attention to the tablet and navigated to the main menu. Within a few moments, she’d managed to discern their location—the Liddell Psychiatric Hospital, only twenty miles outside Apex Reach, the city in which she’d spent most of her life.

That discovery settled her even further; her father had been well-connected in Apex Reach, and she’d met many of his friends and acquaintances over the years—including the chief of police.

A search on the net turned up the contact information for the police headquarters. She didn’t waste a moment in making the call.

“I need to speak with Chief Farland,” she said to the operator who answered.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but the Chief is very busy. I can take a message?—”

“Tell him it’s Alice Claybourne, Daniel Claybourne’s daughter. And it’s an emergency.”

“Claybourne?” the operator asked. There was a muted conversation in the background, none of which Alice could make out, before the operator said, “I’m transferring the call now. Please hold for just a moment.”

The line went silent; Alice counted her heartbeats as she waited.

There was a faint crackling sound on the other end of the call.

“Alice?” Chief Farland said in a raised, worried voice.

She could’ve just called the police, could’ve just called emergency services, but their best chance was with the chief—with anyone else, they risked being mistaken as a couple of disturbed patients who’d broken out of their pods and killed the facility’s director, and that had too much of a chance of going bad before they could tell their story. But she knew Chief Farland; he’d been one of her father’s closest friends and had been like family to Alice while she was growing up.

“Uncle Sean, I need your help.”

“Alice, what’s going on? Tabitha wouldn’t tell me a damned thing. Where are you?”

Alice met Shadow’s eyes and smiled. “The Liddell Psychiatric Hospital.”