Page 51 of Madness Becomes Her

I open my mouth to ask if he’d like me to reciprocate, but he straightens and helps me off the table and to my feet. “Come. We have to pack our things. Midnight approaches.”

The strange bubble of whatever we were just floating in bursts, and I’m dragged back to the reality of a queen who wants to kill me and another who might hide me.

Pure lunacy.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE MAGIC OF TRAVELS

We set off with Lewis at the stroke of midnight, following Winston through the Cheshire Wood. All while I do my best to steer clear of the trees that chuckle now and again in my direction.

“I get the distinct feeling the trees are whispering about us,” I tell Finlo, walking closer to his side.

He shrugs. “Probably. Trees are terrible gossips.”

“Hey!” one of them shouts as we pass. “I resent that!”

I giggle, shaking my head in disbelief. “This world is so strange.”

“Perfectly so,” Lewis agrees, walking ahead of us beside Winston. The two of them talk incessantly while Finlo and I follow them.

Every so often, I eye branches of trees or passageways as we pass by, looking for the man-cat I met all those days ago.

“Looking for someone?” Fin asks me finally.

“No. I was just… I met a man, rather a cat, in the woods before, and I wondered where he was.”

“Falvious is very good at hiding,” Fin says with a grin on his lips. “Aren’t you, Fal?”

A beaming, enormous smile lights up before me, and I scream, stopping in my tracks.

The rest of Falvious comes blinking into view, his cat-like body large and striped as he swirls overhead. This time, he’s not hanging from any tree. He’s floating in mid-air.

“Got ya!” Falvious sneers, tucking back out of sight like he never was. His laugh hangs between us, however.

Fin’s smile widens. “Tricky little minx, isn’t he?”

“He is.” I clutch my chest, ducking beneath where I saw Falvious disappear, lest I run into some part of his body still floating invisibly.

“Once we’re out of the woods, we’ll make camp,” Winston announces, as the edge of the woods becomes visible.

I wonder how far I am from where I emerged into Wonderland, but don’t want to ask Finlo and upset him. Any time I mention my home, it sets something off in him.

“You’ll camp with me,” Fin whispers, his hand finding the small of my back.

“Did we bring anything for camping?” I ask him, having only packed clothes and shoes in my bag strapped to my back.

“We did.”

We, meaning him, I take it.

Once we exit the woods, I take a deep breath. The other side of them doesn’t look like The Bog at all. The sun is rising over bright-colored mountains. Pink-leafed trees blow in the gentle, jasmine-scented breeze, and the green grass is inviting.

“Wow!”

“Welcome to White Queen Territory,” Winston says. “We’ll bed here for awhile. Lewis, if you’ll get a fire going, I’ll hunt us down some breakfast.”

Lewis inclines his head.