Page 20 of Tweedles Reflection (The Crimes of Alice #4)

“It’s been days,” I groaned, rubbing my face with my hand. “Why hasn’t the next trial shown itself?”

We all congregated around Hatter’s bed. Coby had cleared off his desk so we could have our meals in his room, since Hatter still wasn’t well enough to get out of bed. He hadn’t gotten any better, and now, the scent of the sickness faintly wafted off him.

While that answered one question, it didn’t make it any better. It only put a ticking clock on the third trial, one that was quickly counting down while we waited for something to happen.

“We don’t know any more than you do, pet.” Cheshire stroked his thumb over my knuckles. “The Underground is a mercurial creature. It will show the next trial when it is good and ready.”

“It just doesn’t make any sense.” Coby paced back and forth before us, as he has tended to do lately. “The first trial started right away and then the second appeared before you. Why wouldn’t the third one show itself the same way?”

“Maybe we should leave,” Carban suggested from his seat on the edge of Coby’s bed. “What if the next trial isn’t here? And the Underground needs us to... walk out the door.” He gestured toward the front of his apartment.

“We can’t leave Hatter, though.” I stared down at the floor, chewing on my lower lip. “I mean, I won’t.”

“Alice darling,” Hatter croaked from the bed, “I’m not going anywhere. If you need to leave to finish the trails, then wouldn’t it make the most sense to finish your task so I’ll be healed.”

“He’s right.” Carban laced his fingers in his lap. “The faster you finish the trials, the quicker Hatter will get better. You waiting around here, hoping the third trial will find you, isn’t helping anyone.”

The ring burned on my finger. The boy is right.

I glared down at the ground, twisting the ring around and around.

“Ally?”

My head lifted to meet Carban’s frown, his eyes locked on where I fiddled with the ring. Looking away, I tucked my hands into the pockets of the new cream-colored slacks they had dressed me in.

While I’d loved the dress the Tweedles had created me, this new outfit was so much more practical.

A long sleeve white blouse, tucked into high waisted pants, a smaller blue corset belt wrapped around my middle covering where they met.

My low-heeled black dress pumps from the Human Realm were replaced with knee high soft brown leather boots.

Since they destroyed my other clothes, it was only fitting they made me new ones.

“Alice.” Carban stood and stepped toward me. “If we’re going to sit around here doing nothing, then why don’t you tell us about that ring?”

I pushed to my feet. “I need some air.”

Before any of them could stop me, I walked out of the bedroom, through the apartment, and down the stairs. I pushed through the back of the store doors, stepping over the broken mannequins and discarded tables until I was out on the street.

The streets of the Seelie Court were baren, a ghost town. All that was missing was a thick fog and debris skittering across the cobblestone road.

“This can’t continue.” I wrapped my arms around my middle. “They’re going to find out.”

Not yet they won’t.

“I can’t keep lying to them forever.”

Not forever. Just until the last trial. Don’t get cold feet now, we’re almost there.

“Almost there?” I huffed and stomped my foot. “We’re stuck is what we are. The third trial hasn’t shown itself, and I’m running out of time. Hatter is running out of time.”

“I always thought you were mad, but this really does top the cake,” a familiar, arrogant voice filled the otherwise silent road. “Who are you talking to, Pretender?”

Spinning on my heel, I faced the last person in all the universe I wanted to see right now. “Tatiana.”

Clothed in an icy white gown that brushed the ground and kissed the edges of her shoulders, the Seelie Queen looked completely out of place on the streets of Summerville.

“Oh? Do you think you’re High Queen already, addressing me so informally?

” She brushed a slender hand through her silky white hair and sighed, staring up at the buildings around us.

“If I’d known you’d get this close, I never would have let you leave my daughter’s house with my blessing.

At least, not alive.” She leveled a look at me.

“I don’t want to do this with you right now.” I twisted the ring with my thumb. “This isn’t about you.”

It wasn’t a coincidence that she showed up now, while I was on the precipice of becoming High Queen. One more trial. That was all I needed. Then I would be able to save Hatter and Cheshire. I would also be the ruler of them all. Something I knew probably ate at the female before me.

“You’re right.” Tatiana nodded, lacing her fingers in front of her. “This is about the future of the Underground.”

I stared at the Seelie Queen, wariness in every inch of my bones.

“Then why are you here?”

Those icy blue eyes settled on me finally, and the wickedness in her gaze would make me shake in my boots once upon a time.

Now, it only made me tired.

“I have found the Human Realm more tolerable than I expected. I’ve come to enjoy it there. The humans are so...” She sighed happily, staring up at the scorched sky. “Gullible. Easily entertained. They cannot get enough of the fae and our ways.”

She paced back and forth, talking with her hands. “You know, I’ve had no less than a dozen requests for interviews, magazine shoots — whatever those are — and hordes of fan letters? Just for being fae, let alone being queen?”

“I wish I could say I’m surprised,” I muttered, drawing my magic up in preparation for her to get to the point of her ramble.

Tatiana nodded and then paused, turning to me. “So, then it occurred to me... why come back? The fae are in the wind, the humans adore us, this world is about to be with the Reaper. Quite frankly, we don’t need a savior.”

Her eyes locked on me. “We don’t need you.”

She lifted her hands, white ice magic coming to life in her hands. She lifted the hand, staring at the magic twisting in her palm. “I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d rather the Underground be destroyed than to spend one moment under your power.”

She’s going to try to kill you.

I rolled my eyes internally. Are you surprised?

“What exactly are you saying?” I asked, keeping all emotion out of my voice. “You want me to stop?”

“Oh, no.” Tatiana shook her head. “The trials can’t be stopped once they’ve started.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

Her lips curled up in delight. “The only way to stop you is to kill you. Something that is a hundred years overdue.”

I threw my body to the side seconds before her powers hit where I was standing. She didn’t give me a moment before she attacked again, this time shooting ice blades at me.

I shoved my powers at them, barely holding them enough to divert the attack into a nearby building.

Chunks of rock and metal fell from the building, littering the empty street. There was no way that the others hadn’t heard that.

“Come on, Alice,” Tatiana sing-songed at me. “This doesn’t have to be a big event. One little stab in the heart and all your problems go away.”

“And everyone else with the sickness?” I huffed, tensing as I prepared for her next attack. “You’re just going to let them die?”

Tatiana shrugged a thin shoulder. “Collateral damage for a new world. A better world.”

“A better world?” I coughed out a laugh. “You think the Human Realm is better?”

“Sure it is,” Tatiana argued. “It’s got fast food and television.

Celebrities and so many human dreams to feed on.

” She sucked on her fingers like she was tasting something good.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed. Ever since we came into their world, their dreams have been oh so sweet.

And a well fed fae is a happy fae. Don’t you agree? ”

Without warning, she threw another wall of ice blades at me. I dodged and barely escaped her attacks until I was hiding behind the edge of a building.

“I can’t keep this up much longer,” I scowled, lifting the ring up to my eye level. “What’s the point of you if you’re not going to help?”

Our agreement was for the trials, not the queen.

My eyes lifted to the sky. “I can’t do the last trial and set you free if I die now,” I growled.

“Alice?” Cheshire’s voice called out.

I peeked out from the building, finding Cheshire and the Tweedles standing in the doorway of their shop. “Stay back!”

“Oh, lookie here,” Tatiana chimed. “I was hoping to find you, Cheshire. Wouldn’t want to lose one of my biggest commodities when the whole place goes tops up, now would we?”

“Stay away from him, ice bitch!” I shouted, throwing my magic around the corner.

It only shoved her back a few lousy feet.

Tatiana laughed darkly. “Is that all you’ve got? And you thought you could be High Queen? Pitiful.”

“Fucking help me,” I demanded, the sound of the queen getting closer by the second.

Eh? Why should I? You die, then I’m free of our bargain. I’m already out of the Shadow Realm so there’s no real reason for me to save you now.

“This is so typical of you,” I snapped, slapping my hand against the wall. “Did you ever think that if I die then the Underground dies too and you with it?”

I’ll go to the Human Realm, then.

“There you are talking to yourself again,” Tatiana taunted me, her voice getting closer. “I’m really doing us a favor. No one wants a mad queen.”

“You think they’ll let you through?” I quickly asked, desperation filling my voice. “You need me. I’m your only chance for freedom.”

“What? Need you?” Tatiana scoffed. “I thought we established that I don’t.”

It felt like hours rather than mere seconds before the ring on my finger grew warmer, shadows spilling from the band and wrapping around my arm.

Magic filled me. Power like I’d never felt before mixed with mine, and a chilling calm quelled my fear.

And I knew I wouldn’t be the one running this time.

Stepping out from the alley, I faced the Seelie Queen.