Page 24 of Tweedles Reflection (The Crimes of Alice #4)

The Tree of Life hadn’t suddenly become healthy again. It was still as decrepit and shriveled as it had been the last time I’d seen it. The fruit still rotted, husks of their former juicy selves. The roots flaked with each step of my feet as I approached the power behind the Underground.

“What do I do?” I glanced back at the twins, who shrugged.

“Beats me,” Coby called out, thumbing his lower lip. “Maybe touch it?”

My lips twisted to one side as I stared at the tree. I reached my hand out, my heart racing and palms sweating, anxiety and excitement melted together into this one singular moment.

This was it. Everything I had worked for. This will save everyone. It’ll all be worth it.

Nothing.

I lifted my hand and placed it back down again. Still nothing. I growled and stomped a foot. “I passed your ridiculous trials,” I shouted at the tree. “What more do you want of me?”

Alice. Alice Liddell.

A voice in my head. Not the Shadow Man. It didn’t make me feel like I needed to wash my brain out at the sound of it. This one was quiet, small, childlike.

My head tilted to the side, listening.

“Ally?” Carban inquired, and the sound of his footsteps grew closer.

“Shh.” I held my hand up, trying to hear the voice again.

Come, human child now fae.

This time, a low glow began beyond the side of the tree, where I knew the sapling grew. I stepped around the roots and decaying fruit until I found myself standing before what had only been a knee-high sapling before.

Now, though, it stood as tall as me.

“You’re talking to me.” My face pinched in confusion. Why was a talking tree surprising? It was the Underground. The sky at this point could start talking, and I couldn’t say anything about it. It would just be another day in the Underground.

Yes, you. Its voice was a tinkle in my head. You passed the trials. You are worthy.

Guilt filled my chest. I’d passed the trials but with help. The ring on my finger burned as a reminder of how I cheated.

It’s not cheating, the Shadow Man’s voice crooned. You are simply using all the tools at your disposal.

I wanted to argue with him, but wasn’t sure if the tree would find out what I’d done.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter.

The shadows speak the truth, the voice tinkled once more. We care not how you came here, for it takes more than the strength of one to be High Queen. It is why the previous one did not last. He thought the Underground was his and his alone to rule.

I frowned. “But only one person can be High Queen or King. How can more than one rule?”

The tree shook as if laughing. The crown is heavy. You have many who will help you carry it. The power is yours, if you want it. But hide it away and it will devour you the same as the last.

Slowly, my gaze shifted from the tree over to where the twins waited. Is that what it meant? The last king didn’t last because it tried to rule alone?

I could admit that having the four of them at my side made the thought of ruling easier. It wasn’t on my head alone to decide what was right and what was wrong. I knew I could trust them to tell me when I should stay my hand and when I should act.

Honestly, I couldn’t imagine doing this without them. I was doing it for them after all.

Sucking in a deep breath, I turned back to the sapling. “I want it.”

Then place your hand upon my bark and accept all the power of the Underground.

With a quick inhale, I lifted my hand and placed it on the bark of the sapling. The bark warmed beneath my hand until I was gasping at the heat, burning into my palm.

Endure.

My eyes squeezed shut, my teeth clamping together as I breathed through the pain.

The heat travelled down my arm and into my chest, filling my whole body until I whimpered and fell to my knees.

I vaguely heard the twins calling my name but couldn’t respond in the face of the agony ripping through me.

That’s it. Just a little more.

The voice wasn’t the sapling anymore, but the Shadow Man. A nagging feeling in my chest told me to be wary.

In another instant, I was gasping, my eyes tearing up.

The bond. The heart bond I had with Hatter. The magic wrapped around it and then ripped it apart. The part that was Hatter always in the back of my mind was gone.

“Wait,” I cried out, eyes flipping open as I struggled to remove my hand. “You’ll kill him.”

No bond can exist beyond me. No bias for either world. You exist for the Underground and that alone.

No matter how much I tried to pull my hand away, I couldn’t. This wasn’t something I could take back once started. I could only hope and pray that Hatter survived.

Light blinded me, coming from the sapling and from somewhere inside myself. My eyes squeezed shut against it. The power burrowing in deep, wrapping around the very core of me until the magic I’d come to know was a stranger. It was more.

That’s it!

Pressure on my finger had my eyes snapping open. Black shadows swirled around my hand, crawling up my arm and wrapping around me. The shadows pushed inside, trying to meld themselves with the new power inside of me.

“No,” I shouted, gritting my teeth. “You can’t.”

Yes. Let me in. I will be free. I will have everything.

I panted, sweat trickling down my forehead as I fought. The sapling was silent while I struggled with the shadows. Did it not care that something evil wanted to take over? Was this another test?

Just give in. You know you can’t do this alone. Give into me, and I will make sure everyone you love is safe and well.

I bit out a laugh. “At what cost?”

No cost, the Shadow Man crooned. The Seelie Queen is dead. The time for change is now. I will be that change. You will give it to me.

It would be so easy. I could feel it. So easy to just give in and let the shadows take over. Everything I feared of becoming the High Queen wouldn’t matter. The life-or-death decisions wouldn’t be mine to make. The fae already hated me. Why give them more reason to despise me?

I could finally rest.

The image of my lovers poured into my head.

Mercury, my sweet Hatter, who only ever wanted to love me.

Cheshire, who had been used by everyone all his life.

Coby, funny and flirty, always trying to either make me laugh or moan.

And then Carban, such a grumpy pants, needed me to remind him that I saw him outside of his brother.

No. If it was just the power, just the responsibility, I would have given it to the shadows in a second. But not them. No one could have them.

“Get out of me,” I shouted, shoving the dark parts out of my body and back into the ring.

The shadows yelled in my head, fighting against me every step of the way. When the final kernel of the shadows was out of me and back in the ring, my body jolted.

The Underground had only been trickling in small amounts of power before. Now, it was as if a floodgate had been opened. It burned through me, lighting up every neuron in my being until the ends scorched and the parts of me that were still human were gone.

I was me and yet changed, different. Forever bound to the Underground.

I fell to the ground, my hands slapping the dirt. Hands touched and grabbed at me as I sucked in long breaths. The searing heat in my body cooled, and my senses came back online.

When I’d become fae, it was like someone had cranked all my senses up to a hundred percent. Lights were brighter, sounds sharper, scents more complex. If being fae was a hundred percent, than being High Queen was equal to a thousand percent.

I couldn’t only hear the bugs moving beneath the ground, I could see them.

If I closed my eyes and focused, I could see everything.

Every inch of the UnSeelie Court. The Willow Tree, abandoned and waiting.

Hatter’s tea party, the cups and tables overturned and broke from Cheshire’s fit.

The creatures who crept in the dark. Those who hadn’t run to the Human Realm. They prowled and huffed, starving.

I knew that if I reached further I could reach all the way to the Seelie Court to the Shadow Realm. Everything and everyone was at my fingertips.

“Alice?” a familiar voice called me. “Come back to us, Ally.”

“Her eyes are glowing,” another voice so like the first mumbled.

There was a shuffle. “Just give her a second.”

Taking inventory of myself, I slowly blinked my eyes open. The brightness inched back. I sucked in a breath and released it and my hold on the Underground until I only heard the two fae standing next to me.

My feet curled underneath as I pushed up onto my feet. The world wobbled for a moment, and hands propped me up.

“Woah, Ally. Slowly.” Coby’s voice instructed, his hands grabbing at my waist. “Don’t overdo it.”

Slowly, I let my gaze settle on the two of them. They looked the same and yet different. Sharper. They wore matching expressions of concern that made my heart ache.

“I’m well.” I offered them a small smile. “Wonderful, actually.”

“So...” Coby drew out, exchanging a look with his brother. “Is that it? Are you High Queen now?”

I lifted my hand, curling and uncurling my fingers. Power crackled beneath my skin. A well that I knew without a doubt had no bottom spanned through me. My lips curled up at the edges.

“Yes, I am.”

“Then does that mean the sickness is gone?” Carban looked around the area, doubt filling his eyes.

“No, not yet.” I closed my eyes and lifted my foot. I slammed it down on the ground, and magic rushed from me. It raced over the ground across the decaying remnants of the Tree of Life.

It crumbled in on itself, leaving room for the fledgling to grow. I could feel the power burst out from us, covering all of the Underground, healing and renewing.

My lips pressed into a thin line when I came across a fae that had succumbed to the sickness. I knew I couldn’t bring them back. The Underground had given me a magnitude of power, but not the power to override death.

I reached out for Hatter and Cheshire, searching for the Tweedles’ shop. My subconscious raced through the doors and up the stairs into Coby’s bedroom until I could see two of the four males that meant the world to me.

Cheshire’s eyes closed, and he breathed out. To anyone else, nothing happened. To me, I saw the green mist that came with his exhale.

The same mist slipped out of Hatter, his pallor growing warming and healthy. They locked eyes with each other and smiled, laughing in their joy.

With a deep breath, I blinked, returning back to my body. “Now. Now, it is done.”

“And Hatter?” Coby’s eyes lit up. “Is he...?”

I nodded, holding back a smile. “They both are.”

Before they could ask more anymore, the ring on my finger warmed.

Do not forget our deal.

I glared at the ring and then pulled it off, folding it in my palm. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten about you.”

“Ally?” Coby asked right before I stepped forward.

The Tweedles and the Tree of Life disappeared, and the Hall of Mirrors came to life around me. I walked over to an open door and stepped inside. Sitting the ring down on the bed, I backed up to the window.

“There.” I waited by the doorway. “You cannot say I didn’t free you.”

Shadows spilled from the ring, slowly moving around the room until it touched the base of my shoes. It paused and then whipped around, agitation in its movements as it realized it couldn’t get past me.

“This was not the deal we agreed to,” the multitude of voices screamed at me. “You promised to free me.”

My lips curled into a smug smile. “And I did. You are free of the Shadow Realm, as promised. You are free of the Seelie Queen.” I paused, bobbing my head side to side. “See, as she’s dead. You are free to live on without being hunted for the rest of your eternal life.”

“Not here!” the shadows shouted, pooling together until the Shadow Man stood before me once more. “I wanted to be out there. With the other fae. Free to come and go and live.”

I peered up at him, my hand on the door and frame, cocking my head to the side. “What’s said is said. Next time, you should be more specific with your words.”

His hands shot out to grab me. They smacked against an invisible barrier, making him howl with frustration.

With a growing feeling of satisfaction, I closed the door on the Shadow Man and every part of my life he represented, his screams the only memory I would keep on in my mind.