The woman turned that frostbitten stare back on me.“I’m the Red Queen,” she said, in a tone that implied I should have embroidered that on a pillow years ago.
“The… Red Queen,” I repeated.“As in Wonderland?Through the Looking Glass Wonderland?”
“I don’t know what this ‘through the looking glass’ is,” she sniffed, “but yes.I am from Wonderland.”
The world tilted a little.I swayed and grabbed for Owen’s arm.
“I think I need to sit down,” I managed.
He guided me to a fallen log and eased me onto it.I clutched my churning stomach and stared up at him.“Seriously?The Red Queen?”
“Yes, my dear,” the queen said crisply.“Did Alice not tell you?”
“Alice didn’t tell me anything,” I snapped.“About any of this.”
“Well, she must have told you something,” the queen said.“You conjured me with the potion, after all.”
“I thought this was supposed to close the gate,” I said, waving the empty vial.“Gate.Superhighway.Whatever we’re calling it.”
“Let me see that,” the queen said.
I handed over the vial.The Red Queen sniffed the glass and made a small noise of dismay.
“Oh, dear.Oh, no.This is a conjuring potion,” she said.“The superhighway is still very much open.”
“Great.”I sagged.“So I didn’t make the potion right.”
“Are you sure you read those directions right?”Owen asked gently.
I shot him a glare.“Yes, I’m sure.”
Except now I wasn’t.Not entirely.It had been late.I’d been tired and half-drunk and Tani had been chattering in my ear the entire time.There had been at least one “oopsie.”
Tani.
“Tani was helping me,” I said slowly.“She read the ingredients out loud.If I made a conjuring potion instead of a gate-closing one, she must’ve given me the wrong list.”
“Titania, you mean?”the queen asked.
My head snapped toward her.“You know her?”
“Everyone knows her,” the queen said.“She’s the queen of the fairies.”
“What?”I squeaked.
Owen let out a low whistle.“Well, that’s… an interesting twist.”
“I did suspect she was involved,” the queen said.“Full of mischief, that one.I certainly wouldn’t trust her.Why did you?”
“She told me she was Alice’s friend,” I said weakly.“She lives in the greenhouse.I thought she was a fairy, notthefairy queen.”
“Well, Alice had many friends,” the queen said with a sniff.“I am rather offended she chose to keep that particular annoyance around.”
“Awesome,” I muttered.“I’ve been taking magical advice from a chaos gremlin with wings.”
“Oh, Oberon would be thrilled to hear that,” the queen said.“If he weren’t currently stuck in another dimension.”
I blinked.“He’s what?”
