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Only it wasn’t one big chunk.
It was dozens of little pieces.
“The Red Queen’s necklace!” I blurted out. “Ransom! When we tried to ambush her in your room, she was wearing a necklace full of rubies. I think it was made from the same stone!”
Chess’s green eyes widened.
“You think Roxanne has the other half?”
“I don’t know, but why else would she have refused to take off her fancy necklace if she was about to have sex?” I covered my mouth with my hands as my idea started to take shape and become a legitimate theory. “Dude! I’ve worntonsof expensive jewelry to red carpet events and awards shows. There’s absolutely no way in hell I’d climb into bed with someone without taking it off my fifty-thousand-dollar necklace first. Roxanne probably kept hers on because it’s so powerful! Same goes for your ring! She wasn’t wearing anything else!”
For a few awkward moments, the room was filled with complete silence. At first I wondered if I’d said the wrong thing.
But the more I thought about it, the more certain I felt that I was onto something.
“It is a possibility,” Ransom said, eyeing the box with a bewildered expression. “But the necklace broke when you tried to cut off Roxanne’s head. I recall beads flying everywhere before she flew into a rage. Between her soldiers and my staff, I’d be surprised if nobody’s looted anything from my room.”
“We could go back to the Rabbit Hole and look around,” I offered. “All we’d need is one bead to compare to this stone. Then we can ask Amari for more details.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Ransom said with cool authority as he put the heart-shaped box back into the desk drawer. “For all we know, Roxanne could’ve taken over the club and left guards there to wait for my return. It’s out of the question.”
“I’ll go,” Chess volunteered. “I can teleport there and back before any of you get past the front gate.”
Hatter let out a laugh. “No you can’t! Not after that huge, monster load you just gave Alice! Your powers won’t be restored for at least a few days. Maybe more.”
If Chess had ears, I swear they would’ve flattened in irritation.
But Hatter was right.
The Cheshire Cat wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’ll go,” Callister grumbled before tapping his ashes on the floor. “At least I can fight if I run into trouble.”
“Nobody’s going to the Rabbit Hole,” Ransom said, his tone and expression severe. “We barely got out of there with our lives. It would be a fool’s errand to send anyone else until we know what awaits us.”
“Then what do we do?” I asked. “If I’m gonna have a chance of defeating Roxanne, it seems kind of important to know if her necklace is made of the most powerful magic in Wonderland.”
Ransom nodded patiently.
“I couldn’t agree more, but we have to be smart in how we go about our plan. We’ll wait until Chess’s powers have been fully restored. He’s the only one who can teleport while remaining invisible. And Chess...”
The Cheshire Cat’s expression perked up.
“Yes?”
“No more fucking until I say so.”
* * *
ChapterNine
ALICE
The days blurred together like ink in water, each moment drifting into the next. I trained from dawn to dusk, showered, fueled my body like I was an Olympic athlete, then read my Jabberwocky book from Amari until I passed out in a bed that felt like it was made of clouds.
I pushed my body to its limits, running laps before my classes until my legs threatened to give out, then practicing drills nonstop. Jack and I carried out attacks and parries on the icy ground, on the balance beams, on crumbling piles of stones, on shifting sand...on whatever he felt like on that particular day.
Flashes of my old life in Los Angeles flickered through my mind less and less—red carpets, flashing cameras, adoring fans. How trivial it all seemed now. Here, in this stark, unforgiving land, I was so much more than an empty-headed socialite or a tabloid headline.
