Page 23 of Knot My Wonderland: Part Two
"Four minutes, seventeen seconds before detection," Dee added, consulting a crystalline readout on his wrist.
Seth approached cautiously, his dark eyes assessing my condition with clinical precision. "The collar is suppressing your connections and monitoring your location," he explained. "We need to remove it before we can extract you."
I touched the bone-like material at my throat, feeling the carved patterns pulse against my fingers. "How? It's magically sealed."
"Blood magic," Seth replied, his shadows coiling tighter around us. "But not the corrupted version the Queen uses. The original form—blood freely given to strengthen bonds rather than sever them."
The Tweedles moved with eerie synchronization, adjusting their devices as the temporal shield stabilized around us. I could feel it—a bubble of reality that existed slightly out of phase with the rest of the Queen's domain, buying us precious minutes before she detected the intrusion.
"Hurry," Vee warned, his eyes tracking something invisible to me. "The Queen has sensed something's wrong. She's calling for you."
Seth produced a small obsidian blade, its edge gleaming with a silvery light that made the collar at my throat pulse in response. "This will require blood from those bonded to you," he explained, his voice calm despite the urgency of our situation. "Freely given, with intent to strengthen rather than sever."
"But Heart and Chi aren't here," I said, panic rising as I realized the implication. "They're creating the diversion."
"They provided their contributions before we separated," Seth replied, producing two small vials from within his shadows. One glowed with golden light, the other shimmered silver—blood from my anchors, willingly given for this moment.
"And the third?" I asked, somehow knowing there needed to be three.
Seth's dark eyes met mine, something vulnerable flickering behind his usual calculation. "The Void bond," he said quietly. "It's not fully formed, but it exists. Enough for this…”
“I thought that bond couldn’t form before the other two.” I asked, trying to figure out how this happened.
Seth gave a small smile, “It isn’t. But it seems like you my dear Alice like to go against the normal. The bond isn’t fully formed, just a whisp of what could be…..” He tailed off but another loud noise echoed through the air making him pause.
"We need to hurry," Seth said, drawing the obsidian blade across his palm. Dark blood welled up, almost black in thecrystalline light, pulsing with void energy that made the air around his hand shimmer.
"Three minutes, forty seconds," Dee called, his fingers dancing across temporal controls.
Seth combined his blood with the vials from Heart and Chi, the three substances swirling together in a small crystal bowl—red mixed with gold, silver, and midnight black creating patterns that seemed to move with purpose and intelligence.
"This will hurt," he warned, his shadows coiling protectively around me. "The collar is designed to fight removal."
I nodded, steeling myself. "Do it."
The Tweedles moved closer, their devices humming louder as they reinforced the temporal shield. Seth dipped his fingers into the combined blood, tracing patterns around the collar that mirrored the
The moment Seth's fingers touched the collar with the combined blood, pain exploded through my nervous system like liquid fire. The bone-like material began to smoke and crack, its carved patterns flaring with desperate crimson light as it fought against the ritual designed to break its hold.
"Hold still," Seth commanded, his voice tight with concentration as he traced more complex patterns around my throat. The collar's resistance intensified, sending waves of agony through my skull that made my vision blur and darken at the edges.
Through our bonds, I felt Heart and Chi's fury spike as they sensed my pain. The golden thread between Heart and me flared brighter than it had in days, his protective rage burning through the magical interference. Chi's silver connection pulsed with concern, his essence reaching across space to anchor me against the collar's final, vicious attempt to maintain control.
"Two minutes, twelve seconds," Vee announced, his temporal devices flaring as the temporal shield strained againstoutside pressure. The Queen hadn’t sensed the intrusion yet, but she would soon
"Almost there," Seth murmured, his shadows flowing into the cracks forming across the collar's surface. The combined blood - gold, silver, and void-black - seeped deeper into the bone-like material, dissolving the Queen's enchantments from within. "When it breaks, be ready to move immediately."
I nodded, tears streaming down my face from the pain but refusing to cry out. Through the weakening crimson fog, I felt my connection to the pattern strengthening - silver and gold light pulsing beneath my skin, pushing back against the corrupted red lines the Queen had worked so hard to establish.
The collar gave one final, vicious pulse of resistance, sending a wave of agony through me before the collar fell to the ground and I felt relief. I gasped as the sudden release flooded my system with raw power. The pattern beneath my skin blazed to life, silver and gold light purging the crimson corruption in waves that made the air around me shimmer. The bonds snapped back into place with almost physical force—Heart's golden connection burning like a supernova, Chi's silver thread crystallizing into something unbreakable, and a whisper of void-black that pulsed with potential.
"Alice?" Seth's voice seemed distant through the rush of returning magic. His shadows coiled protectively around me as I swayed, overwhelmed by sensations too long suppressed.
"I'm okay," I managed, though my voice sounded strange to my own ears—stronger, resonating with power that had been chained for days. "The pattern—it's fighting back against her influence."
"One minute, forty-three seconds," Dee warned, his devices flaring with increasing urgency as temporal distortions pressed against our shield.
"We need to move," Seth said, his shadows already flowing toward the crystalline wall where they'd entered. "The Queen will sense the collar's destruction soon."
