Page 6 of Knot My Wonderland: Part Two
The Red Queen smiled, pleased with this recitation. "Blood magic is an art form," she explained, fingers trailing across Lily's trembling shoulder. "Most practitioners are crude butchers, but true mastery lies in precision. Knowing exactly how much to take, how much to leave, where to cut so the wound never quite heals."
I forced myself to hold Lily's gaze, to witness her suffering without flinching away. The hollow emptiness in her eyes reflected whatever horrors the Queen had inflicted—not just physical pain, but something deeper. Soul-deep violation that had left her fractured.
"Look at what resistance earned her," the Queen continued, circling Lily like a predator assessing wounded prey. "And she was merely passing notes. Imagine what awaits those who defy me directly."
My throat tightened with rage and grief. Through our weakened bond, I felt Heart's consciousness surge with protective fury at what I was witnessing and I couldn’t help but feel that escaping here really might be impossible.
"You're a monster." The words slipped out before I could stop them.
The Red Queen's smile only widened, as if I'd paid her a compliment. "I am what Wonderland required me to become. What grief and power and centuries of rule have shaped." She gestured to the guards. "Take Lily back to her quarters. Make sure she's comfortable."
The girl's vacant eyes flickered briefly as she was lifted to her feet. For just a moment, something lucid shone through—a warning, perhaps, or simply recognition of a fellow prisoner. Then she was gone, dragged from the chamber with the same eerie compliance that had marked her entire presence.
"Now," the Queen said, returning her attention to me with renewed focus. "Shall we try again?" She pushed the glass toward me once more, her ruby eyes gleaming with expectation. "Drink, or the next demonstration will be far less pleasant. Perhaps one of your precious anchors will volunteer—the Cheshire Cat, maybe? I'm told his kind are particularly susceptible to blood magic when caught between realities."
The threat sent ice through my veins. I could feel Chi's distant presence through our silver bond—stretched thin but unbroken, searching desperately across realities for me. The thought of him suffering Lily's fate was unbearable.
With trembling fingers, I reached for the glass. The ruby liquid seemed to pulse with malevolent life, catching the starlight in hypnotic patterns. I lifted it to my lips, hesitating as its metallic scent filled my nostrils.
"Good girl,"the Queen purred, satisfaction dripping from her voice. "The first step toward wisdom is knowing when surrender serves better than defiance."
I took a small sip, the liquid burning a path down my throat like liquid fire. It tasted of copper and roses, sweet yet metallic, coating my tongue with power that felt ancient and wrong.The silver and gold patterns beneath my skin dimmed further, retreating from the invasive magic as it spread through my system.
"There," the Queen said, satisfaction evident in every syllable. "Was that so difficult?" The effect was almost immediate. A heavy warmth spread from my center outward, dulling my senses and making my thoughts sluggish. The world took on a dreamlike quality, edges softening as the starlight above seemed to intensify, each constellation burning brighter until they resembled actual flames dancing across the ceiling.
Through the haze, I felt something pulse against my chest—the golden bond with Heart, fighting against the numbing effect of the Queen's concoction. It was like a lifeline in quicksand, something to grasp as everything else began to sink.
"Fascinating," the Queen murmured, watching me with clinical interest. "Most would be completely subdued by now, but you're still fighting it." She leaned forward, ruby eyes gleaming with scientific curiosity. "The pattern protects you, even diminished by the collar."
My tongue felt heavy, but I forced words through the thickening fog. "What... did you give me exactly? You had only said it would cleanse me…"
"A preparation tincture," the Queen replied, her voice seeming to come from very far away despite her proximity. "It begins the process of separating your consciousness from the pattern's anchors. Think of it as... loosening the threads before we cut them entirely."
She rose from her chair, moving around the table with that predatory grace. Through the golden haze clouding my vision, I watched her approach, every step measured and deliberate. The burgundy silk of her gown seemed to flow like liquid shadow, and for a moment I wondered if I was seeing things clearly or if the tea was distorting my perception.
"The cleansing ritual requires your magical signature to be... malleable," she continued, settling into the chair beside me rather than across from me. The proximity made my skin crawl, but the numbing effect of the drink made it difficult to pull away. "This first dose begins it. Then you will have another in the evening…and repeat that till the morning of the fourth day where the full cleansing ritual will take place.”
The Queen's fingers traced a delicate pattern on the table's surface, leaving behind a faint trail of crimson light that pulsed in rhythm with my increasingly sluggish heartbeat. "Each dose weakens the bonds further, making the final separation less... traumatic. I'm not cruel, Alice. I don't wish to cause unnecessary pain."
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of her statement, but my body felt disconnected from my will, floating in a strange limbo where commands took too long to reach their destination. The room tilted slightly making me feel like I was almost floating.
"You call what you did to Lily merciful?" I managed, words slurring at the edges. Through the golden bond, I felt Heart's presence surge with protective fury, as if he could sense the foreign magic invading my system.
The Queen's lips curved into a smile that never reached her eyes. "Lily chose her fate when she betrayed me. You have a much more... prestigious destiny."
Her hand reached out, cool fingers brushing my cheek in a mockery of maternal affection. The touch sent a chill through me despite the warmth spreading through my limbs from the drink.
"Already I can see the changes beginning," she murmured, studying my face with clinical interest. "The bonds are starting to loosen. Can you feel it? The distance growing between you and your anchors?"
I could. The golden thread connecting me to Heart felt stretched thinner than before, like an elastic band pulledto its breaking point. The silver connection to Chi flickered uncertainly, as if seen through rippling water. I tried to strengthen my grip on them mentally, to wrap my consciousness around the bonds and hold tight, but the crimson drink made focus almost impossible.
"You're not going to take them from me," I whispered, each word requiring immense effort as the drink continued to spread its numbing warmth through my body. "The pattern chose us. It's not yours to steal."
The Queen's smile only widened, revealing teeth that seemed too white, too sharp in the starlight. "The pattern is ancient magic, child. It responds to power and need, not sentiment. And my need is greater than yours."
She leaned closer, her scent enveloping me—roses and copper and something older, like earth disturbed after centuries of stillness. Through my increasingly clouded vision, I saw something shift beneath her perfect features, a momentary glimpse of something hollow and hungry behind the maternal mask.
"Feel how the gold thread weakens," she murmured, her voice taking on a hypnotic quality that seemed to resonate directly with the collar at my throat.
