Page 8 of Happily Ever Witch
Esmeralda automatically glanced at the calendar, but she couldn’t read the damn thing. The days were all weirdly clumped together in twos and threes. And there wereeightlittle date-squares, for the first week of the month. That didn’t make any sense. Did they just add an extra weekday, somewhere in the middle?
The name over the eighth square read “Tove.” Somebody had drawn a crown on the date with a bunch of stars around it. For some reason, it seemed like a threat.
“We need to get rid of the witch,now.” The Walrus snapped. “Unless you’d prefer for the Queen to arrive and find one of Wonderland’s tiaras in the hands of her enemies.”
Esmeralda sat up, pushing the curls back from her face and sending them a glare. She had no idea who they were talking about, but what did it matter? There were only so many enemies a girl could handle at a time. “I’ll get you both for this. Count on it.”
They didn’t seem intimidated.
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear…” The White Rabbit studied the diamond tiara and nervously bobbed his head. “Queen Alice was supposed to be holding onto it for safekeeping.”
“The witch ruined that plan. Alice is now kindling. We need to move up the schedule.”
“You want to wake himnow?” The White Rabbit’s voice dropped in fear. “It’s not safe!He’snot safe!”
“And the Queen of Clubsis?” The Walrus retorted. “At least his magic will be weakened. She’ll be at full power, when she arrives with her army!”
“Even weakened, he’ll be formidable.” The White Rabbit wrung his paws. “If only I had more time, I could rig a magic inhibitor.”
His?He?Him?
“Wedon’thave any time!” The Walrus argued. “The damn witch arrived in the wrong spot, through that defective rabbit hole you created. She was supposed to land in the dungeon. Instead, she invaded Alice’s tea party!”
“It wasn’t my fault that it didn’t work as expected. My calculations were right. The witch is the faulty variable. Either her or Wonderland. The magic here is very unstable. It must’ve…”
The Walrus cut him off. “Let’s just get on with it. Hopefully, you haven’t screwed this part up, too. He’ll have no reason to fight us and the Queen needs him awake, sooner or later. We’re doing everyone a favor, right?”
“You’re not doingmea favor!” Esmeralda’s eyes cut around the room, looking for an escape route. “What creepy shit are you up to in here?” All she saw was high-tech, ominous-looking, science-y stuff.
And a glass coffin with a guy in it.
“I didn’t screw up.” The White Rabbit insisted, still looking offended. “The Queen of Clubs hired me, because my science isalwaysimpeccable. And the Wicked, Ugly, and Bad Mental Health Treatment Center and Maximum Security Prison kept excellent records. I looked at all the blood tests, and conducted a mystio-physiological screening, and there is only one answer. It’s not my fault that you don’t like her.”
“The witch has been nothing but trouble. Once she wakes him up, we’ll kill her fast. It’ll take me half an hour to get the execution ready and then we’ll be home free.”
The White Rabbit hippity-hopped over to hit some buttons on a blinking panel of switches. The sides of the glass casket slowly lowered. It wasn’t a coffin, after all. It was some type of stasis box, keeping the sleeping guy inside suspended in time, so he’d wake up with his body functioning as normal.
Esmeralda stared at the unconscious stranger, her lips parting in reverence.
The Walrus rubbed his flippers together. “We’ll get that damn crown off the witch’s head and figure out a way to restore Alice ourselves, before the Queen of Clubs even finds out.” He frowned. “You can use Dark Science to save Alice, right?”
“It would depend on how powerful the witch’s magic is. Anything below a four, I can counter.”
“Her file doesn’t say her level, but I can tell that she’s nothing much. Nowayis she as high as a four. However she enspelled Alice, she doesn’t seem capable of repeating it. Just adrenaline and luck, probably.” The Walrus snorted. “Andhewon’t care what we do with her afterwards. Trust me. I’ve spent some time with this little bitch. Anybody would be glad to get rid of her”
The White Rabbit nodded, but didn’t seem totally mollified. “The woman’s score on my new Magic Matrix is very unusual. I’ve never seen anyone’s magical powers rank so close to the center.”
“Average.” The Walrus intoned distastefully. “Told ya.”
“That’s not exactly what the score means…”
Esmeralda barely heard their jabbering. Her eyes stayed on the sleeping man, unable to believe what she was seeing. Unable to comprehend that she’d actually done it. After so many years of looking and hoping andfeelinghim out there… After longing for him for so long… After being so lonely and needing him so much… After all of it, she’dfinallyreached the only place she’d ever belonged.
It was him.
It was her True Love.
Chapter Two
