Page 65 of Wondrous

“Alice!” someone shouted, and a hand seized my arm. Before I could make sense of what was happening, Jack had pulled me free of the wave and onto a branch. We clung to each other as more waves slammed into the tree.

“You’re alive,” I cried. “The others—did you—”

“I set Alex and Maria down on a boulder,” he said, raising his voice to be heard above the waters. “They should be safe.”

I felt a rush of relief, which was followed by the realization that Jack was shaking. But not from the waves—he was laughing.

“What?” I drew back to stare at him, half astonished and half irritated. “Have you lost your senses?”

“Probably,” he said, pulling back to wipe his eyes. “This was fun.”

“Fun?” I repeated.

“Far more fun than my sorcery lessons, that’s for sure,” he said with a note of disgust, as if learning sorcery was not much better than learning to shovel out a stable.

“We nearly died,” I pointed out, trying to be serious and not become lost in his ridiculous purple eyes. “Several times.”

His laughter faded to a faint smile, mixed with something sad. “Traveling with you has been fun, Alice. I’ve never had an adventure before.”

The way he said it, as if our adventure was now only a memory, made me feel cold. But wasn’t it true? The three mock dragons had been defeated. I had no need for Jack anymore, and he certainly had no need for me.

This thought awakened something brazen inside me. I leaned toward him in the same moment he leaned toward me. I had never kissed anyone before and didn’t know the mechanics of it—and Jack, who had never been human before, certainly didn’t, either—but I made up for it with determination. His lips were soft and tasted like smoke—and tea, of course. And though we might not have known what we were doing, this sudden and unfamiliar closeness sent a shiver through me, and I pressed closer to him.

Jack’s hand had just tangled in my hair—he was making a mess of it, but I didn’t mind, because his touch made me shiver again—when I heard an indignant squeak and felt something stab into my palm.

I gave an inelegant snort of surprise and drew back. My hand had curled around the lapel of Jack’s cloak, beside a pocket that now had a small head sticking out of it.

“Hedgewitch!” I cried, and scooped the hedgehog into my hands. “You found Hedgewitch!”

“Oh, yes!” Jack said, delight overtaking his expression. He dug around in his hip pocket and drew out another small prickly handful. “And this one, too—I couldn’t find the others, Alice. I’m sorry.”

“Hogwash,” I breathed, and the hedgehog squeaked in recognition as I took him. They both seemed unharmed apart from a few singed spines. Hedgewitch gave me a resentful look and tried to clamber uninvited into my pocket, having had enough of the whole situation. I slipped her into the right pocket and Hogwash into the left.

“The rest will be hiding,” I said, more to myself than Jack. “Surely they burrowed down somewhere in the forest to stay safe—we’ll find them.”

Jack didn’t answer—he was eyeing the tea, which had now risen enough to lap at our ankles. “How do we make it stop?” he shouted over the torrent.

I cast my gaze around the clearing, now filled with contrary waves of tea retreating and then pummeling into one another, and falling leaves mixed with clouds of steam. “We have to find the chalice.”

Jack didn’t hesitate. He leapt from the branch and dove under the next wave to spill through the grove. He surfaced moments later in his other form, coiling through the water like a sea dragon. Dangling from his tail was the chalice, which he handed to me, still spilling its river of tea.

Gritting my teeth, I smashed it against the tree.

The chalice shattered into a hundred shards, one final gush of tea slapping me across the face. A wave broke against my knees, and I clung to the tree trunk, worried I might need to climb higher. But as the moments passed, the flood subsided. Now that it was no longer growing, the river began to behave as all rivers do, merging together and seeking lower ground. After a few more minutes, little remained but a few puddles. The roar of the river surging through the forest faded to a trickling sound, tardy little streams trailing after the main body.

Jack helped me down from the tree. My boots sank into the sodden grass to the ankles. Mud and debris were everywhere. Grackle landed on Jack’s shoulder, fluttering his wings with what might have been delight to see Jack or delight in the devastation.

With the mock dragon gone and his fires put out, the hollows seemed to be closing. The largest one remained, a great wound in the sky, but it was knitting itself together, and sunlight spilled around the outside. A few scraps from the edge of the hollow drifted free, and I caught one. It fell apart like a handful of dust.

Alex and Maria stepped into the clearing. Maria had a cut on the side of her head, but they both seemed mostly unharmed. When they saw me, they rushed forward. I surprised myself by opening my arms and pulling them close, holding them so tightly that Alex’s arm got stuck at an awkward angle, which set us off laughing once we noticed it.

After a moment, I drew back. “Alicia?”

Alex shook her head. “Jack lifted us both onto his back, and I thought I was holding on to her, but somehow she slipped off during the flood.”

I opened my mouth to ask where, and if we shouldn’t search for her, but some sort of commotion was approaching the grove. Perhaps it might have been audible before, if the sound of the retreating river hadn’t drowned it out. Even now, the trickling streams and groans of the forest settling made these new noises difficult to parse. Had the mock dragon returned?

And then the Queen’s card soldiers swarmed into the grove.