I gasped for breath as I opened my eyes. The room was blurred, and I felt tears run down my cheeks. “Ellis . . .” I whispered, “is trapped here? In Wonderland?”
Rabbit nodded, and the corners of his eyes tightened. A sob escaped my throat and my stomach turned. Rabbit inched his chair closer to mine. I held my breath for what he might say. “Dolly darlin’.” He paused and rubbed his lips together. “Ellis’s friend . . . Heathan?”
I stilled.
“He . . . he was the one that sent me to get you.”
“You know him?” I asked, shocked. And this Heathan knew me? How?
Rabbit nodded and sat back in his chair. He took another sip of his tea and picked up the pack of cards off the tabletop. He spun them in his hands again, and I stared, mesmerized, as the box danced between his fingers. “Heathan . . .” Rabbit said the name through clenched teeth, as if he couldn’t stand to say it. “He is . . . unavailable at this time. He asked me to help him.”
“You know him?” I asked again, still in shock.
Rabbit nodded once more. His face paled again, but before I had a chance to ask why, he said, “He wants his girl back. He wants his Ellis back.” Rabbit coughed. “He wants to free her. Free her from the bad place she’s been left in for too many years. From the bad men who captured her . . . the men who hurt her and caused her to fade away, trapped behind the locked door where you found her.”
“How?” I whispered. How could she ever be saved?
Rabbit tapped the cards on the table and opened the box. The cards fell to the table, all upside down. I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “There are only five cards,” I said.
“There were six once. One has been fulfilled.” I didn’t know what he meant. Rabbit ran his fingers over the red-backed cards. “Ellis needs a champion, darlin’. A brave warrior to find her and save her.” My heart began to race.
I shook my head. “I cannot . . . I do not know how to fight—”
“That is why Heathan sent me to you. I will teach you. I will come with you on your journey. I will guide you. I am the White Rabbit, after all.” Rabbit took his pocket watch from his waistcoat and ran his finger over the glass. “Heathan knew that Ellis knew you. He . . . he knew that she trusted you. You . . .” He breathed deeply. “He knew you were her friend.” He shook his head. “There is no one more worthy of bringing the men responsible for her pain to justice than you.”
I looked down at the abandoned cakes on my plate. At my once hot tea that had now gone cold. “And . . . and if we succeed in rescuing her . . .” I looked up. Silver eyes were watching. “Will Ellis be free? Will she be . . . okay again?”
Rabbit swallowed hard. “We hope so . . . We can always hope.” Rabbit ran his finger over the first card and flipped it over. On it was a picture of a man, drawn in pencil. “The Caterpillar.” Rabbit’s face fell, and anger consumed his silver eyes. “He’s first.” He turned over the second, third, fourth, the fifth card. “The Cheshire Cat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Jabberwock, and finally . . . the King of Hearts.”
“The King of Hearts? Not the Queen?”
“The Queen has already been taken care of,” he said quickly and sat back. He stared at me . . . waiting.
I closed my eyes. Immediately, I was in the room of doors, accompanied by the sound of Ellis crying. My chest clenched in sorrow as the echo of her cries seeped into my bones. A deep coldness took hold of me. My muscles tightened as Ellis’s cries grew louder and louder . . . Suddenly they disappeared, never to be heard again.
“I’ll do it.” I slowly opened my eyes. “But I don’t know how.”
Rabbit’s lip hooked up at one side. Not a smile, but the whisper of one to come. A promise.
He got to his feet, cane in hand. “Come with me.” He walked through a door at the end of the room. I followed, down a hallway and out through a back door. We crossed the yard to a building at the back. Rabbit opened the door, his ink-marked arms tensing as he held open the door for me. I walked through and was hit by a surge of freezing-cold air. I yelped and rubbed my arms, and then I felt Rabbit come up behind me. I shivered again, but this time it was prompted by Rabbit’s warm breath on the back of my bare neck. He was behind me, crowding me.