{A Fantasy Romance retelling of Alice in Wonderland}
In order to survive, a pirate and a thief must clear their names by traveling into a magical dream world together.
Adah Prideaux, seamstress by day, petty thief by night, finds herself in a world...
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The sound of a sword being unsheathed and heavy footsteps on the dock turned the blood in Ezra's veins to frigid seawater.
Getting out of tough scrapes and close calls was his specialty—it was what made him infamous amongst his men. But when Ezra turned around, for the first time since landing in the Kingdom of Broken Dreams, he was truly afraid.
"How did they get here?" Adah breathed beside him.
"I don't know," Ezra replied, thinking he should unsheathe the rapier at his hip but found his hands were tingling.
It seemed impossible, but his brothers stood on the dock, looking like a nightmare come to life.
Armand in blood red and black from head to toe. His short, silver lilac hair neatly lying beneath the sharp points of his ancestral black iron crown. Ferdinand was dressed the same, except his crown was a circlet of silver thorns.
As Ezra took in the slash of Armand's mouth and the curious way Ferdinand's brows were knitted together and knew they'd come to the Kingdom of Broken Dreams looking for more than Florence. His brothers were here for blood.
His blood.
His childhood was speckled with ruthless beatings and endless teasing about the pale color of his hair and mismatched eyes. Ezra's father, King Reginald, only encouraged their behavior, claiming it would toughen him up.
With sharp clarity, Ezra remembered the first time their teasing took a turn. When they'd held him down and burned him with a spoon they'd heated inside the hearth one winter when he was eight, claiming real Levesque's were dragonborn and could withstand heat.
Now, watching Armand approach—the cane he used purely for intimidation knocking the wooden dock with each step—Ezra felt eight years old again.
Experience told him to keep his mouth shut. Provoking Armand wasn't wise, but his eldest brother didn't need an excuse to be violent and cruel.
Armand stopped short of where he and Adah stood, Ferdinand at his side.
"Well, well, well," Armand drawled. "Funny seeing you here, brother."
"I could say the same," Ezra replied rather stupidly. He needed to watch his tongue around his brothers.
But, Armand didn't make anything of Ezra's comment. No, his shark eyes flitted to Adah's brave expression. "And who is this pretty little thing?" Armand tapped his cane while studying the exposed length of her leg. "Is this the thief? The one who stole my Elixir?"
Ezra shook his head, speaking before Adah had the chance. "No, she isn't." He had no proof Adah was guilty, but that didn't mean Armand wouldn't blame her anyway.
"No? Well, that's strange. You see, Ferdinand and I were sitting in the palace when a sorry-looking man who called himself Lord Delvesque came tumbling through mother's favorite portrait, claiming he was from the Kingdom of Broken Dreams and that he needed help catching a man with your description" he pointed at Ezra with his cane, "and hers" pointing at Adah, "saying they escaped from a dungeon and were conspiring with a witch to kill a dragon. He was sure you would tear his kingdom apart and wanted us, as your leader, to do something about it."
