{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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"It's an emergency! Open up!" Adah screamed, pounding on the door to Mercado's apartment and rattling the latches.
A curious, dark gray eye peered out from the peephole before it disappeared, and Adah heard the Dream Healer mumble his apologies through the door. As soon as it was open, she hurried inside.
Slamming the door to Mercado's apartment and doing up all the locks, before gripping the man by the shoulders and shaking him so hard his bowler hat fell to the ground.
"What ever is the matter?"
"I need help!" Adah said with a gasp. "It's the guards. They're after me."
Mercado extricated himself from her grip, collecting his bowler hat and placing it back on his head. "You're the quickest pair of hands I've ever hired. I've seen you rob a crumb from a gull and the bird be none the wiser. How did this happen?"
"It didn't happen during your show," she explained. Adah knew Mercado's rules around being seen by the King's Men. "It was after. You see–"
Someone cleared their throat, and surprise squeezed Adah's heart. She cut her dark eyes towards the sound, and found the very same pirate she'd robbed staring back at her. He looked as angry as a ram who'd just realized she fleeced his winter coat.
What in the Hallows was he doing inside Mercado's apartment?
"What? No witty response?" he asked in a dangerously low voice. "Feeling dizzy?"
Not knowing what to say or do, Adah stood as still as she could, barely daring to move. He must know she'd taken his dagger.
"Tell me, thief, how many men did you con today?"
Just you, Adah wanted to say, but kept the words behind her pursed lips.
When she didn't answer, the pirate let out a humorless laugh. "It's people like you that make this city a dangerous place."
Adah crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. So it was the peasants of Belint that made the city dangerous? The women who had to thieve or whore to feed themselves and their families, and not the lawless way the king ran the island?
The man had his own fleet of pirates who filled the city's coffers.
"You don't even look sorry for your crimes."
Frustration bubbled alongside her anger. What did the captain want from her? An apology? Tears and a wobbling lip? Adah didn't have any to spare. Not any more. And not for anyone, save Reynald.
The girl she'd been, the little fool who'd stepped off the ferry wearing her straw hat with the pretty red ribbon blowing in the breeze, would've apologized to the man. She'd offer him the dagger back with tears in her eyes. But years of living inside Belint's underbelly had hardened her soft heart to shoe leather.
