{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...
Ups! Gambar ini tidak mengikuti Pedoman Konten kami. Untuk melanjutkan publikasi, hapuslah gambar ini atau unggah gambar lain.
That night, it wasn't a nightmare that woke Adah but the toll of a bell, loud and clear. The sound was accompanied by distant shouts renting through the night.
Adah sat up in bed, holding the sheets to her chest. Listening. Waiting.
Through her thin curtains, Adah watched as Ezra rolled out of his hammock and strode towards the small stained glass window on the north wall of their room.
Slowly, Adah pulled back her bed hangings and blinked the sleep from her eyes. The pirate captain stood framed in colored bolts of moonlight, naked from the waist up. His pale hair sleep-tousled and hanging loose at his shoulders.
"What's going on?" she forced herself to ask. The wobble in her voice betrayed her, but Ezra didn't seem to notice.
"Hallows," he muttered. Raking fingers through his hair. "Come look at this."
Sliding off the edge of the bed and taking a few halting steps towards the window, Adah hoped it was nothing more than part of the wedding celebration.
"What do you see?"
But Ezra didn't need to reply, because in that moment, a deafening roar, louder than any bell or cannon she'd ever heard, echoed through the night. Shaking furniture and knocking framed art from the stone walls.
Grabbing her hand, Ezra pulled Adah to the window sill, caging her body in front of his as they stared out at the horror unfolding below.
Fire. There was so much fire.
"Look, there!" Ezra said over the sound of another roar. Pointing unnecessarily at the beast responsible.
Adah didn't want to believe what she saw was real, but there was no denying it. Her nightmare had come true.
A black dragon, the size of a ship, tore across the bruised sky, belching red and orange flames down at the land below. The fire danced over the white wedding pavilion, catching and spreading to delicate pink-leafed trees and a nearby horse barn. Streams of guests poured out of the pavilion, screaming as they ran away from the carnage.
But there was nowhere to run. The drawbridge to Key Hold had been raised. It was either burn in the open fields or drown in the wide snaking river that ran alongside the castle.
Even from her place high in the castle tower, the smell of burning cloth and acrid smoke seemed to filter through the window seams. The taste raw in her throat.
The castle bells continued to toll, and all Adah could think of was Mercado's words about dreams being real, living things. That as a Dream Healer, it was his job to keep the nightmarish things people dreamed each night locked inside their heads.
She'd thought it was nonsense, but now it seemed like an all too real possibility.
Bleakly, Adah wondered if she'd done this. If her unguarded dreams has drawn Bale the Black Dragon to the castle, all because Mercado wasn't here.
