Alice spent some quality time in her room, splayed out on her stomach on her bed. She voraciously plowed through the books Blood had lent her.
She was already coming toward the end of the third book, but her heart filled with doubts. “There are different plot twists here,” she complained aloud. “When I first read it, this monk character wasn’t in it.”
It was a tale of a traveling group, and as far as Alice remembered, the main character had five companions. But by the end of the third book, one more had joined them: a monk. The group still had the same purpose for the journey, and all of the other companions and their backgrounds were the same…there was just a monk now. It confused her.
“……”
She finally finished the third book. As she put it down and reached for the fourth, her hand stopped. It slowly slid back to the sheets.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “It’s kinda like me as I am now,” she muttered. A completely unknown person joining a group.
The books even had plot developments that Alice had never read before, and of course, there were two extra volumes. Alice had stronger and stronger doubts about the books’ very existence.
Then Diamonds isn’t just a past version of the world I knew.
“If it has a different beginning,” she mused, “then of course it’ll have a different ending. But that’s not very…satisfying.” If Peter hadn’t pulled her into the Country of Hearts first, then Alice would have had a very different point of view on the Country of Diamonds. The Hatter Family wasn’t as mature an organization; with such short-tempered thugs, Alice probably never would’ve chosen to stay there. Alice was, after all, a realist—she tried to protect herself from dangerous situations.
“I first thought Wonderland was a dream, and that drove my attitude. But now with everyone against me, I doubt I could even fake that attitude.”
Without any attachments or friendship, she might have just passed Hatter Mansion and kept going. Thinking that, she let out a sardonic laugh.
“Maybe I wished for something different.”
Maybe somewhere in Alice’s heart, she’d wanted to build a different relationship with the people of Wonderland—something distinct from what she’d had in the Countries of Hearts and Clover. She knew worrying about it wouldn’t help, but the thought kept whirling around and around in her mind.
Like the spinning hands of a clock. She shook her head to clear it and rose from the bed.
She’d already decided to take Jericho up on his invitation and go to the art museum during the next time period. She guessed a Hatter guard or two would probably follow her there, since they still didn’t seem to really trust her. Their organization was still building its forces and clearly hated taking chances.
The downside of being a young, female Outsider around insecure mobsters.
She wanted a change of pace, so she left her room and ducked outside for a walk within the mansion grounds. As usual, she cut through the other Faceless wandering around, their eyes burning holes in her back.
“Good evening~,” one of them called, his voice careful. “Out for a walk~?”
“Good evening,” Alice replied politely. “Are you guys on patrol?”
“Yes, night patrol~. It’s such a pain, huh~?”
“It’s hard to find intruders when they use the cover of night~.”
She knew they were under pressure to watch her, so she couldn’t exactly blame them…but she wanted some space. Alice made for a place she knew would be more-or-less deserted.
As she traveled deeper into the mansion’s outdoor grounds, the weeds grew thicker under her feet; she tried not to trip on them. A bird hooted somewhere nearby.
Was that an owl? Alice followed the sound to the trees, curiosity compelling her.
In the shadow of a tree, she saw a human shape that didn’t look like a Hatter Faceless. The dappled moonlight played on his white suit jacket.
“…Blood?”
She squinted; the person vanished into the trees.
Had that been him? She followed the shadow.
She figured that if this place were forbidden to her, someone would’ve tried to stop her—like earlier. But no one had said a thing. She took a breath and ducked under an overhanging branch.
As she followed the white shadow deeper into the deserted area, Alice started to hatch a theory about where Blood might go. She didn’t know if the secret rose garden existed in Diamonds or not, but that place only admitted the few people who knew of it. Even Elliot had never been in the place. Blood had always saved it for himself, his sister…and Alice, whom he’d invited on a whim.
She hiked through the woodsy grounds, but couldn’t catch sight of Blood’s trail. She wrinkled her nose.
“I was sure it was this way…”
Maybe it was her own fault for letting him disappear. She glanced right and left, ignoring her feet until they suddenly rammed into something.
“Aagh!”
By the time she realized that someone had tripped her, she was spilling toward the ground. A rock-hard hand gripped her arm, yanked her up, and shoved her against a tree.
“B-Blood, what are you—”
Blood abruptly pinned her wrists above her head. His other hand shoved his cane against her throat.
“Didn’t anybody tell you this area is off-limits?” he hissed. “I stayed quiet and followed you, and I was thrilled to have finally uncovered your assassination plot…but here you are, unarmed as usual.”
Alice choked. “Assassination plot? I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Decent ladies don’t chase men in the dark.”
“N-no, I was just…” She tried to swallow against the rod rammed up under her chin. “Whatever I did, I don’t deserve this!”
Maybe he wasn’t as bad as Elliot, but Blood in the Country of Diamonds wasn’t a patient man. She stared at him, imploring him to at least lower the weapon, but he only gave her a short, nasal laugh.
“If this is your idea of a come-on, you should try whatever you used to seduce the Gravekeeper on me. That sounds more fun.” His lips curled. “But not in the woods. I like my women in my room.”
“……”
The cane dragged from her throat and started to trace the line of her body over her clothes. She felt less sexually threatened and more in danger of him killing her as he whispered in her ear, “Or maybe you like this kind of action.”
His low voice sent ice down her spine. This man acted on whims. That could make him do anything.
She cringed from the lips in her ear. “Stop it!” she cried. “I only thought you were going to the secret garden!”
Blood went silent as death.
He pulled back, his hand still gripping her wrists. Any expression on his face had disappeared, but something severe shone in his blue-green eyes.
Hostility.
That gaze pierced through Alice’s body and cut into her heart. She was terrified that she’d said too much.
Blood had told her how he’d kept his garden secret—he’d murdered the builders outside the mansion grounds, then created a hard and fast rule that no one was to enter the area without his permission. The only people who knew it existed were the only people allowed in.
And Blood in the Country of Diamonds had never told her about the garden.
She could barely breathe as he stared at her with murder in his eyes.
“You,” he said, his voice razor-sharp and very, very cold. “What do you know?”
Alice tried to calm her pounding heart. Blood wouldn’t kill her yet. If she had information that he wanted, that had to come first.
She stared, morbidly fascinated, at the man who loomed over her. She didn’t know why she did that, when he could kill her right then and there.
His eyes, violent and disturbed, sparkled in the night gloom. He was interested in her. And in the intensity of that gaze, something deep in her chest clamored for her attention.
It wasn’t fear. Alice chewed on her lip as that sensation throbbed in her heart.
What’s happening to me? she thought in a panic. Am I crazy? He thinks I’m an enemy!
Was it that she’d become far too familiar with the insanity of Wonderland? She honestly didn’t know. After a moment of thought, the words came smoother than expected.
“If you want to know something,” she told him, “then do your research. Or is it too hard for a Mafia boss to investigate one little Outsider girl…?”
She knew it was provocative. But she didn’t want to be the only one trembling.
“……”
“……”
She felt locked in a staring match as the silence dragged on. But the bitter cold between them finally drained away.
He released her wrists and took a breath.
She still sensed animosity as she slowly lowered her hands. But the threat in his voice had blurred together with an emotion she hadn’t seen in him before.
“I guess that’s true,” he murmured. “I see the value in investigating you. I’ll expose whatever truths you’re hiding.”
“I…look forward to what you find out.”
The words that tumbled out of her taunted him, but she was still confused about her own feelings. This wouldn’t have worked on the old Blood. He would’ve never risen to such a cheap provocation from a teenage girl.
But it had worked. And Alice had an idea of what was coming next.
The question was, if it went as Alice thought, would she be happy or sad about it? What did these two Bloods have in common? How were they different? Her feelings toward them were so complicated she couldn’t explain it if she tried.
“Come to the secret garden whenever you like,” the old Blood had said. “My word is law here, and I say you can visit anytime the mood strikes you.”
The secret rose garden at night. She’d managed to gain access to his hard-won sanctuary…
But this place wasn’t his. It belonged to a different Blood Dupre.