Follow the White Rabbit (Beautiful Madness, #1) by Kellie Sheridan Read Free Book Online

she could see the connections forming in his head.
But when she asked him to explain why he was looking for that particular rabbit
they both hoped there was only one of, he didn’t answer. He swore that he had
only been doing as he’d been asked, and insisted he didn’t know much more than
she did. But he did know something, and that had been enough to make her listen
when he’d asked her to go back to Tildoor with him to meet with his friend.
    His friend who apparently lived in the
oddest looking home in Wonderland.
    The house stood apart from its neighbors
in both location and structure. It backed up right against the forest, standing
out from the greenery like a boulder in a flower garden. The wooden house was
painted in varying shades of blue, which was strange enough, but its defining
feature was its shape—narrow, but with three stories, and incredibly crooked.
Each level appeared as though it had been dropped haphazardly onto the last
with little attention paid to placement. The second story sat about six feet to
the left of the first, with the third leaning just as far in the opposite
direction. Every window was a different shape or size from the one beside it,
and the front door seemed to be slightly slanted, but Lucky couldn’t say for
sure because it was rounded on either side.
    “Are you coming?” Marc called as he let
himself inside.
    Lucky was still standing on his lawn,
her head tilted at an awkward angle as she tried to make sense of what was in
front of her.
    “Yes, sorry.”
    “Not to worry,” Marc said, peeking
around the door. “This house has that effect on people quite frequently.”
    Lucky nodded mutely and followed him inside.
    She was having the strangest day. And
that wasn’t even counting the odd out-of-body experience.
    “Gwen, Lucky. Lucky, this is my partner,
Gwen.”
    Lucky had stepped through the door only
to come face to face with an eclectically dressed girl about her age who seemed
to fit perfectly with her strange home.
    The girl didn’t respond. Instead, she
pulled Marc by the arm towards the corner of the room.
    “Why did you bring her here?” she
hissed. Clearly Lucky wasn’t intended to overhear, but she had no intention of
stepping away. If this girl had answers, Lucky would take them. Even when they
weren’t being offered.
    “You’ll want to talk to her. Trust me,”
Marc said. His voice was patient, but it also held a touch of excitement that
his friend must have picked up on as well.
    Lucky watched as the girl’s retort
caught in her throat. “Why’s that?”
    “I’ll let her tell you about it.”
    Lucky followed her hosts into their
lounge area, which was larger than her entire home. Very little in the room
seemed to have been chosen to compliment the rest. If that said anything about
Marc or Gwen, Lucky had no idea what it was.
    An oak table sat between a plaid sofa
and two paisley chairs. Lucky chose the couch simply because it was closest to
the exit. Gwen sat across from her in one of the chairs, but she was surprised
when Marc sat beside Lucky rather than his partner. She wondered what partner was supposed to imply, but chose to focus on the issue at hand. She was here
for answers, she reminded herself, not for information about Marc’s
relationship status.
    As Lucky opened her mouth, icy fingers
clenched around her heart and a wave of dizziness flooded her mind. No!
    Lucky reached out, her hand landing on
Marc’s forearm as she tried to steady herself, tried to stay connected to her
body. Her fingernails dug into his skin, too hard. She wanted to apologize, but
she couldn’t. It was too late. By the time she turned her head and locked on to
Marc’s eyes, she could feel her soul leaving her body.
    He looked back at her, his eyes full of
concern, but there was nothing to be done.

CHAPTER SIX

DIAMONDS, CLUBS & ACES
    ––––––––
    T here
was no doubt in Rose’s
mind that the Eastern Queendom would be entirely different from the