Spades: The True Wonderland Awaits. (Of Wonderland Chronicles Book 1) by A.G. Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

brought the key to the lock and twisted it in the lock. It opened to reveal a garden with rich colors and brightly shimmering jeweled flowers. I wished to get into the beautiful garden, but I was too large.
    I closed the door and locked it again - knowing that either way it would end up locked, standing up. I quickly tied the key necklace around my wrist and went to the three-legged, glass table that stood in the middle of the room. I found on top a silver bottle labeled 'DRINK ME' in a curling script upon a piece of parchment attached to the neck of the bottle. I tucked the bottle into my messenger bag and bent down, searching the floor for the cake. I found it at last, tucked into a silver box that was somehow see-through. The cake itself was tiny, but it was so lovely; it was a red-velvet cupcake with white frosting on it with a pecan resting in the middle. The paper around the cupcake said in the same curling script 'EAT ME'. I also tucked that into my bag and stood.
    I searched through the bag for all that it contained and found white lace gloves that carried a trace scent of black pepper. Guided by the same mysterious voice inside my head, I slipped the gloves on and took the fan out also, tucking it into a secret pocket in the dress I somehow knew of. I then grabbed the bottle and walked over to the tiny door. I sloshed a bit of the golden liquid inside of the bottle into my mouth, swallowing. I popped the cork back into place and stuffed the bottle back into the messenger bag, coughing as the bitter liquid burnt all the way down my throat and into my stomach.
    Then I began to shrink. Shrinking is a rather curious feeling; it felt as though I was tumbling in a clothes dryer, my skin warming. My stomach began to turn, and I gagged, feeling as though I would have to throw up. My stomach began to turn faster and faster, nausea rising faster and faster. It felt as though I was spinning. At least, mercifully, the spinning came to a stop, and I landed on the tiled floor, gasping for breath. I was terribly dizzy, but I forced myself to stand, stumbling over to the door as if I was drunk.
    I struggled with the key that was now about as tall as I was, lifting it to the lock and turning it. Then I raced out into the garden of Wonderland, not forgetting to grab the key from the door's lock as I closed the door behind me.

Chapter 9:
The White Rabbit and the Flowers
     
    "Welcome home, luv. Be careful now; don't let the Flowers eat you. They're always rather hungry, and they enjoy our kind the best for their meals. Be careful, luv. We need you, so don't let the Flowers get to you. And beware the White Rabbit; he's been on the other side since the Queen saved him from the Flowers," the husky Cockney accent warned me, and I blushed a little at his constant use of his fond nickname for me. "I'm in the Heart of Wonderland. Find me in the Castle, unlock the coffin with your key, set me free."
    'Our kind'? I thought, but I shrugged the thought off; he must have meant human.
    I looked around carefully, but all I could see were tall flowers with jeweled petals in every color of the rainbow. I peered at the door behind me; it was all by itself, standing alone in the air. It was attached to the steps that I had raced down, stone steps that were cream-colored, like slabs of vanilla chocolate. The door on this end was the same as the one on the other side, but the carvings were a bit different; instead of carvings of phrases in Egyptian, they were carvings of roses and tulips and sunflowers.
    "Look, Angelonia, a human."
    I whipped around to only see flowers. I blinked; I must have been hearing things, because I've never known of a flower that could talk.
    "What the Hell? Last I knew, flowers couldn't talk," I mumbled, looking around the garden.
    "Azalea, this human girl doesn't think we talk," another flower said, one that was a rose with jeweled petals.
    "Oh, Cabbage Rose, she's so foolish. Would you agree?" an azalea said, looking as though