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

she was smirking. "Though she does look delicious, like one of the Royals all dressed in fancy dress like that."
    "Delicious?" I asked, my eyes wide. "How can a human being be delicious?"
    "I am rather hungry," a huge dandelion said, nudging a box open with its head. A ladybug crawled out, and the dandelion bent down at what would be a waist if it was a human. It opened its slobbering mouth and ate the ladybug whole, crunching down with sharp fangs.
    "And these bugs aren't always satisfying," the cabbage rose added, catching the next bug - a bumblebee - that crawled out of the box in a mad dash for freedom and biting down upon it with its vicious fangs so that its guts splattered everywhere.
    "So you're going to eat me," I finished, biting the inside of my cheek and gnawing on it as I watched the flowers carefully.
    "Exactly!" the azalea said, nudging the lid to the box containing the bugs closed. "Look, Camellia, this human girl is wise. Wiser than that other one who came through, who deluded herself into thinking we were friendly."
    "You mean Alice?" I ventured, and the azalea nodded.
    "You know of her? Yes, Alice," it said.
    "I am her great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter," I said, "Bryony Hollander of the Human World."
    "It is her!" a shy, small, purple petunia said, popping up into view as everyone turned to look at her. "I said so! You see? I'm always right!"
    "Hush now, Petunia," the cabbage rose snapped before turning back to me. "Are you here to fix Alice's mistakes, Bryony Hollander of the Human World? Are you here to topple the Court of Spades, to turn back the clock? Are you here to save all?"
    I nodded. "Yes, I am," I said confidently, though I had no idea of half of what the flower was talking about.
    "Then we have no choice. It was rather nice to meet you, Bryony Hollander of the Human World. I'd have hoped that you could have saved Wonderland, but what happens now is inevitable." The cabbage rose nodded, and it was then that I realized it appeared to be the leader of all of the flowers. "Rabid Knight!"
    I blinked. I thought that it was the White Rabbit. But I shrugged. Alice got a lot of things wrong; for one, she thought that the flowers were friendly and not at all bloodthirsty. Perhaps she got the name wrong; maybe its name really was Rabid Knight.
    When the White Rabbit - or Rabid Knight as the flower had called it - hopped into the clearing, I squeaked in shock. The creature standing before me was the exact copy of my rendition of the White Rabbit. The creature's fur was tattered and pulled back in places to reveal the thin, stick-like bones of its skeleton. Its body was built like a rabbit so it looked rather similar to a rabbit, but its face was that of a rabid dog; its eyes were red and its lips were pulled up to reveal sharp fangs that looked to be permanently stained with blood. Upon sight of me, its mouth began to froth, spit dribbling down the corners of its mouth and splattering against the ground with hisses and steam. From what I could see, it was venomous, enough so that its spit was melting the ground away.
    "Human girl! Not be allowed! Not be allowed, say the Queen of Spades!" the rabbit shrieked, and I clapped my hands over my ears to avoid having to listen to its wailing. "Try not to stop the Queen of Spades, or off your head will be! Stay away or stop you I shall! Be warned; stop the ambitions of the Court of Spades you try and kill you I will!"
    The Cockney accented voice inside my head groaned. " What did I tell you about avoiding the White Rabbit?" it asked, and I bit the inside of my cheek harder.
    "Well, it doesn't do me very much good if you wouldn't tell me why," I muttered. "I didn't know that I was here to stop the 'Queen of Spades'. You told me nothing about this. Some guide you are, leading me straight, headfirst into danger. Now I'm going to be gutted by the rabbit and poisoned to death then eaten by the flowers. What a way to die!"
    Seth chuckled. "Ah, I'd forgotten how