After all, we do not belong to that realm. We never did. But we are prepared to enter it once again so we can help our mate defeat the darkness.
But wherever she goes, we go.
Our mate.
Our queen.
I’m looking forward to ruling with her for the next epoch or two.
Chapter twenty-three
Belle
Iinchtowardthegateway, and I can’t believe my eyes.
I will finally return to my father. He must have been worried sick. I reach up and wipe the tears from my eyes, gazing up at Alice. The gateway reflects in her big, blue orbs, and I spy the tears dripping down her own face.
We will get her home. As I promised her. Whereas the gateway may not open out into London, England, I will get her on a boat and back across the Atlantic Ocean. Somehow.
I bet her parents are worried about her, and maybe after this, they will start treating her better. Wonderlandisreal, and they should learn to appreciate their wonderful, imaginative daughter.
Lord knows we all need an imagination. It was the reason I read books growing up. They were my form of escapism, and now I reach across and take her hand.
“You ready to return home, Alice?”
She smiles, and the tears don’t stop running down her cheeks. “Yes. Thank you, for everything, Belle. You were the big sister I always dreamed of.”
I squeeze her hand, and the two of us share a moment. I hear Grey sighing in exasperation behind us, telling us to move it along and I roll my eyes.
I glance up at the gateway. The blue, swirling lights beckon me closer, and I take a deep breath.
Time to go home.
I’m coming, Dad.
***
Bright fluorescent lights blind me once I step through the gateway, and I shield my eyes. My hand doesn’t let go of Alice’s the whole time as she, too, winces from the artificial light.
We had been in the murk for who knows how long, so it took us by surprise.
My surroundings soon come into focus, and a shuddery breath escapes my lips when I see we have stepped out into my father’s underground lab at the university.
Tears slip from my eyes. I made it home to him.
I glance around at once, searching the room, and that’s when I spy him behind the control panel. He has dozed off, and I smile, stepping down the stairs of the gateway.
“Is that your father?” Alice whispers.
“Yes. It’s best we wake him gently. I don’t want to startle him.”
Alice stops and glances back at the gateway. “What about Madoc and the others? Aren’t they coming through too?”
I follow her gaze toward the blue, swirling lights. I told them to wait on the other side after I went in. I wanted to give my father a moment to adjust to the arrival of four monsters. So I thought I could at least introduce him to Alice.
She’s not so alarming.
Just as I step toward him, I wonder what day of the week it is. How long was I in the Abyss? Does time truly move quicker there?