Footsteps pounded along the corridor. Gus pulled out a pistol where it had been tucked into the waistband of his trousers. He stood in front of me. I wasn't even armed with a knife.

"It's just me," came Seth's voice.

Gus stood aside but he didn't put away his gun. Seth held one too. His face was pale but set like a stone and his eyes gleamed like gems in the poor light. "Everyone is armed," he said. "Even my mother. We're ready."

"No," I murmured. "We are not ready. We're very far from being ready. We can't fight an army."

"We have guns, they have swords and arrows."

"And siege machines, and they greatly outnumber us."

He threw a hand in the air. "Are you giving up, Charlie? Just like that?"

I folded my arms over my chest and fought back tears. Part of me wanted to give up. With Lincoln gone, there seemed no point in fighting anyway. Without him, Lichfield was empty. My life was empty.

But Lincoln wasn't gone. He was in jail, and I was his only hope of getting out.

"If we had the imp, it could attack," Gus said, peering out of the window again. He swore and let the curtain go. "We have to warn the others to stay away from the front of the house."

Seth followed him but stopped. "Come on, Charlie. It's not safe in here. The kitchen is at the back of the house. We'll make that our base."

"The imp," I echoed, eyeing the safe.

"Charlie?"

"I'll follow in a moment. I have an idea."

---

"Let me go!" Alice's panicked voice came from the service area.

I broke into a run and burst into the kitchen. "Alice!"

She struggled against Seth and Gus who held her back. "She wants to give herself up," Seth said.

"I have to!" she cried, trying to wrench free of his grip and failing. "We can't beat an entire army! Be reasonable. This is the only way to make them leave. Let me go before they let one of those boulders loose."

"No," Seth growled.

"Lady V." Alice appealed to Seth's mother who was watching Cook load a pistol. "You understand. I must give myself up or we'll all die!"

Lady Vickers turned a deathly white face and wild eyes to Alice. She wore a shawl around her nightgown and her hair hung in tangles down her back. She looked like a madwoman escaped from the attic. "I do understand," she said. Upon her son's protest, she put up her hand. "But you are not going out there. You are to remain here at all costs. Is that clear?"

"No!"

Cook finished loading the weapon and handed it to Lady Vickers. She aimed it at Alice's foot. "I will shoot you if necessary."

Alice stopped struggling. Seth and Gus slowly released her.

"Now," Lady Vickers said crisply, "where should I stand to get the best shot at one of those soldiers?"

"You're not shooting at them, you're staying here as the last line of defense," Seth told her. "With Alice."

Alice plopped down on a chair and buried her head in her hands. "This is all my fault," she groaned.

"No," I said, stroking her hair. "You were a child when you came here. Whatever happened in Wonderland that led to you being sent here is not your fault. Now, arm yourself. I have a plan to get out of this before a shot is fired."

Lady Vickers expelled a loud breath. She held up the pistol. "Thank God for that! I have no idea how to use this thing."

Seth pushed it away. "First lesson: aim it at the enemy, not your only child."

"What be your plan, Charlie?" Cook asked.

I opened my mouth to speak when a resounding crash boomed through the house above us. Glass shattered. Bricks and wood splintered. Pots rattled and crockery fell off the hutch, smashing onto the floor.

Lady Vickers screamed. A gun went off and she screamed again.

Everyone dropped to the floor, hands over heads, as plaster drifted down from the ceiling and formed little white piles of powder on the flagstones. The house fell silent except for the tinkling of the chandelier in the entrance hall.

"Reload!" came a distant shout.

Seth crawled over to his mother and took away her pistol. "You can have a knife instead." He got to his feet, a pistol in each hand. "It'll take them a few minutes to reload the catapult," he said. "Charlie, tell us your plan before they destroy Lichfield."

I got to my feet and refused the weapon he offered me. "There's no time to discuss it. Come with me and follow along. You too, Alice."

"No," he said. "She stays here."

"The plan won't work without her."

He looked set for an argument but Alice marched between us and out the kitchen door. I raced after her, Seth and Gus on my heels. I was grateful that Cook remained behind with Lady Vickers. She seemed to need comforting, and it was wise to have someone with a level head to look after the house and her in case I failed. Failure was an extremely likely possibility.

I caught a glimpse of the clock on the table as we gathered in the entrance hall. I should have been getting married in three hours. It seemed like a fantasy now.

"Alice, stay here until I call you," I said. "Seth, Gus, put down your weapons." I pushed open the door before either man could protest.

I put up my hands in surrender. Beside me, Seth and Gus did the same. We looked out to the soldiers swarming our lawn, spreading as far as the eye could see to left and right. The catapult was already loaded, a team of men drawing back a boulder ready to release it.

"Stop!" I cried. "I'll give you Alice!"

"Charlie," Seth hissed. "What are you doing?"

"Trust me, Seth. Please."

The leader on the horse put up a hand to halt his men. The team stopped but did not disarm their catapult.

"Where is she?" the commander demanded. He was not terribly old but he had the weathered features of an experienced soldier and the bearing of a man used to command. His stature, sitting erect on the biggest horse, was impressive. Where his men wore red jackets with white breeches, his uniform was entirely black. The gold buttons and watch added a handsome elegance.

"She's inside," I called back. "She will only go with you if you stop laying seige to the house."

"Naturally," the commander said.

"And on one other condition."

I felt the gazes of both Seth and Gus on me.

"And that is?" the commander shouted.

"That you help us capture her enemy in this realm first."

Beside me, Seth grunted. "I like your thinking, but they'll never agree to it."

The commander leaned on the saddle pommel and shifted his weight. "Why would I do that? We outnumber you." He indicated his army behind him. "We can just take her."

"You could try," I said. "But she'll kill herself before she lets you. She's inside now, holding a gun to her temple. If you refuse my request and storm the house, she'll fire it."

He cocked his head to the side. "Gun?"

One of other riders came up to him and said something. He was considerably younger than the commander. He spoke in tones that didn't carry to us, but whatever he said held the commander's attention. When he finished speaking, they both looked at us.

"Well?" I asked. "Will you help us in exchange for Alice?"

The commander shifted his weight forward again and I realized he did that when he was thinking. The advisor beside him said something. He looked to be in earnest.

The commander nodded. "Miss Alice will be returning to Wonderland to stand trial," he called out to us. "If she is found guilty, she will die anyway. Here or there, it matters not."

"Jesus," Gus muttered.

"I don't believe you," I said. "You would not be negotiating with me if it didn't matter. You would have taken her before now, dead or alive. But I suspect you don't want to deny your queen a trial."

The distance between us was great, but I could just make out the commander's grunt. The advisor nodded sagely. My hunch was correct then—Alice was worth more to them alive than dead. She was, after all, the queen's niece, and the Queen of Hearts wanted her to face trial in Wonderland.

At the advisor's prompting, the commander nodded. "We agree! But I want to see Miss Alice first."

"No!" Seth shouted back.

"I am here," came Alice's voice behind us. She held a pistol to her head.

The commander straightened. The advisor closed his eyes in relief. Then he opened them and wheeled his horse back to the line of soldiers. He ordered them to stand down, to lower their weapons. They obeyed him and the commander did not seem to care that his underling was barking orders at his men.

"What now?" Seth asked me.

"Now we approach," I said. "Carefully. Alice, take my hand. We'll go together."

"I don't like this," Seth said.

"We ain't got no choice," Gus told him.

"Charlie," whispered Cook from the doorway. "Want me to ride to Marchbank?"

"The Gillinghams' first," I said. "Tell Harriet to meet us at Swinburn's house. Then inform Lord Marchbank."

Alice's hand touched mine. I held it firmly and gave her a grim smile. I wanted to reassure her, tell her it would be all right, and that I knew what I was doing.

But I couldn't offer her false hope. I did not know if my plan would work. The more I thought about it, the more I doubted that we could pull it off. So many things could go wrong.

We walked together to stand before the commander. Seth and Gus stood behind us. The commander's steely gaze flicked over them then me and settled on Alice.

He bowed his head. "Miss Alice."

She clutched me tighter. "Who are you?"

"Loren Ironside, General of the Wonderland Army. We have met but you were too young to remember."

"Clearly."

He grunted, as if her off-handed comment amused him. She hadn't meant to be funny.

The advisor returned. He too bowed his head. "Princess—" At a sharp glare from General Ironside, the advisor coughed. "Miss Alice. It's a pleasure to see you again."

"We've met too, I suppose," she said. "When I was young and living in Wonderland."

"I was ten when you…left, and I remember you well. Markell Ironside, at your service."

I glanced between the two men and saw the resemblance. Both had clear, clever green eyes and dark hair, although the general's was tinged with gray. Where the general had probably been handsome when he was the advisor's age, the burdens of battle had settled into the tired grooves across his forehead and hardened the set of his mouth.

"Father and son?" Alice asked.

"Guilty," Markell Ironside said with a quirk of his lips.

The general grunted again and I still could not decipher what it meant. He was harder to read than Lincoln.

"Tell me, sirs, what is all this about?" Alice asked. "Why am I under arrest for treason?"

"There'll be time to discuss it later." The general wheeled his horse around. "Get on the cart. All of you. Take us to your enemy so we can vanquish them and go home."

"Not vanquish," I said. "We need him alive."

"Forgive him for being terse," the advisor whispered. "He's feeling his age."

Under different circumstances I would have liked him.

"This is not a joke," Seth snapped. He muttered something very rude under his breath.

Gus jabbed him in his ribs with his elbow.

"Mr. Ironside?" I asked as he led us to a nearby cart. "You called Alice a princess just now."

"It's Sir Markell," said the cart driver. He glanced at Alice and dipped his head, although he kept his gaze on her. She nodded at him and he blushed.

"Sir Markell?" I prompted.

"She is the queen's niece," the advisor said. "Hence she is a princess. She has been stripped of that title, however, by order of Her Majesty."

"Why does the queen think she committed treason? Alice came here as a little girl. She's done nothing wrong in your realm."

He leaned on the pommel in the same way his father did. "It will all become clear in the trial."

"But how can she prepare a defense if she doesn't know the charge?"

"Enough questions!" bellowed the general, rejoining us. "Sir Markell, stay at the back of the line."

The younger man rode off, but not before he took one last, long look at Alice.

Seth huffed out a breath. "Prick."

"Seth," I hissed. "Don't anger them."

"You!" The general pointed to me. "What is your name?"

"Charlie Holloway."

"You are a commander, Charlie Holloway. Your people follow you. Are you queen in this realm?"

Despite everything, I smiled. "No."

He grunted then signaled for the cart driver to walk on. We jerked forward and fell into a steady rhythm. It didn't take long before Lichfield was far behind us, and the trees lining the edge of Hampstead Heath gave way to houses. The gray pall of central London shrouded the city ahead. It would swallow us before long.

"It's quite a walk," I told the general, riding ahead of us, his back stiff and head high.

"My men are used to walking," he said without turning around.

"We must move quickly." The sun had beaten back the dawn but still hung low on the horizon. Thanks to the early hour and being a Saturday, few commuters were out. Even so, we caused a sensation on the streets and considerable chaos for the traffic. Drivers waved their fists and shouted for us to move, once they got over their initial shock.

"They'll think we're a circus troupe," Alice said. "I hope."

"Ain't like Barnum and Bailey's," Gus said. "Remember that, Seth?"

Seth didn't respond. He hunkered down, his knees drawn up, and glared at General Ironside's back. Seth was not a brooder, but these circumstances were far from normal. In Lincoln's absence, he must feel responsible for our safety.

"It'll be all right," I told him. "Alice will not return to Wonderland."

"Is that so?" he said darkly. "Then perhaps you can enlighten me. What happens after the army has destroyed Swinburn? How will you stop them taking Alice? Or killing us?"

"The imp."

"The imp that you do not have."

I was saved from answering by the general riding back to ask for directions. We spent the rest of the journey directing him in between silences as deep and dark as a pit.

The army was not silent, however. I could hear them marveling over some of our engineering feats, from the water pump to The Great Western Royal Hotel at Paddington Station. I could only guess what they'd make of a train if they saw one. They seemed somewhat primitive compared to us.

"How big is this village?" asked the cart driver. He tilted his head to peer up at the roofs of the townhouses near Regents Park and whistled.

"It's a city," I told him. "And you've only seen a small portion."

The sight of Kensington Palace had him almost running off the road, but a sharp word from his general returned his focus.

We arrived at Swinburn's house after an hour of brisk walking. It was still early for most of the upper classes but their servants were out and about.

"Just a circus troupe passing through," Gus told them cheerfully. He waved. One or two waved back, but most simply stared.

"Knock on that door there," I told the general when we arrived at Swinburn's house. "Ask for Sir Ignatius."

The general ordered one of his men to do it. Jenkin the footman opened the door on the third knock and gasped. He fell back a step and tried to shut the door, but the soldier wedged himself into the gap.

"Jenkin!" I called out. "Fetch Sir Ignatius immediately."

Jenkin disappeared. A moment later, Swinburn stood in the doorway, dressed in a well-tailored dove-gray suit.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. "Who are you?"

"General Ironside of the Wonderland Army," the general said. "Is this him, Miss Alice?"

Swinburn squinted. "Miss Holloway? Is that you? What the devil is going on?"

I jumped down from the cart. One of the soldiers thrust his sword at my throat. The cold steel halted me in my tracks. Seth and Gus rose but I warned them not to make any rash moves.

"This army is from another realm and they will destroy you," I told Swinburn. "Unless you have Lincoln released from jail."

"His arrest is nothing to do with me! I can't get him released."

"It's everything to do with you. You are pulling Mr. Yallop's strings, just like you pulled Mr. Salter's and Lady Harcourt's."

"You're mad."

"You committed those murders in the Old Nichol, didn't you?"

He folded his arms over his chest. "And if I did?"

Someone to my left gasped. It was Lord Ballantine, standing on his doorstep. Three of his pack mates stood with him.

"Did you kill them?" Ballantine asked Swinburn.

Swinburn ignored him and studied the general. "Tell your friends to disperse, Miss Holloway. I don't want any trouble."

"Then come down here," the general commanded. "I will not see innocents suffer."

"Thank you," I said. "You're a good man. Only Swinburn here must be vanquished, and only after he releases my intended."

He grunted. "I do not have all day."

"Send Jenkin to Mr. Yallop's house," I ordered Swinburn. "Tell him to release Lincoln now. The army will remain here until I see him safe and well."

"Don't be absurd." Swinburn went to close the door. "I have no influence over Mr. Yallop or the police."

"Yallop owes you money."

He stilled. "That is irrelevant. I haven't spoken to him about the ministry."

"Perhaps not directly. Perhaps the Duke of Edinburgh did it for you."

"Be careful, Miss Holloway. I wouldn't suggest such a thing about a member of the royal family if I were you."

"Then how about another suggestion. Did you kill Lady Harcourt?"

"Pardon?"

"Did you kill her? She was no longer of use to you, was she? And you prefer not to be burdened with a wife."

Swinburn thrust out his chin. "I didn't kill her! What an absurd notion."

"You do not look unhappy about her death."

"No, you do not," said Ballantine approaching slowly and carefully. "You held a party last night after being informed of her death. I found it distasteful." Two of his pack mates nodded.

The muscles in Swinburn's jaw bunched, his lips flattened. "Stop it, Ballantine. She's trying to drive us apart when we must be united now."

Ballantine stopped advancing and lowered his head. "You're right. My apologies, sir."

Damnation. I almost isolated Swinburn. It would have made it easier to attack him, if necessary. With his pack on his side, they would get hurt if they tried to defend him.

"I am willing to take this all the way to the end, Swinburn," I said. "This army will not leave empty handed, and I am giving them you."

"Why?" Swinburn addressed the general. "What do you get out of this arrangement?"

"Someone we have spent years searching for." The general looked back at the cart.

Alice thrust the gun under her chin, daring him to take her.

The general muttered something under his breath and turned back to Swinburn.

"You have outwitted General Ironside," came Sir Markell's quiet voice as he rode up beside me. "I commend you. It's not easy to best him but you have managed it."

"Not yet," I said. "We seem to be at a standstill."

"What will break it?"

Death. I did not say it. Could not. Swinburn's blood was the only one I wanted on my hands, but I was afraid there would be much more.

"Do as she says or I will attack," the general demanded of Swinburn. "Send your letter. Release the one named Lincoln."

Swinburn crossed his arms and did not move.

"Do it!" Seth shouted. He too jumped down from the cart to stand beside me.

Sir Markell drew his sword and placed the point to Seth's throat. "No further."

Seth scowled at him.

"You harm a single one of my friends and I will pull this trigger," Alice cried. "I have nothing to live for anyway. My family abandoned me, no man will have a strange creature like me, and my future is unclear. So you see, I am standing on the edge and I will throw myself over it if I have to."

The general merely grunted without turning around. His son, however, approached the cart. "Please don't, Princess." He spoke quietly so that his father wouldn't have heard. "Your parents would not want their hard work undone like this."

Alice lowered the weapon to her lap and stared wide-eyed at the advisor. He steered his horse away and returned to me.

"Will you send the letter?" I asked Swinburn.

"I will not," he said.

"Now what?" Seth muttered.

"We think of something, and think quickly," I whispered.

"You have tried and failed, Miss Holloway," Lord Ballantine said. "You don't really want to harm anyone. It's time for you to go. People are beginning to stare."

"I cannot go! Lincoln will be sent to jail if I fail. If you think I will just give up, you are sorely mistaken. Sir Ignatius!" I called to Swinburn. "Either you do as I say, or the army will kill your pack."

Swinburn didn't move. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his pack huddle closer together.

"Ignatius!" Ballantine shouted. "Do as she says. What does it matter if he's released or not?"

Swinburn's lips curled up at the edges. "She won't give the order."

"She might not," the general said, "but I will."

"Change into your wolf forms," Swinburn ordered his pack. "Then attack them."

"We can't beat all of them!" Ballantine cried. "There are too many!"

Swinburn turned his icy glare onto him. "You're just like your father and grandfather. No wonder the leadership passed to me. You're spineless, as they were. I said," he roared, "change and attack!"

"Wait!" The shout came from behind me. Dozens of feet shuffled as the army parted to allow the newcomer through. "Wait! Nobody attack!"

"Harriet!" Relief flooded me at the sight of her.

She held her belly with both hands and puffed heavily. She looked hot and drained, her waddling gait awkward as she approached us.

"Seize her!" General Ironside commanded.

"No!" his son blurted out. "She's with child."

"Seize her gently."

Two soldiers gripped her arms. She did not struggle, thank God.

"Harriet, are you all right?" I asked.

"No," she snapped. "I am very far from all right. I am as large as a house, my knees ache, and I feel ugly. I was fast asleep when Lady Vickers demanded I come here. What is the meaning of this?"

"My mother?" Seth asked.

"I sent her back to Lichfield with the cook."

He nodded his thanks. "We're sorry you had to be dragged into this, but we need your help. Can you convince Swinburn to speak to Yallop and drop all charges against Fitzroy and the ministry? He might listen to you."

"I doubt it," she muttered.

"Just try!" I snapped. "Or are you on his side?"

She pouted. "Charlie, we went through this. I am your friend. You know that. Please say you do."

I turned my back on her.

"Sir Ignatius," she called out. "Come now, be reasonable. Charlie has the upper hand. They greatly outnumber you. Have Lincoln released and everything can be as it was before."

"Why would I?" he said. "Why should I?"

"Because your pack is in danger!" I cried. "What sort of leader lets them die because he's too proud to admit when he's beaten?"

"The sort of leader who will get a new pack."

Ballantine expelled a breath. His pack mates murmured among themselves, too far away for me to hear their words.

"You don't deserve them," Harriet said. "They would die for you—some already have. And yet you will toss them away. I knew you were a weak man when I met you. An upstart, that's all you are. A ridiculous little sailor who cares for no one but himself."

"Enough!" Swinburn bellowed. "Kill them all. I don't care."

He went to shut the door but Jenkin grabbed him and pulled him back outside. He threw Swinburn down the steps to the pavement. Swinburn groaned but lurched to his feet.

"You damned fool," he growled at the footman.

Harriet clapped her hands. "Well done, Jenkin. Now, I have a task for you."

The footman stood to attention. "Yes, ma'am?"

"There is a necklace in Sir Ignatius's possession that belongs to Miss Holloway. It's an amber orb pendant. Please fetch it."

Jenkin's gaze darted to his master.

Swinburn bared his teeth and emitted a low, animal growl. "You will no longer be welcome in my pack if you do."

"You will be welcome in mine," Harriet said. "I will also employ you. I can always do with a handsome shape shifting footman."

Jenkin disappeared into the house.

I glanced at Harriet over my shoulder. She smiled at me and I gave her a nod. It was all I could manage.

"You will not be safe anymore, Harriet," Swinburn snarled. "I will come for you and for your offspring."

Harriet's lips quivered, her chin wobbled. "Oh, Sir Ignatius, how could you say such a thing? Did you hear that, my lord?" She appealed to Ballantine. "He has no care for his own kind. No care at all. I can excuse his murder of Gawler by telling myself it was self-defense, but this threat is horrid. Simply horrid."

"He admitted to murdering those people in the East End too," I said, playing along. It would seem this fight wasn't going to be won with weapons or claws, but with words. "All because he wanted to put the blame on Gawler so he could remove him and become the leader of both packs."

Harriet gasped. "Ignatius, how could you."

"Not only that," I said, "but he has put all of you in danger by telling the newspapers and Mr. Yallop about the ministry. You are all named in our records, and those records are now in the possession of the police."

Ballantine dragged a hand over his mouth and jaw. "Why?" he growled at Swinburn. "Why did you do that?"

"I didn't inform the papers!" Swinburn cried. "Christ, man, she's lying. She's trying to turn you against me."

"Who else would have done it?" Seth snapped. "We know you used Julia to get as much information about us as you could, and then you killed her too."

"She killed herself!" Swinburn said.

"Not according to the police."

"Mr. Salter admits that you gave Gawler's name to him," Harriet said to Swinburn.

I frowned. Lord Gillingham had given Gawler's name to Salter. It would seem she was going to cast blame onto Swinburn to keep her husband's name out of it.

"You dog," Ballantine snarled.

The other pack members prowled toward Swinburn, their shoulders hunched forward, their attention on their prey. I'd seen packs of stray hungry dogs stalking rats in such a manner, their focus so intent that they didn't notice me.

Swinburn stumbled back into the iron railing behind him. "Come now," he said, his voice shaking. "Stop this. I am your leader."

"Gawler was one of us," Ballantine snapped.

"And a good man," Harriet agreed. "You've betrayed our kind, Ignatius. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"She's lying," Swinburn warned the advancing pack.

"I am not," she said crisply. "For goodness’ sake, Sir Ignatius. Stop pretending. You do not care for your kind, or for your pack. You only care about yourself."

"How dare you!" Swinburn stepped forward and stabbed his finger in her direction.

"Seize him." The general's command was laconic in comparison to Swinburn's tirade. Yet his men obeyed him without question.

Two of them grabbed Swinburn but he easily shook them off. Another two joined their comrades, but he pushed them away with two pounding swipes of his arm. Then he got down on all fours and howled.

The four soldiers scrambled backward out of the way, but they weren't fast enough. Swinburn pounced, grabbing one of the soldiers and wrapping his big hands around the man's throat. The soldier's eyes bulged and his face turned purple. The other three soldiers went to rescue him, but Swinburn once again batted them away.

The general drew his sword.

"Change!" Swinburn shouted at his pack. "Now!"

"No!" Harriet cried. "Everyone, be calm! Please!"

But it was too late for calmness. One of the other shape shifters began to remove his clothing. The others followed Swinburn's lead and readied to pounce. It would seem they would still take his side, despite everything. It was pack law.

Soldiers crowded closer, their blades drawn. Their general barked orders, setting out a formation to surround the enemy. The poor soldier in Swinburn's grip lost consciousness and went limp, enraging his comrades.

I looked to Alice, trembling on the cart. Gus tried to comfort her but he could do nothing if the general shifted his attention to her. And he would, as soon as Swinburn was dealt with.

"Seth, see to Alice," I said. "Don't let her surrender."

"What about you?" His voice cracked. He was not looking at me but at the advancing army, drawing closer to us with each step. Every soldier had his sword drawn. "I can't leave you."

"I can take care of myself. Alice can't."

"Jesus, Charlie…"

I shoved him in the shoulder but still he didn't move. He was torn.

The general raised his sword, ready to swipe it down and order the attack.

Seth swore. Then he grabbed the sword from the nearest soldier and surged forward so quickly that the soldiers didn't have time to react. The pack did not see him coming until too late.

"No!" I screamed. "We need him alive!"

Seth cut horizontally through the air and sliced Swinburn's head cleanly off. It rolled away.

The general lowered his weapon. The army stopped. The wolf pack stared at the body of their former leader, now lying on the pavement covered in blood.

And I watched the spirit of Sir Ignatius Swinburn rise. His ghost hovered above his body, a look of vile hatred cast in Seth's direction.

"Good lord," Harriet said. "Seth, I didn't know you had it in you."

He stood there, hands at his sides, blood dripping from the blade. He looked more terrible than I'd ever seen him. If I didn't know his past or situation, I would think him a powerful lord, confident in leadership, the world at his feet. Part of me felt pride, yet I was disheartened too. Seth's soul wasn't as gentle and affable as I'd always thought it.

"I should have done that months ago," he said.

Ballantine stormed toward him but halted at a barked order from Harriet. "Sir Ignatius's time is over. He committed terrible crimes. He will be mourned in our way and then he'll be forgotten. Is that understood?"

Ballantine nodded. The other pack members followed suit.

Jenkin emerged from the house and shook his head at me. He was empty handed. I closed my eyes. Damn it. Damn it to hell.

"Charlie?" Seth said. "Charlie, don't say that was your only plan."

A lump formed in my throat. Lincoln was still in jail with no hope of release now that Swinburn was gone, and my bargain with the general had come to an end. I wanted to fold in on myself and cry a flood of tears.

Sir Markell Ironside held out his hand to Alice as if he were asking her to dance. "Come, Miss Alice. It's time to go home."

"No!" Seth shouted. "She's not yours! She doesn't belong with you, she belongs here!"

"With you?" Sir Markell shook his head. "This is not her home. You are not her people." He stretched his hand out further. "You know this, Miss Alice. Come home and answer the charges against you with your head high."

"You're leading her to certain death," Seth choked out.

Sir Markell ignored him. He only had eyes for Alice.

Seth's lips drew back and he surged forward.

The general flicked the point of his sword in my direction. Four of his men quickly drew their weapons on me and Seth halted. The color drained from his face, taking all his determination and anger with it. He threw down his weapon.

"Charlie!" Gus cried. "Don't move."

I put my hands in the air. "I'm sorry," I said to Alice.

She bit down on her quivering lower lip and nodded. "I know," she whispered.

She took Sir Markell's hand.

"Ha! Good!" said Swinburn's ghost. He smirked at me. "You lose, Miss Holloway. You lose everything."

Hot tears slid down my cheeks. He was right. I'd sold my friend to her enemy and I had not helped Lincoln's plight. I was a fool to think I could effect change, a naive, pathetic fool.

The general tugged on his gold watch chain. The device! It was the same one the rabbit had used to come and go from our realm even though Alice was awake. All it would take was one click on the watch's button while speaking the words of the spell, then they'd all be gone, Alice with them.

The general began the strange words that I'd heard the rabbit speak.