I stare at the duo intensely, trying to get a read on them.

“So, like Djinn, huh?” I ask Clara.

“It makes a weird sort of sense if that’s what they really are. You have to be very careful when you make a deal with them, Jupiter. They like to find loopholes and exploit them.”

I chuckle.

“So, exactly like a Djinn then. No problem. Okay.” I turn towards the Tweedles and meet the eerie eyes of Tweedledum. “What are you offering?”

“An enchantment,” Dum says.

“A strong one,” Dee adds.

“That will block the Red Queen’s magic,” Dum finishes.

Goosebumps break out across my arms at the pure otherness of them. Neptune would have liked them. She was always a fan of weird things or odd feelings, always lost in books about other worlds. That was before she discovered the otherness in drugs, though.

“You get used to it,” Clara tells me. I highly doubt that. I don’t think I can ever get over their way of speaking.

“Are you offering to prepare the enchantment as well, so that I simply have to put it on the Red Queen?”

Dee smiles. “Clever, Fire Child.”

“No,” Dum says, “we will provide the list of ingredients.”

“And the instructions.”

“You won’t need us to mix it.”

“And this enchantment will bind the Red Queen so that she can’t absorb the Jabberwocky’s power?” I make sure to ask every question, and be very clear.

“Yes,” they reply in unison before Dee speaks alone. “But it won’t stop her from taking power by other means.”

“Blood,” the Hatter supplies. “They’re talking about her taking power from blood.”

“How will I put the enchantment on Alice?” I ask the Tweedles.

“That is up to you,” Dum replies.

“But you must get close.” Dee smiles.

“Always a complication,” I mutter. “And what do you ask for in return?”

The Tweedles lean their heads together, and everyone tenses. They communicate without talking, and I watch in fascination. When they break apart, I hold my breath. I’m not sure what I’ll do if they ask me for my first-born child. I certainly can’t agree to that.

“A lock of hair,” they both say.

I wrinkle my brow, puzzled. “That’s it? Just a chunk of hair?”

“Those that carry fire in their veins,” Dee says.

“Carry powers they don’t understand.” Dum tilts his head towards Dee.

“You won’t harm me? Or anyone else considered a friend?”

“We only want the hair,” Dum hisses.

“Yes, the hair.” I can’t see Dee’s eyes, but she looks positively excited, and it gives me pause. For whatever reason, they’re anxious to get a lock of my hair. That can’t be anything good.

I turn to the Hatter and Clara. Cheshire is still munching away on food.

“Is this a good idea?” I ask.

“No,” Hatter immediately answers. “But if the vision you saw is true, we don’t have much choice.”

“Many of those capable of an enchantment are dead,” Cheshire adds. “Alice had them killed.”

“The Tweedles are the only ones we have contact with.” Hatter stares at the tea cup in front of us. “White will not be happy that we put his mate in danger,” he says to Clara.

“White will just have to get over it,” I interrupt. “I’m fulfilling what is needed of me, and I’m not leaving White in her hands.”

Clara grins at me.

“I knew I was going to like you.”

I return the smile and huff out a breath.

“So, no choice. I have to brew some sort of magical enchantment, get close enough to the Red Queen to put it on her, and save White. No big deal.” Clara and I share a look of understanding, and I realize she went through all of this when she first came to Wonderland, except she had to do it alone. I’m so thankful that she’s here already. I turn to the Tweedles. “In exchange for a lock of my hair, you will give me all necessary information and assistance to place an enchantment on the Red Queen that will block her from absorbing the Jabberwocky’s power. And you will not harm me in any way now or in the future or through external means.”

“Now say ‘I will strike this bargain,’” Clara whispers.

“I will strike this bargain.”

Dee nods her head, and I yelp in surprise when an intense burning spreads along my wrist. When I look down at it, a symbol in the shape of their horns appears on my skin. Clara holds her own wrist up, a matching symbol etched into her skin.

“Now, we’re twins,” she says. She doesn’t sound excited about it. If anything her voice is solemn.

“Pick up your pen,” Dee commands.

“Write this down.” Dum grins.