Page 53 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

What is she… I squinted to see and stopped short.

The necklace around Allie’s neck was glowing green.

It was that strange contraption that detected spaces and worlds that Allie had been testing in her lab.

All I need to do is find an intersect—a doorway... And once I do, I’m sure I’ll find a portal that leads all the way home…

The heart in my chest began to pound.

Allie’s gaze slid to the burnt orange door right next to her with another little peephole and bent down to look through.

I swallowed past the lump in my throat.

Her breath caught in her throat at whatever she was seeing through it.

Could she be right? One of the doors was a way back to Allie’s strange world?

Excited, Allie rapped on the door. “Rabb, I think this door leads back to my home. This is it! This door must be my way home.” Dropping her gaze, she murmured her analysis, “I suppose before, I must have somehow fallen through one of these and ended up here in Wünder.” Her voice nearly squeaked in her eagerness, as though everything was falling into place.

The Hatter had a sly sort of smile on his face.

“Is that the treasure?” I pressed him. There was no telling what sort of tricks the Hatter could be playing. Allie could be walking straight into a trap. “Did she find it? Did she succeed?”

Allie was turning and rattling the doorknob to no avail. “It’s locked.” She blew out a breath and cast her eyes around. Looking upward, she stopped short. “There’s a gold key on top of that giant glass table. Is that the—” She sucked her breath in again, her eyes widening even further. Pointing to the other end of what was above her, she cried out, “There’s a Heartlamp up there!”

My eyebrows snapped together. What? I slid the Hatter another glance. What the hell was he playing at?

“Allie!” I called out, tamping down the urge to run in there. “What do you see?”

“I think I see a Heartlamp! It’s on a ledge against the ceiling. It looks just like the one you used before at that kingdom, Rabb. I’ll try to get it.” Stepping back from the doors, she dragged the chair toward the center of the room so she could get higher.

My stomach turned. Allie had abandoned her task to grab the key to the door—her only way to get home, to fetch the Heartlamp for me instead.

A shuffling noise reached my sensitive ears. I glanced to one side, straining to hear, before I shot the Hatter another look. “What is that ruckus?”

The Hatter’s eyes had glazed over. “Ghosts.”

My eyes widened in alarm.

Surrounding the tree hollow Allie had gone through, shadowy figures emerged from beneath the ground, from beneath the tombstones around the backyard garden cemetery. Delicate white flakes of snow started falling from the sky.

“Time for tea,” the Hatter remarked with glee.

My eyes darted back and forth between the throng of ghosts and Allie still trying in vain to reach the Heartlamp propped upon the ledge. She didn’t seem to hear the dreadful sounds of the ghosts, bones creaking, gnashing of teeth, rattling of invisible chains…

I clenched my jaw. “Dammit Hatter,” I demanded. “What’s the solution? How does she get up to fetch the Heartlamp? Is there perhaps some sort of hidden potion or trick food to make her grow in size—what?” I shook my head in confusion. “Besides that, how do you even have an activated Heartlamp?”

“That’s what the Dormouse asked too before…before…” He trailed off, his face turning pale.

The ghosts were almost up to Allie. They were in the hallway of doors.

I grabbed the Hatter by his shoulders and shook him. “Snap out of it, Hatter. Tell me the solution. How does Allie win the game?”

A cackle tittered out of the old man as he met my gaze. “She doesn’t, my good man.”

An icy chill gripped me immediately. “What the hell do you mean? What does Allie need to do?”

“This was never about the girl, sorcerer assassin.” He gave me a sly smirk.