One

CONNED

A lice couldn’t just sit there. She couldn’t escape. All she
could do was endure. And it was her own fault, really, wearing
a fur-lined cloak while it was ninety-five outside. It was fake fur, but
that didn’t save her from slowly baking in her extremely intricate,
incredibly detailed Trevor Belmont cosplay. Why was it so hot this
close to Halloween, anyway?
“Jesus take me before global warming,” Nana K had said that
morning, her voice carrying over Mom’s phone. The two of them
spent most of breakfast commiserating over the unusually high tem-
perature. “Hot as the devil’s ass crack out there. You be careful at
your computer coms, Alice baby.”
“Comic con, Nana K,” Alice had snickered around a spoonful
of grits.
“Right. What I say?”
-1— Both Mom and Nana K then repeatedly reminded Alice to
0— stay hydrated. Mom had even offered her fancy water bottle, the

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expensive-ish one that claimed to keep your drink cold for twelve
hours. Lies. Three lukewarm refills later, Alice debated dumping it
over her head instead of drinking it. The only reason she didn’t was
it meant walking around in soggy clothes. No thanks.
“Uuuuuuuuuuuugh.” She scratched at the edge of her wig
while her eyes trailed the ridiculously long line of equally miser-
able people. A river of bodies stretched down the street and curled
around the convention center. Most of them wore costumes that
would’ve been perfect on a regular October Saturday. Instead, here
they all stood in torment.
Courtney lifted her phone higher, the small fan plugged into
the port working overtime to blow hot air against the back of her
neck. She’d long since stripped off her red, close-cropped wig and
shoved it into the handbag tucked under her arm. She mirrored
Alice’s miserable moan. “When I’m a puddle on the sidewalk,
remember me fondly.”
“How are you hot?” Alice asked. “ You’re wearing a cotton
tent.”
Without lowering the fan, Courtney glanced down at her Sypha
costume. “Layered cotton tent.” She swiped a hand across her fore-
head, checking it for foundation afterward. Somehow, her makeup
managed to stay in place even though she was sweating buckets.
“You could take off the cloak, you know. I understand suffering for
the aesthetic, but not like this.”
Alice shook her head. “It’s worse trying to carry it around.” Plus,
she didn’t wanna start peeling off pieces so early in the day. That
just made it easier to remove more and more and, before you knew
it, you were walking around in half a costume no one could even
recognize. “I’ll be fine once we’re inside.” —-1
“If we ever get that far.” Courtney tilted to the side to survey the —0

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 line herself, then huffed in displeasure. “I have seen legless spiders
move faster than this.”
“That’s an interesting visual.” Hatta shifted where he stood just
to the side of the two girls, his hands in his pockets. It was unfair how
unbothered he appeared in his Alucard “costume.” No sweat, no
flush, no nothing, despite wearing what was pretty much a whole-ass
trench coat. Just standing there like he’d stepped right out the show.
Alice would be lying if she said she didn’t feel some kind of
way about him using an illusion Verse to achieve the look. Lucky
for him he was foine. And she wasn’t the only one who thought so.
Every now and then people took candids as they walked past. Lots
of people. Lots of candids.
Truthfully, she was happy he’d decided to come. Thrilled, even.
Made being out in this heat all the more worth it. Chess was sup-
posed to complete their trio, but he . . . he wasn’t into going out
much lately.
Pushing the thought aside, Alice propped her short sword
against her shoulder and shifted her weight so the handle of the
Morning Star whip didn’t dig into her hip. Damn thing was heavy,
especially after lugging it around half the day. Prolly because it was
made from real metal, an exact replica, even. A gift from Hatta.
Technically from Tan, since he forged it, but Hatta had made the
special request.
“Have to complete the ensemble,” he’d said with a grin after
surprising her with it that morning. She didn’t know if she was hap-
pier for the gift itself or that he’d remembered her costume, but
she’d spent the better part of twenty minutes screaming and hug-
ging him.
-1— The line shifted forward about five feet before coming to a stop
0— again. Courtney groaned.

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 “We should’ve come when the hall first opened,” Alice com-
plained, wiping away more sweat.
Court’s face scrunched. “I wasn’t the only one who wanted to
see the Lolita fashion show.”
Hatta blinked when both girls glanced his direction. “The
dresses are cute,” he offered in his defense. “I thought I might see
something to take back to Maddi.”
Court tapped a finger against her naked lips. “Some of them
were fairly gorgeous. Others decidedly not. Does she have a favorite
color? Because something toward the end caught my eye.”
“I think I know the one you’re talking about.” Hatta wagged a
finger in agreement. Alice smirked while the two of them started
going on about one dress in particular that Maddi might like. It
had teacups embroidered in silver and gold thread against dark blue
skirts.
As Court composed a sonnet about the boning in the corset,
something over her shoulder caught Alice’s attention.
A white girl stood dressed in all black like it wasn’t Sozin’s
Comet hot out here. Blond hair framed her pale face. Thin arms
hung at her sides. Her body remained still, a detail that stuck out
all the more as people shuffled around her in their shared malaise.
That wasn’t the weird part, though.
The girl was staring at the three of them. She was too far away
to be one hundred percent sure—maybe she was just looking in
their general direction, or searching the line for someone—but
something at the base of Alice’s skull buzzed in subtle warning. And
maybe she was imagining things, or it was the sun and heat play-
ing tricks on her, but she got the distinct feeling blond girl wasn’t
blinking. —-1
That’s not creepy af. —0

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 “Something wrong?” Hatta’s voice snatched at Alice’s attention,
and she glanced up to find him gazing down the street as well.
When she looked back that direction, the girl was gone.
Alice rolled her shoulders, trying to shake the jitters dancing
along her skin. “No, just . . . someone was staring at us, but she’s
gone now.”
“People been staring at us all day,” Courtney offered, tugging at
Alice’s arm as the line crawled forward. “Specially your beau there.”
Hatta arched an eyebrow, though one corner of his mouth
ticked upward slightly. If Alice didn’t know any better, she’d think
he liked all of the attention.
Almost on cue, a group of con-goers stopped on their way by.
A Black girl dressed like Cardcaptor Sakura practically bounced as
she asked if she could get a picture of them, though her gaze lin-
gered on Hatta.
Courtney fished out her wig, and Hatta dropped Alice’s back-
pack carefully to the ground just to the side. The three of them
struck a pose with weapons lifted, ready to attack or cast spells. At
least a dozen more phones and cameras came out as people took
advantage of the moment, snapping pictures and calling out how
amazing they looked.
“We know!” Court hollered back, waving both hands in the air.
Laughter erupted around them.
“Perfect Sypha,” someone shouted as another wave of people
approached.
Twenty minutes, at least a hundred pictures, and one zombie-
like shuffle through a few metal detectors later, the three of them
stepped into the wide, open space of the exhibitors’ hall.
-1— The roar of chatter hung in the air, punctuated periodically by
0— someone shouting after a passing character or calling out what they

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were selling. People moved alone or in small packs, perusing the
booths full of merchandise. Other con-goers tucked themselves into
corners or settled on the floors near coveted outlets. Within the first
handful of seconds, Alice spotted at least six flavors of Deadpool. A
wide smile pulled at her face, the discomfort of standing in the heat
now forgotten. She’d missed this.
And with a sudden pull at the center of her chest, she missed
her father. The want to have him here struck as sharply as any blade,
threatening to leave her open and exposed in front of thousands of
people.
Keep it together. She breathed through the pain, slowly, pur-
posefully. He’d want her here. Want her to go back to doing what
she loved. What they’d loved.
“Hey.” Hatta’s voice murmured near her ear, his tone quiet con-
cern. His gloved fingers weaved between hers and squeezed. “You
all right?”
She nodded, sniffing lightly and taking another deep breath.
The burn behind her eyes eased. “Yeah, just . . . remembering stuff,”
she said before he or Courtney could ask for details. “Let’s go.”
With Alice in the lead, the trio worked their way from booth
to booth along rows and columns spread across the massive space.
From art to knickknacks to books, memorabilia, posters, pillows,
comics, and more, it was a veritable nerdy smorgasbord. One they
feasted on eagerly in their own way.
Courtney spent a small fortune on corsets, jewelry, geeky hand-
bags, and a pair of metallic and glittery fairy wings that she opted to
wear. Hatta spent more than a brief moment or two perusing booths
that housed all sorts of weapons, including replicas from a bunch
of dif ferent movies, shows, video games, and more. He didn’t buy —-1
anything, but he appeared to enjoy looking. —0

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 “What’s the point of a sword without a cross guard?” he asked
while eyeing a Mugen replica he’d plucked from one of the tables.
“It looks cool.” Alice examined a pair of intricate daggers
marked vaguely as “Elven.” Why did people think throwing ran-
dom vine patterns on stuff automatically made it fantastical? “And
Kanda’s a badass, he doesn’t need one.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Hatta set the weapon down and lifted
a battle-ax, testing the weight.
One of the burly, kilt-wearing white dudes sitting at the booth
noticed and approached. “You look like you know your way around
that thing.”
“It and a few others,” Hatta said offhandedly. He didn’t look all
that interested in conversation.
The dude didn’t seem to notice and went into his clearly
rehearsed spiel about how the ax was handcrafted, one of a kind,
blah blah blah. Alice, meanwhile, made her way to the next booth,
which was, to her immediate delight, covered in Sailor Moon swag.
Hatta joined her as she finished picking out a Sailor Jupiter
phone case, and she gestured for him to lower her pack so she could
tuck it in among her belongings.
“It’s not too heavy, is it?” Alice asked as she finally managed
to wedge her wallet between a change of clothes and a couple
Funkos.
The look that crossed Hatta’s face made her feel a little silly for
asking. “I used to run around in armor, remember?”
“Enchanted armor,” Alice corrected. “Xelon told me it’s not that
heavy.”
“Enchanted or not, armor is armor,” Hatta muttered as he fol-
-1— lowed Alice along the aisle.
0— She led the way to the end of the row, then broke off to head for

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the food court, which was less actual court and more random tables
packed together near a handful of snack stands.
After buying a ridiculously expensive tiara to go with her wings,
Courtney had mentioned getting something to eat while everyone
else finished browsing. Alice searched the sea of people for a sign of
her best friend. It shouldn’t be this hard to find a Tinkerbell-Sypha
hybrid standing nearly six feet tall.
“There she is.” Hatta pointed, and Alice followed his finger to
where Courtney stood behind a table, waving both arms like she
was directing traffic.
Hatta’s hand found Alice’s again, squeezing as he took the lead.
Nearby, a few bystanders tittered and giggled, gesturing at the two
of them. Heat filled her cheeks, and the faintest smile pulled at her
lips. This was nice, doing couple stuff with him.
A veritable snack-food feast stretched across Courtney’s table.
Besides the slice of pizza she was currently nibbling on, there was
a plate of nachos, two soft pretzels—one chili, one cheese—and a
funnel cake the size of Alice’s head covered in slightly gooey pow-
dered sugar.
“Damn, big hungry.” Alice snagged a cheesy chip as she settled
into a chair.
“It’s not all for me,” Court protested. “Figured you two might be
hungry, and turns out the lines in here are as bad as anywhere else,
so I grabbed it while I could. Sorry if it’s cold.”
“No apologies necessary,” Hatta said as he went for one of the
pretzels without removing his gloves. Must be nice not having to
worry about stains. “Thank you.”
Alice finally shrugged out of the cloak and draped it over the
back of her chair, then helped herself to more nachos. —-1
“So,” Court said as she dabbed a bit of grease from her pizza. —0

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 Two soaked napkins already sat to the side. “How’re you enjoying
your first con?” Her eyes rolled over Hatta, then pointedly to a nearby
table where what looked like a group of steampunk Princesses of
Power were sneaking glances and photos.
Hatta rolled his shoulders. “It’s . . . interesting, to be sure, but
not unpleasant.” He licked a bit of cheese from his lower lip. “And
it’s nice to be able to travel such a distance from the pub for this long
without feeling like my heart is going to burst from my chest.” He
meant it in jest, but the sting of guilt in Alice’s middle didn’t take it
that way.
Odabeth’s pardon had saved Hatta’s life after he risked it by
going deep into Wonderland to rescue Alice. He’d been willing to
die for her, painful and slow. Nearly had. Of course, he claimed
he’d do it again, which didn’t help with the sour feeling in her stom-
ach when she thought about it. So, she’d been doing everything she
could to not.
“I’m glad you decided to come,” she said, changing the subject
and reaching to snag a bit of his pretzel.
He caught her fingers before she could, then squeezed her hand
and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “I’m glad you asked me.”
It had been last minute, after Chess told them he wasn’t up to
dealing with crowds. Alice couldn’t help feeling disappointed when
he canceled on them, again, but she understood. At least, she told
herself she did. She was trying to.
“You don’t just bounce back from something like that,” Hatta
had attempted to explain. They were all at the pub one night. Just
talking through what was going on, everyone updating one another
on Nightmare activity or the surprising lack thereof. Nothing stress-
-1— ful, or so she thought.
0— Half an hour into it, Chess had gone out to get some fresh air.

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Five minutes later, she and Court got a text saying he was going to
take the train home, he’d see them later. Sensing both girls’ disap-
pointment, Hatta asked if he could offer a bit of insight into a sub-
ject he was fairly familiar with.
“Having someone else in your mind?” he’d said. “Not knowing
where your thoughts, your will, ends and theirs begins? It takes a
toll. Trust me. He’s going to need time. And for you, his friends, to
be patient with him.”
Alice was glad to give Chess all the time he needed, she just
wished there was something more she could do to help. She’d never
been the wait-and-see-what-happens type.
“What else is on the agenda?” Hatta asked as he decimated a
hunk of pretzel smothered in chili and still didn’t get anything on
those gloves.
Court ticked events off on her fingers. “There’s the costume
contest, the Wonder Woman panel, the burlesque show, but that’s
not until tonight.”
Hatta’s eyebrows nearly vanished into his now blond hairline.
He tilted his head and pale gold curls fell to his shoulders, looking
far more real than any wig ever could. “Burlesque show?”
Alice snickered and patted the hand that held hers. “Don’t look
so worried. It’s not that risqué. Are you good on time? Don’t have to
get back to the pub?”
He shook his head while stealing one of her chips. “We’re still
closed to the public. Maddi and Humphrey can handle things.”
The shard of anger that stabbed through Alice took her by sur-
prise. She felt it tighten her expression, and tried to fix her face before
Hatta noticed. The way his smile waned just so meant she hadn’t
quite succeeded. —-1
“Sorry.” She wasn’t, but she said it anyway. Not for what she —0

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 felt and who she felt it for, more for . . . She wasn’t exactly sure. She
pulled free a bit of funnel cake and shoved it into her mouth in lieu
of saying more.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Hatta murmured, settling
further into his chair. “I shouldn’t have brought him up.”
No, you shouldn’t have, Alice wanted to say, but she bit down on
the words harder than she did her food.
Courtney’s wide green eyes bounced back and forth between
the two of them while she sipped loudly at the ice in her obviously
empty cup. “Mm!” she said, brightening and lowering her drink.
“Looks like you’ve got more fans wanting pictures.”
Alice glanced over her shoulder, glad for the distraction, though
that slight spark of joy quickly flickered out.
The fans Courtney had been talking about stood a few feet
behind her; a white boy and, to Alice’s surprise, the same white girl
that had stared at them outside.
She still stared, her bright face blank, her eyes so dark the color
hid her pupils. Eyes that were fixed on Alice, causing the buzz of
warning from before to return. The boy stared as well, wearing the
same clothes and expression.
Hatta rose from his chair and shifted to put himself between the
two “fans” and the table. “Can we help you?” His tone was friendly,
but his posture wasn’t, if you knew what to look for. He rested one
hand on the hilt of his Alucard sword, the other hanging at his side,
loose and ready to react.
Neither “fan” said anything. They didn’t even glance in Hatta’s
direction. No, they kept their focus on Alice, unblinking, unwaver-
ing. The buzz in her head grew into something more urgent and
-1— forceful. Leave, it screamed. Now.
0—

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 Alice pushed up from the table, gesturing for Courtney to do
the same. “Sorry, but we’re done taking pictures for the day.”
Court’s chair scraped against the floor as she rose, gathering
trash from the sound of it. Alice didn’t dare take her eyes off the two
until Hatta wrapped his arm around her and guided her away.
“The hell was that about?” Courtney hissed as she fell into step
beside them.
Alice shrugged. “I don’t know, bu—”
“Strewth!”
Strong hands gripped her shoulders and shoved her forward so
hard and fast her feet left the ground. Her stomach dropped as her
center of gravity was thrown off, and she collided with an equally
shocked Courtney.
Alice’s body reacted before her mind could make sense of what
was happening. She latched onto her friend and twisted, angling
her body to take the brunt of the fall. The two of them tumbled to
the concrete floor in a tangle of limbs and wire wings. Her elbow
slammed into the floor, the impact shooting pain through her left
arm. She gritted her teeth and rolled, coming out of it into a defen-
sive crouch. Courtney groaned behind her, but Alice focused on
trying to follow what was happening.
The boy brandished some sort of long, black weapon that swal-
lowed the light. Hatta, wielding Alice’s backpack as a makeshift
shield, deflected a swipe that should’ve disemboweled him. Then
he lashed out with a kick that sent the boy sprawling. The girl
leaped over her fallen partner to get at Hatta. He twisted around her
swing and drove his elbow into the side of her head with a crack,
and she stumbled backward.
“Dude! Not cool!” someone hollered. —-1
—0

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 Hatta ignored them, tossing Alice’s pack aside and yanking the
Alucard sword from its sheath in a single motion. The girl, already
recovered, lifted a weapon identical to the boy’s. That was when
Alice realized it wasn’t a weapon at all but the girl’s hand, long and
blackened, with nails thin and sharp.
Behind her, the boy lifted his similarly transformed arms. The
two of them, their lips pulling back to reveal sharpened teeth,
loosed low, rattling snarls. Alice’s shock sharpened. Only one thing
in the world made that sound.
Nightmares.

-1—
0—

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