"One will kill you on the spot, the other enjoys making others suffer." August repeated the Hare's words for the thousandth time since we'd left the tea party (if you could even call it a tea party).

"Would you stop with that already?" I groaned. "I get that you're upset, but we need to keep a level head. Yes, both Queens are evil. We get it. Let's move on."

"How are you so calm?" He was beginning to sound irritated. "You're not at all worried about this?"

I looked at him like he'd gone insane. Maybe he had. The Hatter's insanity could have been contagious. We had no way to prove it wasn't. It just hadn't affected me because I was already insane. "Of course I'm freaked out. I know one of the queens is our ticket out of this place, I just didn't realize there were two of them. Now we have double the trouble to deal with. If we're lucky, the Queen of Hearts will be the right queen, but let's be honest. We aren't ever that lucky. Like that time I was poisoned and almost died. Or that time you got shot and nearly died. Or that other time-"

"I get it." August cut in. "We're prone to accidents." He frowned. "I was shot?"

I laughed nervously. "Didn't I mention that before?"

He shook his head.

"Silly me." Just then the castle came into view beyond the trees. I took the opportunity to exit the conversation. "Oh look-y there. The castle. We'd better hurry so we can get out of this place before anything bad happens."

I took off at a sprint, leaving August behind to stare after me with an open mouth.

"Taryn!" He called. "Wait, come back here! Taryn, what happened to me?"

I raced toward the castle, ignoring the boy behind me. The closer I got to it though, the further it seemed to be. I ran faster, thinking maybe it was just a trick of the light. The only thing that accomplished was losing August in the dense trees.

I was suddenly hyper aware of the fact that I was alone. The castle wasn't any closer than it had been when we'd left the tea party. The woods seemed to be closing in around me. I froze in my tracks and turned to look behind me. I waited a few agonizing minutes, but August never appeared.

I was so stupid for running off like that. Maybe I hadn't been ready to relive that memory, but we should have staid together. This was Wonderland after all. It was designed to mess with a person's mind. I flashed back to all those days spent stuck inside that house with Colton and wishing I could be lost in the woods somewhere where no one could find me. Well, I'd finally gotten my wish and it was a whole lot less appealing than I thought it would be. Granted the woods were beautiful. It was like something straight out of a fairytale (ironically), but it was Wonderland. Worse than that, it was my imagination I was facing. Things never went well in my imagination.

Turning back around, I noticed that the castle had disappeared entirely. It was just . . . gone. A castle couldn't just get up and walk away. You'd think I would have noticed something that bizarre.

"Looking for something?"

I spun around so fast I nearly fell over, but there was no one there. "Okay, that's weird. i could have sworn I heard someone s-"

"You are not deceiving yourself. I am here."

"Where's here? I can't see you." I spun in a circle to prove my point.

"I am right before you. All you must do is open your eyes to see."

With a shock, I realized my eyes were tightly closed. They hadn't been that way before, had they? I didn't even remember closing them. Blinking them open again, I found a pair of big yellow eyes staring at me. That's it. Just the eyes. Floating mid-air.

I yelped and stumbled backward to get away from them. "What the heck are you?"

"You're looking for the Queen of Hearts and her castle, yes?" The eyes blinked once, disappearing for a second in the process.

"How did you know that?"

"You can not reach the castle by any normal means." The eyes said, ignoring my question. "This is Wonderland, where everything is what it is not and nothing is as it should be. Going toward the castle will do you no good."

I crossed my arms and glared at the eyes. "That sums things up quite nicely, thank you."

Eyebrows appeared long enough to wiggle up and down and then disappeared again. "Find the tree with the door in the trunk. Heaven knows you'll never fit through it as you are. Beside the tree you will find a potion. Drink it. Provided you are not afraid of death."

A shiver ran throughout my body. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"If you insist on questioning everything you are told, you will find yourself next to the Hatter at his table. Do try to remain alive. There are a fair few who are relying on you to succeed. Do not disappoint them."

"You know," I huffed, "out of everyone I've met here so far, you're the most annoying."

"I am merely offering my assistance. Whether you take it or not is entirely up to you."

"I don't usually take advice from strangers. Especially strangers I can't see."

Humor danced across the eyes. "I do very much hope that we will meet again, Taryn. Contrary to other's opinions, I find you truly amusing."

"Thanks," I frowned. "I think."

The eyes slowly faded out of view and the rest of the world followed.

"Taryn!"

I opened my eyes, noticing they'd been closed again without my consent. "What's going on?"

"I was just about to ask you that?" August held both my shoulders in a tight grip. His face was ashen, like he was on the verge of seriously freaking out. "Your eyes kept rolling back in your head and you were shaking violently. What happened? You kept muttering something about glowing eyes."

My entire body suddenly ached, like I'd just come from doing a full body workout. It seemed August wasn't joking about the violent shaking. "I think . . . I think I just spoke with the Cheshire cat. But that doesn't make any sense. Before, the wolf said that he was the cat in a new form. How can there be two Cheshire cats? If they really were the same, why was he helping me? The wolf only cared about eating me. It just doesn't make any sense. Unless the weird eyes wasn't the cat. But what else in the tale can turn invisible like that?"

"Taryn,"

"I've never read the book but I've seen the Disney movie. This is literally nothing like that-"

"Taryn,"

"-which means we're inside the original tale's version of the story, twisted with my own imagination. Which basically means we're totally screwed."

"Taryn!"

"What?" I spun on August angrily. "What do you want, August?"

He took a shaky breath. I knew him well enough to know he was terrified and my rambling wasn't helping him to calm down at all. "I understood none of what you just said."

"Join the club. Most people don't understand me."

August ignored that comment. "That being said, I'm choosing to trust you."

Now it was my turn to be confused. What was he on about? The confusion must have shown on my face because he hurried on in an attempt to explain himself.

"I don't know what's going on. Honestly, I'm still trying to process everything you told me before. I'm following you blindly here and I'm choosing to trust you."

"That's probably a horrible decision if we're both being honest." I admitted.

"Whether it's a good decision or not, I've made it and I plan to stick with it. You seem to like testing the limits of my trust though. Is this whole ranting to yourself thing something that happens a lot?"

"If you're going to freak out over me talking to myself, you are in way too deep. I can guarantee that will not be the weirdest thing you see me do. It took you a while to get used to my weird antics before, and you'll have to do it again. If you really are choosing to trust me, and you totally should by the way," I added quickly, "then you need to be able to handle my craziness. I'm not going to change who I am just so that you're more comfortable with it. If you don't like who I am, you can leave. Walk away now because I won't conform to anyone's perception of what they think I should be. It's a quirk I have."

"An admirable quirk."

The corner of my mouth twitched up in a smile. "That's the first time anyone's ever told me that."

"Then I was an idiot in the past life."

I grimaced. "Gosh darn it, August. When you say it like that it makes it sound like you've come back from the dead and it completely ruins any good feelings I had in that moment. The last thing we need right now is an army of the living dead attacking us."

"Just be thankful the Walking Dead isn't owned by Disney."

"That would be a nightmare."

"There's always The Nightmare Before Christmas."

"Don't even go there." I pushed past him. "These tales are freaky enough without adding the elements of the supernatural into the mix."

August jogged to catch up with me and then fell into step beside me. "Are you scared?" He teased.

"Shut up. If you had your memory you'd remember that I hate stuff like that. You made me watch Chainsaw Massacre with you once and I didn't sleep for a week. Even just thinking about that movie sends chills down my spine. I can't believe you actually enjoy freaking yourself out like that. You sir, are a strange human being."

"Nah, a lot of people enjoy watching horror movies. It's how they became so popular. You can handle Jaws. That's a horror movie."

"It's pathetic! The shark doesn't even look real." I froze. "Wait a minute, how did you know that?"

"Know what? That Jaws is a horror movie?" He asked, confused. "I know because it was specifically made to scare people. That's what horror movies do."

"No," I stared at him, not daring to believe it might be true, "the other part. How did you know that we watched Jaws together?"

"Taryn, quit playing around. I know we did because I was there." He talked slowly as if speaking with a small child. "There are things called memories. They allow us to relive times that have already happe-" He froze and looked at me with wide eyes. "How did I know that?"

"That's what I just asked you." My mind was working a million miles a minute. "Maybe your memories are starting to come back. What was our first date we had after we escaped the curse?"

He didn't miss a beat. "It was right after you got out of the hospital. I took you out for ice cream to that little shop down the street. You ordered a waffle cone with vanilla and triple fudge brownie. You even had them put a maraschino cherry on top even though you hate the things. You just liked the way it looked and then you made me eat it, which is fine because I actually really enjoy them."

I stared at him with my mouth hanging open.

"Was I close?"

"That was perfect. Down to the last detail."

"What's going on?"

"I wish I knew."

Cautiously, I stepped toward him. I wasn't sure if he would allow it. I wasn't going to make him, but it had worked before right? True, at the time we'd both been in love. Did true love's kiss work if only one side of the kiss was genuine? I was about to find out.

August looked a little unsure, but he didn't stop me. I hesitated once I was close enough to feel the fan of his breath on my face.

"You can just tell me no and I won't." I whispered, unable to raise my voice any louder.

He closed the gap between us, answering my unasked question. His lips moved hesitantly against mine only for a moment before he deepened the kiss, pulling me closer into him. I completely lost myself as I wrapped my arms around his neck. I didn't realize how much I had missed his touch and the feel of lips against mine. It was as if I'd finally found my way back home.

We only separated because of our need for oxygen. Sometimes the need to breathe was seriously inconvenient. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against mine. He was smiling so I took that as a good sign.

"Wow," he breathed.

I laughed. "That's all you can say?"

"Yes," he said honestly, "you took my breath away. I can't find any words that would even begin to describe that."

"Just out of curiosity, how are you feeling? Any new memories swirling around in that thick head of yours?"

He shook his head and stood up straight again. "Nothing. Don't tell me that's the only reason you kissed me."

I shrugged. "It was worth a shot." I grinned and rolled my eyes at his defeated expression. "I also just missed kissing you. I've been wanting to do that for a long time."

"I can see why."

"And just to clear the air here, you kissed me."

"No way. That was all you, Taryn." August denied quickly.

"Not even! You were the one to close the gap. Admit it, you wanted to kiss me as badly as I wanted to kiss you." I grinned smugly.

He didn't deny it and I knew I had won. I was a little disappointed nothing had changed. I'd been hoping more of his memories would return. If I was really lucky, he'd be cured entirely. As always though, I wasn't lucky at all. We weren't any closer to retrieving August's memories. The kiss had been nice though. Maybe we could create a few new memories while we waited for his old ones to return.

"Come on, Romeo. Whoever those glowing eyes belonged to, they told me how to get to the castle." I started heading back, deeper into the woods.

"Uh, Taryn?" August called after me. "The castle is that way."

"I know." I called back over my shoulder.

"So where are you going?"

"The castle."

"But you're going the wrong way?"

"What happened to trusting me?"

He groaned and hurried after me. "How did I ever date you? You're so annoying."

"Believe me, you reminded me of that every chance you got."

We walked together in silence for a while. It wasn't awkward. It was a comfortable silence. After a while, he even slipped my hand into his, entwining our fingers. I smiled to myself, happy to have a part of my August back with me.

"I'm guessing that's the door in the tree." August said after a while. I'd told him everything the eyes had told me. He seemed skeptical but was willing to trust me, which I found impressive.

"Considering we haven't found any other doors in trees, I'm going to say yes. That's the door we're looking for."

The door was tiny. It would have been hard pressed for a mouse to get through. There was no way we were going through there. Looking around, I spotted the small table with the potions on the top.

"No way are we drinking that stuff." August said, shaking his head firmly.

I rolled my eyes. "Where's your sense of adventure? Look, they were even kind enough to provide us with two vials."

"The whatever-it-was literally said to only drink it if you weren't afraid of death."

"So?"

"Shouldn't that raise at least a little concern?" He questioned.

I shrugged carelessly and downed the entire vial. "Doesn't taste like poison." I lifted the second vial and handed it to him. "Bottoms up."

He didn't look happy about it but he took a tentative sip.

I sighed and helped him out by grabbing his wrist and forcing him to tip it all out into his mouth. He came up sputtering and coughing. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"You're not going to die. The vial is literally the size of a small shot."

He raised an eyebrow. "Got a lot of experience with that?"

I sighed and shoved him. "You're hopeless."

He mocked me as he said, "It's part of my charm."

I was about to fire back at him when I was hit with pain like I'd never felt before. I really wish I could stop saying that. I keep breaking my own record for levels of pain that I've lived through. Not the kind of record one normally brags about breaking. Seconds later, the same pain wracked August's body.

We fell to our knees as our bodies began to shrink. Bones broke and reformed over and over again until they were tiny. My skin folded in on itself as it formed to my newly shrunken self. I coughed up blood as the excess was forced from my body. It wasn't exactly the way I'd pictured this scene going down.

It took nearly five minutes for the entire process. I shakily got to my feet as soon as the pain had faded. It was beyond strange being smaller than a mouse, but I couldn't really focus on that as I was still focusing on my own breathing.

"Let's not waste any time," August panted, "I don't want to be this size for long."

I motioned toward the door in the tree. "After you."

He reached out and I gratefully took his offered hand. "Together?"

"Together."