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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟖
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐁𝐉𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐒

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The sun had finally risen, which made the three travelers quickly gather their small amount of supplies and set out to continue their journey. They didn't waste time leaving their campsite and rushed back to the yellow trails of Wonderland to head to their next destination. After a long mental debate with the Mad Hatter, Indigo decided to keep the information she gained from Kaden's letter to herself. She didn't want to make it known that she had a magical ability just yet. Especially when she didn't even know much about it herself. But what she did agree to do was tell Will about his brother. The Lark girl did want to wait for the right moment, but she also knew that the sooner she told him the better.

It turned out that Indigo wasn't the only one to find a letter from their lost love. While the Ace of Spades was talking with Jefferson and reading over Kaden's note, a paper bird appeared out of nowhere and landed in Alice's hands. The blonde woman was quick to discover it was a letter from Cyrus. Unlike Indigo, the curious adventurer was able to write back to the genie to tell him that they were coming for him.

As the three of them walked along the empty Wonderlandian road, they would constantly tear down wanted posters of both Indigo and Will...mainly Will. After Alice saw down the tenth one along the path they were on, her face showed that she finally had enough of it.

"That is a handsome chap," the Knave of Hearts said once he noticed the irritated look on the Kingleigh woman's face.

"That is a wanted chap," Alice muttered under her breath as she ripped the poster off the tree before reading over the small print at the top, "'for theft, fraud, posturing, impostering, gambling, disturbing the peace, and...public nudity.'"

"In my defense, I was tied to a tree and stripped of my clothes, so that one wasn't really my fault," the Scarlet man retaliated as Indigo watched his eyes travel down to the paper in his hands. Once she realized what he was looking at, her blood ran icy cold. "And what about Indie? 'Theft, harboring a fugitive, and treason.'"

"Well, two of those things were when I helped you escape this place, Willie," Indigo retaliated with a fake smile on her face before ripping the sign out of his hands and shoving it into her bag.

"These signs are everywhere," Alice interrupted their argument before it even started after taking down another set of wanted posters, "the Caterpillar must want you badly."

"'Wanted. With or without head,'" the Ace of Spades recited what was on the paper with a small smirk on her face, receiving a shove from the Scarlet man before he turned his attention back to the blonde woman.

"Alright. We should split up," he stated, earning a confused look from Alice before he continued speaking, "you don't need a pair of thieves, much less wanted thieves, getting in the way of you finding your genie."

"No. Somebody stole Cyrus' bottle. Who better to catch a thief than two people who think like one?" the Kingsleigh woman said with a smirk as she turned to continue walking down the path with the Knave of Hearts and the Ace of Spades on her trail, "Cyrus and I were the only two people that knew where the bottle was buried. So I figure whoever dug it out of the ground, either has Cyrus or knows who does."

"See? You don't need us. You got this all sorted on your own."

"It'd be one thing if they left behind a clue, something to go on. But right now all we've got is an empty hole in the ground," Alice continued as if Will never said a word while Indigo's thoughts were racing at a mile per minute, "if we'd got there a bit sooner, we would have caught them in the act."

As soon as those words left the Kingsleigh woman's mouth, Indigo's thoughts finally came together and focused on one single idea. The youngest of the three stopped in her tracks without thinking while a small laugh passed over her lips. It didn't take long before her companions realized she wasn't next to them. When Alice and Will finally turned around to look at her in confusion, they were greeted by a small smile on the Lark girl's face.

"That's it!" the curly-haired girl shouted as she sped walked to catch up with them before they continued walking down the stone path.

"What's it?" the Knave of Hearts questioned while Alice continued to stare at the girl as if she lost her mind.

"All we have to do is find out who got there right before we did."

"I'd like nothing more, Indigo, but unless you've got a way to go back in time-"

"We don't have to go back to the past, Alice. We simply have to see it," the Ace Spades interrupted the woman before looking up at the Scarlet man to find realization on his face. After sharing a small smile with Will, Indigo turned her attention back to Alice. "Have you ever heard of the Forget Me Knot?"

"The what?" the Kingsleigh woman asked after coming to a sudden stop, making her companions instantly follow her actions.

"It's an incredibly valuable enchanted piece of rope, that when tied together at one end like a lasso, makes a sort of round picture frame," Indigo continued to explain while Will grabbed a low-hanging branch from a tree to show Alice what the girl was talking about.

"Wow, that is magic."

The Ace of Spade bit back her snide comment at the Kingsleigh woman's sarcastic remark. After letting out a small sigh, Indigo turned her attention toward the bent stick in Will's hand and resumed her explanation. "The magic part comes when you look through it. When you do, you can see the last thing that happened at any particular place."

As soon as those words left the Lark girl's mouth, the skepticism in Alice's eyes faded and was instantly replaced with realization. "So if we held it above where Cyrus' bottle was buried..."

"We should see who dug it up," Will finished the woman's sentence while Indigo stood between them with a smug smirk on her face.

"Spade, that's brilliant! Where do we find this terribly useful item?"

The girl's smirk slowly faded when she remembered where the Knot was held. Her eyes soon moved over to Will, only to find him staring back at her with as much anticipation in his eyes as Alice. The three of them stood there in silence for another moment before Indigo finally let out a long breath.

"Yeah. That's gonna be the hard part," the Ace of Spades told them while pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

"I don't care," Alice stated after her hopeful smile vanished from her face as Will let out an irritated sigh before the three of them continued walking down the path, "I can handle whatever it is. I'm too close to finding him."

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While the three heroes traveled through Wonderland in search of those they lost, Kaden stood in Jafar's dungeon next to one of the vizier's guards. His lips stayed sealed as he watched the Red Queen sit at a table with the raven-haired man while they taunted the trapped genie. His grip around his hilt tightened as he stared at the two powerful people in front of them, wanting nothing more than to strike them down before they found Indigo.

The Scarlet boy's attention was quickly drawn back to the situation at hand when a loud rumbling cut through the silence. His eyes went back to the genie's floating cage to find it slowly getting closer to them until it stopped a foot away from the solid ground. Just like the Red Knight, the genie stared at the sinister duo with a hint of confusion in his eyes. But unlike Kaden, Cyrus quickly shook off his emotions and got to his feet with a smirk on his face. The brunette man watched Jafar's guards serve them food before his eyes flashed up to meet theirs once again. "What is this?"

"Dinner," the Red Queen stated matter-of-factly while keeping her eyes glued to the caged man.

"We thought you might like to join us," Jafar added then casually took a sip of his drink.

"I'd rather starve."

"Are you sure? But you haven't seen the centerpiece yet," the vizier paused to pull out a small origami swan from his pocket before holding it up for Cyrus to see, "I made it out of a cheap bit of magic I found flitting around the hall."

All the confidence that emitted from the genie faded in the blink of an eye. Chills ran throughout Kaden's entire body as he thought back to the note he tucked away in the chess piece for Indigo. Because his thoughts were running wild, the Red Knight failed to notice the look Anastasia was sending his way. The silence continued to surround them for another moment before Cyrus' gaze moved to meet Kaden's. The two of them watched each other for a long moment until the genie's eyes landed back on the pair in front of him when Jafar resumed speaking.

"Your message to Alice. It seems she wrote back," the curly-haired man stated as he got to his feet and went to stand in front of the floating cage, "'I'm coming for you.' That's right, genie. She didn't heed your warning."

After ripping up the piece of paper in his hands, Jafar sent one last smirk to Cyrus' way then he turned around to face Anastasia once again.

"He doesn't seem in a festive mood. Perhaps the centerpiece was a bit much," the vizier stated, receiving a small nod from the Red Queen before he turned back toward the caged man and continued speaking, "you should know better than anyone, magic always comes with a price."

"So does stealing it," Cyrus retaliated without attempting to hide the venom in his voice.

"I'm not going to steal your magic, genie. I'm simply three wishes away from owning it."

"She'll never make them."

"Just like she'll never come back for you," Anastasia declared with a sinister smirk on her face before turning around to stare at her silent knight, "neither of them will."

"Oh, Alice is stronger than you think," the brunette man stated then his eyes flashed over to the expressionless Scarlet boy, "and I'm sure this other girl who you claim can stop you with the snap of her fingers is too."

"Well, we're about to find out."

"Jafar, you should really bathe your prisoners from time to time. This one's beginning to smell. Must we sit so close?" the blonde woman scoffed while her ally walked around her to sit back down in his chair.

"Just for a while. I want to see the look on his pathetic face today when his love makes her first wish," the vizier responded with a giant grin on his face that made Kaden's grip on his sword's hilt become so tight his knuckles turned white. Anastasia let out a small chuckle and took a sip of her drink before Jafar's eyes landed on her once again. "The book."

Those two words caused Kaden's blood to run cold. Normally he had some sort of idea about what was going on either from being told or from overhearing their plans. But he had no idea what the book was or why it was so important to this pair of powerful people. His conflicted feelings soon became worse when he saw the smile on the Red Queen's face slowly fade. Her eyes instantly moved to Jafar's guard before she gave him a silent nod. After seeing her gesture, the man grabbed the large book that was sitting on the stone wall and placed it on the table between the queen and the vizier.

"What are you going to do to them?" Cyrus questioned as he stared at the pair with the same amount of hatred in his eyes that Kaden was feeling.

"No, Cyrus, no," Jafar chastised the caged man while the woman next to him flipped through the pages of the large book, "the proper question is, what are you going to do to them?"

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