Everything was so warm.

The air around her felt hazy and the surroundings indistinct, but Alice knew she was in the gardens. She sat under the same large tree with the roots big enough to cradle her, but instead she was cradled in Florian's arms.

Her back to his chest and his arms gently draped around her waist, Alice felt more relaxed than she ever had in her life. Was this what it was like to have someone near you with no expectations? Was this what it was like to feel the freedom of just being in the presence of another person?

Florian was exquisite. She'd had precious few moments near him and too many nights next to Xavier's icy form, and Florian's warmth was like an addiction that she didn't want to recover from. She turned her head to press her cheek against his collarbone, settling even closer against him.

Sunshine. It was like feeling sunshine on her skin.

Until the cold hit her bones.

"You could stay here forever, you know."

"I... I don't—" she stuttered, trying to pull away, but his grip on her arm was like a vice.

"You'd be happy. I promise."

That was enough to make her fully jerk away from him, scrambling to her feet as she whirled around. His hands were on her again in seconds, pulling her back, back towards the cold, back into his chest.

"Stay," he urged, but something in his voice had changed.

"I— I'd miss my friends—" she tried, still uselessly pulling against the grip. The look in Florian's eyes was uncanny, inhuman, and... utterly unlike Florian.

Xavier. It was Xavier.

"No need to worry. I can bring them here," he said, gripping her hand so tightly that it hurt. "Come and see."

Xavier pulled her along down the garden path, dragging more than guiding Alice through a maze of foliage and flowers, her feet skidding on the too-white cobblestones. They walked for far longer than she felt like they should have, as though they could have circled the palace twice, and when the leaves cleared, Alice found herself in a part of the garden that she had never seen.

She knew every corner of the garden. It was one of the few places she was allowed to explore on her own, and she loved being outside. However... this was entirely unfamiliar.

The white cobblestones that made up the garden path spread out into a circular stone courtyard, surrounded by tall fir trees laden with out of season pinecones. Strange, glowing flowers bloomed both in the grass around the courtyard and between cracks in the sparkling stones, and placed all around the courtyard were... statues.

Sparkling in the sun and beautiful, they appeared to be made from crystal, carved so smoothly that it looked like there hadn't been a chisel at all, and polished to an impossible shine. They were humanoid in shape, and there were seven of them in total.

Alice hesitantly stepped closer, squinting in the bright light to get a better look as her heart pounded in her chest, dread rising as she finally got a clear look at one of the statues.

She almost vomited onto the pristine courtyard stones as she realized that the statue wasn't a statue at all. It was a crystallized, petrified Ellie.

Hands over her mouth, Alice ran from statue to statue, picking out familiar faces and forms. Granny. Hartley. Kaz. Miriam. Sam. Harper. All her friends frozen in a circle, their faces twisted in fear. All of them placed there by Xavier.

"What did you do?!" she shrieked, whirling to face him.

But he seemed calm, smiling at her from the path they'd just walked, looking like the picture of angelic serenity... and hiding the spirit of what she'd started to think might be the devil himself.

"See? They'll be with you always."

Alice opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.

Alice woke suddenly, jolting a little as she realized where she was: in the Shadow Court palace, tucked into bed next to Xavier. His arms around her were heavy and cold, and she had to fight not to thrash out against the embrace.

She shivered uncontrollably, stretching out her arm to reach for a blanket, but the thin wool fabric couldn't stifle the chill that seemed to radiate off the man beside her. It was almost painful to bear after the feeling of warmth and safety from her dream, and when Alice's teeth began to chatter, she finally shifted her position.

Brushing Xavier's arms away, she sat up in bed and tucked her knees against her chest, throwing the blanket around her shoulders. It helped a little to curl into her own body heat, and she rubbed her toes to chase away the numbness as she sat near the foot of the mattress.

In the morning, she'd ride back to Howard's Knob to see her friends— her family. She was surprised that Xavier actually planned to let her go, even for a short time. The anxiety over the idea that something might have happened to her friends while she was gone had taken over in the last twenty-four hours, and coupled with the stress of developing feelings for Florian, trying to hide what she knew from Xavier, and feeling desperately alone...

She was breaking into pieces.

Before she knew what was happening, a strange heat started to run down her face. She was crying, shaking with sobs, and Alice wasn't able to muffle the noise quite enough. While Xavier had slept through the moment she slipped away from him, the muffled cries and sniffles were enough to rouse him from his slumber.

"Alice, my treasure?" Xavier whispered sleepily, pale eyes opening slowly. "Are you well?" He pushed himself into a sitting position with a groan, shuffling a little closer to her.

"Nightmare," she said simply, not bothering to brush away the tears running down her cheeks.

"You're safe," he said, moving to place his arms around her once more. "I promise."

Alice wanted to vomit. Xavier's hold was gentle, but his arms were heavy, and any warmth she'd started to recover almost immediately faded again.

She shuffled slightly, pushing Xavier's arms away as gently as she could, mumbling something about nausea as she slipped out of bed and scurried to the bathroom, the blanket falling away from her shoulders as she moved. Shutting and locking the door behind her, Alice splashed cold water on her face from the sink, forcing herself to breathe slowly and deeply.

It was difficult to recognize the face in the mirror staring back at her. There was the same wild, red-orange hair, the same green eyes, the same pale, freckled skin... but something had changed. The dark circles under her eyes spoke of a kind of haunted resolve that Alice had never seen in herself before, a kind of weariness that even her mother couldn't bring out.

How much longer could she stay in the Shadow Court? A single month had brought her to this state. What might happen in a year?

She brushed away the shiver that ran down her spine at the thought. There was no way she'd still be here in a year, not with Xavier. Either Florian would be free, Alice would run for the hills, or perhaps both.

Steeling herself, Alice unlocked and opened the bathroom door, unsurprised to find Xavier staring right at her, sitting at the foot of the bed, exactly where she'd left him.

"Are you well, my treasure?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

No. No, she was not well.

It would be disastrous to be entirely honest about why, though.

"I think I'm just... homesick. Worried about my friends," she stuttered, fumbling for an explanation. "I know I'm goin' to visit tomorrow, but I'm just... nervous. I'm afraid something happened while I was gone."

Travel anxiety was the best explanation available. She'd packed a small bag the day before, but there wasn't much to take. The bag was mostly a medium for Missy to travel safely.

It wasn't entirely a lie that she was nervous, but it was certainly a risk to tell Xavier that she was afraid something had happened. If he had dared to do anything to them in her absence,

"I assure you, your friends are fine," Xavier said, and there was a hint of genuine confusion on his face that made it truly believable. "There will be no travel problems, either. I'm taking you myself, remember?"

She did remember, and while the speed of riding on Xavier's deer form was an advantage, she was not looking forward to the same exhausting ride that brought her to the Shadow Court in the first place.

At the very least, she thought, there was some comfort in knowing he didn't care enough about her family or friends to use them to force her hand. He might not even have thought of it, considering he seemed to have no family or friends himself. Alice still wasn't sure what kind of creature Xavier might be... but whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"I... I need air," Alice stuttered, shaking her head as she walked towards the door, yanking a shawl off the hook on the wall as she went. "I'll be back."

"I'll come with—" Xavier began.

"No," she said sharply, unable to keep the tension from her voice as she wrapped the thick shawl around her shaking shoulders. "No, I gotta do this alone."

Just at this moment, Alice couldn't stand the thought of being near him. She couldn't stand the idea of that body occupied by the wrong inhabitant, of looking at him and knowing that sunshine feeling she so desperately wanted was entirely our of reach.

She forced a shaking smile, glanced back at Xavier, and rushed out the door.

She wasn't sure where she was walking, but not because she was lost. By now, Alice knew the castle hallways and rooms decently well. She hadn't been in and out of all of them, but she knew the layout of the Shadow Court well enough to navigate, even in the dark.

The problem was that she wasn't sure how to find who she was looking for.

As usual, there was an eerie lack of castle staff around the hallways. Granted, it was the middle of the night... this time. No one to see. No one following her. No one to help.

... Except for one person.

"Florian!" Alice'' hissed, afraid to raise her voice too much. "Come on, you've gotta be around here somewhere..."

Alice's frustrated whispers echoed down the hallway. She simply hoped and prayed they'd catch the attention of the person she needed to see most. That was the downside to looking for someone in an incorporeal form with no dedicated bedroom space: There was no telling where he might be.

Luckily, by the time she turned the third corner, there was a response to her frantic whispering.

"What are you doing?!" A voice from behind her said softly.

Alice jumped, whirling around to face Florian. She hadn't heard footsteps— and there wouldn't have been any, considering that Florian was in Shadow form. She wanted to hug him, to hold him like she had in her dream, but that wasn't possible at the moment.

That was alright. It was enough to see him for now.

"I needed to talk to you," she rasped.

"What could—" Florian began, stopping when his eyes met hers, mouth hanging open.

The prince stared, taking in her red and swollen eyes, the tearstained cheeks, the tension in her posture, the way she wrung her hands anxiously. Then, he closed his mouth, nodded once, and glanced behind them down the hallway.

"What happened?"

"I'm... scared," Alice admitted.

"Took you a while to come to terms with that one, hm?" Florian asked gently.

"Shut up," Alice grumbled, letting out a short laugh despite herself. He was right, though. She'd pushed back the fear for so long, either out of a desire for love, a desire to understand what was going on in the Shadow Court, or simply a desire to stay alive long enough to see the world outside again.

Now, though, it seemed like it was in her very bones.

"I wish I could hug you," Alice sighed. It slipped out before she even thought about it, but it was true. She wanted nothing more than to lose herself in Florian's sunshine warmth, just like in her dream.

Florian seemed to think for a moment, pursing his lips.

"Stay still?" he asked, taking a hesitant step closer. Alice just nodded.

Florian moved to stand right next to her, so close that she would have been able to feel his breathing in his corporeal form. Then, he gently brought his hands up to cup her cheeks, and brought his head down so their foreheads touched gently.

Though she couldn't truly feel him, there was something there. A slight tingle, a slight heat where his forehead rested against hers. If his form was made of light, it was like standing in a gentle sunbeam. It was comforting and beautiful and entirely him, and though there was no physical pressure on her skin, it satisfied the itch to hold him in a way she didn't expect.

"It's not much, but it's all I can do," he murmured.

"It's perfect," Alice choked out, tears springing to her eyes.

His fingertips on her cheeks tingled, now that she was paying attention to it. The sensation was subtle, but the intimacy of it made her want to sob in sheer relief. Even in the smallest of ways, she new he was real. Florian wasn't a figment of her imagination. He was real, and he was here, and he was good.

He pulled away far too soon for her liking, but Alice would have stayed there all night if he'd let her.

"Come on. We can't stay out here," Florian said, glancing down the hallway.

He was right. There were very, very few people in the palace, but it was a miracle that no one had caught them together yet. The longer they stayed in the hallway, the more they risked someone spotting them... and subsequently reporting that sight to Xavier.

"I know a place," Alice said, motioning for him to follow.

She remembered the way from the night Willow rescued her from the garden. Quiet steps echoing down the empty hallways, Alice led Florian off to the same abandoned apothecary workshop that she'd slept in that night. The door creaked in a way that seemed louder than a thunderclap to her, but she knew that it was only the oppressive silence in the castle that made it seem that way.

Beckoning Florian inside, Alice shut and locked the door behind them, practically collapsing onto one of the small beds in the room. Clearly once meant for sick patients, it was Alice's second time sleeping on one as a refuge from Xavier's bedroom.

Her bedroom.

She shuddered at the thought, pulling herself up into a sitting position as she looked back at Florian. He stood by the door, staring at her with unconcealed concern.

"Are you...?" He trailed off. She wasn't okay. She obviously wasn't okay.

"I'll be fine. I just need... a minute," Alice said carefully, checking again that the door was bolted. She needed some sense of security right now, of privacy, of anything between her and the man keeping her here. The man that was, unfortunately, her husband.

The thought made her sick to her stomach.

Trying to find anything to distract herself, Alice traced her eyes over Florian's hands. They were calloused in a way that indicated experience with weaponry, though she didn't know enough to guess what kind. She imagined he might be good with a spear or a bow.

Her gaze traced along his fingers, the bones of his hands, and then the veins running up to his forearms... and that was when she noticed something peculiar.

"Your Shadow form doesn't have the same..." Alice gestured to her forearm, pointing to mark that Xavier said indicated their connection as mirrors. As soul mates. "Your body does, though. Why?"

In truth, it scared her a little. Some part of her wondered, deep down inside, if Xavier could have been lying. Some part of her wondered if that mark really belong to Florian all along, if it was a fluke or a glitch or something he'd claimed that wasn't rightfully his.

But... Florian's Shadow form didn't have the mark, and if he was really supposed to be her mirror instead of Xavier... that wouldn't make sense. He should have the mark.

Shouldn't he?

"You ask wonderful questions, rabbit," Florian said with a sad sigh.

Alice clenched her teeth so she wouldn't lash out at him. Florian wasn't the reason she was already angry, and it wasn't his fault that he couldn't talk about certain parts of his current condition.

"Fine," she conceded. There was little point in pressing while she was tired and unequipped to dance around answers. "I still don't get where Xavier's real body is. Maybe if we found it, we could... I dunno, force him back into it?"

Florian sighed, looking at her pointedly. He couldn't tell her.

"He did... have a body, right? Before he took yours. It's gotta be somewhere," she said, laughing in a way that most certainly sounded nervous.

Florian's eyebrows raised as he very carefully did not respond.

Shit.

Xavier didn't have a body. That was the whole reason he'd schemed and bargained to take Florian's in the first place.

"What the hell kinda unholy haint is he?" Alice hissed, brow furrowing.

"That, I'm afraid I do not know. It's not clear if he gained a step closer to the corporeal realm when the Appearances began, as someone from Other planes might have, or if he was always here," Florian said, sighing. "He is... hanging onto consciousness on this earth in some unholy way."

"Is he Other?"

"I... am not sure," Florian admitted, shaking his head. "All I know is that his magic and the bargain combined was enough that he stole my body from me. I was lucky, really. The fact that my consciousness had somewhere else to go meant that I survived a process that was certainly meant to kill me."

Why Florian, though? There had to be a specific reason that Xavier chose him. If he was incorporeal and biding his time, he wouldn't have chosen just anyone, and he wouldn't have chosen someone that he knew would cause this much trouble.

It could have been sheer bad luck, of course, but... a body was a serious thing. If she was an incorporeal spirit looking for a physical form, she'd have chosen someone strong. Someone in good health, maybe with powerful magic at their disposal—

Or, she thought, perhaps someone with other types of power at their disposal, too.

"It a power grab..." Alice murmured, eyes widening.

"What do you mean?"

"Willow says there are Shadow Fae all over the world, working 'in the shadows...' figuratively, I mean. My guess is that they prob'ly got hands in everything on earth. Politics, stocks, trades, industry— you name it."

"That's a damn good guess. How'd you land on that?"

"I read up on Shadow Court history," she said proudly. "That's how the first Shadow Court established their authority, by working underneath everything happening on the surface. They built connections, scouted for information, and didn't move until the time was exactly right."

Her smile abruptly dropped as she continued to speak, though, a lump of cold dread settling in her stomach.

"If Xavier controls the Shadow Fae, he could control the entire world like puppets on strings."

"It would be an admittedly impressive start towards that end," Florian admitted.

At least that much made sense. There was, however, one piece to the puzzle that still eluded her. No matter how hard she tried, Alice just couldn't seem to make the idea that Xavier needed a Shadow Queen fit into his plans. He was power-obsessed, but he didn't seem to want an heir. He wanted to keep the power for himself.

So... why bother with a queen who could share it?

"I still don't get what he needs me for," Alice grumbled. "Why's it so important to him?"

"Did... Willow tell you her suspicions about your magic?"

"That I'm a big ol' battery that I don't know how to use? Yeah," she said.

"I'm worried that she might be right," Florian said carefully.

Something in his tone made her pause. He spoke slowly, with intention, in the same way that he did when he was trying to get something across to her without saying it directly.

"You know," Alice murmured, realization dawning. "You know what he wants."

"I have an idea," Florian said gravely. "I haven't been able to confirm it yet, though."

"And you can't tell me." It wasn't a question. By now, she understood that he would have already told her if he could.

"I can't, not exactly," he grumbled. "It's too close to my circumstances. We're going to have to work out a way around it."

"Maybe Ellie and Kaz can help me wiggle around it," she groaned, resting her head in her hands.

"He's actually letting you go, then? I heard some of the staff talking."

"There's staff? Where?" Alice scoffed, gesturing broadly.

"They've been instructed to make themselves scarce, from what I've gathered, and they're explicitly not supposed to talk to you," Florian admitted. "I've been eavesdropping."

Well, at least she'd been right about that theory. The staff wasn't supposed to talk to her, and if they were supposed to make themselves scarce because Alice unintentionally drained the memory magic the longer she was around... Then Willow was right.

She was a battery after all.

That left a few more questions, though. Firstly, how much magic could she store? And how was she supposed to let it out? What could she even do with it?

Most importantly, what did Xavier want her to do with it?

"I get three days," she huffed. "Hopefully it's long enough to figure somethin' out."

"Three days is better than nothing," Florian muttered, taking a seat beside her on the mattress.

"Can you... stay with me? Just for a little while?" Alice asked. "I don't wanna go back there yet."

"You'll have to be back by morning." Florian bit his lip, wringing his hands. "And I still can't touch you."

"I don't care. I'd still rather be here," she murmured, toeing off her shoes so she could lie down across the small bed. Even in the dusty, disused room with a lumpy mattress and a flat pillow, she'd sleep better than on a plush bed next to Xavier.

Florian turned slightly, still perched on the edge of the bed as he looked down at her, twiddling his fingers in the way he did when he couldn't figure out what to do next. Alice liked that about him. He was easy to read in so many ways, and she didn't have to guess what he was thinking.

"I don't bite," she said, sliding over a little. Alice gently patted the empty space on the mattress beside her.

"You'll go right through me. You don't have to make room," he muttered, but he moved to lie down beside her anyways.

She didn't need to, but she wanted to. Even though she couldn't feel Florian's skin against hers, every part of his body movement was so different from Xavier that Alice immediately felt at ease. His posture was more relaxed, his breathing was deeper, and the small smile playing across his lips made her heart flutter.

His face was so close to hers on the shared pillow. Despite the fact that his form was incorporeal, he didn't look any different than a physical man. Alice thought she'd be anxious sharing a bed with someone she cared for like this, but instead she found that she felt incredibly calm. She felt incredibly safe.

"What do you want to do?" Florian whispered. "When you get out of here?"

Alice paused, awkwardly looking away from the intensity of his pale eyes, a blush on her cheeks.

"Finish school, prob'ly," she sighed, scratching Missy behind the ears. "I was gonna be a veterinarian before all this."

"That fits," he agreed. "Where's Missy at this hour, anyhow?"

"She's a nocturnal critter, so she wanders at night sometimes. Guess she's out catchin' bugs," Alice sighed. "She's always there in the mornin' again, though." She shifted uncomfortably, wondering if she'd find herself alone again when the sunlight filtered through the windows of the abandoned room.

"I'm not going anywhere," Florian said. "I'll wake you up when it's time to go back."

How could he do that? How could he read her mind?

Alice had never wanted to be close to anyone as badly as she wanted to be close to Florian. She'd never wanted to hear so much of someone's story, never wanted to imagine a future with anyone else like she did with him. Not even Hartley.

She... loved him.

She loved Florian.

Now... Now she had to save him.