Page 47 of A Dead End Wedding

“Fine. That’s how you want it? Fine. This Challenge was to be for three Champions of your choice, but now I think four would be better. I assign the four of you to meet our Champions at midnight tonight at the entrance to the maze for the trial of Alliance. Be there and triumph, or your town will be no more.”

“What maze?” Aunt Ruby asked.

“Very dramatic,” I muttered.

“I don’t really have a good sense of direction,” Eleanor said worriedly. “Maybe you should pick someone else.”

“What maze?” Lorraine demanded.

The Fae prince raised his arm and pointed to the town square behind us. My stomach sank, because I guessed what we’d see even before I turned around.

Never had I hated so much to be right. Because directly behind us in the town square?

Was a giant, nine-foot-tall hedge.

And I was guessing the maze was inside that.

“Might have been a good time to keep my mouth shut,” I muttered, waiting for his snarky reply.

But he and his minions were gone.

“I’m really,reallytired of the disappearing act.” I looked at my flower girls, the women who’d known and cared for me all my life. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I’m just so stressed, and it all came boiling out.”

“Don’t worry about it at all,” Aunt Ruby said, giving me a quick hug. “If we hadn’t been picked, we would have felt left out after Jack, Mike, and Shelley all got to play.”

I smiled a little. “Thanks, Aunt Ruby.”

Lorraine blew out an enormous sigh. “I guess we need to make a plan and figure out what we might need to approach a magical hedge maze as a four-person alliance.”

“Lunch,” I said glumly. “Let’s at least not do this on an empty stomach.”

We went to Beau’s for lunch, because why not? At least half the town was there to help us strategize. I even got to tell everybody I had my wedding dress, so they’d quit offering me theirs.

We ate and planned and ate and strategized. Molly, Jack, Dave, and half the swamp commandos showed up to help, too.

But we four presented ourselves at the front of the maze at midnight. All of us wore backpacks with a few essentials, but only three of us wore orthopedic shoes.

When Queen Viviette showed up and started proclaiming, I was glumly wishing I’d worn orthopedic shoes, too.

This could be bad.

19

Tess

Wednesday: Wedding minus 3 days

Fifteen minutes till midnight

Jack gave us one crucial piece of advice that made us believe we might navigate a magical maze faster than a team of three immortal Fae:

The Fae weren’t team players.

“They all want to be in charge, and none of them trust any of the others. Without the queen there to give them direct orders, they’re likely to squabble amongst themselves.”

I was skeptical about the “squabble” part, looking at the two stern men and one woman facing us. But … if there weremoreteam members, wouldn’t that make them even more likely to fight with each other over who was in charge?

I stepped forward and bowed to the queen. “Your Majesty. We couldn’t live with the dishonor of putting four people against only three. Please choose another member of your team.”

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