Page 31 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

She followed the sound to see a well-dressed young man with white hair and a ridiculous top hat running toward them.

“Hatta, thank heavens,” breathed Cath. “The hat. You have to get to Jest’s hat! It—” She cut off, seeing that Cinder was already holding the hat that was suddenly, evidently, very important.

Frowning, Cinder looked down at the hat in her hand. With its points hanging limply, it didn’t seem remarkable at all.

“Oh no,” said Jest. “Oh no, oh no. The ring!”

Startled, Cinder whipped around. Jest was busily searching the mess of pumpkin vines at his feet, completely ignoring the large man who was straining to yank the ax lodged in the outer shell of one of the larger pumpkins.

Not to mention the humongous monster.

Wasn’t anyone else bothered by the monster?

But just as she was thinking it, Cinder spotted a tiny sparkle amid the filth.

Her ring!

“You! With the hand… thing.”

She looked up. The man called Hatta was panting hard from his sprint across the pumpkin patch. His eyes were wild with panic.

“We need the Vorpal Sword,” he said, gesturing to the hat in Cinder’s hand. “Quick, throw the hat to Cath! She’s the only one who can get it!”

Cinder frowned, trying to make sense of his words. Was he suggesting that there was a swordinsidethe hat?

If Cinder should reach inside the hat, go to Chapter 17.

If Cinder should forget the hat and get the ring, go to Chapter 36.

Chapter 36

Cinder dropped the hat. It landed softly in the mud as she dove for the ring. She had just scooped it up from the muck and slid it back onto her finger when she heard Hatta exclaim—

“She has the Vorpal Sword! It-it answered to her. But how?”

“Could she be another queen?” said the girl in red. “Jest, it will answer to a queen, won’t it?”

“She must be,” said the jester. “But wait. Look! There aretwoof them!”

Inhaling a breath of relief to be reunited with her ring, Cinder spun around to see what they were all going on about.

But what she saw sent a cascade of ice down her spine.

She didn’t know what to make of it. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t possible. And yet—

Thereshewas. Standing not far from the spot that she’d been standing in mere moments ago.

Except, this other Cinder was gripping the jester’s black hat in one hand, and a sword in the other.

“Is this a Lunar mind trick?” she muttered, wondering if she was trapped in some sick thaumaturge illusion. But no—if that was the case, her lie detector should have been blaring long ago.

And yet, if this was real, thenwhowas that other Cinder? And what was she doing with a sword?

The monster screeched, as if annoyed to have been forgotten. It lifted up on its back legs and roared at the sky, and when it came back down, the ground thundered beneath Cinder’s feet.

“Kill it!” cried the girl in red, turning her blazing eyes on the other Cinder. “You must end this! You must slay the Jabberwock!”

As Cinder stared, her doppelgänger tightened her grip on the sword’s hilt and charged into the fray. The monster’s head swiveled in her direction. Its eyes glowed as steam burst from its nostrils. It released an ear-splitting screech that startled a flock of blackbirds that had been picking at seeds in the back corner of the pumpkin patch.

---