Page 4 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

Cress cut off suddenly when she spotted Cinder.

“Ah—here she is!” she squealed, launching herself so fast from the table that her chair toppled over into the grass and tea splashed across the tablecloths. She took Cinder by the hand. “Come join the tea party! We’ve been waiting for you!”

“You have?” Cinder looked down at the array of cakes and scones. She picked up a pretty glass bottle with a tag on it that read, in flourishing script,Drink me. “What is this? Some sort of pre-wedding party or something?”

Thorne laughed and kicked his feet up onto the table, while lifting a cup of tea in a toast. “More like an un-wedding party.”

Cinder hesitated. “Un-wedding?”

He shrugged. “Can’t very well be there if you’re here, now can you?’

“Oh!” said Cress. “That reminds me of a song. Ready?” She took in a deep breath and began singing:“Aaaaaa… very merry un-wedding… to you!”

Thorne beamed and piped up, “To you!”

“A very merry un-wedding… to her!”

“For sure!”

“You think you’re getting married… today!”

“No way!”

“That’s only if you don’t want to stay—”

“And play!”

Growing more annoyed with the song by the moment, Cinder looked out to the thick forest around her. Where had Iko gone?

“Go on, drink it,” said Thorne.

Cinder started. She hadn’t realized they’d stopped singing, and the clearing felt eerily silent all of a sudden in the wake of their racket.

He nodded at the bottle in her hand. “I always follow the directions scrawled on weird little tags. Drink me, eat me, don’t push this button”—he paused, his brows furrowing—“wait, no, Ididpush the button. That was the problem.”

“What is it?” Cinder asked. “In the bottle?”

Cress giggled. “Who knows? That’s the fun of it. Go on, give it a try!”

If Cinder should drink the bottle, go to Chapter 3.

If Cinder should walk away, go to Chapter 47.

Chapter 3

With a strange premonition that she was probably going to regret this, Cinder uncorked the bottle with her thumb and raised it to her lips. She took a long swig. The liquid inside tasted a bit like cooked mushrooms mixed with rainbow sprinkles, and she grimaced as it slid down her throat, warming her from the inside.

She set the bottle back down on the table and just had time to take in the looks of curious anticipation on Cress’s and Thorne’s faces, when she felt herself… changing.

Shrinking.

Her whole body was tingling and squeezing in on itself. The table was suddenly eye-level.

A second later, the table was towering high above her.

She cried out in shock.

What was happening?

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