Page 42 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

Below, the world passed by—a blur of forests and fields—while up ahead, appearing almost as small as a grain of sand now, she thought she could make out the fluttering shape of the raven. It had quite the head start, but they were gaining on it.

Then, without warning, the bird descended toward the earth.

Cinder squinted into the wind, which stung her eyes, trying to see where it had gone.

“There!” she yelled, pointing toward a patch of dark, bare land dotted with bright orange spots. Whether the beast heard her or its keen eyesight spotted the bird as well, it took a sharp turn that nearly sent Cinder tumbling from its back. She cried out and barely managed to hold on while the beast dove after the raven.

Except, as Cinder stared, the bird transformed into a boy. A boy in a jester’s black hat.

The orange spots, she saw as they came closer, were pumpkins set among a muddy field full of tangled and rotting vines. And the boy in the jester’s hat wasn’t alone. A girl in a mud-covered red-and-white gown stood staring at him with turbulent, frightened eyes.

“Jest! What are you doing here?” she screamed. “The drawings! The prophecy! You can’t—”

Before she could finish, the monster landed in between her and the boy.

The girl screamed and stumbled back a step. “The Jabberwock! It’s back!”

“I know,” said the boy—Jest, she had called him. “I’m sorry. But I couldn’t let you do this on your own, not without telling you… I love you, Cath. I want to marry you.”

The girl dragged her wide eyes from the monstrous Jabberwock. Cinder, too, stared down from her perch, jaw dropping, as the boy fell to one knee right there in the midst of that gloppy, filthy pumpkin patch, and held up a ruby ring.

“Hey!” Cinder yelled, startling the Jabberwock, which might have forgotten about her until that moment. Its muscles undulated beneath her, but Cinder held fast. “That’s my ring!”

Her words had barely left her when a new figure appeared, stepping out from behind the biggest pumpkin Cinder had ever seen. He was a giant of a man, with frizzing red hair and an overhanging brow. And he was holding what appeared to be a very sharp ax.

“Jest!” the girl in red screamed. “Behind you!”

Glancing over his shoulder, Jest leaped to his feet just as the man gave a throaty cry and swung the ax. It would have taken the boy’s head clean off had he not launched himself into a series of perfectly executed cartwheels, spinning out of the man’s reach.

The jester’s hat tumbled from his head, landing on top of a carved jack-o’-lantern.

The ax struck a huge pumpkin, getting lodged in its flesh.

Beneath Cinder, the Jabberwock reared back on its hind legs and let out a ferocious growl that thundered through Cinder’s bones.

If Cinder should get off the Jabberwock before it throws her off, go to Chapter 35.

If Cinder should try to control the Jabberwock, go to Chapter 37.

Chapter 52

Cinder hadn’t been walking long before she arrived in the small village. She could hear a river rushing by not far away, and the sweet smell of straw from the golden fields that stretched in every direction. But as she made her way toward the town center, a chill overtook her. Though dusk was casting long shadows across the road, there were no candles flickering in the windows that she passed. Though she could hear the occasional scuffle of chickens and goats behind the fences and gates, she saw no signs of people.

She paused at a water well, hands on her hips, and turned in a full circle, searching for signs of life.

“Hello?” she finally yelled. “Can anyone hear me? I could use some directions.”

“Hush!”someone hissed.

It took Cinder a long moment to realize the word had come from behind the slats of a boarded-up window in one of the nearby cottages. Frowning, she crept closer. “Hello?” she said, quieter now.

“You need to hide!” whispered the voice. A child? “They’ll be here soon! You should get off the road!”

Peering into the window’s darkness, Cinder adjusted the sensor in her vision until she could make out the shape of a little girl with bouncing golden curls and a missing bottom tooth.

“Who’s coming?” she asked.

“The Erlking and the wild hunt!” said the girl, her voice growing more panicked by the second. “Mama says if they catch you out of your bed after dark, the Erlking will kidnap you and feed your heart to his monsters.”

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