Page 6 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

She crossed her arms and tapped her fingers against her elbows, annoyed.

Which door to choose?

If Cinder should choose the Murderer door, go to Chapter 16.

If Cinder should choose the Monarch door, go to Chapter 18.

If Cinder should choose the Martyr door, go to Chapter 19.

If Cinder should choose the Mad door, go to Chapter 20.

Chapter 4

Cinder made her way out onto a lawn, where the grass was lush and emerald green and the perfume of thousands of roses hung thickly in the air. As she passed beneath a trellis covered in thorns and blooms, something dripped onto her shoulder.

She paused and swiped at the drop.

When she pulled her hand back, a smear of red coated her steel fingers.

Her heart hiccuping, she looked up, expecting to see some horrible bloody sight… but it was only the roses bleeding down on top of her.

She frowned. Reaching up, she picked one of the roses off the vine and gave it a shake. It splattered across her shirt, revealing hints of the white rose underneath. Not blood, but bright red paint.

A cheer drew her attention back to the lawn. Tucking the rose back into the trellis, she walked down a path, gravel crunching under her boots, until the garden opened up into a large croquet court. Onlookers—both human and animal, all dressed in frilly lace gowns and cravats, top hats and parasols—either stood picking at the offerings on a glorious table laden with tea and desserts or attentively watched a dozen players at the oddest game of croquet Cinder had ever witnessed.

Not far away, a red-haired girl in a multilayered crimson gown tucked a flamingo beneath her arm and gave a rolled-up hedgehog a blow with the bird’s head. The hedgehog-croquet-ball tumbled straight for Cinder.

“Great shot, Your Majesty!” someone shouted.

Followed by said majesty screaming, “Stop my hedgehog!”

But Cinder didn’t stop it. She just hopped over the creature as it came hurtling toward her and let it roll off into the nearest rosebush.

A scream of rage hit her ears. “How dare you let my hedgehog get away!Wolf!Intruder!”

“Wolf?” Cinder blinked and squinted her eyes against the sun’s glare. The girl in the red dress wasScarlet, almost unrecognizable without her jeans and red hoodie. But she still had her cascade of ginger curls and her constellations of freckles—now blazing against flushed cheeks.

Behind her, Wolf came plodding across the lawn. A black executioner’s hood hung over his brow and a fang could be seen jutting from behind his lips. The surgical mutations he’d undergone on Luna had left him purely terrifying… that is, until someone got to know him and realized he was more shy puppy than feral beast, and that his loyalty to Scarlet and Cinder and the rest of their friends was unshakable.

The enormous ax he was carrying did seem worrisome at first, but maybe he’d just been out chopping firewood?

“Wolf! Scarlet!” Cinder cried, smiling awkwardly. “I’m not anintruder. It’s me!”

“Yes, it’s you,” said Scarlet. “Andyouruined my perfect score. Off with her head!” She lifted the flamingo and pointed the bird’s beak right at Cinder, as she had once seen pointed a shotgun at a sadistic thaumaturge. The thought brought back a torrent of memories—battles of long ago, the many times Cinder had to run for her life or choose to stay and fight.

“Wait. Off with my—what?”

“You heard me! Wolf. Go on.” Scarlet waved her fingers, as if she were a queen and Wolf her dutiful servant. It wasn’t like Scarlet at all. Was she under some Lunar manipulation? What was wrong with her?

Andwhywas Wolf flexing his grip on the ax’s handle, eyes gleaming, as he strode in Cinder’s direction.

She gulped and took a step back. Instincts took over and Cinder felt the tip of her left pointer finger opening up, the chamber inside her palm preparing to load a tranquilizer dart.

Preparing to fight.

“Wolf, what are you doing? What’s wrong with you?”

But Wolf just shrugged and gave the ax a few practice swings. It whistled through the air. “I know better than to argue with the Queen of Hearts.”

---