Page 27 of Shadow Witch

“We’ve had shared experiences,” Devon said. “The kidnapping, for one.”

“Oh, right. Yes, I can use the time you locked me in this room to ‘protect me.’”

Devon bobbed his head up and down. “Yep.”

“It’s still weird to me that you don’t find that weird at all.”

Drucinda rolled her eyes as she leaned against the mantel. “Can we please focus? You obviously have shared experiences with Devon. You’ve completed a few missions together. Use that.”

“Okay, fine. How does this work? Does Dominic just quiz us and judge the answers?”

Drucinda doubled over with laughter. “Are you joking?”

“No? You said they’re riddles. Is it a written test? Do we sit quietly in a room somewhere and fill out our answers then turn them in for a grade? What?”

“Paige…” Dewey shook his head as he paused.

“What?” Paige scanned the expressions on their faces. “What aren’t you saying?”

Dewey crossed his arms over his scaly chest. “The Riddle of Hearts is held in a dreamscape realm. Basically, you’ll be presented with a series of floating islands, each representing a different memory or emotion. Some will be pleasant and some will be…very painful.”

“It’s up to you to solve the riddles to progress.”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound awful,” Paige said as her mind whirled. She was good with riddles. She could do this.

“Well…” Dewey wrinkled his nose, his horns wiggling. “Here’s the thing. There are phantoms there.”

“What?” Paige frowned at the words. “Like ghosts? I thought you said there were no ghosts?”

“There aren’t. These are phantoms.” Dewey stressed the last word, waving his paws in front of him. “They’ll reenact moments from your past with Devon.”

“And sometimes, they’ll make them worse than they were before,” Drucinda warned.

“Worse?”

“Right, like your kidnapping may now be super dark instead of sort of romantic,” Dewey explained.

“Uh, it was never sort of romantic,” Paige argued. “Okay, so these phantoms can basically take a normal memory and turn it into a nightmare.”

Drucinda bobbed her head. “Correct. They’ll do anything they can to try to stop you from solving the riddle. Basically, they’ll twist your memories into a living hell.”

“Great, perfect. So, the first challenge will be a bunch of memories of Devon that have been soured by these goofy ghosts. How do I win?”

“Be the first to make it through all the riddles and escape the realm,” Drucinda said. “And don’t worry about Ivy killing you in the realm. She won’t be able to get to your islands, so just complete the challenge as quickly as you can. You do not want to lose.”

“Yeah, about that…if I lose…doesn’t that just mean Ivy wins and gets to marry Devon?”

Devon heaved a sigh as he slouched in his seat. “Please don’t lose. I don’t want to marry Ivy.”

Paige offered him an incredulous glance. “Yeah, well…it’s not like I can help it. Plus, what if you lose? I’m stuck with Henry.”

Devon set his gaze on her. “That’s simple. I’m not going to lose.”

“Fine, fine. Okay, but the worst-case scenario here…I lose, Devon has to marry Ivy.”

“And you die,” Dewey said with a nod.

“What? Wait, why?”

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