Page 52 of A Dead End Wedding

She gave me a gracious nod. “You won.”

The Fae team hadn’t even limped out of the hedge yet, covered in mud, when the queen and her uncle disappeared.

One of the Fae group stiffly marched over to us and held up Lorraine’s bungee cord, covered in almost as much mud as he was. “Your cord, madam.”

Eleanor patted his arm. “You keep that one handy, dear. It’s always useful.”

He bowed, and we turned to go, only to see the entire town waiting for us. They broke into cheering and applause that was so incredibly loud I almost didn’t hear the baby goat cry out to get my attention.

When I knelt down, the little guy jumped into my arms.

Jack helped me up, grinning. “Aw. Is that a wedding present? For me?”

I clutched my baby goat. “Yes, but you can’t eat him!”

“Spoilsport,” Jack muttered, laughter gleaming in his eyes.

When he hugged me—and the goat, who complained loudly—I saw the troll over Jack’s shoulder, standing at the edge of the crowd. He nodded once and then walked away.

“Can we go home and get some sleep?”

“Absolutely,” Jack said. “But we need to talk first.”

“Why?”

“Because, while you were in the maze, Viviette told me the Wisdom trial is tomorrow, and maybe we should make a plan.”

“Maybe we could just give her a baby goat in trade to get out of the rest of these trials,” I muttered.

“You already gave her an uncle,” Jack said. “If that didn’t do it, I doubt a goat will.”

He was probably right.

That didn’t mean I had to like it.

20

Tess

Thursday: Wedding minus 2 days

Molly was furious that she’d gone to Orlando the day before and missed all the action. “I would have beengreatin an alliance,” she kept saying all morning while she helped me at the shop.

“You would have been,” I agreed. “Maybe the next one? Wisdom is coming up next, and that’s definitely not my strength.”

She looked around the shop and shook her head. “Tess. Look at this place. You’ve done wonders with it. It was dusty and jumbled and nobody really wanted to shop here except for the people with the really weird stuff. Now, you’ve got a thriving business. I’d say you’ve got plenty of wisdom.”

“Maybe it will be you. You’re running a major musical group and handling all the business side of it with your manager. That’s pretty wise.”

We agreed we were both so wise we needed to break early for lunch and get pizza. Shelley pointed out that she was wise for her years, too.

We spent lunchtime trying to nail down which wise Dead Ender would be called on for this challenge. Then we hung out in my pool, since I’d closed the shop until Monday.

The sign:Closed on account of weddingwas already in the window.

By the time Jack got home from working on his house, promptly shifted into his tiger shape, and cannonballed into the pool, it was almost seven o’clock, and we’d started thinking about dinner.

Then Queen Viviette showed up in my backyard and demanded I call “Mayor Ruby of the Callahans.”

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