Page 51 of A Dead End Wedding

“Are there any chocolate chips cookies, by any chance?” he asked wistfully. “It has been a very long time since I had a chocolate chip cookie.”

“Yes!” I pulled out another bag and handed him a cookie. “And I’d like to offer this entire bag, if you will join our alliance and help us find the center of this maze.”

He blinked. “That’s all you want for the entire bag of cookies? Not a cauldron of gold or my first-born child or something like that?”

I shuddered. “Sir, I have found that cauldrons of gold bring their own problems. And, no offense, but your first-born child is probably at least fifty years older than I am.”

“Five hundred,” he said absently, licking his fingers and staring longingly at the bag of cookies in my hand.

“I’m sorry?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why would you be sorry? My first-born son is at least five hundred years older than you are. I miss that boy. I haven’t seen him in over four centuries.”

I focused on the pertinent. “So, do we have a deal?”

“Absolutely!”

He was as good as his word, or maybe I should say as good as his longing for the cookies, because he took us on a relatively straight path—no dark pools of water and no mystery canyons—directly to the center of the maze.

Along the way, we passed the Fae team, and they were stuck in quicksand. Sure enough, instead of trying to find their way out, they were squabbling over whose idea of escape they’d use.

“Excuse me!” Lorraine shouted.

They didn’t hear her.

“EXCUSE ME!”

All four of them looked at us.

“Since this fine gentleman is helping us, I’m going to leave my bungee cord for you,” she said politely.

They looked suspicious, of course. Why would mortals help them out?

Clearly, they’d never met any Dead Enders before.

So, we did just that. Tossed them the cord and moved on before they could extricate themselves and win the trial.

“You know,” I said thoughtfully. “When I was a kid, I was sure that the perils of quicksand would be a major part of my life. All the cartoons on Saturdays always had people falling into quicksand all the time and getting sucked down to their doom.”

“Yeah. You just don’t see a lot in Dead End,” Eleanor agreed.

“Radioactive spiders or gamma radiation, either,” I pointed out.

Our guide whirled around, his expression filled with apprehension. “Shush! We see alotof radioactive spiders in here.”

I shushed, and the old guy led us to the center of the maze, which opened up right back onto town square. I gave himallthe cookies in my backpack when he toddled unsteadily into the fresh night air and the loud noise of Dead End.

When we heard horses’ hooves, the cookie guy looked up with interest, and then his face broke into a huge smile. “Vivi!”

For the first time since I’d met her, the autumn queen was stunned into silence. Then she jumped down off her horse, ran to the man, and threw her arms around him.

“Uncle Urgonth!”

When she finally glanced over at us, I raised an eyebrow. “Uncle?”

“It’s an odd business, and none of yours.”

Fair enough. “We won?”

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