Page 7 of Cinder's Adventure: Get Me To the Wedding!

If Cinder should run away, go to Chapter 5.

If Cinder should tranquilize Wolf, go to Chapter 6.

Chapter 5

Gritting her teeth, Cinder forced the gun in her hand to retract the dart. This was Wolf. This was Scarlet. This was all a big misunderstanding. She was not going to fight some of her best friends.

She had decided this, with utmost determination, when Wolf sighed, somewhat apologetically, and raised the ax.

Cinder turned on her heel and ran.

She heard Scarlet’s hollers. “Get her! Stop her! Off with her head!”

Party guests screamed and scattered as Cinder barreled past. She leaped over the dessert table, just barely clearing an enormous red-and-white cake, which looked an awful lot like the wedding cake she was supposed to be eating right about now. On a whim, she scooped her finger through the frosting, hoping she might have a moment to enjoy it when she wasn’t about to die, and kept running.

On the other side, a line of rose trees dripping red paint led to the entrance of giant hedge maze. As Cinder ran, she heard more footsteps behind her. Glancing back, her breath caught.

It wasn’t just Wolf chasing her, but an entire deck of life-size cards. Diamonds and spades, hearts and clubs, pouring out from every pocket of the gardens. They wielded swords and spears and marched toward her in a relentless stream.

Cinder cried out and dove into the hedge maze, where she was immediately greeted by a choice. Left, right, left, right! She ran blindly, not stopping to think, to consider, to guess. All the while, Scarlet’s orders echoed above her.Off with her head!It was met with eerie laughter, the giggle of little girls, and somewhere in the distance—Iko.

Iko!

“You’re going to be late! Wake up, Cinder, you’re going to be late!”

“Wait!” she yelled, as the voice grew fainter in the distance. “Wait! Iko!”

“Off with her head,” chanted the cards. “Off with her head. Off with her head. Off with her—”

Suddenly, finding herself fed up with all this nonsense, Cinder stopped and spun around to face her pursuers.

The cards came to an abrupt halt at seeing her murderous expression.

Even Wolf hesitated, and Scarlet, who was not far behind, finally stopped shouting and gave a surprised little hiccup instead.

“I’ve had enough of this!” Cinder shouted. She lifted up her finger covered in white buttercream. “I am supposed to be getting married right now. I am supposed to be eating cake, not running for my life.” In an act of rebellion, she stuck the frosting into her mouth, enjoying the one decadent bite with a delightful swoon. It instantly calmed her, and made her bolder yet. “I will not be threatened by you,” she continued. As she yelled, she felt herself changing. She felt herself growing…larger.

“And you,” she went on, pointing at Wolf, “might look like a scary mutant, but you’re not a killer. If anything, you’re the biggest softie of any of us! Well, except maybe Cress.”

Slowly, Wolf let the ax drop down into the grass, his vivid green eyes flashing with emotion. “It’s like she knows my soul.”

“And you, Scarlet! Honestly!” she snapped.

Scarlet shrank back, but it was impossible to say if it was because of the tone of Cinder’s voice or because of her towering height.

“It was just a game of croquet. I thought by now you’d learned to control your temper.”

Chastised, Scarlet crossed her arms over her chest and sulked. “I don’t like losing.”

“And I don’t like being chased by a… a pack of cards!” She swiped her hand across the cards, who now stood no taller than her ankle. The cards shrieked as they were flung up into the air, only to come raining down over Cinder like a magic trick.

“And I don’t! Like! Being! Late!” she screamed.

“Cinder!Wake up!”

Cinder gasped and jerked upward.

She was sitting at a work desk. Her neck and back ached from being bent over it for too long, and her left ankle ached because… well, the cyborg foot that was attached to it was far too small.

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