The snow globe was feeling impatient, or perhaps its master was. It shook so hard a few snowflakes fluttered into Tella’s darkened room.
She tumbled off her bed with a curse.
“Why did you do that?” she said groggily, expecting to find that someone had pushed her to the floor, which was not the same floor as she remembered. She also didn’t remember getting into a bed. Her captor must have moved her while she’d slept.
The floor was soft against her cheek. Her eyes immediately flew open.
Tella looked around quickly, as if someone might appear and blindfold her again, or suddenly douse the lights. Although even at a glance, this room looked like the bright sort of place that the darkness could never leave so much as a fingerprint on.
Everything was sparkling white and gold with hints of Holiday red. The carpet she’d fallen onto was purer than snow. So was the bed she’d fallen from. It, too, was sparkling white. All marshmallow-fluff bedding, white wooden posts, and a pale gold canopy that glowed with light.
Tella’s stomach tied itself into a knot. Had her captor returned her to Scarlett’s palace? But why? Did this mean the game was over? Or had it never been a game at all?
Tella looked carefully around the room.
There were fresh white flowers on the nightstand, and the fireplace mantel was lined with more flowers. Candy-red roses in full bloom dripped down the hearth, making a flowering curtain that veiled a crackling fire.
Tella pushed up to her feet, and her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten anything since that poisoned candy star.
Thankfully there appeared to be a delicate golden tray piled high with all sorts of Holiday fare: cakes and meats, fruits and sweets, savory pies, glittering hard-boiled eggs, pastry nests full of cream custard, and a beautiful mountain of shimmering snowflake cookies.
Tella picked up a sugary cookie and took a wide bite. Her stomach was full of nervous butterflies, but the cookie was delicious.
Everything on the tray looked magnificent. She reached for a pastry nest, followed by a biscuit filled with jam and bacon, and that’s when she saw the note.
Thick, crisp black paper with elegant gold writing.
Tella briefly thought that it could not have been there before. Everything else on the tray was glitter and gold and bright Holiday colors. She would have noticed this black note straightaway. But she hadn’t, because she’d been correct to assume that it had not appeared until after she’d eaten enough to be full.
There were only three words in the message:
As soon as Tella read the word play, her heart made a tiny leap. The game wasn’t over after all. Maybe she hadn’t been wrong.
Tella glanced about the room once again, taking particular notice of the roses hanging over the fireplace, which should have made it obvious. This looked like her sister’s palace, but it wasn’t. She had been taken somewhere else.
Next to the fireplace were three packages, each wrapped in pearly white paper and a pretty red bow.
One was small. One was medium. One was large.
On top of the medium gift in the middle was another black note with more golden writing.
Tella opened up the medium box first. She tore off the wrapping, ripped off the lid, and inside she found a golden shield and a matching golden helm with little red butterflies on the side. There was a butterfly on top of the shield as well. It made her think of a dress that Legend had once gifted her. The skirt had been covered in periwinkle butterflies that he had brought to life with his magic.
She looked at the shield and the helm. But none of these butterflies moved, and once again Tella felt nervous that she might be wrong about this game.
She turned to the large box. It was an enormous rectangle, and it took both her hands to open the lid. The gown inside looked as if it were made from roses and liquid gold.
At the shoulders were two thin red straps so small that Tella imagined there wouldn’t appear to be straps at all if she put the gown on.
Tella blushed as she imagined Legend picking out this gown for her. Just below the barely there straps were clusters of red flowers that didn’t quite meet in the center, giving the dress a neckline that would dip daringly to the middle of her rib cage. There were a few more red flowers just below, and then the dress flowed out into a waterfall of golden fabric that had a provocatively high slit up the side.
Tella would have immediately chosen it for her armor, but she didn’t want to wear this dress unless it was for Legend—the real Legend. And there was one more box left to open.
The third box sat quietly to the side of the others. It was too small for clothes. She wondered if it contained a piece of jewelry. Eagerly she opened the lid, but the contents of this box did not sparkle with jewels.
Inside was a booklet.
HOW NOT TO LOSE THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE BY PANDORA LOVELESS
Tella felt a knot twist up inside her. She really hated this book. And the awful little thing was already open to the page where she had thoughtlessly underlined:
If you have doubts about whether or not he loves you, then he doesn’t. If he truly loved you, then you would have no doubts.
They were the same words her captor had read aloud to her earlier. If he were there now, she might have tossed the booklet at him. Although, it wasn’t his fault she’d been foolish enough to believe such bad advice.
Tella picked up the booklet and then did something that she should have done as soon as she’d read the first page. She tossed the volume into the fire and watched it burn.
Tella imagined that she would always be able to find a reason to have doubts about Legend’s love as long as she kept looking for them. She was quite excellent at finding what she was looking for. But now it was time to look for something else.
She picked up the red and gold dress.
After using the attached bathing room to quickly clean up and fix her atrocious hair, Tella returned to the luminous bedroom, feeling like a goddess in her golden gown as its shimmering skirts fanned out around her. A mirror hung over the fireplace, and as Tella gazed at her reflection, she had to admit, she looked spectacular. She hoped Legend thought so too. She hoped he was behind this.
“My armor is on!” she called.
The large white door to her room swung open.
She waited for Legend to step through. She gave him about two seconds, then she stepped through the doorway instead. “I’m ready to play.”
