“Oh, and there’s a white door too,” Nicole said. “I found it in the Holiday Wing.”

“Do I even want to know what that means?” Stella asked.

“I didn’t, and if I have to suffer, so do you.” Nicole laughed. “The rooms were sort of like small cubicle-type offices, but each one was decorated as a different holiday. The white door was the only one that wouldn’t open.”

Luna pressed her fingers where the doorknob would have been. She found a hole right under a cherub’s foot. A star-shaped hole. “Our keys open the door?” she whispered to herself before repeating it again, saying it louder. “Which key had the star shape on it?”

“Mine,” Nicole said, digging in her bag. When she inserted it into the hole Luna had found, a quiet pop sounded from inside the door. “Now what?”

“We have to find the next one,” Luna said, trying to feel for another indentation. Stella found the diamond-shaped hole for the owl key right between the eyes of a cherub. The next one took longer to find and was so high, Nicole had to step on her tiptoes to use the cat key.

Once the last key clicked into place, the door swung open. Silently gliding across the floor.

Just as their rooms had been decorated in a single solid color, this one had claimed muted grays—every single inch of the room, including copious amounts of skeleton-themed artwork. The birds went in first. They flew toward the center of the room, hovered for five seconds, and then crashed to the floor. Lifeless once again. Nicole scooped them up, placing them back in her box and returning the bracelets to Stella and Luna. “What is it with Jewel and cold rooms?” she said, already shivering. “I hate being cold.”

Luna said, “This is Jewel’s office. She’s made videos in here before. I recognize the pictures.”

Behind the desk, enlarged black-and-white photos, nine individual images positioned into a grid, hung on the wall. The only thing they had in common was Jewel. She appeared in every picture.

“Computer’s on,” Stella said, sitting down. The wallpaper was a close-up shot of a raven. “Password protected. Any guesses?”

“Is there a hint?” Nicole leaned in close to see the screen.

“‘Remember you are mortal’ no space,” Stella read after clicking on it. “‘For the birds’ wins again.” She typed mementomori—the computer unlocked.

Nine video files were readily available on the desktop. Nothing else.

Luna stood on Stella’s other side and said, “Too easy?”

“No,” Stella said, “I’d say consistent. The worst games are the ones where the players never stand a chance. Jewel definitely wants someone to win. There might be something else in here too. We’ll come back and search when we have more time.”

Stella clicked on the video named GWI.