“We need a plan,” Alex said, moving into a sitting position in front of her. He had to duck his head in the small square-shaped space. “What did Stella say?”

“Something about calling it quits? And a royal flush?” Luna placed the cards on the floor, side by side, and then pulled up the nonsensical recipe on her tablet.

A Nonsensical Recipe for Winning

Preheat oven to 314 degrees.

Mix all colors until batter is smooth.

Pour into sweet companion molds. Set aside all but three key ingredients.

Whip two partridges until a psychopomp and circumstance forms.

Share and cut the Baker’s dozen chocolate bar into quadragrams.

In a pressure cooker, separate the royal flush with red herrings wild. Bake for seven minutes.

Serve the chocolate concoction scrambled atop a pie on a cloudy white day under a winner’s cursed crown.

“What about ‘Preheat oven to 314 degrees’? We haven’t done anything with that yet?”

Alex typed in Room 314: Location Not Found.

“That would’ve been too easy, I guess.” Luna sighed. “I didn’t expect her to make it easy, but she could at least stop doing stuff that makes me get my hopes up.”

“What about a winner’s room? A trophy room? Somewhere she would keep awards and stuff?” Alex asked, and began to check. “There’s an awards room, which has to be the most unsurprising thing of this entire weekend. Want to head there?”

“No, that doesn’t feel right.” She sighed again, shaking her head. “It doesn’t fit anything else.”

“Yeah. I think so too. It’s probably a trap. There’s easy and then there’s stupid easy.”

“The second we walk in we’ll get ambushed.” Luna grimaced. “Not really in a rush to live through that again. Even if it was fake, it was still kind of terrifying.” That memory would probably turn into yet another event hell-bent on haunting her REM cycle. “Thank you, by the way. For trying to save me.”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s funny. I don’t even remember doing it. I just moved, you know? I mean, it’s like my body knew what to do before I could even think your name.”

Luna knew what she would’ve liked to say to that but didn’t.

“It’s probably not the time, but I think it’s safe to say that I definitely love you,” Alex said.

“I figured that out a while ago.” Alex’s skeptical eyebrows shot up, and Luna gasped, “That came out wrong. Don’t say anything yet.”

Alex made a show of pressing his lips together, tucking them inside his mouth to make an impatient “I’m waiting” face.