The smell of sawdust wasted no time crawling into Stella’s nose and mouth. She yanked a white cloth napkin from a rack filled with them and used it to cover the lower half of her face. “Born for it.” She aligned her light with Harlow’s to illuminate more space.

At the foot of the stairs, a row of giant brown barrels had been lined up on the far right. Bottles upon bottles of wine, resting at angles on wooden racks built inside the walls on the left, stretched in both directions in front of them.

“They don’t actually make the wine down here, right?” Harlow asked. “Don’t they use a factory or something?”

“I have no idea how to make wine,” she lied. “Ask someone else.”

An aircon unit whirred in the background doing its job and the absolute most. Stella shivered. She hadn’t been expecting such a drastic temperature change since the inside of the house always felt perfect.

Harlow headed for the barrels. She squatted down, nearly having to lower herself to the floor to see underneath. “Nothing here.” When she stood, her knees and hands were still clean. “Where do you think the envelope is?”

It took everything Stella had to keep a straight face. “Probably tied to that doorknob.”

“What? Where? Why didn’t you say something?”

“I was going to, but then you decided to check for monsters under the barrels and I decided to let you,” Stella said with a laugh.

“Stop wasting time.” Harlow marched to the door in question. Faded red paint clung to the split and warped wood. Carefully, she pried the wax seal on the envelope loose with her thumb and unfolded the flaps.

Twenty-six letters across the board, yes and no and numbers.

Add a planchette to help you awaken the old ones from their slumber.

Create your six questions thoughtfully, use the five W’s and how,

To find the key to unlock the wyvern’s heart, in the here and now.

Take turns seeking answers, be sure to stay patient.

When all is said and all is recorded, you’ll go back to inhumation.

Press BEGIN when you are ready. Enter the room, don’t break the circle, and remember to say goodbye.

“Another riddle?” Harlow asked, frowning. “Do you think there’s a clue in here about solving the nonsensical recipe?”

“There could be some overlap. The recipe has the word key in it, and so does this riddle. I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Stella said, deep in thought. “But let’s table that and stick with C-P-R for now. I think this”—she held up the envelope—“is specifically for what we have to do right now, during this challenge, to earn the next present, which should be a key for my wyvern.”

“That makes sense. One step at a time, then,” Harlow said, and read the riddle again. “Do you know what inhumation means?”