“I also got a key, but Harlow found it. Turns out my wyvern is a cat lover.” Stella inserted her white cat key into the wyvern’s empty heart and turned. Something rectangular popped out of its head. “Ta-da! A flash drive.” She plugged it into her tablet. “Presto chango.” The screen turned white, then back to the blueprints of the map with red markings connecting some of the nearby rooms. “We think the red markings are the secret passageways.” She pointed to the wyvern. “This little guy is a map expansion.”

Luna had to take a hit of her scarf. She’d hoped they couldn’t hear her breathing. That happened sometimes. When she got too excited, she began to wheeze. She pulled her snowy owl key and codex out of her bag, showing them the chart written by hand on the pages. The left column had the name of the room. The right had a one-line clue to find a door.

“I have a guide to find the secret doors. Nicole probably has the key code to open said doors. And Stella has a map so we don’t get lost while we’re in the passageways.” Luna spoke carefully, as calmly as she could.

“Nicole’s number has exactly the same amount of digits as the one we got for our challenge,” Alex said after he finished counting. “I think you’re right. This all fits together.”

“This sucks,” Harlow said. She stood off to the side with Francis, who didn’t look nearly as irritated. Probably because he wasn’t wearing a costume. “Why didn’t we get anything? What’s the point of us being here if we don’t even get to play?”

Francis spun a top hat in his hands, saying, “Be careful what you wish for. You don’t want the Eye of Jewel upon you.”

“I made that joke earlier, thanks,” Stella said. “We don’t have time now since our tea party awaits, but we should put this to the test as soon as we can.”

“What do you think, Francis?” Nicole asked. “You’ve played before. Does that sound right?”

Luna turned to face him, eyeing him warily. She could recognize every single Golden Rule user who’d been invited to Golden Weekend. He was a stranger. A complete stranger. She didn’t even remember Jewel, Olive, or Ethan ever talking about him before.

“No. I didn’t.” Francis focused on Luna. “Stop looking at me like that. You’re tiny and terrifying, and it’s extremely jarring.”

Stella said, “Hmm, I’d go with intense over terrifying.”

Nicole said, “Wait, but you said she made you play a game.”