Cinderella: Ninja Warrior (39 page)

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Authors: Maureen McGowan

Tags: #Fairy Tales & Folklore, #Juvenile Fiction, #Adaptations, #Interactive Adventures

BOOK: Cinderella: Ninja Warrior
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But he didn’t get up. Instead, he cleared his throat and looked up into her eyes.“I love you, Cinderella. I love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my being.”
“I love you, too.” Her words drifted out on a soft breath.
“Then I hope—I mean, it is my greatest wish that you will change your mind.” He was breathing heavily, almost gasping for words.
“Change my mind?” She looked at him quizzically.
He bent to kiss her fingers. “Please, Cinderella, I don’t know how I’ll survive if you won’t be my wife.”
The air trapped in her lungs and she gasped for breath. “Your wife?”
He lowered his head for a moment, and then looked up into her eyes. “It won’t be as bad as you think. It won’t always be so busy. Well, there is the little matter of my governing the kingdom after I become king, but my father is still young and healthy and I’m sure he’ll live a very long time, and I promise we’ll still be able to train as wizards and do whatever else you’ve always dreamed of doing.” He paused to catch his breath. “If you will do me the great honor of being my bride, I promise to do everything in my power to make you as happy as I know you’ll make me.”
She felt tears of joy forming in her eyes and drew in a ragged breath. “Oh, Ty. If you were going to ask me, why make me worry? Why act as if you didn’t even want to be friends anymore?”
He gripped her hands more tightly. “No, my love. No, I’m so sorry. I was just nervous that you’d turn me down.”
Her skirts rustling around her, she dropped to her knees and took his face in her hands. “ How could you ever think that?” She stopped and gave her head a sharp shake, realizing she’d been imagining crazy things, too. “I thought maybe your parents wanted you to marry someone else.”
“Someone else?” He pulled away. “Why would you think that?”
“Because of who you are, who I am. I’m no one. An orphan. A servant girl. All that stuff you said about duty. I figured you’d decided you had to marry someone better suited to being a princess and a queen.” Her entire body trembled at the thought of the huge responsibilities she faced, but a huge smile spread on Ty’s face and calmed her.
“Hey,” he said. “You still haven’t answered.”
“Yes, silly! Of course, yes!”
He held her for a moment and then took out a simple but beautiful ring. After slipping it onto her finger, he turned her hand to press his lips into her palm.“I was so afraid you’d say no. I figured you liked me better when you thought I was a servant. You’ve never seemed very keen on the idea of marrying a prince.”
Joy bubbled up inside her and burst out in a short laugh.“That’s true. The royal family can be pretty stuffy, I’ve heard.”
“Stuffy, huh?”
“Very formal. Very serious. Very pretentious.”
“Like this?” He reached forward to tickle her, and she rose to her feet. He reached for her again and then chased her to the edge of the terrace.
But she had no real intention of getting away. He caught her by the waist, spun her, and gave her the most wondrous kiss.
The stars high in the night sky flared, burned more brightly, and as Ty lifted her off the ground, she had to check to make sure they weren’t floating. Never had she felt so completely and utterly free. So completely and utterly herself.
Cinderella.
Princess.
Ty’s wife.
For the rest of their lives.
Together their magic was stronger. Together their love was stronger. Together she was stronger, and together they would live happily ever after.
Answers
 
There are eight possible routes
through this book:
1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9
1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9
1,3,4,6,7,9
1,3,4,6,8,9
1,2,5,6,7,9
1,2,5,6,8,9
1,3,5,6,7,9
1,3,5,6,8,9
 
 
sneak preview
SLEEPING BEAUTY
VAMPIRE SLAYER
S
unlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows lining the western-facing wall of the palace’s reception room. On a raised platform at its north end, Queen Catia of Xandra, two months shy of her eighteenth birthday, sat on her throne with her husband, King Stefan. Between them, their baby girl lay asleep in her fur-lined glass cradle.
Since the baby’s birth, the palace staff had worked around the clock to make the room beautiful for the princess’s naming ceremony. Bright tapestries and banners decorated the glistening marble and glass walls. Ribbons of silver and gold hung from the vaulted ceiling, waving and dancing in the light summer breeze blowing in from the open skylights. The royal guard, in their scarlet, gold, and blue uniforms, lined the room—no fewer than ten on the throne platform alone.
Yet the young queen’s shoulders were as tense as a mountain lion ready to pounce. At least there were no vampires, she said to herself.
Diplomacy demanded that the Queen of Xandra entertain the leaders of other kingdoms, but all those assembled could sense the young queen’s discomfort.
The queen turned to her sweet, raven-haired baby girl, who so clearly took after her tall and extravagantly handsome father. Even at this young age, the princess’s cheekbones were sharp, and her jaw defiant. Her big, electric-blue eyes flashed intelligence and mischief from under long, dark lashes and strong brows that commanded attention.
The fairy delegation hovered near the platform, their translucent wings acting like prisms as they passed through beams of sunlight. The fairies would grant a wish for the newborn based on what their queen saw in the child’s future. They’d been known to grant wondrous gifts, but they’d also been known to bestow gifts more akin to a curse.
The fairy queen, the smallest of the group and dressed in a shimmering ice-blue dress, flew forward until she was hovering over the cradle. Holding her hands over the baby’s head, the fairy queen closed her eyes and nodded, seemingly in a trance, and her entire body sparkled even more than it had before.
Suddenly, the fairy queen flew back from the cradle so quickly that a rush of air caught the tendrils of Queen Catia’s hair.
Everyone gasped, and Catia’s eyes widened in fear.
King Stefan leapt from his throne and strode down the steps toward the fairy queen. “What is it? Tell me, what did you see?”
Still hovering in the air, the fairy queen’s body paled to the point where she was nearly translucent, then she laid her hands on his shoulders. “Stefan, King of Xandra, my friend and descendant of my old friends now passed, I see many shadows in your young daughter’s future. Loneliness, darkness, and danger.”
Queen Catia rose, lifted her baby from the cradle, and, holding her tightly, went to stand at her husband’s side. “Darkness? Danger? What do you mean?”
Color had returned to the fairy’s skin and she radiated pale blue.“My young queen, the danger’s source isn’t clear, nor its duration.” She turned to the king.“I was planning to grant this child grace of movement, but I’m changing my gift.” The fairy raised her hands above the baby.
“To symbolize light,” the fairy said, “I grant this baby girl the name Lucette. May this name lead the princess out of the darkness she will encounter.”
Queen Catia pulled the baby back from the fairy queen. “We’re naming her Rose.” Rose, for Catia’s favorite flower. Rose, for the acres of gardens her husband had planted as a wedding gift last year. Rose because it was a beautiful bloom that could also protect and defend itself. Given the name Rose, her daughter would be both beautiful and strong.
King Stefan laid his hand on his wife’s arm. “Darling, Lucette is a lovely name.” He leaned down and whispered, “And it’s not smart to decline a fairy queen’s gift.” Growing up in the country, his young queen had much to learn about other cultures.
The queen opened her mouth to protest, but before she could speak, a shadow fell, as if the sun had been covered by storm clouds, and an icy cold rushed into the room. The king wrapped his arms around his wife and child.
One of the wall-sized windows at the side of the reception hall shattered.
Everyone screamed and ducked as shards of glass burst into the room. Natasha, newly crowned Queen of the Vampires, burst into the room through the broken window. Nearly six feet tall, the vampire queen’s rich red hair flowed and her skin shone as if it were cast from porcelain, providing a stark contrast to the shiny black stone that hung at her throat. Turning toward the royal couple, her yellow-flecked eyes flashed hatred. Crossing the room, Natasha’s hair flowed around her, as if she held the wind at her command.
“But—it’s daytime,” Queen Catia blurted. “How can this vile creature walk in the daylight?”
What the young queen did not know was the black stone at the vampire’s throat was magic and granted its wearer many powers beyond those of a normal vampire. The vampires of Sanguinia had stolen the Stone of Supremacy from the fairies over a thousand years ago.
Queen Natasha stepped forward and the satin of her low-cut red dress swished around her legs, flowing over the floor like pools of blood spreading across the marble. “Handsome as ever, Stefan,” she said to the king.
“Hello, Natasha,” King Stefan said. “I was saddened by the news of Vlad’s death.” King Vladimir had mysteriously died just weeks earlier, many suspected at his own wife’s hands.
“Thank you, Stefan,” the vampire queen said. “I wanted to invite you all to the funeral.” She gestured around the room. “But in deep mourning, I couldn’t bring myself to entertain guests.” The vampire stepped up and leaned in to embrace him and peered over the king’s shoulder toward his young wife. She bared her fangs dangerously close to the king’s neck, but instead of biting, she turned and kissed King Stefan on the mouth. A small cry burst from his young wife, but she remained frozen in fear.
Natasha stepped away from the king and continued to leer at Queen Catia, her eyes filled with hatred.
“Go away!” Catia yelled. “You’re not welcome here! You weren’t invited!”
King Stefan spun toward his wife. “Catia?” The king’s shock and hurt were obvious in his voice and expression, for his wife had lied and claimed the vampire delegation from Sanguinia had declined to attend, when in fact she’d burned their invitations.

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