How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come Tr - By Sarah Strohmeyer Page 0,35

and applied her signature with a flourish. “Indeed. We have caught our spy. A reliable informant has come forward with damning evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Marcus Blaisdel crossed from the Haunted Forest into the Forbidden Zone at eleven fifty-nine last night.”

Uh, no way. He was with Jess. Though I couldn’t exactly point this out to the Queen, not unless I wanted my cousin to automatically lose out on twenty-five thousand dollars for going up to a boy’s room after ten.

“He’s blond, though,” I said, wildly fishing. “You said the security cameras picked up someone who was slim and dark.”

“I also said those cameras malfunctioned.” The Queen folded the letter, stuffed it in the envelope, sealed it, and handed both to me. “Deliver these to Marcus and Adele. See that they read them while you wait. Then go to Wardrobe. Do me proud as Cinderella this afternoon, Zoe, and you just might end up as a princess for the remainder of the summer.”

This was all wrong. Marcus was being unfairly accused of spying, Adele had been fired for five stupid pounds, and Jess would be heartbroken when she saw that the Queen had made me Cinderella and not her.

And, worst of all, I was powerless to save any of them.

Fourteen

The rain had stopped, and the grounds crew was wiping off the benches and the rides to dry everything by opening in a half hour. As I was on my way to delivering Marcus’s and Adele’s summonses of doom, I tried to cheer myself up by thinking how happy all the little kids on their way to Fairyland would be now that the sun was out. One more reminder why it was important to keep positive and remember that this internship was the coolest of summer jobs—even if my boss was crazy.

I crossed the soggy Fiddler’s Green on my way to the boys’ dorm and, at its top floor, the Princes’ Tower, where Marcus was likely still fast asleep. I was about to wave to Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall and eating a breakfast burrito when I caught sight of Ian headed my way in his thigh-high boots.

His wavy black hair blew back in the morning breeze as his green cape whipped behind him. Were it not for the cat head under his arm, he’d have easily been mistaken for a prince.

“Ah, I see you survived okay,” he said, greeting me with a wide grin.

After our walk the night before, it felt like we were sharing a secret joke—and were simply waiting for the punch line so we could finally laugh.

“I guess I managed to avoid being attacked by fierce wild beasts, thanks to your trusty penlight.”

“That penlight’s gotten me out of many a tight spot. I still think you should have come with me to the party.”

I kept walking toward the dorms. “Yeah, how was it?”

“Awesome, if you’re into listening to princesses debate the virtues of Vaselining your teeth for faster smiles. Otherwise . . . pretty boring.” He leaned toward me. “It would have been much more fun with you there.”

This time, in the broad light of day, I was unable to hide my blush, and Ian must have noticed, because he smiled and said, “So there’s hope.”

“For what?”

He shrugged, his long legs taking lengthy strides. “We’ll see.”

“You’re weird, you know that?” I was careful to keep my head down out of fear that if I looked into his eyes, I might give myself away. “Where are you off to, anyway? You usually don’t do the morning shift.”

I winced, since that showed I’d been following his schedule like I was crushing. Which I might have been.

“Are you keeping track of my whereabouts?”

“I’m the Queen’s assistant. It’s my job.” As if.

“Then you probably know that my days of running around the park as a semipsychopathic feline with narcissistic personality tendencies have come to an end.” We stopped at the entrance to the boys’ dorm.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re looking at the newest Prince Charming.” He gave a low bow.

I dropped my jaw. “How did this happen?”

“Can’t tell you.” He zipped his lips. “However, I will say you played a part. After you told me that I was a suspected traitor, I went to the Queen, and we talked and”—he shrugged—“she promoted me to prince!”

So he was the informant!

At that moment every positive thought about Ian vanished. I could feel my heart break under the realization that he had lied about another cast member in order to get a