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“The final challenge starts here,” Brando said. “In order to claim success, you’ll need to provide me with two names prior to dinner cocktails, which will begin promptly in the lounge at six thirty this evening.”

“Give you the two names of what?” Slash asked.

“That’s for you to determine,” Brando responded. “In addition, the attire for cocktails and dinner is formal, as we are expecting additional guests. Please be sure to give yourself time to solve the challenge and clothe yourself appropriately. From this point on, I’ll not take any further questions. Be advised you’re free to roam anywhere in the castle or on the island, except for the kitchen and the staff’s quarters on the upper floor, in pursuit of the answer to the final escape room challenge. I wish you the greatest success.”

We all stared at him in disbelief as he exited the room.

“Wait. What just happened?” Stefan asked. “What’s the challenge? What does that mean, we have to provide him with two names? Whose two names?”

I was as stunned as everyone else. I had no idea. Slash and I looked at each other uneasily.

“Well, that was unsettling,” Mom said. “Here, team, solve a puzzle, but we’re not going to tell you what the puzzle is.”

“That’s bizarre,” Gio burst out. “He didn’t explain the challenge at all. How do we form a strategy if we don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing?”

“Excellent question, Gio,” Dad said. “I don’t know how the gamemaster expects us to solve an escape room if we don’t know what the point of the challenge is. We don’t even know where to start.”

“Yes, we do,” Slash said, putting his hands on the marble table. “We start here. The gamemaster brought us here for a reason.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

Lexi Carmichael

We all looked at Slash expectantly, but he didn’t explain further.

“But how do we get started?” Oscar asked. “How do we solve a puzzle if we don’t know what the puzzle is?”

“We figure it out,” I said. “That’s part of the challenge. We need to determine what the puzzle is and how we solve it.”

“So, we just work as if there are no rules?” Alessa asked.

“Therearerules,” Tito said. “Well, at least two. We must finish before cocktails at six thirty, and we can go anywhere in the castle or on the island, except for the kitchen and the staff quarters, to get the answers we need. And, apparently, the answer is two names.”

“What does any of this mean?” Mia moaned. “Names of what?”

I held up a hand, stopping any further questions. “None of us know the answers to these questions, no matter how important they are. Let’s just start with this table and work outward. Perhaps as we figure out a few things, the challenge will become clearer.”

“I like that plan, Lexi,” Father Armando said, smiling at me and putting a hand on my shoulder. “One thing that leaped to my mind as soon as we walked through the door is that this room looks and feels like a planetarium.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I thought the same thing.”

“The room is kind of dark and the walls and ceiling look like they have stars,” Vittoria said.

“Those gold discs are the same style the gamemaster presented us with after every challenge,” my mom said. “And they have numbers etched on them, just like the ones we received. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“The gamemaster did say we might need the discs we won,” Gio said. “But I didn’t bring mine. I left it our room.”

“Let’s go get them,” Alessa suggested. “Mine’s in my room as well.”

“Alessa is right,” I said. “Let’s bring all the golden discs we won from the challenges here. Everyone who has one, go get it.”

Since I had the disc from the maze, I quickly returned to my room and retrieved it. Within minutes, those of us who’d gone to get the discs had reassembled in the planetarium and carefully laid them out next to each other on one end of the marble table.

In the meantime, Slash, Father Armando, Vittoria, Oscar, and my dad stood at the center of the table on one side, pointing at something on the stone device and having a deep discussion. Stefan and Tito were on the other side, arguing and adding commentary.

“Lexi, come here, please,” Slash said, waving me over.

My dad made room for me to stand next to Slash. I realized for the first time the table was longer than it was wide, although it was easily the width of the banquet table in the dining room. The statues of the naked men who supported the table left the giant ring device in the center easily accessible from both sides.