CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Twenty

[ELLE's PoV]

The amount of nerds willing to stand outside a New York City convention center in mid December was concerning. And the amount of said nerds willing to do so in skimpy cosplay made me wonder if I had missed a memo somewhere. Like, was removing your nerve-endings part of some induction into nerdhood that I'd missed?

At least I'd ordered my tickets online, because while the line to get into the convention was bad, the line to get last minute tickets was a million times worse. A girl across from me in a Princess Leia bikini was starting to turn blue.

Marc stood next to me, swishing his cape and drinking a slushie. Clearly, he'd participated in the ritual of nerve-ending removal. He wasn't even shivering when he smiled over at me. "Is a convention like a ball?"

"Do you have costume parties in the Shadow Realm?"

"Sometimes!" Marc nodded. "Faye's seventeenth birthday party involved costumes. But I was only ten at the time, so I don't remember much."

I frowned. "Faye as in your Magicarp?"

"No, Faye as in the mermaid I named my Magicarp after, obviously."

"Yes, obviously."

Then Marc frowned. "Aw, that just reminded me, I'm gonna miss her party this year. Faye always has the best birthdays. For her twenty-second birthday, Inari and Emrys planned..."

I wanted to listen to Marc's story, I really did, but I was such a bundle of panicked energy that everything he said went in one ear and right out the other.

I was minutes away from meeting Jared Frobisher—the Jared Frobisher—writer, character designer, and director of Shadows of Light, the greatest RPG to have ever been released. And upon meeting him, I was going to ask him how to get inside his game world for real, because that's where my best friend in the whole entire universe was trapped.

Yeah. That was gonna go over just fine.

The line ahead of me finally started to move above a snails pace, and within a few frantic heartbeats Marc and I were inside the convention center. I grabbed his arm with one hand, scooped up the hem of my obnoxious gown with the other, and booked it to the Dark Reckonings panel.

After Marc told me that the real Queen Amaranth of Lumina wasn't white, I obviously had to cosplay her. Though now that I was in the full, glittering ballgown and trying to move quickly through a crowd, I was filled with much regret.

"I should have just cosplayed a knight," I muttered. At least then I'd be in pants.

"Dresses look good on you, Estelle." Marc smiled.

I shot him a glare. Ever since he'd gotten ahold of my driver's license and seen my full name, that's all he's called me. "Elle, please. Estelle is almost as bad as 'Demon Woman.'"

"What about Lady Estelle: Demon Warrior?" He offered, still grinning broadly.

"I'm not going to acknowledge that," I answered quickly, although I had to admit it did sound kinda badass. Well, no. I didn't have to admit. And I wasn't going to. "Call me Elle or you're dead to me for the rest of the week."

Marc pouted. "You're no fun."

My heart dropped to my feet when we reached the DR panel. The room was full to bursting.

"What are we going to do now?" Marc asked, gaping at the crowd.

"Push through with confidence." I took a deep breath and released his arm to hold my skirt with both arms. I charged forward, head high. "Queen of Lumina, coming through! Make way!"