by Alicia Rades
My gaze darted to where the tunnel had just been, but instead of finding it where I expected, it had moved. Even though Mother Maggot and I had changed directions, my escape tunnel was still on the opposite side of her.
Which only meant one thing. The labyrinth wanted a show.
I couldn’t help but let out a low laugh. It was probably mostly because I was tired and hungry and a bit on the loopy side, but it felt damn good to laugh. “You’re on.”
Mother Maggot was already rising up again. I jumped forward and leapt onto her back. She was slippery, but her skin had ridges that I could hold on to. Pulling back my arm, I jabbed my fork into her skin. It did nothing but bounce off of her.
Okay…
Mother Maggot began thrashing her body from side to side, trying to throw me off of her. I held on tighter. In a last-ditch effort, she threw herself to the ground. The impact shook her whole body, and I could no longer hold on. I fell into a pile of baby maggots. Before I could jump back to my feet, Mother Maggot’s body came into view. She was rolling over, and she was going to squash me!
I ignored the baby maggots and scrambled to my feet, digging them into the ground and diving out of the way. I just barely missed being pinned beneath her body. Glancing around for a weapon, I grabbed the closest thing my fingers could find—one of the flaming candles. Just as I turned around to use it on her, Mother Maggot’s legs clamped around me.
I screamed in surprise as she lifted me into the air, but she squeezed me so tightly that my scream was cut off within a second. I lifted the candle to burn the closest area of flesh I could find, which happened to be one of her legs.
Mother Maggot cried out in pain, sounding a lot like a whale in labor—not that I was exactly familiar with that sound. She loosened the one leg and snapped her jaws at me again. My arm slipped free, and I jabbed the candle straight into her face between where I guessed her eyes would be.
She stumbled backward, loosening her grip on me just enough that I could get my hands on one of her legs and twist as hard as I could. The cry only grew louder, and her hold on me weakened, but she didn’t let me go. Mother Maggot stumbled and twisted, until we both went crashing into the cave wall. She caught herself with her top legs, but it wasn’t enough to keep the air from knocking out of my lungs.
As I sucked in deep breaths, my eyes fell upon the huge rock pile beside us. Just before she could right herself, I reached out and grabbed the closest rock I could find. To my surprise, it was a sharp, pointed rock. Just what I needed.
I smiled cunningly. Mother Maggot lowered her jaw, aiming her open mouth at my head. Now that I had my lucky rock, I wasn’t even worried. I drew my arm back and plunged that sucker straight into her chest.
A high-pitched shriek echoed off the cave walls. She finally let me go, but I held on to that rock with dear life as I dropped to the ground. It sliced through her all the way down. Guts spilled onto the cave floor, covering me in a fresh layer of goop.
But I didn’t care. Mother Maggot’s body slumped against the rock pile. I was free. I smiled triumphantly, but I didn’t stick around to revel in the victory. I dropped my rock and whirled around, sprinting straight for the tunnel before it could move again. I didn’t slow down until I knew the room of rotten nightmares was far behind me.
When the light from the room faded and the tunnel was covered in pitch blackness again, I finally slowed. I took a knee to catch my breath and turned my headlamp back on. Now that that nightmare was over, I needed to figure something out—and fast. Frankly, I was already sick of this labyrinth and its little mind games. If I didn’t learn how to play this game to my favor, I’d be trapped here forever.
The earth rumbled beneath me, and my eyes instantly darted around the tunnel. My heart hammered violently as I shot to my feet. If I thought Mother Maggot was bad, it was nothing compared to this. The cave walls were inching closer and closer together, the space around me shrinking right before my eyes like some sort of Scooby-Doo boobytrap shit.
My time to play my cards had run out. If I didn’t figure out my move in the next twenty seconds, the labyrinth was going to crush me.
19
Sondra’s words echoed in my head. If you do end up victim of the labyrinth, I suggest you find a way to turn your thoughts around.
How the heck was I supposed to turn my thoughts around? Panic settled in as my headlamp hit a rocky ceiling that was closing in on me inch by inch each passing second.
Run, instinct told me, but there was nowhere to go. The whole tunnel was shrinking, with no way out.
“No, no, no, no,” I cried as I reached my hands to either side of the tunnel. Both of my hands touched rock, and I locked my elbows as if I could hold the rock back. Even with my super shifter strength, I couldn’t hold back the freaking earth.
So instead, I closed my eyes, plugged my ears with my fingers, and squatted down, curling into a ball. All I needed was to take my mind off of the shrinking tunnel. The labyrinth reflected my thoughts and worries back on me, right? I just had to stop worrying.
Shit! This is hard.
My mind flickered through thought after thought as I forced myself to ignore the impending danger surrounding me. Venn, Jenna, Fiona, ice cream, spell books, vampires, venom…
Why the heck were these the first things to flicker through my mind? This wasn’t working!
It was like trying to wish away the monster under my bed as a kid…
And that’s when it struck me. That was all this labyrinth was. A maze of monsters of my own making. And there was only one way to get rid of the monsters.
I began singing. Though it was horribly off key, my mind slipped back to a memory I hadn’t recalled in years. My mother sat on the side of my bed, running her fingers through my hair while I held the edge of the blanket up past my nose. Her beautiful voice filled my bedroom.
The full moon is shining
The stars glitter above
The wind whispers softly
Goodnight, my love
I repeated the lullaby again, rocking back and forth ever so slightly as the melody filled my heart and made me think of home. All my fears flashed across my eyelids in a split second: getting crushed to death here in this cave, standing in front of Jenna’s gravestone if I ever made it out of here, hearing Venn tell me the family didn’t want me around anymore, getting bit by a vampire and waking up with silver eyes and a thirst for blood…
But I pushed all of those fears away as the memory of my mother’s eyes overshadowed them. I thought of my dad’s tight hugs and the way he would tickle my feet to cheer me up, even when I was a teen and refused to smile for him. One time, Jenna joined in and they tickled me so hard that I kicked her in the face and she had to go to the emergency room. It turned out her nose wasn’t broken, so Dad took us both out for ice cream afterward to celebrate her “miraculous recovery.”
A tear fell down my cheek as I continued singing the lullaby. Not because I was scared anymore, but because I missed those times with my family. I missed them so badly it hurt. The best I could do now was be thankful for what little time I had with them and never let their memory die.
I am strong. I am resilient. I will make it out of here.
As the last line of the lullaby passed my lips another time, I suddenly realized that the walls of the cave should’ve crushed me by now. Slowly, I lifted my head and peeled my eyes open. A sigh of relief whooshed out of my lungs when I saw that the tunnel had widened back to its original size. I let out a nervous half-cry, half-laugh.
“Thank you!” I shouted to the labyrinth. I rushed over to the wall of the cave and kissed it. “Thank you for not crushing me!”
I started down the tunnel, feeling hopeful about what was at the end of it. Sondra had said I needed to find something that would work for me to calm me down to perform magic. I was pretty sure the lullaby from my childhood was it. Which was weird because I couldn’t sing worth a damn, but hey, if it kept me from getting crushed in a booby-trapped t
unnel, I was all for it.
“Okay, labyrinth,” I said aloud. My voice echoed down the tunnel. “I’ve almost drowned, fought off your mongrels, got lost for hours, faced one of my worst nightmares, and just survived almost being crushed to death. I don’t give up that easily. Bring on your next move! I’ll take on whatever you’ve got until I find that artifact.”
As if in answer, my headlamp caught a dark, open cavern ahead. I couldn’t see what lay beyond the opening, but I rushed forward to find out. The closer I came to it, the more I could feel the energy from a strong enchantment buzzing through the air. Whatever was in there was powerful. I slowed when I reached the end of the tunnel.
As soon as I stepped into the room, a thousand candles lining the rocky walls lit up, as if I’d set off a motion sensor. I drew in a breath as my eyes spanned the cave. It wasn’t huge, perhaps the size of a large bedroom, but the ceiling stretched up at least fifty feet above my head. The only way out was through the tunnel behind me. Layers upon layers of rock jutted out from the walls, creating flat surfaces for the candles to sit.
In the middle of it all stood a naturally formed rock pedestal. On top of that was the object radiating the magic I felt in the tunnel.
Sapiens noctua. The Wise Owl.
It wasn’t like the marble carving in the Genevieve’s test. It was an honest-to-God real owl skull. I stepped closer to it and reached out my hand cautiously, as if I thought it might burn me. As soon as my fingers clamped around the skull, a jolt of magic shot through me like a lightning bolt.
I crumbled to my knees, and though I was pretty sure I let out a cry, I couldn’t process it. Magic pulsed through me at all angles like I was standing between two massive stereo speakers at high volume. It didn’t hurt, really, but it was uncomfortable and overwhelming. The power I felt rushing through the Artifact was ten times that of what I felt in Genevieve’s test.
Somewhere through my clouded mind, my thoughts broke through. Do something, Rachel.
What did I mean? What was I supposed to do?
Focus.
“The full moon is shining…” I started, but the words fell from my mind as the magic intensified, pulsing stronger through my body.
Shit. Where was I? What’s going on?
I barely remembered I was in the cave at all. It felt like I was in a billion different places at once—that I was a billion different people with a billion different thoughts racing through my head. I couldn’t differentiate my own thoughts from all the other voices whispering in my mind. A single thought stuck out in the sea of noise.
Control it!
This power was too much. If I didn’t push back, it was going to rip me apart.
Except… how did I control it? I was only a low witch. I didn’t have this kind of power.
You do. Everyone keeps telling you that you’re more powerful than you think. It’s time to start believing it.
“Gah!” I screamed as the magic pushed in on me, as if trying to crush me.
So much power. You could do anything. Be anything.
Yeah, another voice countered. You could be dead.
That thought immediately made me more alert, pushing all the other voices to the back of my mind. I was looking into the heart of Synchrony. Surely with the power to flip the switch on anyone’s magic, I could find a way to dull my own, to control it.
But before I do…
I knew it was stupid of me to dive deeper, but the temptation was too great. Even if it killed me, I had to know.
I sifted through the voices, through the energy signatures I now had access to. I flipped through them faster than a computer could process data, searching for the one that was most familiar to me after my own.
Her energy felt like velvet and smelled of sweet apples. There was a roughness around the edges that I was unfamiliar with, but there was no doubt it was her. A sensation that felt a lot like my own shifter magic tingled through me, and an image of Jenna’s face flickered across my closed lids.
She’s alive.
That was all I needed from the Artifact. I had no desire to control the rest of its power, and so I pushed it away. It was like trying to push a thousand-ton boulder off a cliff, but slowly and surely, the power eased, and the voices softened. They were still there, but they were like whispers behind the brick wall I’d built in my mind.
I forced my eyes open. The cave floor swam in front of me, but my knees felt steady on the ground.
And then the sound of clapping met my ears. My heart leapt into my throat. I whirled around, my hands already curled into fists in front of me. The last person I expected to see stepped out from the shadows of the tunnel and into the candlelight.
Matias Vayne.
20
Matias looked exactly like he had the first time I saw him, all suited up with perfect hair and that damn attractive jawline. It’s just another trick, I told myself.
“Well done, Rachel,” he said, stepping further into the room.
“Nice one,” I said, rolling my eyes. “But I’m not scared of this dude.” I eyed him up and down. Even if he were really here, I figured I’d stand a chance against him.
Matias’s eyebrows shot up. “You think I’m a hallucination? A part of the enchantment put on these caves?”
He took another step forward. I planted my feet firmly in place, leveling him with a challenging gaze.
“You are, aren’t you?” I accused.
Matias gestured to himself. “I’m as real as they get, sweetheart. You know, the funny thing about these caves is that you can never quite tell which parts are real and which ones are only in your head. The mongrels, for example… those bastards will kill you. The rest… well, that’s just for fun.”
“And which are you?” I asked coolly. “Are you just for fun, or are you the killing type?”
Matias took another step forward but turned to a candle beside him. He ran his fingers across the top of the flame, as if he needed something to do with his hands. He laughed lightly. “We can have fun if you’re in to that, but I assure you this is not the killing kind of visit.”
He was so wrong. He was a vampire. Vampire visits were always the killing kind. Not to mention that he wanted the Artifact, which I was bound and determined to destroy, and he was standing between me and my only chance of escape. I only had one choice.
“Yeah, well,” I countered, “it’s the killing kind of visit for me.”
I lunged forward, intending to clip him in the jaw, but he reacted quickly and dodged out of the way. The bastard was smart and kept himself between me and the tunnel, ensuring I couldn’t just turn around and run. So I aimed a foot at him instead. He let out a grunt as my heel connected with his abdomen. In the blink of an eye, his hands shot out and clamped around my ankle before I could get it out of his reach. He squeezed tightly and twisted. I let the momentum take me, grabbing on to one of the long candles on the ledge behind me as I spun. My other foot connected with his cheek as I went crashing to the ground. He smirked in satisfaction when he saw me lying there, but it only lasted a split-second before I shoved the burning candle up into his face.
He reeled backward, giving me just enough time to jump to my feet. Clutching the Artifact in one hand, I rushed toward the tunnel. He had a hold of my wrist in under a second, and he whirled me around until he was between me and the tunnel again. I swung my knee up hard, sinking my knee into his royal jewels.
Damn, that was satisfying.
The vamp was too focused on baring his fangs at me to even flinch.
Seeing as I didn’t have a weapon handy, I did the only other thing I could think of. I shifted, abandoning my backpack, and scooped up the owl skull with my talons. I flew high above his head and swooped down toward the tunnel. He spun away from me and raced toward the rock ledges, using them to gain height. Before I made it to tunnel, he was soaring through the air, reaching for me.
His hands caught my leg and tugged at my lower feathers as he dragged me out of the air and whippe
d me across the room. My body slammed into the rock walls, and The Wise Owl fell from my talons.
I shifted back to human form and grabbed the skull before he could get to it. I breathed heavily as I took a defensive stance. I kept my eyes on him, but I focused on my peripheral vision, hoping to spot a loose rock or something to use against him.
And then I realized… I was holding one of the most powerful objects in existence in my hand. I could just flip the switch on his vampire magic that was keeping him alive and kill him. Right? Was that how it worked? No harm in trying it.
“I just want to talk,” he said, holding out a hand as if trying to reason with a wild dog.
“About what?” I demanded. “How can I even be sure you’re real?”
Matias relaxed, standing straighter. “Do you really think I’d be anywhere else, that I wouldn’t have found you?”
I hesitated. “I don’t know how you did. The locket only works when—”
“Pfft,” Matias scoffed. “I wasn’t talking about the locket. I had eyes on you the whole time. As soon as I received the locket and saw that you were going after the Artifact, I sent my men after you. But my men you attacked on the street weren’t the only ones watching.”
I searched for his energy signature while he spoke, but his words halted me in my tracks. Now he had me intrigued.
“You let Sondra overhear you, knowing she’d find it?” I guessed.
Matias nodded. “I had a hunch. She always was easy to manipulate. I needed a witch who could find these caves and open the passageway. Luckily for me, you did all the work; I just had to follow and make sure you didn’t turn back.”
I drew in a sharp breath, though I tried not to let it show. “You’re the reason the entrance caved in, aren’t you?”
Matias smirked. “Guilty. I couldn’t have you giving up when you were so close.”