I ran down the path and grabbed it before I could overthink it. I held my breath, waiting for something terrible to happen. But nothing did.
Okay, I thought. You’re fine. Totally fine. It’s just a key. It’s not going to hurt you.
I examined it, trying to find some sort of clue about what to use it for. But there was nothing.
Looked like I’d have to keep exploring the labyrinth.
Holding onto the key, I ran through the passages, continuing with my plan to always go right. No animals approached me, no butterflies landed on me, and I didn’t come across any gardens or food. The dark maze was utterly and completely dead.
I had no sense of where I was. But just when I was thinking about retracing my steps, I turned into a dead end that led straight to a steel gray door embedded in the trees. The door was slightly taller than me, and rounded at the top. Twisted, dead vines grew on the gnarled branches around it. And a big keyhole was right above the handle.
I ran forward and shoved my key inside of it. But when I tried to turn it, it didn’t budge.
Of course it didn’t. The key was Octavia’s color, and the door was Julian’s color. I probably needed a matching key to open the door. And I didn’t know where the doors would lead, but I’d feel much more comfortable testing it out by going through Julian’s door than through Octavia’s.
Why do I even need a key? I thought, my electricity humming through my veins. I can use my magic to blast the door open.
I raised my other hand and shot an explosive bolt of lightning at the door.
The wood charred, but didn’t break. So I shot another bolt, holding it and putting more magic into it. Again, it left only a dark, charred circle in its wake.
Frustration raged through me, and I shot another bolt at the thick wall of branches above the door. If I couldn’t break through the door, maybe I could break through the wall.
Another charred circle.
I was wasting time.
I needed to find Julian’s key.
I exited the dead end and continued keeping right as I ran through the maze. Unlike the previous maze, the walls weren’t shifting in this one. My strategy of staying to the right should have been working. But it felt like it was taking forever.
Finally, I came across another dead end with a key. A steel gray key.
I ran forward and grabbed it. The moment I did, the ocean blue key disappeared from my hand and re-appeared where the gray one had been floating. I reached for the blue key, and the gray key took its spot again.
I could only hold onto one key at a time.
So I grabbed Julian’s key again. Octavia’s took its place, and I headed out of the dead end.
If I’d gotten to Julian’s key by always turning right, then I should be able to find his door again by only turning left.
I kept to the left and ran faster, ready to open Julian’s door and discover what was behind it. Hopefully, it would be him. Then we could team up and take down Octavia together.
Finally, I reached the dead end.
The door in front of me was ocean blue. And it had a charred circle above it.
I was in the same place as before. But the doors had moved.
I looked down at Julian’s key in my hand, knowing it wouldn’t open Octavia’s door. I tried anyway, and sure enough, it didn’t budge.
Crap. Crap, crap, crap.
Wind whipped around me as I stared at the door. If I hated mazes before, I despised them now.
But angrily standing there wasn’t getting me any closer to unlocking Julian’s door. So, key in hand, I ran forward. This time, I took whichever path I wanted. I ran and ran and ran, but everything blended together. I was sweating now, more lost and frustrated than ever. The walls felt like they were closing in around me. The paths all looked the same, and none of them were leading me anywhere. Worse, I was close to positive that I’d been running through the same passages over and over. And given that I’d yet to run into either Octavia or Julian, I suspected I could only find them by opening one of those damn doors.
I shot another angry bolt at the wall, leaving a black circle behind.
And then, I felt like the biggest idiot in the world.
Because I could sporadically char the walls to mark where I’d been. Like Hansel and Gretel leaving breadcrumbs to mark their path.
Refreshed by the new idea, I continued running, shooting bolts at the walls. I finally felt like I was onto something.
Then I ended up back at the place where Octavia’s key floated in the air.
I shot a bolt at the wall above the key. It would have been so satisfying to blow the key to smithereens, but I’d learned my lesson with the orbs on the first day of the Games.
That felt like ages ago. I hadn’t come this far to be eliminated now.
So I picked myself back up and kept going.
Finally, after I was pretty sure I’d exhausted every possible path, I found it.
Julian’s door.
I shoved the key into the lock, turned it, and opened the door. I was greeted with a wall of thick, hazy gray fog. I squinted and tried to see through it, but I couldn’t make out a thing.
I glanced over my shoulder. No way was I going to keep running around in circles in that awful maze.
But what if this was a trick? What if, by going through Julian’s door, I’d somehow end up pitting myself against him?
I had no idea. But Julian’s door felt safer than Octavia’s. It felt right. Plus, it had taken me forever to get there with the right key. If I turned around, who knew how long it would take me to find Octavia’s key again and make it to her door?
Julian and Octavia could already be fighting each other while I was lost in the maze, asking myself questions I couldn’t answer.
Wind whooshed past my ears. Go, I could almost hear it whisper.
So I gathered my magic in my hands, kept my eyes straight ahead, and stepped into the steel gray mist.
44
Selena
Julian and Octavia were fighting in a ring lined with the brown, twisted walls from the maze. We were right in the center of the arena, and the crowd had reappeared around us. They were clapping and cheering, but I couldn’t hear them.
There were so many footsteps on the wet, muddy ground that I assumed the two of them had been at it for a while.
They were fighting similarly to how they had in the Minotaur competition. But unlike then, they weren’t holding back. Octavia was attacking with water and ice, while Julian held her off with a sword and a shield. She was fast, but he was faster. Her icicles shattered and melted against his impossibly strong weapons. Once used, the water evaporated, returning to the air she’d drawn it from.
They were close enough together that I couldn’t shoot lightning at her without risking Julian getting caught in the crossfire. That was the hardest part of fighting two against one. Attacking your opponent without accidentally landing a blow on your teammate.
Julian continued fending off her attacks, but he couldn’t get close enough for a killing blow. Sweat dampened Octavia’s hairline. Julian looked like he could go at it all day. By letting her constantly be on the attack, he was wearing her down.
It wouldn’t be long before she slowed enough for him to finish her off.
Finally, she saw me. She held one palm out to face me, the other out to Julian, and shot forceful streams of water at both of us.
Julian blocked it with his shield.
I held out my hands and shot my lightning down to the ground, creating a ring of electricity around me.
Her water sizzled and evaporated on contact.
She continued attacking both of us at once, but we deflected everything she threw at us. And now that she was splitting her efforts, Julian was moving in on her.
Wind whipped around me, and thunder rumbled in the sky. With each burst of water and ice that Octavia threw at me, the electric ring around me grew.
But Julian was only a sword’s length away from d
riving his blade through her heart. So she had no choice but to turn all her efforts to defending herself against him.
She protected her chest against his sword with a shield of ice, snarling as he used his shield to deflect the water shooting out of her other hand. Hate raged in her eyes. The same hate as when she’d tortured and killed Cassia.
My body thrummed with magic, the pressure of it intensifying and pushing out against my skin. It didn’t want to be contained. No—I didn’t want to keep it contained.
I screamed and raised my hands in the air. My ring of electricity grew into a dome. And there was still so much magic inside of me. It sizzled and popped, begging to be released.
Octavia was right to fear me from the beginning.
But if I let my magic loose now, it wouldn’t only be Octavia who suffered.
“Julian!” I called, creating an opening in my electric dome.
Octavia’s ice shield was cracking. Julian was moments away from killing her. But he must have seen something in my eyes, because he threw his shield against her magic with so much strength that it forced past her water stream, crashed into her, and slammed her against the wall.
Sword in hand, he ran and joined me inside the dome before she had a chance to get up.
I sealed the door the moment he was in.
“Selena,” he said, and he reached forward, stopping inches away from my glowing skin. “What are you—”
I didn’t hear the rest of his question.
Because I raised my palms to the sky, and electricity exploded out of me like an atomic bomb. The ground was soaked with the remnants of Octavia’s water, and my lightning fed on it, eating up everything in its path.
The bright white light was blinding. Thunder boomed so loudly that the ground shook. A tornado of wind whipped my hair across my cheeks. The sharp smell of smoke consuming wood filled the air.
The light flashed out, and everything stilled.
Exhaustion weighed down my body. Depleted of energy, I fell to my knees and dropped my hands to the ground. Julian kneeled down next to me and wrapped his arms around me, holding me up as I surveyed my surroundings.
All that remained of Octavia was a pile of ash. The ring where we’d been fighting was charred black, and the labyrinth was gone. Disintegrated into mounds of ash. The only untouched place on the arena floor was the small circle around Julian and me.
Flakes of ash floated down onto my cheeks and hair. I looked up, and saw that the canopy ceiling of the Coliseum was gone as well. Burned.
The crowd was stunned into silence. Many of the fae held their hands in the air, their magic joined together to create a rainbow barrier that extended over everyone in the audience. Even over the half-bloods.
I’d focused my magic on the arena floor and up at the sky, purposefully keeping it away from the crowd. I was relieved that it had worked, or at least that the fae were able to protect themselves. Because most of the fae out there weren’t responsible for the existence of the Games. And if my instinct was right, their bloodlust was influenced by Bacchus’s magic. Plus, there were children out there, and half-bloods, too. Julian’s family—who were now my family—was out there.
I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if anyone in the crowd had died because of me. And while I’d been forced to kill in the Faerie Games to keep myself and Julian alive, Bridget, Felix, and Octavia’s deaths would weigh on my conscience forever.
The fae must have realized I wasn’t a danger now that I was a crumpled mess on the ground, because they slowly lowered their shields until the rainbow barrier was gone.
With the barrier gone, ash floated down upon them, too. They looked up at it in wonder. They clearly hadn’t expected that much magic from a half-blood—even from one that was a chosen champion.
Still trying to catch my breath, I buried myself deeper in Julian’s arms. But I didn’t turn my face away from the crowd. All I could hear was Julian’s steady breathing, and his heart racing in his chest. Except for the ash floating down from the sky, everything was still.
Then, Bacchus circled his chariot overhead. “Octavia—the chosen champion of Neptune—has been defeated!” His cheery voice filled the arena, out of place in the eerie silence. “Her soul is on its way to Elysium, where she’ll be honored as a goddess for all eternity. May her crossing to the Underworld be a peaceful one!”
The fae slowly turned their attention back to the god. “May her crossing to the Underworld be a peaceful one,” a few of them said, followed by the rest of them. But they were far less excited than before.
Bacchus looked around, troubled. “More wine!” he said with a forced laugh. He raised his scepter, and honey wine rained down.
The fae who caught it looked into their glasses in disgust. None of them drank.
I assumed the wine had been polluted with ash.
Bacchus frowned and lowered his scepter. “But we’re not done yet!” he said. “Who’s ready to see our final two fight, and this year’s winning champion rise?!”
The first few rows of fae cheered. And then, like it was contagious, the rest of the audience cheered, too. The only ones not cheering were Julian’s family and Empress Sorcha.
Julian held me tighter. “Can you stand?” he murmured in my ear.
“Yes,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure. My muscles ached, like after pushing myself too hard in a training session.
But I fought the pain and forced myself up, grateful for Julian’s help. I kept my eyes locked on his the entire time. The ash streaked his face like war paint, and I hoped I looked as fierce as he did.
Once we were standing, he kept an arm firmly around my waist and looked straight up at Bacchus. “We love each other,” he said to the god. “And no matter what you might say to us, or what you might do to us, we won’t raise a hand against each other.”
Some people in the crowd laughed. Some clapped. Others were silent.
“So it’s going to be one of those finales.” Bacchus sighed and glanced to the sky. “JUNO! Your turn.”
The clouds parted, and Juno floated down on her peacock-feathered throne. The top of her scepter glowed blue, and the ash stopped falling as she descended. Her bright, pure gold gown glimmered in the sunlight.
Bacchus moved his chariot over to get out of her way.
The throne settled down next to the pile of ash that had been Octavia. It was as tall as a house, since Juno hadn’t bothered to shrink herself down to our height.
Now that I was facing her, determination coursed through me. I felt steadier on my feet. After all, I’d just decimated the entire labyrinth. I refused to look weak in front of her.
Julian must have felt the change in me, because he unwound his arm from around my back and held my hand instead.
“Selena,” Juno said, her face giving away no emotion. “Julian. I see the two of you are refusing to participate in the final fight of the Faerie Games.”
She was so calm that it was scary.
“We are,” Julian said.
“Well, that just won’t do.” She crossed her legs and sat back in her throne. “The final two are required by the rules of the Games to fight to the death. Break that rule, and I’ll have no choice but to kill you both.”
“You have a choice,” I said, and she sat back in shock. I continued before I could second-guess myself for talking back to a goddess. “You made the rules of the Games. Is there a rule that you can’t change them?”
“I technically can,” she said. “But why should I? It’s far more entertaining to force your hand.” She looked around at the crowd and smiled. “Don’t you all agree?”
Only about half of them clapped.
“You can do better than that. Don’t you all agree?!” she repeated, louder.
There were a few more claps. But not many.
Juno’s smiled vanished, and she looked back at me and Julian like she was about to smite us on the spot.
“They don’t want us to fight because it doesn’t feel
right to them,” Julian said, his voice gaining intensity as he spoke. “They might not understand why yet, but I’d bet most of them can tell that our feelings for each other run deeper than mortal love. Because it’s a love that many of them have experienced themselves. The unbreakable, eternal bond of soulmates.”
45
Selena
The crowd gasped.
Juno looked unmoved. Of course she did. She knew all of this already.
But the fae in the audience didn’t. This was more for them than for her. Because if they wanted Julian and I to stay alive, maybe Juno would listen.
“Prove it,” she finally said.
“Fine.” Julian lowered his breeches an inch to reveal the clover birthmark on his left hipbone. An orb buzzed forward to get a close-up, broadcasting it so everyone could see.
It wasn’t so easy in my dress. I’d planned to use my electricity to burn a slit through the material, but when I dug inside of myself, there were still only embers. It was like the first time I’d tried using my magic. It was there, but I couldn’t quite grasp it.
Julian pulled a small blade out of the ether to help me. But I didn’t take it. Because even though I knew the fae couldn’t doubt the strength of my magic after the show I’d just given them, I wanted to do this myself. I was going to do this myself.
Then, I felt it. A spark. A small one, but it was enough for me to harness.
“You’re the goddess of family,” I said to Juno, my hand slowly lighting up with electricity. “And being soulmates means being family.”
I ran my index finger over my left hipbone, burning a modest slit through the jeweled material. I opened it and revealed my birthmark that matched Julian’s.
The orb zoomed in on it, and the audience went wild.
“You can’t force them to kill each other!”
“They really are soulmates.”
“I knew there was something different about them!”
“Make a new rule!”
The Faerie Mates (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 3) Page 18