“We have no choice,” Brodin said.
“But what if contact allows the maze to take over my mind again?”
“You fight it with new awareness,” Jacey said.
“With confidence,” Akimi added. “And trust in us.”
“It’s what each of us will need to do,” Jacey said. “Because we’re right behind you.”
Could I do it? Resolve filled me. I had to. Going back didn’t feel right. The solution had to be ahead and that meant climbing to the top of the cliff.
Brodin placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “I’m with you no matter what you choose to do.”
I leaned back against him and his arms went around my waist. This thing between us… It made me so happy.
He kissed the side of my neck. “You tell me what you want.”
We’d gone from being adversaries to this, whatever this was now. I couldn’t name it; I could only feel it, and it felt better than anything in my life. But I couldn’t stay here forever within the shelter of his arms. I had to break free of whatever constraints bound me and find a way to get us out of here.
Perhaps, for me to win this, despite whatever this test might offer, I had to conquer myself.
“You.”
He kissed the back of my neck, and tingles spread through me.
“But I also need to do this. For us. For me.”
“Do it. I’m with you.”
I stroked his hands that still held me then eased away.
Closing my eyes, I grabbed the ladder rail. Electricity jolted through me, bringing with it the sickly sweet lure I knew too well. It fed into me, eager to guide me to my downfall.
Forget failing the maze twice but still having another option. I had to make sure I never went through this maze again.
“You okay?” Only confidence came through in Brodin’s voice. I realized I stood at the base, frozen, with my hand still connected with the rail. The cliff still waited.
“I feel it,” I said.
“And?”
“I refuse to let it deep inside again. It won’t reach that core that belongs solely to me.”
“You’re doing great.”
I climbed.
They each gasped when the electricity flew through them. They’d fight their own battles, but they did so armed with knowledge.
“Don’t listen to the lure,” I said as I pulled myself higher. “It tries to convince you it’s right.”
“When it’s not,” Brodin said in desperation.
“You can’t give in, Brodin,” I said. “I still want to have that talk.” And so much more.
“How do I live with this?” he gasped out.
“You don’t. You just move forward, one rung at a time.”
“It’s lull…” Akimi said. “It seduces me.”
Leaning back, I looked down and met her eyes. “Don’t let it! Listen to me, follow me. Ignore it if you can.”
“So intriguing,” Jacey said. “I can see why it grabbed onto you and you couldn’t push it away. It terrifies me.”
“It terrifies all of us,” Brodin said. “What a horrifying spell.”
We reached the top and found a shallow depression scraped into the cliff face. And a green glowing dome. About waist-high, it sunk halfway into the floor. Clustering around it, we stared across the top at each other, our faces alien-appearing in the odd light.
“I’m not touching it,” I said, partly to reassure them, mostly to reassure myself. Thankfully, I didn’t feel compelled to do so.
“We may have to,” Akimi said. “I have…” She frowned.
“What?”
“I have heard of something like this before. It is old magic. All of this is.”
“Do you think it’s older than sketar power?”
“Older than the fae.”
Chills ran through me as I remembered my grandma once telling me about Darkwater, about the stone fortress the fae built on the isolated island in the Sea of Despair. Hidden away from everyone. She’d spoken of the creatures who’d hunt on the island, beings older than the fae. At the time, I’d been small enough to be entranced. To believe. After she’d died and I’d grown older, I’d dismissed the stories as tales made up to entertain a child, but now, I wondered. Had the island evolved during all these years, creating something new?
Like the catacombs.
“This feels like skeitse magic,” Jacey said. “My uncle taught me a bit but I never developed full potential. We were still working on it.” Her shoulders sagged.
The sketar magic my stepfather had taught me was an offshoot of skeitse magic. When the fae split years ago and half of the population moved to Earth, infiltrating the human world yet also living somewhat apart, they brought skeitse magic with them. It evolved like all things do. Jacey could tap her limited skeitse magic.
“Can I combine my sketar magic with your ancient magic?” I asked.
“We have to try,” she said. “There’s no going back. It’s obvious this is our destination. Our test.”
“I don’t see a puzzle,” Brodin said, striding around us, inspecting the dome.
“It pulsates,” Akimi said. “Deep inside. It lives.”
I didn’t like this. But then, I hadn’t liked anything since I’d made a blood bond with the Master Seeker. How naïve I’d been, thinking he’d simply tell me where my father was and how to reach him. Instead, I’d only experienced betrayal. Too many times, I’d wished I was home with my sister.
But then I wouldn’t have met Brodin.
He finished his inspection and took the empty spot beside me. We all stared at the dome. It did pulsate deep within, calling to something inside me.
“Do we touch it?” Jacey asked.
“Or stare at it?” Brodin joked.
“We could go back,” Akimi said. “Find our way to the prison.”
“Not an option,” I said. “I’m not allowing this fucking maze to control my life any longer. We need to finish this.”
Jacey’s hands hovered over the smooth, gleaming surface that reminded me of the walls in the first part of the maze trial. “This must be our way out.”
“Our test,” Brodin said.
“Together then,” I said.
Akimi nodded. “No blame.” Shadows flitted through her eyes. “Please, no blame.”
My friend had lived things we could never understand. Someday, she’d share them with us.
Our purpose decided on, we grinned at each other, though it came out sickly and filled with too much sorrow. Like whenever I thought about my decision to reach out to the Master Seeker, I again felt… What have I done?
After taking deep breaths, we dropped our palms onto the cool surface at the same time.
We were sucked inside the dome.
Eighteen
Tria
Reaching out, I grabbed Brodin’s and Jacey’s hands. They did the same with Akimi, forming a circle with us linked together.
We fell through a cavern and plunged into the blackest water I’d ever seen, hitting feet-first.
As the water rushed over my head, I held onto my friends and flailed my legs. We had to get to the surface! Despite kicking, the water dragged us down.
I opened my eyes and they met Brodin’s. Frantic, he nudged his head and tried to pull free. I knew I should let go and use my arms to get to the surface, but something told me we needed to maintain contact. I shook my head and tightened my grip.
We sank down farther, though I couldn’t see a bottom. How far down did this body of water go?
A current grabbed us and dragged us underneath a jutting, rocky shelf, pulling us deeper and deeper. Darkness descended like a funeral pall, and I couldn’t tell which way was up or where to flee to escape.
My lungs were bursting, desperate to suck in the fresh air, but only death lay in that direction, for me and my friends.
Bubbles erupted from my clenched lips, but they hung in the water like thistledown. Shouldn’t they float up?
Not
in a magical world created by an evil master.
I tugged my friends closer. What would we do? Perhaps drown together, but that couldn’t be the test.
As my brain spun from lack of oxygen, my feet hit something solid. I inched up along a rocky surface, hoping to find something, anything that would give me a clue as to what we should do, but the shelf disappeared and my sneakers dragged across loose soil.
Wait. Soil?
Yanking my friends in that direction, I kicked hard, pulling them behind me. My feet found purchase, and when my head broke the surface, I gasped and sputtered and breathed. Nothing had ever tasted sweeter than the stale air I sucked in.
My friends floundered up out of the water beside me, gasping and splashing. Water glided down our faces, and our clothing dripped, but we’d made it through this part of the test alive.
“Where the hell are we?” Brodin asked, looking around.
I shrugged because, really, we’d never know and if we made it through this part of the test alive, it hardly mattered.
Behind lay the dark, watery hole we’d come through. And ahead…
“It’s a cave,” I said. It arched up to the ceiling as if we’d found ourselves inside a gray stone ball. We stood on a pink, sandy shore.
“Guess we go in that direction,” I said, nudging my chin toward where the shore sloped upward to a dry, level ledge surface.
Holding hands, we sloshed through the water and up, where we turned and flopped down together.
“Think we can let go of each other yet?” Jacey asked.
With a shrug, I released her hand. I held onto Brodin, however, and he did the same.
A light sound, like a swish or a subtle scrape, echoed around us. I gaped back over my shoulder, toward where the sound had come from. The cave wall cast a long shadow across the ledge, which… That wasn’t quite right. The only light came from a circular hole high above, in the center of the cave ceiling. It wasn’t placed correctly to create a shadow.
Rising, I moved in that direction, keeping my footsteps light. I’d seen no one here but us, not even in the water, but that didn’t mean something didn’t lurk, waiting to snatch me up and devour me.
As I approached the end of the cave, a hole was revealed. Deep and darker than the pool we’d escaped from, it oozed and flowed in a fathomless blob of inky goo. I wanted to run back to my friends but my feet dragged me closer.
Something moved deep inside, a shifting, creeping thing that created ripples across the surface like rings when you threw a pebble into a pond, only more sluggish. Whatever it was didn’t reveal itself. As I got closer, it dove down, leaving nothing behind but a small slosh licking across the surface.
I stopped when my toes reached the lip of the oval substance and stared, but I saw nothing. I couldn’t shake the feeling something lurked down below, watching.
“What is this?” Akimi asked, coming up behind me. “I have never seen anything like it before. It…” Her newly grown leaves fluttered around her face. “There is something here.” Her head tilted. “I hear…”
“You sense it? I saw movement, though it was just subtle ripples below the surface.”
“I can almost hear what it is saying.” She bent forward, but I snagged one of her branches when it looked like she’d fall in. She sighed and straightening, stepped backward. “If only I could get closer. Then it would be clear.”
“What would be clear?”
“Its message.”
My skin crawled as if a nest of spiders had popped open above me and the babies had rained down on my head.
“What’s up?” Jacey said, joining us. She peered around then, stooping down, held her hand above the gelatinous surface. “Huh.”
“Don’t touch it,” I said, reaching toward her.
She released a rueful chuckle. “Nothing would induce me to sink my hand inside this gook. Not even…” Her attention was drawn to the opposite wall, and when her body jolted, my gaze followed.
It was darker back there, but I swore I could see writing on the wall. I crept around the outer edge of the pool, trying to get close enough to tell, and Jacey hovered behind me, her breathing ragged.
It was writing, but in a language I couldn’t read.
Jacey’s knees slammed onto the stone ground, and she cupped her face in her hands. Sobs wracked her frame and her heart-wrenching keen was flung out around us.
Dropping down beside her, I put a tentative arm around her shoulders. “Hey, hey. You okay? What’s wrong? Jacey? Is it the writing?”
“It’s a message from Rohnan!”
Oh, wow. He’d been here before us? But the catacombs never repeated a trial…
I studied the writing again. “I’ve never seen that language before.”
“Neither has anyone else who has lived within the past thousand years. It’s old, something we found once in the fae castle library. We’re the only living fae using it.” Her tear-filled face lifted, and her tortured gaze met mine. “But here it is, before my eyes. You know what that means? The one thing I’ve lived for, fought for… That I’ve spent a month hoping and praying for since I was yanked back to that wretched prison. I’ve found proof. He’s alive!” She burst to her feet and rushed across the sand, peering about wildly. “Rohnan!” His name echoed around us as if a hundred Jaceys cried out for him. “Rohnan? Please. Where are you?” When no reply joined her fading cry, she tumbled down onto the ground again and curled into a ball. Sobs rippled through her body.
My heart yanked sideways, I ran to her. Helping her sit up, I held her and let her get it all out. It killed me to see her hurting, but I had no idea how to help her. If Rohnan was here, he would’ve answered. He’d made it this far, but I doubted he’d remain here, hoping she’d catch up. He’d leave the message and move on, praying she’d see it and follow, assuming following was possible within the catacombs.
She sniffed and wiped her face, and pulled away. “Thanks. It’s just… I guess, no matter how hard I’ve tried, I’d started to lose hope. When I heard nothing… See, I fully believed he’d made it through to the Reformatory and I’d either find my way there somehow and meet up with him, or he’d get a message back to me.” Her gaze was drawn to the wall again. “I’m stupid to hope he’d stride out of the shadows here, with his arms wide open.”
“I think he will. Someday. Just not here.”
“And not today.” Her chin trembled but her eyes blazed with growing determination. “He made it this far. He lived past the initial test, which means he’s either ahead of us or at the Reformatory.”
Or dead, but I didn’t mention that option. We were nowhere through with the Challenge ourselves and there was no saying we’d make it out alive. The odds were not in our favor. I just hoped we didn’t stumble across his bones.
Her hand swept toward the wall. “He must’ve been expecting me to get into the Challenge again and find his message. And now I have.”
“What does it say?”
“That he’ll wait for me. But where?”
“Maybe he’s still in the catacombs or he found his way through. I bet we’ll burst out at the end and he’ll be standing there with a big grin on his face.”
She gave me a shaky smile. “That would be the best thing in the world. It’s been so hard. I miss him a lot.”
I rubbed her arm. “I can’t imagine how you’ve held on this long.” But when my gaze met Brodin’s, I knew. You did what you had to because if you didn’t, the pain would make it too hard to go on. “So, if he’s not here, we need to get this challenge over with and get to the Reformatory, right? Each time we make it through another test, it could be the last.”
“And I’ll finally see him,” she breathed, her smile coming true. “You’re right. Let’s get this shit over with.”
A scream yanked my head toward the back of the cave, and I caught Akimi falling into the thick, inky pool. Brodin, who’d been standing beside her, latched onto one of her roots. His shoulders bunched and his feet dug into the
ledge, but he was tugged into the abyss along with her. His bellow made my heart shudder to a stop.
“Brodin!” I ran toward the pool and dove forward, landing on the ground hard enough to jar my teeth through my skull but latching onto Brodin’s ankle before he was pulled in.
My body was dragged toward the pool. Straining, I struggled to hold my position, but I was wrenched forward. Black slime covered my hands. My arms. Crap. My face hit the surface and my head sunk down, the slimy goo rising to my shoulders, my waist, and my hips, like a coal-black quicksand.
I couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe. I’d smother in seconds.
Jacey grabbed my leg, and her cry echoed behind me.
My body slipped forward, though I maintained my grip on Brodin’s leg.
The four of us were pulled deeper into the sludge.
Nineteen
Jacey
As we tumbled through the air, our gasps rang out. And my mind was sucked downward, to right after Rohnan and I had finished the Darkwater Prison trials.
Guards grabbed and held us while Warden Bixby sauntered closer.
Fear climbed up me like spiders, but I girded my spine and glared.
“Made it out of my short trial, did you?” She scowled. “That wasn’t…”
“It wasn’t your plan?” I finished for her. The fae king was involved in all this. I knew it.
Her spine stiffened. “I have orders.”
“And they only include our death,” Rohnan said in disgust.
Bixby shrugged.
We needed to get to the Reformatory fast. With the Warden determined to kill us, it wasn’t any safer inside the prison walls than facing whatever waited for us on the island.
Bixby waved toward the guards. “Take them to their cells.”
They marched Rohnan down a hall to our left and dragged me to the right. I watched—worried about him—until they reached a corner. His gaze met mine, full of promise. We’d find a way out of this, together.
After winding through a maze of corridors I’d have to memorize ASAP, they stopped at a door marked prison uniforms. Inside, nymphs with bug-infested hair, long, sharp fingernails, and cloaked in deep blue, wispy gowns descended on me, ripping at my clothing. In moments, I wore nothing.
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