The Maze (The Coven, Book 2)

by Erica Stevens

  A tremor ran through her; she stepped back to add distance to the thirty feet separating them. She didn’t feel a connection to Regan anymore, but seeing him again rocked her on some primitive level buried deep inside her; it was a part that ran on instinct alone.

  “Why didn’t you let me die?” she demanded and was grateful her voice didn’t shake.

  His laugh echoed off the cave walls. “I would never let you die, Avery. You belong with me.”

  “I will never be with you,” she sneered.

  “Maybe not willingly, but you will eventually join me because now that I’m free, I will come after you for the rest of your life. Are you willing to put your life, and the lives of your friends, constantly at risk? You care for them; I don’t.”

  His words petrified her more than anything he’d ever thrown at them. She’d rather face a million more demented clowns and walk through a thousand more tunnels than battle Regan every day for the rest of her life. The daunting prospect made falling into the pit look like a fun trip to an amusement park. Not to mention, he would torture and maybe even kill her friends to break her.

  “Where are my friends?” she choked out.

  “They’re safe,” he replied.

  “Take me to them.”

  “Not yet.”

  Avery’s hands fisted at her sides as she imagined punching the smug smile off his face. “Who set you free?”

  Regan chuckled as he waved an elegant, fine-boned finger at her. “I never reveal my secrets.”

  His husky voice felt like a caress against her skin. Then, she felt the prodding edges of his power trying to slip into her mind. Avery ground her teeth together as she imagined barricades forming in her mind that would keep him from using his hypnotic power against her. She didn’t know if it would work, she hadn’t known him or herself well enough last time they met to try using it against him. But now that she knew her powers better, she prayed it would keep him out of her head.

  “Stop it!” she hissed.

  “Stop what?” he asked innocently.

  “Stop trying to mess with my mind.”

  “Maybe I’m not messing with your mind; maybe you feel what you truly desire.”

  Avery stopped herself from going after him, but she suspected he was trying to bait her into attacking him, touching him, and letting him touch her.

  “There’s another nightmare unfolding, would you like to watch it?” he asked.

  Uncertain what to do, she stood and stared at him. She didn’t want to go anywhere near him, but she needed to know what was happening to her friends. Then, he smiled at her. The smile did it; she may not want to be anywhere near him, but she would not back down from him either.

  Feathers plumed up around her when she stormed out of the pile and across the cavern toward him. “Take me back,” she commanded when she stopped in front of him.

  “You can’t be there for this one, darling. Now come closer and see.”

  Fear for her friends almost choked her. She needed to be with them so she could help them through whatever nightmare they were about to face. Avery gulped as she tried to put some moisture back into her dry mouth; she felt like she’d been wandering through the Sahara for a week.

  Refusing to meet Regan’s gaze, she stepped next to him. He turned beside her and waved a hand at the cloudy blue crystal before them. Avery watched as the clouds cleared to reveal Sandra, Isla, Mario, Reid, Eric, Talia, and Karen sitting at the edge of the abyss and leaning forward to look into it. The bridge once again stretched back across the cavern, and Avery recalled the power she felt building on the air before she fell.

  “Isla fixed it as you were falling,” Regan said, as if he could read her thoughts. “But it was too late.”

  She opened her mouth to tell him where to shove his arrogant attitude, but the voices coming from the crystal stopped her.

  “Where is she?” Reid yelled as he stared into the pit.

  The anguish in his voice brought tears to her eyes. As she rose to her feet, Karen’s hair drifted around her face as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Avery’s okay,” she said firmly.

  Reid’s eyes spun toward her before returning to the crater. The sudden pale haggardness of his handsome features made him look ten years older. Avery ached to go to him, wrap her arms around him, and cradle him against her, but she was trapped here with the biggest a-hole she’d ever met.

  “Come on, Reid,” Sandra prodded. “We can’t stay here; Regan will punish us if we do.”

  Regan turned away from the crystal to smirk at her. “It’s true.”

  Don’t attack him. It’s what he wants. She kept repeating this to herself, but it took all her self-restraint not to go after him for everything he’d done to her friends and ancestors. If anyone deserved to be beaten to a pulp, it was Regan.

  Reid whirled to face Sandra. “I am not leaving without her!”

  Sandra took a step back from the rage he radiated before straightening her shoulders and standing her ground. “We have to go. Time is running out.”

  Eric placed a hand on Reid’s shoulder, but Reid smacked it away. “I don’t care about the time! I’m going to find her.”

  “Reid, you can’t!” Karen cried.

  Reid moved closer to the edge and studied it as if he were going to climb into the canyon. “No,” she whispered and stepped closer to the crystal while she stretched her hand out to touch it.

  Regan grabbed her hand and pulled it away. She snatched it away from him as if he were a burning hot coal.

  “Just watch,” he said.

  “Don’t ever touch me again!” she spat.

  His laughter caused her jaw to clench. She counted to ten as she resisted pummeling some of his infuriating superiority out of him.

  She turned back to the crystal when a flurry of movement caught her attention. Eric, Mario, Isla, and Sandra were wrestling Reid to the ground. Reid struggled against his friends as they tried to hold him back, but eventually their numbers won out over his fury.

  When they succeeded in pinning Reid to the ground, Mario straddled his chest, Isla and Sandra each held an arm, and Eric sat on his legs. Reid stopped fighting them and slumped to the ground as he panted for air. Hovering nearby, Talia chewed on her nails while she gazed at Reid.

  “You know Regan wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her,” Mario said. “He needs her to break free.”

  “You don’t know that!” Reid cried. “Maybe he’s decided that if he can’t have her, he’d rather kill her.”

  Avery shot Regan a look as she wondered if this were true, but his gaze remained fixed on the crystal. When Reid started thrashing violently again, they spent a few more minutes working to keep him restrained.

  He fell breathlessly back to stare at the rocks overhead. If they hadn’t vowed to never use their powers against another, and especially not to harm a member of the coven, she suspected Reid would have turned his power on them to get free.

  Don’t do it, she silently pleaded.

  “Let me go!” Reid snarled.

  “Not until you come to your senses,” Eric said.

  Karen knelt before Reid and rested her fingers on the ground. “You can’t go down there. You could die if you go down there!”

  “If it means saving her, then so be it,” Reid said.

  Avery’s hand flew to her mouth. “No,” she whispered. “He has to know I’m safe; I have to tell him.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Regan said.

  She didn’t bother to look at him as her attention remained on her friends.

  “Like Hell!” Sandra retorted. “Avery is fine, and we will find her, but we have to leave here to do that.”

  All the fight went out of Reid as he lay motionless beneath them.

  “Reid,” Karen said, “she is all right. I would know if she wasn’t. You would know.”

  “That’s just it,” he said. “I don’t know.”

  “Trust your instincts,” Mario said.

 
Reid gazed at the rocks before turning to his friend. “This is my nightmare,” he said. “So I don’t know if Regan is having me face it and she’s fine, or if he’s taken her from me.”

  “What is your nightmare?” Isla asked in confusion.

  “That I’ve lost her.”

  “I’m confused,” Karen said. “I thought your nightmare was being buried alive.”

  “Not anymore,” Reid said. “My nightmare is she’s dead, or Regan has succeeded in taking her from me.”

  Avery wiped the tears from her eyes as a sob lodged in her throat.

  “She. Is. Not. Dead.” Sandra enunciated fiercely. “Regan needs her. He wouldn’t kill her.”

  “Now,” Mario said, “we’re going to let you up, and we’re going to leave here, okay?”

  “And what if she’s down there and we leave her behind?” Reid demanded.

  “This is your nightmare, and Avery will probably come back as soon as you face it,” Eric said.

  “Are you going to stay with us if we let you up?” Isla asked.

  “Yes,” Reid muttered.

  They all hesitated, and then Mario eased his weight off Reid’s chest. Eric crept away as Isla released his arm.

  Sandra continued to hold his other arm while she stared doubtfully at him. “You better be telling the truth.”

  “I am,” he promised.

  Letting go of his arm, Sandra sat back on her heels before rising and planting herself in front of the canyon. When Reid climbed to his feet, the group encircled him, and Talia edged forward to clasp Reid’s hand. A haze of red filled Avery’s vision as she glared at the girl she’d considered her friend.

  Reid stared at Talia before shaking his hand free of her grasp. He turned away from Talia as the others drew closer and shuffled him toward the hall. Avery hadn’t noticed the hallway at the edge of the darkness until her friends started walking toward it.

  CHAPTER 18

  “How touching,” Regan taunted as her friends entered the hall and the crystal clouded over again.

  The tears in Avery’s eyes dried up as she whirled on Regan. “Take me back to him!”

  “So you can love and comfort him?” Regan taunted. “I believe he has someone new for that.”

  “You know nothing of love!” she spat. “You’re too evil and depraved to understand what we have.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere.”

  “Reid loves only me, and I love only him. I hate you for doing that to him.”

  “You can deny it, but you know a part of you still craves the power I can give you. Deep inside, there is darkness in you, Avery, and it desires me more than anything else.”

  She glowered at him but didn’t bother to respond. There was a darkness inside her; she could never deny that, but it didn’t make her evil. And unlike when they met before, she understood that though the strength of her powers came from Celia embracing Regan, Avery possessed them because of an act of pure selflessness on Celia’s part. Regan believed a part of her craved the power, jewels, and luxury he once offered her, but what it really craved was his death, and she would make sure she gave it what it wanted.

  The only problem was, Regan had many weapons to use against her, and she had nothing to use against him. She knew none of his weaknesses, but he knew so many of hers in the form of her friends and family. Avery had wondered if distancing herself from Reid would help protect him, but she’d just told Regan how much she loved him. She had played right into Regan’s hands, again.

  “The rare times I do think about you, it is with disgust,” she spat. “You repulse me, and you repulsed Celia. If you hadn’t used your powers on her, she never would have joined you. I want nothing to do with you!”

  The wrath pouring out of him caused her skin to prickle and her flight reflex to kick in as his power felt like sandpaper abrading her flesh, but she refused to give in to the cowardly impulse to tuck tail and run.

  “I will be free, Avery, no matter what it takes,” he growled. “Do not doubt that.”

  She shouldn’t have pushed him. Regan would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, and although he probably wouldn’t hurt her, he would go after her friends to get his way.

  Before she could form a reply or a plan to get away from him, the ground plummeted away from her. His cruel laughter echoed in her ears and pounded in her mind as a vortex of pummeling wind swept her away.

  • • •

  Avery lifted her head to gaze dazedly around the hallway. Her mind still reeled from being spun around and battered by the vortex. If there’d been any food in her stomach, she would have heaved it all over the floor.

  When her stomach finally settled into place, she unfolded her legs and glanced around the hall. The candle flickering above her illuminated the minor differences between this hallway and the others she’d traversed. Her fingers curled into plush red carpet instead of solid wood, and the candles weren’t white but a ruby red.

  Besides those two things, this hallway was identical to the others. Had Regan sent her somewhere other than the maze? But, no, he would want her with her friends so she could experience their nightmares and see their suffering in the hopes it would break her and she would join him.

  Shoving aside her lingering nausea, Avery climbed unsteadily to her feet and braced her hand against the wall when her knees buckled. She caught herself before she hit the ground. Every muscle in her body ached, and her feet felt like her sneakers were made of glass.

  Glancing back and forth down the hall, she tried to decide which way to go. The right was straight for about a hundred feet, while twists and turns comprised the left. The left was probably the way to go as Regan wouldn’t make it easy for her.

  Before she could start walking, voices drifted to her from around the turns to her left. “I’m beat,” Isla said. “That bridge drained my powers.”

  “I’m tired of these turns and not being able to see where we’re going,” Eric grumbled.

  “We shouldn’t have left,” Reid said.

  “We’ll find her,” Karen said.

  “We should go back,” Reid said.

  “We couldn’t find our way back now,” Sandra said.

  Sandra came around the last turn and stepped into the hallway. She froze when her eyes landed on Avery, and her mouth dropped. Avery smiled tremulously at her and gave a small wave.

  “Oh!” Sandra cried.

  “What is it?” Mario demanded. “Sandra, move!”

  “Avery,” Sandra breathed before rushing forward and throwing her arms around Avery.

  Shock caused Avery to stiffen, and she remained immobile before tentatively lifting her arms to hug Sandra back. They’d become friendlier over the past couple of months, but Avery hadn’t expected Sandra to ever hug her.

  “You scared us,” Mario said as he threw his arms around them and crushed Avery against his solid chest.

  “Avery!” Karen cried.

  More arms encircled her as everyone rushed forward to embrace her. Hugging them back, she drew strength from their love and support as they held each other. She pulled away to grin at the faces beaming at her.

  Over Karen’s shoulder, Avery spotted Reid standing by the last turn; he looked like he was staring at a ghost. Stepping away from the others, she raced toward him and threw herself into his welcoming arms. Picking her up, he crushed her against him.

  “Avery,” he breathed as he buried his face in her hair. “You’re really here. I thought I’d lost you.”

  Setting her back on her feet, he clasped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her. Avery melted against him as he deepened the kiss until she forgot all about anyone watching them. When she gripped his forearms, his muscles flexed beneath her palms as her body melded against his.

  When someone cleared their throat, Avery recalled they had an audience. A blush crept into her cheeks as she pulled reluctantly away from him. Avery briefly met the mercury of his heated eyes before ducking her head. Reid gripped her nape and pulled her closer
. Her fingers dug into his back as she held him.

  His lips caressed her ear when he whispered. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  She shivered when his lips traveled over her ear and cheek. Despite everything that had happened and where they were, she couldn’t stop her body’s reaction to him as she turned her mouth into his neck and kissed him. He reluctantly released her with one arm but kept the other locked around her waist.

  “I saw everything through a massive crystal Regan had,” she said to him and the others.

  Reid’s arm constricted around her at the mention of Regan, and she quickly told them everything that happened. She made it clear to Reid that Regan didn’t possess the pull over her he had when they last encountered him.

  Reid had understood when she kissed Regan and nearly gone to him before, but she hadn’t. “You faced your nightmare,” she whispered as she stroked his cheek.

  “Don’t leave me again,” he said hoarsely.

  “I’ll do everything I can not to,” she promised. “As long as you do the same.”

  “I will fight to the death to stay with you, Avery.”

  She winced as she realized that could become a distinct possibility.

  “I hate to interrupt,” Eric said, “but we better move if we’re going to find our way out of here by midnight.”

  “Yes,” Avery said. “What time is it?”

  Reid glanced at his watch. “Seven thirty.”

  “We have sixteen hours to get through four more nightmares; I think we’re doing pretty well,” Isla said.

  “I think things are going to get a lot harder before they get better,” Sandra said.

  Avery agreed with Sandra, but she remained silent. She stepped away from Reid and clasped his hand in hers. She looked over at Talia, the only person who hadn’t happily embraced her, but Talia refused to meet her eyes. Avery didn’t want to assume Talia had been happier when she thought Avery was dead, but she sure didn’t look thrilled to see her.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Well now, look at this,” Sandra said.

  She halted in front of Avery, and her golden head tilted to the side as she peered at something around the corner. Avery craned her neck to see around Sandra and into the strange room that looked as if a fine mist had flowed in to coat everything in a dull gray. However, there was no mist, and as she stared, she realized the room reminded her of a black-and-white photograph. The objects within should have color; there was none.