The Maze (The Coven, Book 2)

by Erica Stevens

  “We’re going to need it,” Talia mumbled.

  CHAPTER 22

  Avery turned the corner and bumped into Eric when he stopped abruptly. “Finally,” Sandra declared from the head of the line.

  When Eric crept forward, Avery sensed his dread and followed him. Once free of the corridor, she froze; her mouth went dry, and her heart raced as she surveyed the scene before her. Thick waves of silvery fog coasted by the black velvet tapestry of the endless night spreading out before them.

  “You know,” Mario whispered, “I’ve never been so happy to experience a nightmare.”

  “Same here,” Karen murmured.

  It seemed odd they were talking so quietly, but the sound of normal voices, or any noise, was unnatural here. “Let’s see if you’re still saying that in a few minutes,” Isla mumbled.

  “Are we sure it’s a nightmare and not just another one of Regan’s twisted jokes like the cafeteria?” Sandra asked.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Eric said as he stepped into the darkness.

  “We should all hold hands!” Karen’s words bounced off the thick fog and echoed back at them.

  Eric reached back and claimed Isla’s hand before starting into the thickening fog. With her hands clasped within Karen’s and Talia’s, Avery followed them. The tentacles of mist playing across her face sent chills down her spine. When Karen disappeared before her, the only sign she still existed was her hand enclosed in Avery’s, which made it look like she was holding a severed hand in hers.

  Drawing on the strength of the air around her, Avery dug within herself and pulled her power forward. “Wind,” she breathed.

  The soft breeze drifting through the fog separated the thick waves surrounding them, and Karen’s sandy blonde hair reemerged. Ahead of her, Avery dimly made out Eric’s fiery red head at the front of the group. The fog shifted and crept over itself a few feet away from them, but it didn’t filter over them again.

  “This is giving me the creeps,” Isla mumbled as she gazed at the fog.

  Avery strained to see through the fog as she waited for something awful to come charging out of it. Sandra feared werewolves and Talia zombies; they could both be lurking and stalking them in the night beyond the fog.

  When an owl hooted in the distance, she almost bolted forward as the unexpected sound caused adrenaline to flood her veins. Talia’s hand trembled within her grasp, and she squeezed it reassuringly. Once they were out of here, their friendship would be over, but Avery couldn’t turn her back on Talia while they were here.

  “What’s that?” Mario whispered.

  Avery followed his finger to where he pointed while the fog rolled away from them like curtains pulling back for the opening act of a play. Except, this audience wasn’t on the edge of their seats with anticipation but with heart-thumping terror.

  The faint shapes materializing through the mist took on the forms of trees, and lush green grass rose over her battered sneakers to her ankles. When she took another step forward, her feet landed on a clump of dirt as a headstone came into view. Then she saw the inscription on the stone.

  TALIA POTTER

  EASILY FORGOTTEN

  REST IN PEACE

  Talia whimpered as she gawked at her grave with her feet planted at the edge of the dirt and all the color gone from her face.

  “Keep moving,” Avery whispered. “You have to keep moving, Talia.”

  Avery waited for her to lose it completely, but then Talia’s shoulders straightened. “I will not die,” she stated. “Not in here and not because of him.”

  “No, you won’t,” Avery assured her, and over Talia’s head, she met Reid’s eyes as he smiled at her.

  “Come on!” Eric called. “We have to keep moving.”

  Turning away from them, Avery stepped off the fresh grave and followed the others past more headstones. The idea of seeing her tombstone depressed her, but she couldn’t stop herself from looking at all the monuments as they traversed the graveyard.

  Her shoulders and back ached from holding herself so rigidly while she waited for the corpses to rise and the call of “brains” to echo through the cemetery. She didn’t know where the attack would come from, but the dead were going to rise and swarm them like a hive of pissed-off hornets.

  The owl called mournfully again, and a groan came from her left. Avery spun toward it, and her body went rigid as she strained to see, or hear, any other movement. The wrenching sound of wood ripping from its hinges followed a loud groan. A gurgled moan that sounded as if it came from a throat that had rotted during its many years buried beneath the earth filled the air.

  “Here it comes,” Karen whispered.

  Avery dug her toes into the bottom of her sneakers as she sought to draw strength from the ground beneath her, but the flow of life wasn’t as strong here as it was on Earth. But then, unlike the air on this plane, this ground was an elaborate illusion of Regan’s creation. This cemetery wasn’t permanent, and it would vanish or become whatever Regan’s illusions became when Regan finished with them.

  Staring into the mist, Avery gave up on trying to pull power from the ground as she concentrated on the air caressing her skin. The individual particles fueled her ability as she spotted rotting pants over top of decaying, black buckled shoes shuffling through the fog. Then pants, a red, plaid shirt, and…

  Talia shrieked as she was wrenched from Avery’s grasp. Avery spun to find that Talia had been drug five feet away, and her legs were now dangling inside an open grave. Talia tore chunks of grass and dirt out of the earth as she scrambled to gain purchase on the ground and pull herself free.

  “No!” Avery cried.

  She ran over to the grave and, dropping to her knees, grabbed Talia’s arms and tried to pull her free. Gazing into the hole, Avery saw the withered gray hands wrapped around Talia’s thighs. They didn’t look strong enough to open a door, but when they yanked on Talia again, they pulled her another six inches into the hole.

  “Reid!” Avery shrieked as only Talia’s torso and arms remained out of the grave.

  Reid knelt beside her, and Mario rushed over to grip Talia’s arm.

  “Help me!” Talia screamed.

  Avery grasped the corpse’s arm and gagged when her fingers sank into its rotten flesh. She almost puked when the putrefying stench of decaying flesh filled her nostrils, and she felt the squirm of insects beneath its skin. She scrambled to keep her hold on the thing as skin peeled off and the bugs squishing against her palms made her grip more slippery.

  Sunken eyes appeared behind Talia’s back, and then the head of the corpse became more visible. Tufts of black hair stood out from the remaining flesh on the creature’s skull as bone showed through more than half of its head.

  Yellowed teeth clacked together when they snapped at her hand, and Avery yanked her hand away just in time to avoid having those hideous teeth sinking into her flesh. She didn’t know if a bite from one of these things would turn her into a zombie, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Help me,” Talia choked out as her eyes bulged.

  The corpse jerked downward, and Talia slid another foot into the grave until only her head and arms remained out. With a frustrated cry, Avery yanked back on the dead thing’s arm and a loud crack resonated. She froze when she realized she’d torn the limb off at the elbow.

  Slowly, she lifted the arm from the hole and stared at it in mind-numbing horror. The dried tendons hanging from the bottom of the arm reminded her of snakes straight from the pits of Hell. When the hand suddenly flexed and lurched at her, Avery shrieked and threw it away. She expected it to jump up and come skittering after her, but it only flexed a couple more times before going still.

  The corpse made a strange, gurgling noise, and then Reid and Mario fell back as Talia came up out of the hole. They all scrambled away from the grave, but the corpse didn’t follow them. Avery looked inside to find its sunken eyes focused on her. It blinked before giving her a toothy grin that made
her skin crawl more than holding its arm had.

  “Watch out!” Sandra yelled.

  Avery didn’t have time to move out of the way from Karen, who was stumbling away from a decapitated corpse with its arms stretched toward her. Avery glimpsed a broken spine jutting up from where the corpse’s head should be before Karen fell against her. Avery turned to get out of the way, but her foot caught on a headstone, and she tumbled face first into the grass.

  Karen fell on top of her, pinning her into the grass and cold dirt. When another weight landed on them, Avery’s face was shoved deeper into the ground until she could only inhale a small amount of air through her nostrils.

  And then something else fell on them, and she was pushed down until her chest felt like it was being crushed into the earth. On her next inhale, dirt clogged her nose, and stars burst behind her closed eyelids as her ears began to ring. Though she tried, she couldn’t lift her head out of the ground.

  Digging her fingers into the dirt, she drew on her powers, but because she couldn’t see, she couldn’t unleash them without taking the risk of hurting one of her friends. She was going to die here, at the bottom of a pig pile, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  She was seconds away from passing out when the crushing weight eased off her.

  “Avery!” someone shouted, but she couldn’t tell who through the ringing in her ears.

  Someone flipped her over; hands brushed the dirt away from her mouth, nose, and eyes. A harsh bout of coughing racked her body when air flooded her deprived lungs. Whoever held her helped her sit up, and she spit out the dirt in her mouth.

  She rubbed frantically at the grit in her eyes and blinked at the people surrounding her. Reid knelt beside her with his hand in the middle of her back and worry furrowing his brow. She saw no sign of the corpses that had stalked them.

  “What happened?” she asked in a choked voice.

  “Reid,” Isla said. “He just kicked some mummy ass.”

  “They weren’t mummies,” Mario said.

  Isla shrugged. “Mummies, zombies, corpses, whatever they were, they’re gone now.”

  “Mummies have bandages.”

  Isla rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Mario.”

  Mario grinned at her.

  Avery turned to Reid. “Thank you.”

  When he grinned at her, his handsome face lit with love. “Anything for you.”

  Though she beamed back at him, a sinking feeling settled in her stomach. He meant it, she knew, and that was the best and worst part of it. He’d been willing to climb into a canyon for her; he would do everything he could to protect her at the expense of himself, and Regan knew it. And somehow, she had to find a way to make him put himself first.

  When Reid leaned forward to kiss her, Avery clasped his stubble-roughened cheek before sliding her hand into his hair. Her fingers dug into the silken strands as she pulled him closer. She allowed herself to forget everything and simply enjoy him before she recalled that Regan was watching. Reluctantly, she pulled away from him.

  “Can we please get out of here?” Talia asked as she eyed the tombstones surrounding them.

  “Yes,” Avery said as Reid clasped her hand and helped her rise.

  CHAPTER 23

  “I think it’s time for a break,” Isla declared.

  “I agree.” Avery leaned against the wall and slid to the ground.

  Her legs trembled with exhaustion as she drew them against her chest and rested her head on her knees. Blisters covered her feet; she longed to take off her sneakers, but she didn’t know what Regan would throw at them next, and she refused to face it in her socks. Reid sat beside her and rested his hand on her knee before setting it on the floor.

  “We must have walked forty miles by now,” Karen grumbled.

  “At least,” Sandra agreed.

  “I have more blisters than toes,” Isla mumbled. “When we get out of here, I’m going to soak my feet for a week and not take one step.”

  “What time is it?” Mario asked.

  “Two thirty,” Reid answered around a yawn.

  She’d been awake for over thirty hours now, and she felt every one of those hours. When Avery lifted her head to stare down the endless corridor, her vision blurred, and she saw two hallways instead of one. Closing her eyes, she wiped tiredly at them before opening them again. Her eyes crossed before returning to normal, and she gazed at the hated hallway before giving it the finger. It was a childish thing to do, but it did make her feel a little better.

  She’d had enough of this place; unfortunately, she didn’t see them getting out of here anytime soon. They’d been walking for over two hours without finding another nightmare. They’d come across numerous dead ends and she had no idea if they’d retraced their steps a thousand times or traversed entirely new areas of the maze.

  Even if they did find all the nightmares and Regan did let them go, he wouldn’t allow them to reach the end of the maze until almost midnight. He would keep them here and torture them for as long as possible.

  “We better go,” Reid said around another yawn. “We’ve been here for ten minutes already.”

  “Already?” Talia squeaked.

  Avery sighed before straightening her spine in determination, but her legs and feet screamed a protest when she braced her hand against the wall and rose. Keeping her hand on the wall, she traced the smoothness of the structure as she walked. Avery was so busy staring at her feet that she didn’t realize they’d reached a turn until her hand registered the twist in the wall. She looked up to discover the hall splitting in two different directions again.

  Gritting her teeth, she glared at halls as she contemplated kicking the wall. “Which way now?” she asked as she decided against kicking the wall. With her luck, she’d break her foot.

  “Let’s go right this time,” Karen suggested.

  “Works for me,” Mario muttered and started down the right corridor.

  Avery clasped Reid’s hand as they followed the others until the hall took another sharp right before narrowing. When they had to turn sideways to get through the suffocating hallway, she released his hand. Her chest nearly touched the wall across from her as she slid cautiously along.

  “I hate confined places,” Eric mumbled.

  “Like we couldn’t tell that with the tunnel,” Sandra said.

  Ahead of her, Mario slipped around a corner and vanished. She spotted him again when she came around the corner, but then he disappeared around another turn and the walls closed in until breathing became more difficult.

  “If this gets any smaller, we’re not going to fit!” The last of Mario’s shouted words were muffled as he disappeared from view again.

  “Barely fit now,” Reid muttered from behind her, and she turned her head to look at him.

  His chest was pressed against the opposite wall as he shuffled between them with his face scrunched in aggravation. Avery tried not to think about the possibility Regan might consider it fun to have the walls start closing in on them.

  She slid around another corner and, unprepared for the walls to suddenly give way, she stumbled a little when she stepped into the open area. She leaned to the side and rested her hand on the wall as Reid stepped out from the hall behind her and rested his hand on her shoulder.

  “Finally,” he breathed, and his hand tensed on her shoulder. “What is this?”

  Avery didn’t know, but she was sure it wasn’t good. The light from a massive chandelier overhead played off the silver metal covering the numerous statues standing on pedestals in the hall. Each of them carried a weapon in their gloved hands; some held shields with colorful coats of arms painted on them, and they all wore different headpieces. Though she couldn’t see if anything stood beneath the armor, Avery had the eerie feeling the statues were watching them.

  Above each of the mail-clad soldiers hung a portrait of a man or woman. Over the one closest to her was a portrait of a thickly bearded, sinister-looking man with an ugly sneer and bloodred
eyes. The gold plaque beneath the portrait labeled him as…

  FRANCIS LUKAS

  KILLER OF MEN

  The word killer sent a shudder through Avery, and Reid pulled her protectively closer to him. Looking past Francis, Avery saw more plaques labeling the portraits as various people she wouldn’t want to meet. Bianca Dandy was marked as a maneater; Avery suspected the title was meant to be more literal than the song her dad had played over the years.

  The hundreds of candles within the chandelier illuminated the grotesque mural covering the ceiling of the two-hundred-foot-long room. In the sky of the painting, small devils flew around a battlefield drenched in blood and covered in bodies.

  In the center of the battlefield, a painted image of Regan stood with his palms outspread and his head tilted to the sky as a rapturous smile lit his face. Amid the hundreds of dead, Avery recognized the men and women from the portraits lying front and center at Regan’s feet. Their bodies were more mutilated than the rest.

  She wanted to throw up.

  “This should be fun,” Mario muttered.

  “At least we’re still on the right track,” Talia said. She was handling all this much better since facing her nightmare.

  “I hope so,” Isla said. “Avery, do you think this could be your nightmare?”

  “No,” Avery replied. “I’ve never had a nightmare about something like this.”

  “Probably another one of Regan’s pranks.” Sandra snorted. “They’re either going to come alive, or he’s trying to unnerve us.”

  “I had a nightmare about something like this once.” Karen twisted her hands before her and glanced nervously at all of them. “But I’ve already faced my nightmare.”

  “I’ve never liked these kinds of statues,” Isla said. “I always imagined they’d come alive and attack me.”

  “I’m not a fan of portraits,” Talia said. “I feel like the people in them are watching my every move, and I have had a couple of nightmares about it.”

  “I think,” Reid said, “he’s using every fear we have against us now and not just our major nightmares. It didn’t happen the last time, but he is stronger now.”