Machete?
The janitor?
My stomach twists, but I can’t focus on the memory. My attention is drawn to the green glimmer of sparks now surrounding him. Is this what I looked like? There’s an intense snapping, crashing noise—and then he’s shifted.
At first, all I can see is a huge, hunched-over silhouette. But then I notice the horns.
Wicked-looking horns.
The creature's head turns, and the janitor is no longer recognizable. His head is warped, huge, and shit—there’s a ring glinting through his nostrils.
Ludo has a bull's head atop his giant body. And by giant, I mean he’s grown upwards and outwards by at least a couple of feet.
If Donovan in his centaur form is graceful beauty, then this right here is the beast.
The minotaur beast stands slowly, rising to a height of at least nine feet—but remains silent and impassive. I watch his nostrils flare, and bull-Ludo takes a forward step.
As he walks towards me, I smell damp earth emanating from him.
I decide to keep calm and carry on, as they say.
The minotaur’s massive shoulder brushes against me as he passes by, ignoring me.
“I can still hear him,” the dud says quietly.
Has that bitch had access to my thoughts all along? My jaw clenches hard enough to crack a tooth. I immediately slam down my mental shields, visualizing a steel vault door locking tight, complete with an alarm system. I don’t know if it will work, but she needs to be permanently out of my mind.
Or therewillbe trouble.
“Is he forming, er, sentences? Human sentences?” Feniks asks.
“His voice is there, but different.” Theodora cocks her head on one side like a little bird. “Oh,” she replies after a minute. “Ludo is still in there, but it’s harder for him to let me hear his thoughts.” She looks up and smiles. “He says it’s his job to navigate these tunnels.”
“That makes sense,” the professor replies, like any of this makes sense. The lights I’d cast are fading, so I spell some more illumination as Feniks goes into professor mode. “Minotaurs can lead you through a labyrinth, but only if they deemed the person worthy.”
Good thing I’m not on my own with the janitor, or I have the suspicion I’d be literally left in the dark.
An uncomfortable feeling stirs in my chest. I’m a person that others would happily abandon to a labyrinth. I usually don’t care in the slightest what other people think of me, so why am I bothered now?
It’s almost as though all the dragon fire running through my veins is forcing me to see things from another perspective. I don’t like it, and I won’t have it. I hate this weakness.
Fuck off feelings.
“He wants us to follow him,” the dud says, grabbing the hands of Donovan and the professor. The minotaur makes a noise of heavy breathing. Then, with a rattle in his throat, he steps into the darkest area of the cavern and disappears into the gloom. Donovan, Feniks, and Theodora quickly follow.
As I take up the rear, a lullaby one of my nannies used to sing echoes around my head.‘One is one and all alone, and ever more shall be so.’
I follow behind the group.
The minotaur strides along, decisively taking one route after another. There are so many tunnels branching out like roots from a tree, each one offering the potential to be either a path to escape—or eternal purgatory lost down in the dark. Fuck. Wes and Maximus could be anywhere.
Or dead.
How would they survive in this place? Now I’m breathing air again, all my bodily functions have returned. The need for waterand food is becoming extremely present. Don’t think about water. Don’t think about cool, icy pitchers of water.
I glance over my shoulder, and all there is behind us is solid blackness. Already, I have no sense of direction or idea of which way the original cavern could be. Putting out a hand, I trail it along the tunnel's rough walls.
Each branch that opens up pulls at me slightly, like I’m being invited in.
