My body fights to go to him. It’s as if every atom in me is reaching for him. It’s almost as though he’s magnetized, and I’m helpless to his pull.
I start running.
My last conscious thought is that Leon was right. There is no fighting this. The bond is too strong.
The fog swallows me whole.
We’re reaching the hole now, and I start to rush past it, running to Leon.
I’m shoved to the side instead.
Arianna tackles me through the maze exit and yells at Mittens, “Close it, close it now!”
The wall starts closing, and I scramble up, trying to push around Arianna, desperate to go back. Only a foot left, and Leon is there, at the gap.
My body starts to convulse, the bond refusing to let me escape him a second time.
“Vivian!” he roars. But it’s too late. The vines of the hedge maze knit together, locking him in. As he disappears, all sound of him is gone.
It feels like the blood in my veins is boiling me alive, and all I know is Leon will fix the pain.
I finally manage to push past Arianna, and race to the maze wall. But before I can throw myself at the razor-sharp thorns, her arm comes around my neck, pulling me back into a chokehold. Her arms may look brittle and weak, but she’s stronger than she looks.
I scratch at her, trying to escape. She chokes me harder, and I start to see stars.
Sin’s voice echoes from the forest not far back, “We’re out of time! Move it!”
Arianna looks at Sin and then turns back to me.
“Sorry about this,” she whispers.
Shouts start in the distance. The guards know something is happening.
She lets me go, spinning me to face her. I only have a second to take a breath before she swings her arm back and punches me in the temple.
Everything goes dark.
Chapter 24
Rule twenty-four:Do not let the hot as fuck Destroyer read your smut.
If there’s anyone who needs to worry about memory issues, it’s probably me, what with all the head injuries I’ve sustained.
Consciousness is slow to find me again, and when I finally open my eyes, I find myself back in my bed at Morgana’s castle. My head hurts, but it feels like a paper cut compared to the pain I experienced back in the maze.
I shudder, remembering how close Leon got to taking me. My body gave in. Iwantedto go to him. The thought makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I can’t hide from him forever. One day, he will find me.
And then what?
A deep voice pulls me out of my spiralling. “Finally done napping?”
I whirl around at the sound, the movement making the throbbing in my head worse. I groan, massaging my sore temple, as I sit up and lean back against the stone wall. Sin sits across from me on the chair next to my bed. He doesn’t look any worse for wear, though in my recollection, he didn’t get punched in the head.
My eyes catch on the book folded on his lap. A book I very much recognize as one of my spicy novels. Immediately, my cheeks flush. It’s my favorite, but there is some heavy spice in there – all kinds of things I would never admit to getting turned on by.
“Why are you reading that?” I ask, trying to sound irritated, to mask how mortified I am.
