PROLOGUE
Iwonder if it will hurt.
Intimate thoughts of her impending death were a new normal for Hazel Callahan, but this time it weighed her down with a sort of finality she couldn’t shake.
The hedge at her back slammed shut with an otherworldly groan, sealing her off from the brutish guards who’d shoved her inside only moments before. Hazel sighed, resigning herself to wondering notifshe would die today, but whether she would feel it.
There was no sense in turning back. With the hedge closed behind her and the crowd gone, only the maze remained. Well, the maze and Hazel’s fellow competitors, that is. And anything else awaiting within.
Moonlight vanished as though swallowed by the dense, living walls around her. Their enchanted boughs glowed faintly, providing the only light up the pathway before her. The air was oppressively heavy, carrying the smell of wet soil, damp rot, and decaying leaf matter—sweet, cloying, andwrong.
Survive. Get to the center. Drink the vial.
The instructions were simple, which scared her. Worse still, the rules were few; nothing of consequence was off limits—except quitting. Quitting was grounds for disqualification.
Hazel’s thoughts shattered as a scream of agony rang out somewhere in the maze, sending a shiver up her spine. She took a deep, steadying breath, her hand rising to where her silver locket rested below her tunic. Slaide’s words echoed in her mind…
Whatever you do, don’t stop moving. The hedge feeds on stillness… and fear.
She took one step forward. Then another. Left. Right. Pause. Listen. It made for slow progress, but it was as safe as anything could be in this gods-forsaken hedge. A few more steps and she would be at the first intersection—and met with her first choice of this trial. Left or right?
The vines weaving overhead rustled, drawing Hazel’s attention. All around her, the living hedge heaved as though breathing, and with each breath… the path forward narrowed.Okay, fine. So, slow and steady is going to get me devoured by a bush. Got it.But as she picked up the pace, so did the hedge. Its breathing intensified, matching the thunderous beating of her heart as she power-walked her way to the intersection.
Something burst forth from the hedge behind her, crashing to the ground in a heap of clattering armor. It was a knight, presumably a guard from beyond the hedge.
“Damn you, Perry! Let me back out this instant or I’ll—” His words ended violently as a beast of smoke and shadow leaped upon him out of nowhere, engulfing every bit of the man with its incorporeal form. She couldn’t see him, but his screams from within the ball of shadow told her enough.
Hazel backed away, afraid to turn her back on it or make any sudden movement that might draw its attention. It wasn’t like she could peel her eyes away, anyway. She’d never witnessedsomething so foul, its shadows like Slaide’s but moving of their own volition, no master to return to. Its body continually shifted, but there were no arms or legs to be seen.
She’d never claimed to be a graceful person, and unfortunately the threat of being in a life-or-death situation didn’t change that fact. A twig crunched underfoot, and it might have been the loudest thing she’d ever heard.
Shit.
Time halted. The monster before her paused its feast before turning on her with agonizing slowness. Its murderous gaze landed on her, two haunting red orbs assessing as it stared her down.
All bets were off as Hazel spun on her heel, nearly tripping in her haste to get away.
Run, run, run.She dashed to the end of the aisle just as screams erupted to her right. Her locket warmed against her skin.Left it is then.She didn’t stop, pivoting around the corner?—
And slamming fully into a hedge wall. A dead end.
Hazel righted herself, pulling out of the hedge branch by branch, feeling the panic rise in her throat as each second ticked by that she wasn’t free of its grip. And as the shadowy creature rounded the corner, her fear doubled. It crept forward in true predator form: slowly… and with malice in its crimson eyes.
As luck would have it, the hedge itself entered the fray, sending small snakelike vines to wrap around her ankles. The more she fought to get free, the harder the hedge pulled. But she wouldn’t use magic here. Not yet. So brute force might be her best option.
It was, in fact,nother best option. Before she knew it, her limbs became fully entangled, the hedge pulling her in as if to swallow her whole. On the bright side—if there was one—the shadow beast stopped its pursuit upon seeing it had lost its prey to the bushes.
For a moment, only her face remained beyond the wall. But with a tug, Hazel found herself ensconced in darkness, pulled through a seemingly endless assault of boughs and branches.
This is it.She wasn’t naïve. Hazel knew, realistically, she wouldn’t make it out of this trial alive. She just hadn’t expected to die so soon. When would the pain begin? Did the hedge have a stomach? Did its leaves produce human-digesting acid that would break her down bit by agonizing bit, slowly until there was nothing left? Would it spit her bones out when it was done?
Around her, the hedge shuddered and groaned. Then, all at once, everything froze. Even the hedge’s breathing paused. Like it was thinking. Listening.Checking to see if its prey is still alive, probably.
A slender, serpentine vine slithered up to her face before wiping away a tiny droplet of blood where a thorn had scraped her cheek. She shuddered at the touch as the little vine retreated.
And then Hazel was moving again as another particularly ambitious vine yanked her abruptly by the ankle. Clawlike branches grappled with her leathers, seeking purchase against the smooth material and snagging at her auburn hair. They whipped and clawed across her face, making her eyes water.
Unexpectedly, and with a great heaving effort by the hedge, Hazel was expelled on the other side. She patted herself down in disbelief that she could be both aliveandwhole. But she was. It was all the encouragement she needed to get moving again.
