“Turn back, or you will never survive.” His jaw opens wider than it should. The sound that follows is wrong. Warped. As if something inside him is forcing the words out. “Terrible things lie ahead.”
His form flickers violently. “You will not make it out alive.”
The last word stretches unnaturally, echoing through the air long after his mouth stops moving.
Alive.
Alive.
Alive.
The labyrinth itself seems to breathe with him, and I know, with absolute certainty, that this is not simply a ghost. This is something trapped. Something broken. Something that never escaped this horrible place, but wants to.
The warrior’s eyes flicker. Then his body begins to unravel. It doesn’t fade, it breaks. His form fractures violently, his outline splintering apart as though something inside him is tearing free. His armor collapses inward, his limbs splintering into black shapes that explode outward in a violent burst.
Bats. Hundreds of them. They erupt from him in a violent storm of wings and teeth.
I scream as they descend on us.
They come fast. Faster than I’d think possible.
Their bodies slam into me, claws scraping across my skin, wings tangling in my hair, their shrieks piercing my ears. Their tiny bodies are cold. Wrong. Their wings feel like dried leather against my face.
They crawl all over me. Almostthroughme. Like they’re trying to find their way inside.
Panic consumes me. I swing wildly with my dagger, trying to fight them off, but there are too many of them. Their wings beat against my eyes, my mouth, my throat. I can’t see. Can’t breathe.
“Get back!” Ashton shouts.
His arm wraps around me, crushing me against his chest. Then the wind comes. Violent. Sharp. Controlled. It explodes outward from him in a powerful surge, tearing through the swarm. The bats shriek, their bodies ripped away by the force, scattering violently into the darkness. One by one, they vanish, until nothing remains. No bats. No warrior. No sound. Only silence. Thick. Heavy. Watching.
"What the hell was that?" I gasp, my voice trembling.
The fae kings are all standing at the ready in the darkness, weapons drawn, their expressions grim.
“It was a ghost,” Ashton explains. “A fae warrior sent to warn us about what’s coming for us.”
"He must have been one of the fae warriors who tried to complete the labyrinth," Oberon says, and there’s a note of sadness in his voice. "He likely gave his life for our people."
Cassius looks at the ground, his expression hard to read. "I had hoped that the worst thing our warriors would face was death. It seems that some have had even worse fates."
I swallow hard, unease crawling under my skin. "I didn’t know there were fates worse than death."
There’s a long moment of silence as that sinks in for all of us.
"It’s sad, but this doesn’t change anything," Oberon says, his voice sharp, cutting through the air like a blade. "We have to do this. We have no other option."
My pulse is still racing, and I can’t shake the feeling of the warrior’s eerie warning, the memory of his words echoing in my mind like a grim prophecy. Something terrible waits for us, lurking in the shadows, and I can feel it.
“Are you alright?” Ashton asks quietly, his hand brushing against my arm.
I nod, though the unease still churns in my stomach. “I’m fine. Just... just shaken.” My voice falters slightly, a crack in my facade that I can’t quite mask.
Oberon speaks, his voice heavy with authority. "No doubt, we’ll find more like him, Alette. More of these lost souls, trapped here for eternity. This labyrinth will try to break us, but we can’t let it."
For a moment, I wonder if this was a mistake, if stepping into the labyrinth was the wrong choice.What if we can’t makeit through? What if we don’t survive?Maybe I should’ve tried to escape harder. Maybe I should’ve run when I could.
I push those thoughts aside, because they won’t help me now. We have no choice but to keep moving forward. There is no other option.
