“Let’s get back to bed,” Sylvian says gently, coming to stand just in front of me. “Do you want me to lay with you?”
“She can lay with me.” And there’s a challenge in Ashton’s voice.
I take a step back from both of them, inching toward my blankets. “It’s okay. I can sleep alone.”
They exchange an angry glance, but neither follows me when I return to my blankets, which I’m grateful for. I have enough to worry about without having their hard bodies against me all night long, distracting me from sleep. The fae woman had warned me about them, and my first kiss or not, I wouldn’t forget her warning.
“Sleep,” Oberon commands. “Morning will come soon enough.”
20
Alette
The labyrinth stretches endlesslyaround us, twisting and turning without mercy. Every path looks the same. Every step feels pointless. Still, we keep moving, as if slowing down might give the labyrinth time to notice us.
I tell myself we’re getting closer to the end.
Ihaveto tell myself that. Because the other possibility—that we’ve been walking in circles, that we’re trapped here forever—is enough to break me.
The hedges seem to rise higher the farther we walk. Their leaves whisper to one another in low, restless murmurs, a sound that follows us no matter how fast or slow we move. The shadows from the leaves stretch unnaturally long, reaching across the path like fingers, as if they’re trying to pull us back. Trying to keep us here.
The air feels wrong. Too still. Too heavy.
The labyrinth isn’t just a place. It’s a thing. Alivingthing that’s waiting for us.
I can feel it in the way no one speaks. In the way our footsteps sound too loud against the earth, like an intrusion. In the way every instinct I have screams that we’ve already crossed some invisible line, and everything around us knows we’re here.
And it’s only a matter of time before it comes for us.
Ahead, a metal tunnel appears, gaping open like a dark, looming throat, threatening to swallow us whole. My instincts scream at me to hesitate, but what’s the point? I couldn’t make it back home now, through the twisting paths, no matter how hard I tried. Ahead is the only way out. Or doubling back to another path that might have something far worse.
I stop, eyeing the tunnel warily, its cold, uninviting surface glinting ominously in the muted light. The others halt beside me, and I sense their tension radiating from them. No one likes this tunnel any more than I do.
“There’s no way around except through it,” I murmur, my voice trembling slightly as I try to muster the confidence I don’t quite feel.
“We should go through it,” Oberon says, taking a small step forward.
“It’s clearly a trap,” Cassius responds, his eyes narrowing as he studies the structure.
“Or it’s nothing,” Sylvian argues.
“Or it’s a trap, but there will be a different kind of trap in the other direction,” Oberon says coldly.
Ashton raises an eyebrow, that infuriating smirk tugging at his lips. “Well, Alette, you’re in charge. What should we do?”
What should we do?My heart hammers as I step forward and squint, trying to look as deeply into the tunnel as I can, but it’s just black. Oberon appears at my side, and fire leaps into his hand. We both lean forward, but still, most of the tunnel is in darkness. Nothing I can see is particularly alarming though. It’s mostly just unsettling because this tunnel is unexpected,suspicious, appearing like something we conjured out of our thoughts, the next thing the labyrinth might throw at us.
“I think… I think we should go through it,” I reply, trying to sound more confident than I feel.
Oberon looks pleased.
Cassius simply lifts a brow but doesn’t argue.
“Let’s just go quickly,” I say. “In and out.”
“Ashton is good at going in and out quickly,” Sylvian jokes, but I don’t understand.
“Sylvian is just never invitedin,” Ashton throws back.
