I look at Cassius, confused.
He shrugs. “You can’t take the stable out of the stallion.”
As if that’s helpful.
Nervous, I focus back on the tunnel, taking a deep breath.We’ll be quick. It’s just a tunnel. Nothing more than that.With a final glance at the fleeting light of the open air around us, I step forward into the tunnel. A metallic sound rings through the tunnel as my boot hits the ground. Withdrawing my dagger, it instantly lights up blue, chasing some of the shadows of the tunnel away.
“Guys…?”
Sylvian slips his hand in mine. “It’s okay. We’re here.”
“You’re not alone. We’re with you,” Cassius says close behind me.
Oberon’s fire is there, just at the edge of my vision. “One foot after the next.”
Somehow, they make me feel better.
As we continue forward, each step resonates in the tight space, the sound echoing ominously as if the walls themselves are closing in around us.But there’s no turning back now. The only way out of this maze is to keep going forward.
I can’t go home until this is done.
Without warning, there’s a grinding noise, a deep rumble that reverberates through the tunnel, making the ground tremble beneath my feet. “What the hell is that?”
“Run! Back the way we came!” Cassius shouts.
We turn and start running. Except, there’s no exit. Nothing except a wall.
“It closed,” I say, my voice several octaves too high.
“Maybe out the other way!”
Our group turns, but then the entire tunnel starts shaking. Harder. Faster. Before I know it, the sides start to close in. I take a few steps toward the other end of the tunnel, but my feet… they sloosh.
“Is that water?” I ask, voice shaking. “Why is there water?”
“Fuck!” Oberon shouts.
Without a word, we rush to the other side of the tunnel, but unsurprisingly, it’s closed too. We start to beat our hands against the metal walls, but nothing gives.
“What is this?” I cry, even though a picture is beginning to form in my mind. A picture of us drowning in this metal coffin.
Cassius steps forward, no doubt on his face. “I’ll do what I can with the water, but freezing it won’t help and moving it won’t help for long. Eventually this space will fill up. We have to find a way out of here.” His hand rises to summon the power of water as if he can curb the rising tide.
Which, he can’t. If the tunnel keeps filling up with water, there’s nothing he can do to stop it.
Water pours through dozens of tiny holes near the floor. It comes fast. Too fast. It’s cold as death as it slams into my boots and climbs higher without mercy.
My breath catches.There’s no stopping it.
Within seconds, it reaches our calves, the icy current dragging at my legs as if it’s already trying to pull me under.The sound is deafening in the narrow metal tunnel. Roaring, relentless, filling every inch of space and thought.
I tighten my grip on my dagger and raise it higher. Its blade burns with pale, steady light, the magic inside it flaring in answer to my fear. The glow trembles across the metal walls, reflecting in broken flashes across rising water and steel.
Oberon’s fire continues to burn in his own hand beside me, his flames blazing hot and wild, casting violent shadows that twist and distort the tunnel around us.
The light reveals everything. The water climbing higher. The walls closing in. And the kings. For the first time since I met them, there is no calm control. No confidence. Only tension carved into their faces, their bodies coiled and ready, searching desperately for a way out that may not exist.
The water keeps rising, and the labyrinth doesn’t care if we drown.
