“We’ve found you,” Hart says, his voice laced with a teasing edge. His reflection moves closer, though I can’t tell if it’s real or another trick of the maze. “You can’t hide in here, Daphne. Not from us.”
“I’m not hiding,” I shoot back, though my voice wavers.
Malachi steps into view, his movements slow and deliberate, as if he has all the time in the world. “Then why are you trembling?”
“I’m not,” I lie, my fingers curling into the fabric of my pants.
The maze shifts around me, the mirrors rippling like water. The reflections of the twins close in, surrounding me from all sides. Hart’s voice comes from everywhere and nowhere. “You know why we’re here, don’t you?”
Malachi’s laughter follows, warm and wicked. “You feel it too, don’t you, Daphne? This pull between us? Like gravity.”
I back into a mirrored wall, my breath quickening. Their reflections crowd me, and for a moment, I swear I can feel Malachi’s hand brush my shoulder, though he’s still standing several feet away.
“Stop playing games,” I demand, though my voice lacks conviction.
Hart tilts his head, his smirk widening. “But you like games, don’t you?”
The maze shifts again, and suddenly, Malachi is there, impossibly close, his reflection bleeding into reality. His fingerstrail along my arm, light as a whisper, but enough to send a shiver down my spine.
“You could choose one of us,” he murmurs, his voice low, intimate. “Or neither. Or both.”
Hart appears on my other side, leaning close enough that his breath brushes my ear. “Both has a certain appeal, doesn’t it?”
My heart races, my thoughts tangling as the mirrors close in around us. The maze seems alive, pulsing with the same dangerous energy that radiates from the twins. I push away, but my movements only press me deeper into the labyrinth, the walls narrowing, the light dimming. It’s no secret that I want all the brothers, but deep down I worry I am being selfish, needy, unfair to them. Society will always judge us, glare down their noses, but that has always been true for me. I am being unfair subjecting them to the same.
Then again, they have free will. They can walk away from me at any point, refuse to be part of whatever is growing between us.
Their reflections surround me, their voices a tantalizing echo in my mind, forcing my muddled thoughts to scatter into the night. I wish I could lose all inhibitions and not worry about balance, fairness, who is doing what. Just follow my heart.
“Stay,” Malachi says softly.
“Run,” Hart challenges, his grin flashing like a blade. “I dare you.”
I stand frozen in the labyrinth of reflections, caught between shadow and desire, my heart pounding like the steady thrum of the circus beyond.
I lick my lips, spying another smaller tent ahead, the entrance dark, and the sign above claiming it to be the depth of a thousand nights. The promise of a thousand sins seems apt for a room promising a thousand nights.
Hart’s hands ghost over my shoulders, causing a shiver to run down my spine. “What do you think, Calamity? A sin for each of the nights?”
“And how many can we commit in just one evening?” Malachi whispers from my side.
A thousand sins between the arms of my knights? If a pair of them committed a sin with me every night, that would take an entire annus. It’s a dirty job, but I’m just the maiden to do it.
“Happy hunting, boys.” I smirk at them before dashing away, their dark laughter doing funny things to my floof. Darting a glance over my shoulder, I find Hart and Malachi striding side by side, stalking me, their gazes heavy with desire.
Oh Idols.
I step inside the tent. Unlike the shadows of the night, here, all light disappears, like it simply doesn’t exist in this vortex. All that remains is the throbbing heat in my veins and the steadyboom boom boomof my heart in my chest.
I could retreat from this place, join my sister in the carriage, and go back to the palace. It’s probably what I should do. But tonight, I am not Daphne the clumsy, nor the Lady of the Lake doomed to a brief life once she fulfils her destiny. I’m not even a maiden who weighs down her sister. I am theirs, and they are mine. It’s freeing, seductive, invigorating.
With my hands stretched out in front of me, I stumble around in the vast space. My fingers graze fabric and I jerk back, sucking in a breath.
“Careful, Calamity,” Hart hisses in my ear. I spin, my hands outstretched to grab him, but meet air.
Someone clicks their tongue from over my shoulder. “Poor Daphne, hunted through the night by knights with sin on their minds.”
“I can’t sin if I can’t touch you,” I grumble.
