Instinct flares hot inside, and I hurl myself toward Zephyra, shoving her behind me right as the front doors slam shut. A bolt clicks. Locks slide into place. Gavriall throws himself at the double doors, pounding his fists on the adamant, but it doesn’t move. It doesn’topen.
Just as Zephyra said, we’re trapped.
“Told you so,” she offers weakly, pressing herself farther into my side. My wing curls around her protectively.
Amaya curses. The Tempest infantry raises their weapons. But it’s no use. We’re trapped, and the only way out is through.
The halls begin to turn then. Like a clock’s hands, they spin andtickaround the antechamber. They shift, and the castle trembles with a rush of dark power beneath our feet. My hold on Zephyra hardens.
The hallways shift every ten to fifteen minutes, rearranging themselves on an endless loop, she said. We prepared for it. We knew it was coming. But experiencing it is wildly different to hearing about it. I inhale through my nose and exhale through my mouth. I count to ten, to a hundred, in my mind. The Warlock Trials prepared me for this. I can handle a labyrinth.
I can handle this.
“We should split up now,” I say while the other humans continue to gape at the moving halls. “We want to spend as little time as possible searching. The sorcerer might have felt Zephyra’s magic. We won’t have long before he returns.”
“Arion’s right,” Zephyra agrees. “Let’s just get through this.”
“Um,” Gavriall says.
We ignore him. “Teams of four,” I say, repeating Amaya’s previous orders. “Partner up now. Ready your weapons.”
“You guys,” Gavriall says.
“Be prepared for anything—”
“ARION!SHUT UP!FUCKINGLOOK!” Gavriall shoves at my back, forcing me to peer at the wall before us.
I blink rapidly.
Unless I’m mistaken, the teeth are… moving. “What—”
“I’m going to be sick,” Vesper says.
The teeth aren’t simply moving. They’re snapping free of the wall, popping loose as if rupturing from a ligament, and turning.Turning—
They aren’t teeth at all. They’re a guard.
He’d been hiding. Calcified into the wall like a statue. Teeth litter the whole of his back, slicing into his petrified flesh as if he’d been impaled there centuries ago. I repress my own nausea, my own fear, as they begin to spark in my gut. The guard whirls around, bones creaking beneath his translucent, withered flesh, and spots Zephyra. He seems to recognize her. His wasted face lights in a tender smile despite everyone drawing their weapons. “Zephyra,” he croaks. “You’re here. You’ve come home.” He smacks his blue lips together. “The sorcerer will be so pleased.”
Zephyra stumbles away from me.Towardhim. She clutches her stomach, inserting herself between this strange, calcified man and the swords and spears pointed at him.
Her voice spills from her in a soft gust. “Caspian.What… what happened to you?”
Caspian does not answer this. His empty blue eyes don’t even seem to register the question. He tilts his head, bones creaking again. “I—I must alert the sorcerer. He will be so pleased.” He starts to move down one of the corridors, but Zephyra moves with a speed I’ve never witnessed. She grabs his wrist.
“No, Caspian.” Her fingers curl around teeth and sagging flesh. “Don’t tell him. Please don’t tell him.”
“But, Zephyra. You’vecome home.”
She swallows hard, and it takes everything in me to stand here and let this happen. To not decapitate this man on the spot. No matter that he has no control, that he has been cursed, that she is looking at him with a haunted sort of fondness. He is a threat. He is a threat toher.
“He doesn’t need to know,” she says. “We’re just… playing a game. I’m playing a game with the sorcerer. Go back to the wall now. Go back to sleep.”
“Sleep.” Caspian runs a hand down his face, peeling a layer of skin off his nose. “There is no sleep. I hear it all. I see it all.” He glances back at Zephyra, blue eyes hardening now. “You left us, Zephyra. Why did you leave us?”
“Caspian—” Zephyra’s gaze darts behind the man, to where Amaya has stalked forward with lightning crackling between her fingers. “Don’t, Amaya. We don’t hurt them. He… he doesn’t know any better.” And that is exactly why I haven’t moved. Exactly why I am watching, silent, waiting for the moment Caspian becomes a greater threat, regardless of his own mental capacities.
“He will be so pleased,” Caspian continues. He takes Zephyra’s arm and pulls her closer. “He talks about you, Zephyra. He loves you. He could not wait for you to come home to us.” His fingers wrap around her wrist, and he starts dragging her down the corridor with him.
