But I don’t answer. I make my way to the opposite end of the room, as far from the hearth as I can go, right next to a wall of ice, smooth and glassy. It shimmers faintly with light just beneath the surface. I reach out.
Heat. Real, radiating heat rolls from the ice like a dragon’s breath.
“Cassy, Mariel! Come here!”
But when I turn back, they’re already freezing. Frost has begun to gather on their lashes. Their clothes are crusted in ice. Cassy is shivering violently, her hands curled tight against her chest. Mariel blinks slowly, dazed. Vivian barely moves.
“No—get away from the fire!” I shout.
“What?” Cassy whimpers. “It’s our only chance. I’m… so cold…”
“It’s not real! It’s draining you.”
Mariel hesitates, teeth chattering. “This-s-s d-d-doesn’t m-m-make any s-s-sense…”
But even as she protests, the hearth flares unnaturally. Flames leap from it, arching like serpents.
I dive forward and yank them back just as the illusion collapses.
The room shifts.
The luxurious rugs transform back to crumbling furs. The fire explodes outward, catching the corner of a tapestry that wasn’t there before. Smoke chokes the air.
“Where?” Cassy cries. “There’s no other way but back!”
“To the wall!” I shout. We stumble forward, and I press my palm against the ice.
Agony lances through my skin as it sears my palms. I suck in a sharp breath but don’t pull back.
“It burns,” I say, gritting my teeth.
“What?” Mariel gasps. “It’s ice!”
Steam curls from my fingers as the frost sizzles. The ice begins to drip.
“You’re melting it,” Cassy says in awe.
“Hot is cold,” I say through gritted teeth.
The pain is blinding. But I press harder.
Behind us, the maze snarls, an inhuman sound that sends tremors through the floor.
One deep crack splits the ice, then another. A jagged fracture shatters across the surface like lightning.
Light bursts through, and the wall shatters. The ice falls away in sheets, and beyond it, we see a golden-lit tunnel, breathing warmth. Without hesitation, we step through.
At first, the corridor is silent. Then whispers warp the air, slithering through it like smoke, curling through the shadows around us. A thousand voices rise—fear, rage, sorrow—none of them human. The warmth from the doorway fades, swallowed by the blackness ahead.
“We need to keep moving,” I whisper. “We can’t stop now.”
We press on, following a narrow tunnel that descends in a tight spiral. Vivian is nearly limp between us as we drag her forward. Cassy walks ahead, scanning wildly with every step.
The whispers deepen, and black tendrils rise from the cracks in the floor. One slithers around Cassy’s ankle. Another coils around Mariel’s back. I shout and swing a broken torch through the air, shattering the shadow on Mariel—but more crawl forward like snakes.
We run.
The passage opens into a massive chasm.
