Sylvian walks in front, winding through the maze by instinct, by pheromone, by whatever idiotic animal sense the goddess installed in earth fae. He acts like he’s just out for a stroll, but his knuckles are bone-white as he clenches them at his sides, and every time the wind changes he flinches, like he expects another pack of wolves to break through.
But I guess I do, too.
I’m not afraid. I’ve seen every predator in the world, and I’m a predator to all of them. Never the prey. But I am getting tired, and the only thing worse than being tired is not being able to admit it.
We haven’t seen Alette or the wind prince since the hedge swallowed them. That was, what, five hours ago? In the maze you lose track of time without the sun to guide you. Cassius says that it’s probably deliberate, that the goddess wants us confused and desperate, but then Cassius would say that, wouldn’t he? Anything to prove he’s smarter than the rest of us, even though we all know he knows as little about the gods as we do.
“Does anyone think it’s strange that the labyrinth didn’t let us through until Alette and Ashton disappeared?” Casius asks.
“What about this place isn’t fucking strange?” I grumble.
“It’s just the goddess messing with us,” Sylvian says, but he doesn’t sound sure about himself.
We turn another corner… and nothing. No Alette. No Ashton. No sign that we’ll ever see them again.
I should be thinking about escape. About how to get out of here. But all I can think about is Alette’s face when she was brought out of that pit of vines. She looked back at me. Atmespecifically, not Sylvian, not even Ashton, and in that split second, I saw it in her eyes. She knew I would’ve protected her in that hole until my dying breath. She'd looked at me like I wassome kind of god, not just a bad tempered king that no one gives a shit about.
Now, with every step, I see her face at the edge of my vision. Mocking me. Accusing me. Like when I let her fall through that hedge, I’d failed her in some way.
Eventually we hit another dead end. Another wall of living wood, knotted and impassable, with thorns and leaves the size of knives. Sylvian stares at it, breathing hard, like he can will it to open.
“It’s over,” I say. “We double back, try another branch.”
“Food first,” Sylvian says.
My stomach aches, but I tell him, “We can eat when we’ve found them.”
“We won’t have the energy to find them if we don’t eat,” Cassius says, as cocky as all the fucking water fae.
Cassius sits on the ground, cross-legged, like he’s about to meditate his way out. I can’t stand the thought of just sitting and eating, but I don’t have a better idea. So I pace, punching the hedge every few minutes just to calm myself down enough to sit.
Sylvian joins Cassius on the ground, and they both open their packs and start setting out food and their water skins. Reluctantly, I join them, and we all start eating in silence. Still, I’m angry. I’m angry at these idiots, but mostly angry at myself.
“Shouldn’t an earth fae be more useful than you are?” I ask Sylvian, and I can see my words hit. He’s feeling the same way.
“The hedges aren’t like normal plants. I can feel them, but I can’t control them. I can’t access my magic.”
I snort. “Useful.”
Cassius turns an arrogant expression onto me. “And your fire magic has been so very useful on this adventure of ours.”
I glare. “As has your water magic.”
“I wasn’t the one throwing statements about usefulness around. Not initially.” He sighs. “I’m just trying to point outthat the goddess really did her work on this labyrinth. It seems perfectly designed to make us all feel as useless as possible.”
“Useless is exactly how I feel,” Sylvian says softly. No jokes. No laughter.
Something in me calms a bit. None of us are handling this well. “So, after this we just keep walking?”
“I guess,” Cassius answers.
“We will find them again, won’t we?” Sylvian asks, then stares down at his food. “What if they’re the only ones who make it out?”
“That’s better than her being trapped here because of our selfish desire to have her help,” I say.
They both look at me, surprised.
Cassius asks, “Do you feel bad for making her go with us through the labyrinth?”
