She looks a little startled and then relaxes, stepping past Tanzanina to reach for my hand. “Hunter told me you could read my emotions.” Then, in the next beat, “Slade spoke with your sisters. They want you to know they’re concerned for you, but they understand you need to do this.”
“Are they still in the city?” I ask, unable to sense them for myself.
Archer shakes her head. “They said there isn’t any peace in the city, so they would return home.”
“Good.”
She pauses, holding tightly to the satchel, which I anticipate is for me, but she isn’t ready to hand it over yet.
“If you go into the maze, you’ll walk a treacherous path between the past and the present, all the while faced with monsters you won’t expect to encounter.”
I shrug. “It’s a good thing I’m a monster, too, then.”
Archer’s expression softens. “There’s one more thing I need to warn you about before you go in. Time doesn’t pass the same in there.”
“What do you mean?”
“One day in there is a month out here.”
This gives me pause.
Archer grimaces. “The way Slade described the situation with the bones and Vanguard, it sounds like you don’t really have a choice anyway.”
“You’re right.”
I have to make sure the bones are destroyed.
Focusing on the satchel she’s holding, I extend my hand toward it.
She passes it to me. “These clothes are for you.”
I consider the jeans, T-shirt, and fresh underwear inside the bag, uncertain how I’m going to change into them without causing a scene. I don’t care too much about modesty, but I’m certain the others may take issue with me stripping off right here and now, and there’s nowhere private to change.
Slade gives me a brief smile and a wave of his hand as he heads toward Striker.
A little hut appears behind me with a door but no windows, and I quickly step inside it, listening to the conversations outside while I change.
Slade speaks quietly to Striker for a few moments, telling him that he spoke with Striker’s sister, and she promised to look after Draven Industries until Striker gets back.
Then, in a lower voice, he adds, “The maze will test you. Given what you’ve already been through, I’m not concerned about your ability to survive the physical challenges. But it isn’t strength that will get you through. Everyone’s path through the maze is different, even if they’re walking on the same ground. You need to follow your heart. Remember to breathe. Stay true to your heart, and you won’t be lost.”
Striker is quiet for a moment before he says, “I understand.”
Slade clears his throat. “I also contacted Alexei. He’s given us permission to travel into his territory, but he warns that the activity of dark witches in the deep forest has increased in recent months, so we’ll need to be on our guard.”
“Will Alexei be there?” Striker asks.
Slade lowers his voice even further. “He wanted to be.” There’s another pause, and I focus on the heightened emotions coming from Tanzanina—the increasing depth of her sadness—before Slade continues. “But he’s on a mission he can’t interrupt. Something about an emerging war between powerful wolf shifter packs.”
Slade’s pause tells me he’s said all that he can about whatever that emergency might be, so I step from the little hut, my whip hooked through one of the belt loops at the top of my jeans.
Striding across to Jonah, I hold my damaged assassin’s suit out to him. “Dispose of this.”
He gives me a wry smile. “I thought my punishment was over.”
I shake my head. “Not until I say so.”
He doesn’t argue with me. Flames immediately burst around his fingers, and the material turns instantly to ash, the fine dust floating to the ground.
