“Kill her!”
“The Ripper’s never lost a hunt!”
Charming. There was nothing quite like performing for an audience that would prefer to watch you die.
The hedges began shifting to create a narrow passage. Wickett stepped forward without hesitation, his hand resting on his blade hilt. “Stay close. Don’t touch anything unless I tell you to.”
“Don’t touch anything in a maze designed to kill us? Revolutionary strategy.” But I followed him into the green darkness anyway, because the alternative was letting the magical ribbon drag me. There was no time for a final look back at Calder. The branches swayed, and the opening closed behind us.
Thorns scraped against my arms as the walls pressed inward. The passage narrowed until Wickett’s shoulder brushed mine. More than anything, I needed Silas in the sky so he could direct me forward. But obviously the damn dragon circling above kept him away, because he was nowhere to be found.
“Everything’s a trap,” Wickett warned. “The trick is springing other people’s, while avoiding your own.”
“It might surprise you to learn I don’t need advice on how to stay alive. I’ve got a lifetime of experience. And the first rule of survival? Never waste an opportunity. We need to take advantage of our head start.”
The moment the words left my mouth, my mind went elsewhere. Back to a thought that had nagged me for days—though I had sensed enough to know I was afraid of the answer. Still, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about other head starts. Bigger ones. More important ones.
“Hasn’t this whole Mortalis given the Phoenix days to run? While we’re busy entertaining the masses, we’ve probably already lost her,” I said, trying to keep my voice casual as wenavigated deeper into the darkness, pushing away the rippling bushes that covered half the path.
Wickett snorted. “You think like prey. Always assuming the hunted has the advantage.”
“Don’t they?” I asked, knowing he’dhateit.
He paused, slicing through a vine that crept across the ground. “Not when the hunters are competent. While every eye in the city watches us play games, my father’s men are sweeping the streets. Lower districts, abandoned buildings, the docks. The Phoenix could be in chains right now, and we’d never know until this theater ends.”
This much I already knew, truly. But hearing it made it worse. Vitoria could already be captured. Tortured. Dead. And here I was, tied up in a maze while the real hunt happened beyond the arena walls. The hunt I thought I’d signed up for.
“How many hunters are out there?” I pressed.
Wickett’s pace never faltered, but his eyes found mine all the same. “Curious question from someone who claims no personal interest in the Phoenix.”
I managed a passable eye roll, coming to a stop beside him as we reached a dead end. “I’m curious about everything that might keep me alive. Including whether this whole spectacle is just a distraction while the real work gets done.”
“Clever. But if you can’t keep your mind on surviving the next hour, I suggest you hand over your life now and save us all the trouble of watching you die slowly.” He linked his fingers together and knelt down. “It’s a waste of time to go backward. This wall is short enough to go over. Place your foot in my hands, and I’ll boost you.”
I drew back. “You have no idea how thick this wall is, or what’s on the other side. No fucking way am I letting you launch me into?—”
“Then look first.” His tone suggested I was being deliberately obtuse. “I’ll lift you high enough to see over. If it’s manageable, you go. If it’s not, we find another route. Unless you’d prefer to waste more time debating?”
Bastard had a point.
“Fine,” I snapped. “But if there’s a pit of spikes on the other side, I’m haunting you for eternity. I will literally make camp under the bed you claim you don’t sleep in and ruin every single moment of the rest of your shitty life, hunter.”
“Noted.”
I placed my boot in his linked hands, gripping his shoulders for balance as he lifted me with infuriating ease. The top of the hedge came into view, but more walls beyond this one, taller ones, blocked any clear path forward. The branches here weren’t so dense I couldn’t jump to the other side.
“Well?”
“It’s passable. Barely.” I hated admitting it. “Boost me over.”
He didn’t wait for me to brace myself. Just launched me upward like I weighed nothing. The branches reached for me as I cleared the top, thorns grazing my hair, vines snapping at my wrists but missing by inches. Apparently, going over pissed it off. I hit the ground on the other side hard, landing square on my ass with enough force to bruise places I’d forgotten existed.
“Made it,” I shouted back, pushing myself up and spitting out a leaf.
Silence.
Then Wickett appeared above the hedge, airborne, clearing ten feet like it was nothing, and landed beside me without so much as a stumble.
