17 - STAR
My lips against Aric’s feel sensitive and tender, almost charged with electricity. When we first came into the bathroom, there was an awkward moment. Aric was looking down at his feet worried about the maze and how I might be drawn in to it. “I don’t want that for you,” he whispered. “I wouldn’t want anyone to have to run this maze.” His gaze came up just enough to look me in the eye. “Honestly, Star, I wouldn’t wish that punishment on my worst enemy.”
There was so much emotion in that gaze it made my heart skip a beat. So much pent up… anger? Fear? Disappointment?
How must it feel to realize that your own father thought less of you than his worst enemy?
This only drew me further in to this mysterious man. I pressed up against him, wanting to be closer. My nipples peaked in anticipation as they pushed into his chest and my hands started wandering across his hips, fingertips dragging along the bare skin of his back.
I knew the kiss was coming, even before Aric leaned down. So I rose up on my tiptoes to meet him halfway. When our lips touched—my god, it sent a shock through my whole body.And then the kissing, which started slow and filled with hopeful expectations turned into something more like lust.
That’s when the shift happened.
Aric and I both pull apart at the same time. I gasp, and in the same moment, he says, “Oh, fuck. What did we do?”
It’s dark where we are, so I don’t know what’s happening other than, we are no longer in his bathroom. “Where?—”
Suddenly, Aric is behind me, one hand clasped tightly over my mouth, the other snaked possessively around my waist, holding me close to him. “Shh,” he whispers in my ear. “Don’t say anything.”
I have a million questions, but Aric does not loosen his hand over my mouth, so I can’t ask them. He’s looking around, almost frantically.
And then I hear what he’s looking for. A snort, off in the distance. And then I smell it. The stench ofanimal.
Aric begins to back up, looking around as he goes. We take about ten steps like this and then he pulls me off the main corridor and into a side path. “No talking,” he whispers, still pulling me backwards with him. “Don’t say anything until I get us somewhere safe.” We round a corner, then he takes his hand off my mouth, spins me forward as he turns, takes my hand, and starts torun.
As if this couldn’t get any weirder, something else happens. The walls begin to sing. A note here, a melody there. And words too. I can’t make sense of them, but I can clearly hear asong!
My song.
And even though he’s a big guy, he’s not slow. So much faster than me, I’m being pulled along. And the faster we go, the quicker the song becomes. The beat of the music matches the panicked rhythm of my heart.
We go around down a hallway, take a right, then a quick left, then down another hallway, take a left and a quick right, andthen, even though I’m nearly ready to fall over, breathless from the hard run, he kicks it up a notch and starts running faster.
At this point, he’s literally dragging me and there’s no way for me to go on. So I just stop. Which almost lands me face first on the ground, because he doesn’t. And if he didn’t let go of my hand, I probably would’ve face planted. “Stop,” I say, trying to keep my voice low, but having a hard time because of my ragged breathing. “Stop! I can’t go any further.”
He doesn’t even respond, just swoops me up in his arms and before I can even blink, we’re on the move again.
At this point, I’m fuckin’ terrified and I’m just about to start throwing a fit, and force him to stop and explain what the hell is happening, when we come upon a door. He opens it, we go inside, and then he sets me down, slams the door closed, and leans against it.
Those eyes of his, when his gaze meets mine, are filled with terror. “Are you OK?” He asks. And he’s not even out of breath.
Even though I didn’t run that last hundred-yard dash, I am still finding it very difficult to breathe. “What,” I wheeze, “is going on?”
“Don’t worry,” Aric says. “We’re safe here.”
And that’s when I realize, I know where we are. We’re in his room. The very one we left when we started kissing. Only there’s no sign of Declan and Quaid.
“The kiss,” Aric says. “The kissing. Don’t you get it? You took out of the present and sent us into the past!”
“What?” I scoff. “That’s impossible!”
“Look around, Star. This is my room. We were just there.” He points to the bathroom, which is dark. But the same beaded curtain is hanging in the doorway. “This isn’t the present. Look!” He points to the bed, which was made up perfectly when left, but is now a mess of covers and pillows. “And look there!” He points to the place where the holographic strippers in cages were, butaren’t now. “This is the past, Star. This is a moment from my fucking past! I haven’t beaten the maze! I haven’t killed the Minotaur! We’re back!”
I look around, nearly in a blind panic. But when I turn back to Aric and see the fear in his eyes—I… I become…strong. I think. I feel a sudden protectiveness over him. And an anger. At his father, the god Ares, for putting this man through hell as a child. At all of this. And the unfairness of it.
I walk over to him, slip my arms around his waist, and press my head into his chest. “It’s OK,” I say. “This might look like the past, Aric, but it’s not. I wasn’t there and I’m here now.” I look up at him, find him looking down at me with such… vulnerability, I nearly come undone. “I’m here now,” I say again. “And you’re never gonna run this maze alone again. Not ever.”
There’s a moment where he doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t move, not one inch. But then he lets out a scoff. “Little Star, the Eighth is gonna save me, huh?”
