22 - STAR
My last few words have barely left my mouth and I’m looking right at Declan, when I realize something is different about him. “Hey, what’s with your ears?”
“Huh?” He reaches up and touches the little feathers that have sprouted from his ears and sighs. “Oh. That.”
“That? You have wings on your ears, Declan. I’m gonna need an explanation.”
“It’s part of the whole messenger thing. Son of Hermes and all that.”
“Didn’t he have wings on his feet?”
“Yeah, well.” He points to himself. “Bastard son, remember? So I get the ears. I hate them, they’re stupid. It’s got a fairy vibe, don’t you think?”
I walk over to him, smiling. I like Declan. I like all three of my new men, but Declan has a sweet spot with me because he feels… I dunno. My age, or something. I’m pretty sure he’s probably the same age as Aric and Quaid—around there, at least. But he’s got a younger energy. More adventurous than Quaid and far,farless serious than Aric.
So I don’t like that he hates his ear wings and now I kinda feel responsible for his somber mood after all the fun we justhad because I’m the one who brought them up. The wings on his ears are tiny. Like the size of my hand. Obviously, they are not literally meant for flying, but are more symbolic. A physical representation of his powers.
I touch the creamy-white feathers, running my fingertips over them. This makes him shiver, his skin prickling up with tiny bumps. “Sorry,” I say. “If you don’t like it?—”
He grabs my hand when I try to pull it back, looking me in the eye. “No. I do. It feels good. I just don’t like the wings. They’re embarrassing.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s just a reminder that I’m the outcast in the family. I have seven half-siblings and while not all of them inherited the messenger gene, the ones that did all have winged feet. It’s just me with these dumb ears.”
“Huh. You’re the eighth?”
He pauses here to reflect., “Uh, yeah. Why?”
“Like me!” I say. “We’re both the eighth sibling. We’re both outcasts.”
“Hmm. I guess that’s true.”
I place my hands on his hips, hooking my fingers through his belt loops as I smile up at him. “Don’t you see, this is what connects us.”
His eyebrows go up. “Our status as lesser siblings?”
“Come on, look around, Declan. Tell me one thing about this place, or the experience we’re having, that implies we’re anything but special? I mean, we’re standing inside the Labyrinth looking at a portal that leads to Paradise.” I turn, pressing my back up to his chest, and point at the closest archway. “We’re gonna go there. And I don’t know what it’s gonna be like—maybe it’s horrible? Maybe it’s our own version of the Odyssey? But I don’t think too many people make it this far. I mean, Aric ran this maze a thousand times, he said. And henever made it this far.” I turn to face him again. “Wemade it this far.” I hike a thumb over my shoulder. “And your power is gonna get us there.”
“Yeah,” he says, smiling now. “That’s true. I can’t argue with that. Whatever is happening here, it’s epic.”
“Of course, it is. We’re heroes, Declan. Like Odysseus.”
He points at me. “And Theseus, your half-brother. He’s the one who really killed the Minotaur and beat the maze.”
“Did he return home? Or did he find this place and go through to Paradise?”
“Went home. So if he found this place, he didn’t go there.” He points to the archways.
“Hmm. Makes me wonder why Ares wanted Aric to run this maze so bad.”
“Maybe Theseus did find it?” Declan asks. “And maybe Ares heard a rumor or something and he decided to send his bastard son in to map it out?”
“Aric never found this place, though.”
“No. He killed this version of the Minotaur and everything ended.”
An idea forms in my head. “Maybe killing the monster removes access to this room? Maybe we have to defeat the Minotaur, but not kill it?”
