27 - STAR
My head cocks to the side as I stare at the woman who just floated down from the starry sky. “I know you,” I say.
Even though I don’t know her and I didn’t plan on saying that, once the words are out, I know them to be true. “I know you,” I repeat.
She smiles at me. It’s a smile that lands somewhere between creepy and scary. But it’s Aric who speaks next. “Nyx,” he growls. It’s a serious growl and looking over at him, still breathing heavy and covered in blood from the fight, I find him almost unrecognizable. “What the hell are you doing here?”
In the few moments that have passes since the Minotaur’s death and the appearance of Nyx, apparently, both Declan and Quaid have found their way over to me. They stand on either side of my shoulders, a little bit in front, as if to protect me.
As if Nyx is a threat.
While the woman does seem familiar, I don’t actually know who she is. Obviously, some kind of goddess, but I was never a particularly good history student so what she represents to Aric and our current circumstances, I have no clue.
Nyx is not looking at Aric though, she’s got her gaze locked on me. Again, her smile is off-putting, but I can’t quite explain why.
I’m just about to start asking questions, when the ground beneath our feet begins to rumble.
“What the hell is that?” Quaid asks, looking down at the ground, then up at the ceiling.
“The Labyrinth,” Aric says, still growling as he directs a glaring gaze at the goddess. He steps towards the guys and me, cutting in front of us as if he’s taken on the role of ultimate protector, and begins to circle her. “This time it was real, wasn’t it?” Aric asks. “The Minotaur is really dead.”
“And thus,” Nyx says, tipping her head up in a gesture of authority and relaxing her shoulders to fold her hands in front of her long, flowing black gown. “It must crumble. The game has been won.”
“By us!” Declan shouts.
Nyx finally directs her attention to someone other than Aric and me and looks over at him. “That’s correct, son of Hermes. You all won. Which is why I’m here. Would you like to claim your prize?”
“What prize?” Quaid asks. After getting to know him in some very stressful situations, I’ve gotten the impression that Quaid is not a ‘riddles’ guy. He likes straightforward, logical conversations, so his impatient side is showing. “And what do you have to do with it?”
Slowly her gaze finds his, and at the same time, her arms rise up, her finger stretched out, pointing behind him. Which is behind me, so we all turn and look at the portal.
“Paradise!” I say. “We can go now!”
“Not so fast, little Starling,” Nyx says. And again, that creepy smile appears on her face. “You can’t pass through as you are.”
“Here it comes,” Aric sighs, rolling his eyes. “The catch.” He makes air quotes with his fingers for those words.
“Indeed, son of Ares, there is a catch when it comes to portal magic. Especially when the objective is…” She trains her gaze right on me. “Paradise.”
“All right, let’s just get to the point here, can we?” Quaid says, ever the pragmatist. “There’s something happening to the maze and I don’t like it.”
As if on cue, again the ground rumbles deep beneath our feet. But this time, a crack appears in the stone floor. Not a big one, only about an inch wide, but what the hell? What is happening?
“Fine,” Nyx says, shrugging up one shoulder. Obviously untroubled by the shifting earth. “The doors to Paradise are open, but not permeable. Look, see for yourself.”
Since the room is circular and there are portal archways around the perimeter, we all find one to study without moving. They are not a clear and open doorway to indicate that we can walk through them, but they are more transparent than they were when we first arrived.
The death of the Minotaur had some effect on their permeability, but didn’t open them completely.
“If you want to go to Paradise, you must give up all your godly gifts,” Nyx says.
“What’s that mean?” Declan asks. But he’s not looking at Nyx, he’s looking at Quaid. And I find it interesting that the trust between us has developed to such a stage where Quaid is the one we turn to for facts. He’s our fountain of logic, I guess.
Quaid is shaking his head. “If you’re telling me that I have to give up my glasses to walk through that door to Paradise?—”
“What?” Nyx cuts him off. “You don’t think it’s a fair trade?” She points to me. “Star isn’t worth the price of your rental tech?”
This is a biting insult. By highlighting the fact that his godly gift is borrowed, she basically just called him Mr. Nobody. AndQuaid is smart and astute enough to understand this, and for a few moments, he is at a loss for words.
