It lowers its dark maw to the ground, lips curling up to reveal rows of long, curved teeth dripping blood. Pulling in sniff after sniff, it slowly inches closer to where Marcella and I hide.
“Come to me, and I won’t hurt the others.”
The marks on my throat pulse, the ones it left all those dreams ago. Like my body is remembering.
I push forward, shoving through layers and layers of darkness before I slam into the bathroom mirror.
“Lyra, are you alright?” Marcella asks, pulling me back and brushing my hair out of my face.
I’m breathing like I’m nearly out of air, my entire body shaking and trembling that I can’t speak. Marcella helps me off the bathroom counter, and since I can’t control my legs to stand, she lowers me to the floor.
She grips either side of my face. “What did you see?”
Thirty-Seven
- MARCELLA -
The second trial—one week later.
I stare at myself in the bathroom mirror as the lady’s maids flit around me, tugging my arms through the long sleeves layered in red dragon scales. The shrug reaches up my arms and shoulders, framing my neck in a high, stiff collar that clasps at my throat. Underneath it is a thick bodice hugging my curves and angles. Also made of fire dragon scales.
Every night I’ve spent with Lyra, pushing her harder to seer, has done nothing to diminish her fear. If anything, it’s only been heightened. She explained what this trial is to be—in a foggy forest, hunted by a creature. That many of us will die today. And that the vision never showed if her and I made it out alive.
I never let her know it’s beginning to scare me. I’m the strong one. I have to be. The other women are dressed in varying shades of red dragon armor, shuffling about in the hallway, smiling and cheery. Having not a single clue we might be heading to our deaths.These women are batshit crazy to be so chipper heading into another trial.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have avoided Cyrus all week. Maybe I could’ve changed our outcome somehow—but I couldn’t dare face him. Not after his sudden urge to kiss me. And I definitely couldn’t share it with Lyra. Or at least, not yet. I didn’t need to add to everything else swarming her mind. Neither was she able to get Devin alone to ask why he’s keeping her what he called ‘illness’ a secret from Cyrus.
I catch the eye of Lyra beside Aelia in the crowded hall, and join the two of them.
“Nervous?” Aelia asks us both. Her blonde hair is woven into a crown braid.
I answer, “No?—”
“Yes,” Lyra says at the same time.
We exchange a quick glance before Aelia’s cheeks lift into a smile. “Oh, just don’t look it in the eyes and you’ll be fine.”
“What? Who told you that?” I ask.
“Lady Bethany,” she answers as we squeeze out of the double doors into the courtyard.
Lyra and I both toss her a wary glance, but Aelia doesn’t have any time to elaborate. Because Lady Bethany at the front of the group calls forth Devin, who comes from behind us.
We all fall quiet and shift to let him through. He leads us down a new stone path snaking around the castle, toward the southeast. Through a locked gate and into the land beyond of rolling hills, rocky outcrops, and grass swaying in the gentle breeze. It’s far too calm for what a second trial should be. Like the serenity of the ocean before a storm.
We walk around the side of a massive rocky feature to a dip in the land. Where two circular green mazes combine in the center. The endless twists, turns, paths, and dead ends are impossible to memorize. For a moment, I allow my shoulders to relax.
I toss a glance at Lyra, hoping she feels as relieved as I am.Nota foggy forest. Perhaps it was just a nightmare that keeps bubbling up to the surface, clouding her visions. I’m not exactly the most equipped to handle training her, so it was somewhat the blind leading the blind.
“Ladies,” Lady Bethany calls out with a smile. She stretches her arms out wide as she addresses us. “Welcome to your second trial. Your goal is to get from the center of the left ring to the center of the right one.”
All of us scan the direction Lady Bethany motions toward. She continues, “Though, I must caution you. The last three to finish shall be excluded from any private dinners with King Cyrus until the next trial. And if you find yourself stuck in a rather…challenging situation, then you too shall be considered as having failed.”
I rip my focus off her and scan the mazes, trying to etch them into my memory. But it’s difficult to completely see the maze, as the hedge walls are high enough to obscure many parts of both rings. Lady Bethany says something else, and then all of us are herded down into the valley.
Devin stops at a hedge wall, stretching at least forty feet into the air. He reaches in, twisting and shaking the leaves until a hidden door opens for us,and we all follow him in. To our right and left are green walls disappearing around curved paths.
After a right and left turn, we enter into a circle, with only one way out. The same spot we came in. Lady Bethany is no longer with us.
