I let him.
His fear stinks, but I don’t care. He’s not the prize.
I smell her again. Not old this time.
Fresh.
I’m close.
So close I can almost hear her heartbeat.
And when I find her—when Itakeher back—this Maze won’t hold us.
Nothing will.
CHAPTER 11
LIORA
The stars are real.
That’s the first thing I register—sharp, cold pinpoints of light beyond the curved glass. Tiny fires burning in an infinite black sea. No distortion, no glitch edges. Just the vast nothing, pressing wickedly beautiful against the transparent wall.
I freeze. Because I’ve spent so long expecting screens and fakery, I forgot whatreallooks like.
Borzen’s voice rumbles behind me. “We’re not in a holoprojection anymore.”
Dravven takes a step forward. “Off-world.” He sounds like he’s tasting the words. “They brought us somewhere real.”
Behind us, the civilians—two of them left—press against the opaque walls, faces pale. One whimpers. The other has already begun shaking.
“Stars,” she whispers, as though she’s testing the word. “We’re... in space?”
I press my hand to the glass. It’s cold, hard. Real. The vacuum beyond presses on the chamber in silence.
I don’t dare look down. The floor is smooth, seamless—no grid lines, no simulation illusion. Just metal and glass and the breath of the stars.
One of the civilians—Callan—drops to his knees, tears sliding down his cheeks like acid. He sobs, “I knew it was real! I knew I was dead—somewhere out there!”
He reaches out as if he can touch the stars. His voice breaks. “Please, let me go home.”
Borzen’s fist slams the wall.Crack.
A jagged fracture blooms from his palm, spreading like spider veins. He stares at the cracked metal, jaw clenched. “Home,” he growls. “Home wasn’t this.”
Everything’s caught in that moment: wonder, fear, grief. Electrified silence.
Suddenly,click.
The lights die.
Darkness swallows us whole.
I gasp. The hum of machinery recedes. The chill in my skin snaps in sharper without light to dull it.
The stars vanish. The glass port is just another black patch. My heart thuds so loud I can hear it in my ears.
A countdown hums beneath our feet.
