The tunnel on the far side of the cavern comes into view, narrow and uneven. Relief stirs briefly, delicate and uncertain, but I refuse to trust it. Not yet. Not until we’re out.
“Keep going,” Oberon says quietly behind me, calm certainty threading through his voice and grounding me just a little.
We slip into the tunnel, one after the other, moving quickly but carefully. It’s wide enough that we don’t have to crouch, but that almost makes it worse. The space stretches ahead of us, open and exposed, with nowhere to hide if something comes barreling through in front of us. Every step echoes faintly off the stone, the sound carrying farther than I’d like.
The air shifts as we move higher, warmer, but still heavy with the lingering scent of damp rock and something older. I keep moving anyway. Forward. Always forward.
The ground shifts beneath my hands, uneven and cold, and the darkness lined by torches stretches ahead of us, endless anduncertain. My muscles burn, my breath coming faster no matter how hard I try to control it, but I don’t stop.
I can’t. None of us can. We have to escape. No matter how exhausted we are.
Then, slowly, the air changes. It’s faint at first. Just a hint of something different. Cleaner. Cooler. I pull in a breath, deeper this time, and it strikes me all at once.Fresh air. We’re close.
Hope rises again, stronger now, but fear twists through it, making it dangerous to believe in.
We spill out into the night, one after the other, and the air strikes my face like something alive. Cold. Fresh. Real. I drag in a breath so deep it almost hurts, my lungs stinging as they fill, chasing away the stale heaviness of the cave.
I want to stop. To stand there and breathe and let it all sink in. But I don’t.
Because we’re not safe.
The labyrinth stretches out around us, the hedges towering and monstrous, their shapes warped by moonlight into something almost alive. Shadows twist between them, shifting with the wind, making it impossible to tell what’s real and what isn’t.
We’re exposed here.
A roar splits the night, loud and guttural, echoing from somewhere to our right. It vibrates through the ground, through my chest, through every part of me, freezing me in place for half a second too long. Turning, I spot a cyclops in the distance, in the direction of the field of flowers we’d passed out in.
They know.Cold fear wraps around my ribs, squeezing tight.
“Run!” Oberon says, low and sharp behind me.
And this time, there’s no hesitation.
We bolt, our footsteps pounding against the earth as we dart through the hedges, the sound of our flight swallowed by the thunder of something far heavier crashing after us. The groundtrembles with each of their steps, and when I risk a glance back, my stomach drops.
There isn’t just one.
There are several now, barreling through the maze, ripping through branches, tearing through anything in their path, their massive forms forcing the labyrinth itself to bend around them. Their single eyes gleam in the dim light, locked onto us.
Cassius stumbles, his body swaying dangerously. Oberon doesn’t hesitate. He doubles back, grabbing Cassius and hauling his arm over his shoulder, dragging him forward with sheer force.
“You’ll have time to rest later!” Oberon growls, his voice leaving no room for argument.
“I’m slowing you down. You should–” Cassius mutters, his voice strained, barely audible over the chaos behind us.
“Not a chance,” Oberon snaps, not even looking at him. “We’re all getting out of here.”
His conviction stirs something fierce inside me, a hope too stubborn to let go.
“Keep going!” I shout, forcing my gaze forward.
Branches whip against my arms as we push through another stretch of hedge, the maze blurring around us. My lungs burn. My legs scream. But the sound behind us keeps growing. Louder. Closer.
One of the cyclopes crashes through an opening in the hedge to our left, close enough that I feel the rush of displaced air. I scream, instinct taking over as I lunge forward, but Oberon spins, shoving Cassius toward Sylvian.
“Go!” he barks.
Fire erupts from his hand, not the controlled flame he used before, but something wild and furious. It roars outward in a sweeping arc, catching the cyclops full in the chest. The creaturebellows, stumbling back as its skin blackens and splits, the smell of burning flesh thick and choking in the air.
