“Bast, hey, you’re going to be okay,” I say frantically as I touch his wound.
His body shrinks below me until he’s my size again.
“Hey, answer me,” I urge as I pull my bag over my shoulder.
“You love me,” he mumbles, black blood painting his lips. “I…heard you.”
The wound on his shoulder was done at an angle. It’s pierced his upper lungs. Fuck.
I sniff back tears as I pull out his soulbound book. “Let me read.”
“I heard your heart…call to me,” he slurs.
“Call me Ishmael,” I start, pointing my finger at the words as blood runs down my knuckles onto the page. I swipe it away and keep going.
“Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse.” My voice trembles as his cold hand caresses my cheek. “And nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.”
There’s a loud, electric snap somewhere near the maze and I gasp. I know that sound…
It’s a portal.
“Run,” Bastian mumbles.
“No,” I whimper, tears spilling down my chin.
“Please, lovely. S—save yourself.”
“I won’t leave you,” I say through clenched teeth, biting back a sob. “I’d rather die.”
“No,” he moans. “Live. Please.”
“I can’t, not without you,” I say, curling over him. I plant a gentle kiss on his blood-stained lips. “I love you.”
His chest hitches in a silent cry as he grasps the back of my neck and kisses me again.
The tromp of heavy feet shake the earth as they draw near. I stuff Bastian’s book back in my bag and I grab the dagger the robot had smacked from my hand. Moonlight shivers on the blade as my muscles tremble.
“Clear,” a male says, and the feet tromp forward again.
My heart sings with hope.
Could it be? Police?
But the portal…
I grip the blade tighter, trying to still my hand. I’m breathing too fast, and darkness is creeping in at the edges of my vision.
A head peeks around the corner of the maze and then disappears.
“Here!”
The robots didn’t talk to each other. This is something else.
A man in dark robes—like wizard robes—comes around the corner. There’s a green plus sign on his chest with two arrows above it.
“Lower your weapon, ma’am,” he says as he approaches with hands raised. “I’m here to help.”
“Who are you?”
