Under my boots, the ground shifts. Stone turns to sand—hot, loose—and I stagger as desert explodes into existence. Dunes rolling out forever in every direction. Air rippling with heat that crawls over my skin. The sun sits low and vicious, a ruthless eye searing against a sky that’s too fucking red to be anything but wrong.
Then it vanishes.
City lights explode into existence, glass and steel towers shooting up from nowhere. The desert’s gone, swallowed by concrete and neon, sounds slamming into me—horns screaming, voices yelling, music pounding from places I can’t see. The air goes cold, sharp, tasting like exhaust and rain that hasn’t hit yet.
My pulse kicks hard. Sweat dots my temples even though the air’s freezing now.
Something’s fucking wrong.
The dread wraps tighter, winding around my ribs like it wants to crush them. Every shift—desert to city to whatever the fuck comes next—drags it with me. This suffocating wrongness that makes every instinct I’ve got screamrun.
“What the fuck is this?” The words rip out, sharp enough to cut.
Legend stands a few paces off, completely unbothered while everything around us warps and twists. His face gives me nothing. Just those dark eyes tracking every move I make, every flinch.
“Your task,” he says again.
The city blinks out. Night slams down like someone dropped a curtain. Stars explode overhead, way too many of them, burning way too bright, arranged in patterns that don’t exist anywhereI’ve ever been.
My hands ball into fists.
“Legend—”
The ground shakes.
I drop, instincts kicking in before thought does, weight shifting as the ground rumbles under me. The stars blink out. Darkness floods everything and the cold hits like a punch.
Silence.
No city noise. No wind. Nothing but my own breathing.
Just the dread, heavy and suffocating, filling my chest like smoke.
Then Legend’s voice, slicing through the black.
“Find your way out.”
The mazeexplodesaround me.
One second, there’s nothing. Next second, jagged concrete walls shoot up around me, black ivy crawling up the surfaces like it’s alive—pulsing,breathing. The air goes thick. Humid. Cloying. Tasting like wet stone and something way older. Something that’s been rotting for centuries.
I slam down on my ass, the impact punching all the air from my lungs. “FuckingRoyal.”
Legend’s laugh rolls through the space somewhere behind me, but when I spin, he’s gone. Disappeared like he was never standing there at all. Just the maze. Just me. Just these new walls pressing in on all sides.
Perfect.
I push to my feet, dusting off my palms. The ivytwitchesas I near it, tendrils recoiling slightly before creeping forward again, testing. Like it’s alive. Like it’shungry.
“Real mature, Deveraux,” I mutter, stepping closer to the entrance.
The maze doesn’t juststandthere. Itwaits.
Darkness yawns at the mouth of the first path, a black sodeep it looks like it’sdrinkingthe light. The ivy here is thicker, glistening with something that isn’t water. My boots stick slightly as I step forward, the soles making a wet, tearing sound when I lift them.
Perfect. Blood-ivy. Because why the fuck not.
I exhale through my nose, rolling my shoulders. Fine. If this is some twisted game, I’ll play. But I’m not playingnice.
