Page 60 of Of Monsters and Mazes

“Because the nails are me.” She confessed in a way that made the words feel more like an accident. I was taken aback while she continued twirling the nail gently over one of her marks. “They’re not Theron. They’re me.” She chewed on her lip while keeping her head down, as if she was ashamed of such a thing. But to be honest, that was the most interesting thing to come out of her mouth since I’d met her. The serum had all but completely cleared from my system now, yet I’d not lost any of my infatuation with the woman.

Heh. What’s one more trauma bond in a lifetime of chaos.

As much as I wanted to ask for an explanation, this little revelation was interrupted by the new message slowly sparking across the shimmering golden walls.

One nail each.

Then one nail more.

“What does that mean?” Her gaze was fixated on the metal in her hand, while mine was squarely on the clock that had appeared beside the words. A full hour was set into the analog face. But it hadn’t started ticking yet. It wouldn’t until it finished telling us the task. Which meant there was more to this message.

One woman’s trauma is another man’s toy.

But what if the man is also another man’s toy?

Cryptic. But also still lacking in instruction. And I sure as fuck hope that wasn’t referring to me being anyone’s toy.

A second clock appeared, this one set for two hours.

With all the tools you have at hand, join as one, and take a stand.

Should the man come out to play, the golden path will show you the way.

My eyes narrowed. The first clock began counting down in my periphery as I moved my gaze from the girl to the hammer to the nails to those conveniently shaped dots on her wrist. That was all the information we’d be getting it seemed.

That was all I needed.

I just wanted one last verification before I did something this woman might never, ever forgive me for.

“Sela, sweetie,” I started, low, disarming, and nonchalant. “Why don’t you tell me how you got those scars?” Despite the fact that she considered the contents of the box a part of her, she still somehow associated it with him. I needed to know the exact connection.

She froze, her only movement in the trembling of her lip. “It was just a dream.”

There it is.

“That’s what I thought.” My wide grin bore all of my fangs for the defenseless woman, trapped in this golden box with a monster. Claws extended from my fingers, and I gave her but a single breath to brace herself. I waited for that delicious shock in her widening eyes, before I grabbed her by the shoulder, and slammed her body into the enclosure of this metallic yellow maze.

After all, who has the time to hesitate, when the only way forward is to take what’s clearly yours?

Chapter 32

“What are you doing?” My voice shook in a panic, while a symphony of nails clattered at my feet. Alessi’s strength was effortless as he pinned me by the shoulder with one hand, and grabbed my wrist with the other. He forced my arm up and back, then held it against the wall with his palm over mine. He fully connected our bodies at every possible point of contact, from the knee he shoved between my legs, to his forearm that pressed from my elbow to my wrist, and the hand he fisted between my fingers. I couldn’t even begin to get the momentum I’d need to jerk my arm free, let alone the strength that could out match a beast from a magical world.

“I’m helping you.” His words and the vicious expression on his face didn’t match. “One woman’s trauma is another man’s toy, right?” He dragged my arm down the wall, like I was his puppet who he could position any way he wanted. “And judging by your trauma, I know exactly whose toy you’ve been.”

“So what if you do.” I tried again to jerk free, and I don’t know why I fought anything anymore. I was nothing in a world of gods. Again, I was too weak, too different, and too much of an outsider to influence this space of demented, fucked up men. “It was just a vision. None of it was real. None of it mattered. Y-you’ve got it all wrong, so let go of me.”

“Let you go? But don’t you want to pass the trial?” Though his question sounded like it was in my best interest, that mocking cruelty in his tone told me the answer wouldn’t be.

“You said it yourself—I was Theron’s toy, not yours. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but whatever it is, you’re wrong.” I tried again to squirm, but that only encouraged him to increase the pressure of his hold. “It has nothing to do with you. He was my nightmare.”

Alessi kept me pinned to the wall as he reached into the cubby beside us, where he removed a nail and twirled it between his fingers. The fox shook his head, though he never stopped grinning. “Bijou, Bijou, Bijou, let me be abundantly clear. Theron might show you the illusion of a nightmare, but I fucking am one.”

He pulled back only enough to reach his arm across me and place the nail on the back of the hand still holding mine against the wall. My eyes near bugged from their sockets as I watched him push the point straight through his muscle and bone without a second of hesitation. And I screamed when I felt the sharp point on the center of my own palm, as it penetrated clean through us both.

“No. No, no, no!” I gasped as the nail broke skin, pierced muscle, and threaded through bones, as he sank that pin all the way into the wall. Our blood mixed on the spike as he used his strength to slowly but purposefully nail our arms together, one point at a time, perfectly in line with Theron’s old marks.

He never so much as flinched, while I was digging my teeth so hard into my lip, my blood was trickling down my chin. This time, the pain was real. There was no warping the illusion or altering my experience to spare me. I’d let my guard down around Alessi, and I didn’t know what had compelled me to do something so foolish.