Page 9 of Of Monsters and Mazes

Jericho sent a video this time. I hit play as I entered the door to my apartment building. Pumpkin, that evil little cheese puff, was purring as he put his paw’s on Jericho’s chest and rubbed his head against that bastard’s cheek.

My cat was putting his scent on this guy?

The video only got worse, as Jericho hugged my fluffle-nut and scratched his belly.

My mouth fell open as the elevator chimed. Pumpkin never even lets me rub his belly. WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK, PUMPKIN.

Now I wanted to strangle them both.

Jericho: He likes me.

Of course he does. Next time I’m getting a female cat.

Me: I swear to fucking god, Jericho.

Jericho: Don’t swear to him, Love. He’s the one who got you here.

This stupid old elevator couldn’t climb floors fast enough, and I stared furiously at my messages the whole way up.

Jericho: Since I already explained the maze, let me give you a quick rundown of how this little development is going to work. I’m going to take your cat. You are going to enter my realm. And if you want this sweet little thing back, you’re going to play my game, by my rules, to my satisfaction. Find your way through in seventy-two hours, or I’ll be keeping you both. Simple, right?

Jericho: Now one more chance: any final questions?

Me: All I want to know is where you got all of that audacity.

Jericho: Some gifts can’t be bought, my dear.

I’d never heard him speak, and yet I could vividly imagine the asshole chuckling as he sent that.

The elevator opened on the tenth floor, and I darted into the hall. I was digging for my keys while in a full sprint, and I practically skidded to a stop when I arrived at unit 1072. My hands were shaking as I shoved the key into the lock, and adrenaline consumed my entire body as I grabbed hold of the knob. I threw open the door, just in time to get shoved back against the opposite wall with a hand against my chest.

I opened my mouth to scream, only to have it covered by a soft silk cloth. The sweet aroma hit my nostrils, my vision blurred, and my consciousness rapidly faded.

And fuck, those emerald eyes were even more striking in person.

Chapter 4

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring into a void that resembled static on an old television screen. As my consciousness cleared, the crackling darkness withdrew around me like evaporating steam, slowly revealing an entirely new world before my eyes.

I was upright somehow, and I immediately stumbled as the ground materialized beneath me in the form of soft mud.

My periphery located a tree at my side, and I caught myself on reflex. A fortunate reaction, considering I was apparently standing on a soft, unstable cliff side. The plunging edge overlooked a massive, round, stone maze that was segmented like a rainbow with seven distinct colors. The outer rim was violet, fading through indigo, then drawing a hard line at the next ring of royal blue. From there, the rings proceeded predictably in green, then yellow, then orange, then red. The red center coiled around a towering castle, climbing up its base like a serpent would climb a tree.

I could only assume that was where Jericho, the so-called king, made his home.

It was exactly as he’d described in his not-so-playful messages. A forest, a maze, the vague ambient growls of unknown creatures, and a fortress of darkness and danger, far beyond anything I’d imagined.

This… this was all real.

Did that mean actual monsters lurked in every shadow? What did “monster” even mean in this alternate reality? Was it similar to what I’d seen in video games or fantasy novels? Or was the title simply a misnomer for men like Jericho.

I could practically feel the dull hum of magic crackling from the land. Why I innately knew that was what the warm vibration was, I couldn’t explain, but it was as impossible to ignore as the sense of dread radiating through my chest.

I took my time processing everything I was looking at, trying to pick apart routes, distances, and obvious obstacles. It would be easier to come up with a plan of attack while I had this high vantage point. As much as I wanted to freak out and lose my shit, there was no point denying what I was seeing. I couldn’t reasonably complain about any tragedy that befell me because I ventured forward in willful ignorance. I would have loved to bargain with reality and dismiss this as a drug induced dreamland, but the tree bark splintering in my hand and the sound of mud squishing under my feet were both as real as the humid warmth enveloping my cheeks, the scent of moist earth, and the trickle of sweat snaking down my neck to my cleavage.

Around the maze was a lush pine forest, creating a threatening barrier. Braving the unknowns that hid beneath the dark canopies of heavy vegetation would serve as a preamble to the main event, surely.

In the far distance, beyond the maze and the ring of trees, the land stretched on forever with vast prairies, far away mountains, and specklings of buildings that resembled towns or cities, dispersed some untold number of miles away.