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“I know you’ll make it. Find the way out and run as fast as you can. We’ll just slow you down. You’ll be faster without us.”
I see the opposition in Yoru’s eyes, his determination. He rests his head in my hand and gives me a look of unconditional trust.
“No, not this time. We can’t do this together. I need to know that you’re safe. I promise I’ll come soon. But you need to go now.” I don’t know if I can keep my promise, but I’ll do my best.
He sits back defiantly on his haunches.
“Yoru!” I say firmly. “Go! Now! That’s an order!”
He starts walking away, takes a few steps, but keeps turning back.
“Go!” I yell as loud as I can. “Get out of here!”
Finally, he starts running through the burning maze.
“He’ll make it,” Claire murmurs. “This prison is designed to kill humans, not spirits.”
I nod and cling to that thought. Yoru will be safe.
“We need to run,” I say to Claire, turning to face her. “Do you hear me? You need to use the last of your strength and run as fast as you possibly can.” I look at the narrow passage in front of us. The flaming walls are so close that we can’t avoid touching them. Our only chance is to move really fast.
Chapter 33
The glowing thread weaves across the ground and winds around the next corner. But its light is much brighter here. Hopefully that means we’ve almost reached the end.
Claire’s trembling all over, and her breathing is ragged. I touch her uninjured arm and coax her to look at me. “Claire, you have to try. It’s our only chance. Please!”
She looks at me with those big desolate eyes. Then a spark of her old determination returns to them and she nods. “We’ll try.”
We approach the passage. I’m panting, trying to extract oxygen from the searing air and draw it into my lungs. And then I see them. Directly in front of us, a couple of small black shapes creep out from behind the wall of fire and turn their round heads toward us. I hear their rasping, guttural voices. A shiver runs down my spine.
“Don’t look!” I say to Claire. “Just keep running, no matter what they do.”
She looks horrified as I grab her arm and pull her along behind me. I run as fast as I can, not loosening my grip on Claire for a moment. When we step into the narrow passage, the flames leap around us. I feel my skin burning … the heat … the intense heat. It feels as if its slicing the skin off my flesh. The flames don’t even need to touch me – the air temperature alone is enough to cause blisters and make the skin peel away. Claire shrieks behind me, staggers, but I hold her and pull her forward. With each step we take, sparks spray up from the ground. Even that is red hot, and our shoes begin to disintegrate. Everything’s hissing and crackling. Our world consists of nothing but flames, embers, and blazing red.
Claire stumbles and falls. I try to catch her, but all I can do is break her fall slightly. A blood-curdling sound escapes her throat as she hits the ground and her skin catches fire. She quickly tries to get back on her feet, but to do that, she has to push herself up with her hands – it must feel like pressing down on a hot cooktop. Her skin sizzles as her flesh is braised on the bone. That sound is drowned out by her horrendous screams, which rend the night. Flames dance across her body, eating into it.
I’m about to help her up and smother the flames when I see the black figures out of the corner of my eye. Their small bodies scud across the ground – the heat doesn’t seem to affect them at all. They pull themselves forward with their long claws, their eyes directed at one person: Claire.
I pull with all my strength and heave her to her feet, dragging her a little farther forward. Finally, I can see around the corner. If I had a drop of fluid left in my body, I’d weep with relief. In front of us is a circular area, at the center of which lies the spindle on a pedestal.
“We’re nearly there, Claire. Just up ahead. That’s the spindle. Look!”
Claire hangs in my arms. The right side of her face is one big burn. Despite the pain, she lifts the corners of her mouth into a sad smile. “I always knew it,” she murmurs, gazing at me steadfastly. “It was a mistake. All the lies. All those years. And now it’s over. I can’t go on, I’m sorry.”
“Claire, stop that,” I say, trying to pull her to the spindle. “We need to move. We’re nearly there.”
Fragments of my shoe soles are left behind, stuck to the ground. I feel the heat everywhere now. It scorches my skin, my hair, even my insides. But I hardly feel the pain. The only thing I feel is the iron will to get me and Claire out of here. She has to touch the spindle, then she will have passed the test, and the fire will be extinguished. It’s so close!
We finally reach the circle, which is wide enough that the flames can no longer touch us. I breathe a sigh of relief. The air is a little cooler here, and I resist the urge to collapse to my knees because out of the corner of my eye, I see the creatures. They won’t give up; they’re coming closer. Their rasping noises fill my ears – they’re calling to each other. Presumably more of them will soon show up.
“They’re harbingers of death,” says Claire.
She’s now hanging limply in my arms, and I continue to carry her, inch by inch. She can barely move now and doesn’t seem to want to.
“They can sometimes be seen when death is near,” she murmurs. She raises her head and looks at me with bright clear eyes. “I should never have lied. But after all that time … how was I supposed to tell them the truth? After everything they’d done for me, everything they’d sacrificed. They pinned all their hopes on me. I was the family’s future.”
“Claire, now is not the time. Come on. Please try!”
