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Rolling my eyes, I stepped forward. There was enough space between them that I could stand without being hit by the next one. It would fit Riven just fine too since he was small in stature. My eyes studied the axe-like pendulums for a moment. They were slightly off in timing, so I waited until the first one swung back before stepping forward. The second one swung directly in front of my face.
The speed of it caused a puff of wind to blow my braid back. I waited again before stepping in between them. This wasn’t hard if I paid attention to the timing, but it was unnerving to have blades swinging so quickly on both sides of me. I wanted to turn to see where Riven was, but I couldn’t turn my head without it getting cut off.
My steps were calculated as I moved through four more times until I got to the end. I turned to see Riven stepping through the last one right after me. He had followed closely. This time we didn’t have an option to choose which way to go. We could only go to the left. It seemed to be getting darker the farther we went.
Something moved behind us. Riven must have heard it too because he stopped instantly. Summoning a ball of fire to my hands I used it to illuminate the dark so we could see what it was. A huge black creature was at the end of the hallway where we had just come from.
It looked like an oversized cat, but it had four eyes and fangs that hung far out of its mouth. It snapped its teeth towards us, revealing how sharp they were. Suddenly a loud scream from somewhere in the maze ricocheted off the walls. It was followed by a horrifying crunch of bones and my mind imagined flesh tearing from the victim. Shaking the image away, I focused on the creature in front of me.
The creature’s eyes were completely white, and I wondered if it was somehow possessed. It stomped its front paw on the ground, dragging its sharp claws against the hard stone. Its ears pinned back before releasing a loud snarl towards us. As soon as it started running for us, I cast a fire shield in front of us, but our relief was short-lived as the creature stepped through the flames unphased.
“What the fuck?” Riven muttered.
The creature’s fur was on fire, and it didn’t seem fazed at all. It gave us one warning growl before charging at us again. We ran in a dead sprint down the corridor.
“We can’t see shit. Thea, use your magic to light up our path.”
A long stream of fire shot out along the wall. It only showed a long hallway. We kept running but the creature was gaining on us. Another scream echoed through the maze, and Riven and I kicked it into high gear. We kept going as the flaming creature followed.
“Riven, jump!” I warned as my fire showed the floor missing in front of us.
We jumped into blackness, hoping we didn’t just jump to our deaths. We fell for a few seconds before slamming into the hard ground. Both of us tumbled and rolled, before finally slamming into the wall. I rolled off Riven and onto my back next to him. We were both hurt, but we didn’t have time to waste.
“Let’s go.” I stood up and held my hand to help him, but he swatted it away. Whatever.
My magic lit up the space around us and I saw only one way to go forward. Hopefully, we were almost done. It had felt like time stopped moving since we started the trial. We hadn’t run into any other teams, which I thought was odd. Scanning the tops of the walls, I wondered where Cassius was watching me from because I could sense him.
After a short walk straight forward, the maze guided us to the left. The walkway was wider than it had been. Farther down the path was a faintly glowing red light.
“Do you see that?” I asked Riven. “Maybe it's the end of the maze?”
When Riven didn’t answer I turned only for him to be glaring at me with a dagger in his hand.
“Unfortunately for you, you won’t be getting to the end of the maze.” The smile he gave me disarmed me with how much hatred it held.
“We’re on the same team. We all get the points.” I backed up towards the red light. Riven followed me with the dagger pointed at me.
“This isn’t just about points, Thea. There’s a bigger game being played here, and the only task is making sure you don’t place in the top ten. Did you know that if you kill one of the top ten contestants, you get their points?”
“Who told you that? I doubt that’s reality,” I scoffed. It sounded like something Leer would have made up just to get others killed. “Why me? I haven’t done anything.”
He laughed maniacally as he stalked slowly towards me.
“You are a monster,” he hissed. “The prophets' vision told us that, but can you imagine what would happen if you got your wish granted?”
“You don’t know what my wish will even be,” I snapped back.
He gave me a knowing smile. “You and all your disgusting friends will be freed.”
My heart sank. How could he know where I came from or what I wanted with my wish? He was the second man to tell me I was the center of a prophet's proclamation. What did this prophet say I was going to do? Both had called me a monster or evil. The part of me that knew I was dangerous worried that I was both evil and a monster.
“There is a whole group of men in this competition whose only purpose is to prevent you from getting that wish, Thea. Bonus points if we kill you.”
“I don’t even know who I am!” I said frantically. “Maybe the prophet you mentioned saw visions of another woman.”
He shook his dagger at me as if to say no.
“The prophet named you specifically.” He cocked his head to the side. “Deep down, you know you’re a threat to everyone, so let me end this here. Then maybe these stupid trials can stop once and for all.”
