With a swift motion, I pressed the blade into his flesh, not with hesitation but with fierce determination. The thrill of it all pulled me deeper into my new reality, the maze welcoming me fully as I felt the warm blood spill from beneath my fingertips.
“Consider this your apology,” I informed him. “Dead men tell no lies.”
With one final thrust, I ended his life, the rush of it sending a sense of euphoria through me. The shadows and stalks of the maze danced around me, and pulled me into them, almost like a hug, and I felt Kasper’s presence envelop me, a dark approval radiating from him like a warm embrace.
“Beautiful,” he murmured as he came out of his watching place, his words wrapped around my heart.
As I looked down at Jake’s lifeless body, I felt the exhilaration of the hunt intertwining with the acceptance of my new reality. I was no longer lost trying to find my way, trying to find a purpose, I was home.
I was the second keeper of the maze.
Chapter Thirteen
Gwendolyn
The energy in the air around me was foreign but not unkind or unwelcome. I stood in the heart of the maze, the remnants of Jake’s blood soaking into the soil beneath my feet, the soil feasting on what it needed, a visceral reminder of what it was.
With all these newfound realities came a heavy realization, and one I think I'd been aware of the entire time. I turned toward Kasper, his figure steady as he watched me, a dark flame flickering. His eyes shined with approval and I preened under his gaze but there was a hesitation, a waiting, as he tried to suss out if I understood exactly the sacrifice it took.
“I need to die, right?” My calm voice cut through the night. “That’s the only way this works.”
He stopped closer, his eyes piercing through the stillness. “Yes, but the choice is yours until the very end.” The melody of his voice soothed me even if it carried a weight that settled in my chest.
I swallowed hard, the truth of my question and his answer hanging in the air between us. I felt its pull, and I knew deep down that I had crossed a threshold that could not be uncrossed. “Now that I’ve found this, found you,” I said, “I can’t live without it. This is my purpose. I’m sure of it.”
A slow, lazy smile spread across his lips, and for a moment, I felt lighter despite the heaviness of what it all meant, of what was about to happen. What I had agreed to. “Then it is time, my love, time to embrace all that you are, and all that you will be.”
I nodded, ready, unprepared yet prepared all at the same time. The thought of letting go, of my mortal existence fading away, didn’t eat at me, it provided me clarity and peace. The promise of what lay beyond ignited a fire within my soul.
“Lay down in the soil,” Kasper instructed, his voice a soothing balm that eased any trepidation I might be having. I dropped to my knees, feeling the cool earth beneath me, the texture rough against my skin. I took a deep breath, inhaling the rich scent of the earth, the life it held within.
As I settled back, the soil began to shift around me, wrapping around me, soothing me. It was a strange sensation, comforting yet totally consuming. It pulled me deeper, devouring me with an insatiable hunger but there was such a tenderness in its grasp, a need that rivaled my own.
“Let go,” Kasper whispered in the depths of my mind. “Let go, let it take you, it needs you like you need it.”
With each passing moment, I felt myself sinking further, suffocating yet not feeling the urge to breathe. My consciousness slipped away like grains of sand through outstretched fingers. The world around me dimmed around the edges, fading into nothing, the whispers becoming muffled. I wasn't afraid, I wasn’t fighting. I was finally at peace. I was surrendering to something greater than myself.
As I became fully enveloped, I felt a profound sense of warmth wash over me. The earth cradled my body, and I could feel itpulling the last threads of life through and it pulsed with it, with my essence. I was dying, yes, but in that death, I was reborn. The maze seeped into my very being, contorting itself to me, and me it.
I felt weightless, no longer burdened by the constraints of my former life, yet I could still sense the world around me with a new sense of clarity. With understanding.
A ghost, a keeper.
I felt him. Kasper. His presence inside of me now, like a beacon of light and warmth that wrapped around my ethereal form. I reached out, and to my amazement, I could touch him. My fingers brushed against his skin,warmth,he felt so warm.
“Kasper,” I breathed. “I can feel you.”
A look of pride shone in his eyes. “You are my mate in death Gwendolyn, a match for my soul, bound to this place and me, for the rest of our eternity.”
A thrill coursed through me, a sensation I had never known before, a new destiny laid before me.
Chapter Fourteen
Kasper
The moment Gwendolyn knelt on the earth, I felt her surrender and I salivated at it, a pulsing energy radiating from her, almost like a magnetic force that drew me closer. The air around us awakened, the maze thrummed with life, its ancient roots weaving into her essence and I could hear the words in my mind.Mate. Mate. Mate.It was a primal chant, a call from the depths of my being through the very soil we stood upon.
As she surrendered herself to the earth, her body fully disappearing underneath the soil, I felt a mix of pride and longing swell within me. She was becoming something magnificent, something entirely unique andmine.Bound to me through the threads of life, death, and rebirth. I couldn’t shake the raw hunger that clawed at my insides as she lay under the soil.
