Not that it did much good.
Gavin was always the one to wrap my wounds. He would’ve pulled the knot tighter, would've given me hell if he saw it like this, then teased me until I forgot it hurt.
“Think you can do better, Blackwood?” I muttered, wiping my bloody hands on my tunic. “Then you better be alive to fix it.”
Muscles screaming, I forced myself up, fingers digging into the strange moss-like vegetation beneath me. It was a rich emerald green, soft, almost like velvet.
I crawled forward, the moss absorbing my movements until a glint of something caught my eye. It was partially buried beneath branches and fallen stone. But I recognized the curved edge of the blade.
Gavin's cutlass.
I went still.
My hands shook as I pulled it free. Blood streaked the hilt, dark against the silver. The sword fell into my lap. I scanned the mossy ledge, lungs pulling in sharp, useless breaths. I was still so high up. The mist swirled over the massive drop.
“Gavin.” His name came out as a whisper.
Then I screamed it.
“Answer me!”
I bent over the blade when he didn't, curling into myself.Tears stung behind my eyes. I had to keep moving. Meet him at the top.
I lifted his cutlass, dragging it with me, my arm throbbing, muscles strained and aching. He was right. The sword was heavy. A strangled laugh burned in my throat.
“I see why you bought me darts.”
I staggered toward a stone ledge, tucking it under my arm. My chin trembled.
“Please don't make me carry this alone.”
I reached a set of stairs carved into a rock wall. The strange moss coated those, too. My boots sank with a muted hush, the vegetation swallowing every step. It was unsettling, like walking on nothing but air, weightless, soundless, like I’d disappeared.
The stairway led to a dark, narrow opening. I looped my magic-infused light over my head and entered the pitch-black tunnel. Then I checked my satchel for the cloud token, making sure I hadn’t lost it in my fall. It was still there, tucked inside its leather pouch.
As I traveled deeper through the tunnel, the moss beneath my feet thinned, and the muffle of my footsteps turned to sharp echoes against the narrow walls. This had to lead back up. The castle sat at the center of the maze, and the cloud moat was its only entrance.
The air changed the farther I went, becoming lighter as the path sloped upward beneath my boots. I didn’t know where I was going or what I’d find at the end of the tunnel. But I couldn't stop. I'd made a promise to Sirena. And to myself. To my future. Whatever I found—or didn't—even if it broke me, this time, I wouldn't break my word.
The tunnel ended at a door, secured with an iron padlock.I dropped to my knees, my hands stiff and numb as I worked the lock. The tension wrench trembled between my fingers. I couldn’t find the right placement. I’d picked hundreds of locks effortlessly. The last time had been with hairpins, in front of Annie, while she watched with wide eyes like I could do anything.
I used to look at my father that way. Like he could solve any problem with just a reassuring smile and a story. And then, one day, he was gone. And I didn’t know where I fit anymore. Just that I had to carry the weight of everything by myself.
Until I met Gavin. He never said anything. Never asked. He just took all the weight away as if it had been his to bear.
It hit me without warning, like a punch to the gut. Gavin had carried so many pieces of me without complaint, without needing anything in return. Always teasing me forward, never pulling me back. And now, not even a magical map could show me how to move forward if I'd lost him.
I pressed my forehead to the door, willing my fingers to break the lock, to find a way through. Finally, the lock gave with a harsh click. Like the maze itself was mocking me, daring me to keep going. I accepted, picking up the weight of this awful quest, his cutlass, and the fragile hope he was waiting at the top. Then I slipped into the passage.
Another set of stairs led to a series of dimly lit hallways, their cold stone walls flickering with torchlight. A draft curled against my neck, stronger now, like the steady pull of open air. I followed the draft, skimming my fingers along the wall to ground myself in the claustrophobic silence. Somewhere beyond these walls, the cloud walk was waiting. I was close. Thin trails of mist curled along the floor, carried in from the outside.
Another door appeared at the end of the passage. However, this one was merely bars fixed to a rusty hinge. Similar to the bars that had encased my prison cell. But the other side didn’t contain sand and coarse rock, it was treasure.
The bars whined as I pushed through them into the chamber. My heart quickened. This was likely extra spoils, long forgotten relics, mixed with… my gaze sharpened. Piles of weapons and old armor lay discarded in the corners, some half-buried beneath layers of dust and debris. Cobwebs stretched across them.
This wasn’t a treasure room. It was a graveyard. A place where the maze had emptied its dead.
So many had tried. So many had failed.
