Rafael held the rosary higher. The flame danced and sent shadows across the walls. "We need to move. This won't last forever."
"How long?"
"I don't know." His jaw clenched. "But we're not standing here in the dark waiting to find out."
I adjusted my grip on the bludgeon and looked at the chain connecting our ankles.
"Left foot first," Rafael said quietly. "Then right. Match my pace."
I nodded. Rafael took a step forward with his left foot. I followed, lifting my left. The chain went taut between us, then slack, then taut again as we found an awkward rhythm. My short legs meant I had totake longer strides to keep up. Within twenty steps, my thighs were already burning.
Rafael held the flame higher. "I love you," he said suddenly. "If I didn't say it clearly enough this morning. If we die down here, I need you to know that."
My throat closed. "I can't die today."
He frowned at me. "Why not?"
"Because this isn't my best suit. Everyone knows you wear your best to a funeral."
He chuckled, shook his head, and we moved on. The tunnel sloped downward, the walls narrowing until my shoulders nearly scraped stone on both sides. The air grew colder with each step. Our breath came out in white clouds that vanished in the rosary's light.
Then the tunnel opened up, and my breath caught.
We stood at the edge of an underground cavern so massive the ceiling stretched up into darkness that even the rosary flame couldn't touch. And below us, carved into the stone floor of the cavern, sprawled a labyrinth.
Walls of stone rose roughly ten feet high, stretching out in geometric patterns that hurt to look at. The pathways twisted and turned, doubling back on themselves, creating dead ends and loops that I struggled to track. The whole thing was easily the size of a football field. Maybe bigger.
"Fuck," I breathed.
Torches lined some of the walls at wide intervals, their flames barely pushing back the darkness. There was just enough light to see the nearest sections of the maze, but not enough to map the whole thing.
Rafael's fingers trembled as he pulled out the map. "Constantine's somewhere in there," Rafael said quietly. "With Caesar."
I scanned the maze. Caesar could fly, but he was chained to Constantine just like we were chained to each other. The eagle couldn't scout from above. We were all in the dark together.
"We need to move," I said. "Standing here makes us targets."
"Agreed." Rafael unfolded the map and held it close to the rosary flame, studying the parchment. "Left at the entrance. Then right. Then straight for fifty yards."
We started down the stone steps that led from our entrance to the maze floor. The ankle chain made the descent treacherous. Rafael moved first, testing each step, and I followed. My heart hammered against my ribs.
Once we entered that maze, there was no overview. No way to see what was coming. Just stone walls and darkness and the very real possibility that Constantine was waiting around the next corner with a bludgeon.
Or worse, Caesar.
We reached the maze floor and stepped through the archway together. The walls rose on either side, blocking out what little light the distant torches provided. The rosary flame was all we had now. It illuminated maybe six feet ahead, leaving everything beyond that in darkness.
Left foot. Right foot. The chain clinked between us with every step. Our breathing echoed off stone.
The first turn came up fast. Rafael paused, consulting the map in the dim light. "Left here."
We turned, but the new pathway looked identical to the first. Same stone walls. Same darkness. Same cold air that made my skin crawl.
The passage stretched ahead into shadows. Rafael moved faster now, his longer legs eating up distance. I had to jog to keep pace, and the chain kept going taut and yanking at my ankle. The brass cuff was already starting to chafe.
"Slow down," I said through gritted teeth.
"We need to put distance between us and the entrance," Rafael said. "Constantine knows we came in that way. He could be circling back."
