Before the minotaur came back into view, a loud bang sounded, and a puff of smoke wafted into the air.
“The first trap,” Wren said.
Aisling and I set what would become the first trap in the house with the attic. We’d run the string through the house and to the front door. Once on the porch, more strings were attached to the main one, so three of them ran across the road and into the neighboring house to the three guns propped in the windows.
The strings weren’t wired to go off when pulled, but instead, they went off when something stepped on one of them. Once weight was applied, the strain pulled the trigger of the gun it was attached to on the other side of the road.
We didn’t expect the guns to do much more than annoy the minotaur, but they might cause it to search for someone who wasn’t there while Aisling set the pile at the end of the road on fire. Her fingers constricted on mine as the minotaur’s roar rattled the windows of the library.
A thunderous bang resonated through the air and glass shattered; I pictured the beast tearing the front door off the home with the guns as another shot rang out. Another crash reverberated through the night as the minotaur tore the house apart.
“Are you ready?” I asked Aisling.
“As I’ll ever be,” she replied.
“Let’s go.”
Another loud crash shook the night, and a puff of dust burst into the air as what I assumed was the roof of the building collapsed.
“We have to hurry,” Aisling said.
I squeezed her hand before releasing it and sprinting down the road toward the pile with her. When the ground trembled again, I realized the minotaur was on the move once more. The distraction with the guns and the house was over, but more traps lay ahead of it.
We were halfway to the pile when another bang sounded and another cloud of dust billowed into the air. The minotaur had fallen into the first trench we dug across the road and carefully covered again to make it blend in. The ground quaked so violently that I imagined the minotaur slamming its hands onto the ground or driving its horns into the earth.
“Oh shit,” Aisling breathed.
“Just keep going,” I told her. “We’re going to get through this.”
We skidded to a halt in front of the pile as the minotaur’s claws emerged over the side of the trench. This thing could eviscerate us with one swipe of its hand, and blood still caked the wicked-looking talons. When its head emerged over the top of the trench and its yellow eyes met mine, I could tell that happy thoughts of wearing my intestines were dancing through its pea-sized brain.
Aisling’s breath came faster as the minotaur began to pull itself out of the fifteen-foot-deep trench. The ground gave way beneath its weight, and with an enraged roar, it vanished into the ditch. The following silence was more unnerving than any of its reverberating bellows. And then those claws appeared again, and those yellow eyes blazed with a fury that lit the night around it.
With methodical precision, it worked its way free, rose, and took one step forward. Dozens of knives and spears exploded from the spring-release trap we’d set next for it. The minotaur reared back as the weapons embedded themselves in its side and one stuck into its neck. Aisling’s hands shook as she knelt in front of the pile and held them over the wood.
I rested my hand on her shoulder. “Take your time.”
Flames burst out of her palms. The intensity of it was so astonishing that Aisling fell away from the fire, which followed her as she landed on her ass. She gazed at her hands in amazement while she turned them before her. The flames followed her movements as they danced up her wrists and circled her forearms. The sleeves of her shirt fell away, but the rest of it didn’t catch fire.
“What the…?” She marveled as she turned her hands before her. “It’s getting stronger.”
“It’s the Chosen bond. You can withstand my kiss, and your fire has grown.”
“It’s made me faster too,” she said as she held her hands over the wood. “I noticed the other day.”
I’d noticed that the other day too when she pulled herself on top of me so fast, I’d barely seen her move before she was straddling me. I squeezed her shoulder again. “My touch probably helps to fuel it.”
Her mouth formed an O before she replied, “Yes, it does.”
Leaning forward, she placed her hands against the pile. The flames blackened the wood as the minotaur succeeded in pulling the last of the knives free. I kept one eye on the monster and the other on the smoldering pile as the beast dropped to all fours.
Come on. Come on.
Aisling gazed between the beast and the pile as her flames licked across some drywall. When the minotaur took a step toward us, her fire grew until a wave of it was streaming across the pile. Smoke filled the air as the minotaur charged toward us.
I thought the ground shook before, but now it was a full-on earthquake tearing the earth apart. Glass broke and fell from the windows closest to the beast. The minotaur was fifty feet away from the pile when another trench gave way, and it plummeted into the hole.
Its infuriated roar echoed through the night as the pile caught and flames leapt into the sky. Sparks shot off and rained over us as the crackling pop of wood drowned out the noise of the minotaur.
