I didn’t know if they’d seen us, but I had no doubt the minotaur would as soon as it arrived.
“Can we hide somewhere?” I whispered frantically.
“This whole place is somewhere to hide,” Corson said, “and nowhere to hide.”
The cryptic words only escalated my anxiety. My heart was pounding too fast, and my palms were so sweaty I kept expecting water to drip from them. If I wasn’t immortal, I’d be a little concerned I was about to have a heart attack.
That thing was coming, and we were surrounded by row after row of green bushes, and I’d been the one to suggest thisstupidplan. I was the one who led all these people andOliverinto the heart of the minotaur’s labyrinth, and now it was coming.
Deep breaths, Ash; panicking isn’t going to get anyone anywhere.
I tried to regain control while examining the wall ahead of me. I wanted to torch all the plants, but Hawk was right; there were too many of them, and the fire could easily get out of control. Because I was a fire demon, I could withstand the flames, but the others couldn’t.
“Come on,” Bale said.
She started back through the maze. I stayed close to Hawk as we navigated our way through the plants once more. I brushed my fingers against his and closed my eyes when a small thrill ran through me. We’d get out of this; I would not lose him.
When we came up against another dead end, we headed back only to walk smack dab into the middle of more bushes. Pure frustration almost caused me to kick them, but I managed to restrain myself as we headed in a new direction. We’d turned around so much that I was at the back of the pack with Hawk.
“Dead end,” Randy said from ahead of us.
We were back at the head of the pack as everyone turned back toward us. When I glanced at the mountain, the man and woman were off the pathway and in the labyrinth. Any minute now the minotaur would arrive, and I suspected once it realized we were here, it would make us its priority.
“Are we going in circles?” Wren asked.
“It sure feels like it,” Nadine said.
I looked at the dome again and craned my head to see where the light was coming from, but it remained a mystery. I had no idea why this mystery obsessed me so much; probably because it was easier to focus on somethingoutsidethe maze than to remain centered inside it. I suspected most people who survived for any length of time in the labyrinth went mad from the sameness and hopelessness of it.
And then, I felt the vibrations beneath my feet.
I didn’t have to look to see if the minotaur had arrived, I felt its insidious yellow eyes boring into the back of my head.
* * *
Hawk
Aisling’s arm brushed against mine as she faced away from the cave to focus on the maze. The minotaur stood at the top of the mountain with its shoulders hunched up and its head lowered. Its nostrils flared as its yellow eyes glowed.
Then it scuffed its feet against the ground like a bull about to charge and launched itself straight off the cliff.
“Run!” Bale shouted as the minotaur hit the ground with a thunderous crash.
Though it was at least a hundred yards away, the impact caused the bushes to sway around us, and I was sure it dented the ground. Aisling gripped my arm, and I hugged her against me before she pulled away to survey the sea of green surrounding us.
“This way,” she said and plunged down another corridor.
Everyone ran behind us, but there was nowhere to run as we rounded a corner and smacked into another dead end.
“Son of a bitch,” Corson snarled and unleashed his talons.
He hacked at the bushes, but as the leaves fell around his feet, more regrew on the plant. He couldn’t cut through them fast enough to keep them from regenerating. Loud cracking noises filled the air along with the thunderous thumps of the minotaur’s hooves.
The high bushes blocked my view of what was happening, but I didn’t have to see to know the minotaur was plowing through the hedges it created. Discovering us inside its lair had caused it to throw all rules out the window, and now it was hell-bent on destroying us. But if it was charging through the bushes at us, that most likely meant it could not change the labyrinth around us. Otherwise, it would have pinned us in.
“It’s coming,” Aisling whispered.
“Aisling,” Bale said as the noise grew closer. “Torch them.”
