Panic crawled over me like a thousand ants. I rubbed at my throat, my eyes darting around. I didn’tthinkI had company right now, but that could easily change.
Keep your head straight,Talon had silently warned us all.
Right. Okay. Taking a centering breath, I considered the facts. Lair or not, this wasalso the heart of the labyrinth. That meant that its door to the outside world had to be here somewhere. I just needed to find it.
I kept walking, keeping my eyes peeled for anything that looked like a possible door or hatch. The whole time, my pulse raced with a harsh sense of urgency.Come on, come on, where is it?
I paused as my peripheral vision picked up on something. A doorframe. There was no door, just a rock wall. Or so it appeared. This had to be it, though, didn’t it?
I pushed at the wall within the frame. Nothing. It stayed put. Didn’t budge or rattle.
I skimmed my shaking fingers around the frame, searching for some sign of a locking mechanism that—
I went still as the hairs on the back of my neck lifted. I realized then that it wasn’t only my own breathing I could hear.
I wasn’t alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Iwent rigid, every inch of my skin starting to prickle. There was a gruff note to the breaths I could hear. Like those of an animal.
I swallowed hard. Whatever lived in this lair was quite clearly home … and I doubted it was pleased to find me here.
Very slowly and stiffly, I turned on my heel. My lungs seized hard at the sight I found.Gods.Over seven feet tall, the creature regarded me through a black gaze that gleamed with animal cunning. Wearing only black ragged pants, he kept his bare feet planted and his solid chest thrust out as he held his elbows apart from his body.
Fear spiked through me, making my heart pound heavily. I’d been wrong. So wrong. Therewasin fact a minotaur. And he was staring right at me.
From his broad shoulders downwards, he was completely human with bronze skin stretched over very defined muscle that glimmered with a sheen of sweat. But he had the muscular neck and large, bony head of a bull. His mane and short fur were a rich brown, and his ivory horns were thick and lyre-shaped.
A low growl vibrating in his chest, he contracted his fingers like claws. A hard rock formed in my gut. There was blood on his hands. Fresh blood.
I didn’t dare move. Barely breathed. I didn’t want to do anything that might come across as a challenge. But that might be impossible, considering I was in his lair. Yeah, things weren’t looking good for me. Not when people who came across him never lived to tell the tale, according to Ajax.
Anger tightened my jaw. Anger at the injustice of it all. Anger at how I’d comeso far…
No. No, I didn’t go through those seven circuits of hell to die here and now.
I parted my lips, thinking to make some attempt to reason with him. He’d once been a man, hadn’t he?
“Think of it as a past life,” Ajax had said. “This is his existence now. He knows only animal instincts.”
Talking to him wouldn’t help, then. Running wouldn’t do any good either—it would trigger his predatory instinct to hunt. Screaming would bethe leastwisest thing to do, since it would likely annoy him. It would also be pointless—there was no one who could aid me.
Okay … so I’d act as I would if I’d stumbled upon such a powerful apex predator within the Pines. You weren’t to cower, flee, or confront them. You were to show submission and respect, but never weakness or aggression. So I lowered my gaze, let the tension ooze from my muscles, and remained perfectly still.
Another low growl skated through the air, scraping over my nerve-endings; making little bumps rise on my flesh. I didn’t hear him move—there was no stomping or lumbering—but I sensed him prowling toward me. I wouldn’t have expected such lethally silent grace from a creature his size and bulk.
Terror clutched my throat and overworked my heart. Still, I didn’t move or tense. It wouldn’t be enough to hide my fear, no—he’d smell it for certain. But he wouldn’t consider me weak unless Idemonstratedfear.
Towering over me, he left only inches between our bodies. It was hard not to cringe when I could smell the nauseating rust-like scent of blood on his hot breath. Blood that probably belonged to at least one of the candidates, but I wouldn’t think about that.
Hot air puffed out of his nostrils right into my face, and I barely hid a flinch I was wound so tight. His body heat was insane. It was like standing before a fire.
He snapped his large hand around my throat and shoved me against the wall. A startled gasp tinged with pain gusted out of me, but I determinedly kept my eyes lowered and my muscles loose. It was difficult to remain still when slight tremors were running down my fingers; difficult not to put up a fight when every cell in my body demanded it.
Snarling, he went snout-to-nose with me. I clamped my trembling lips shut, trying to get my labored breathing under control. His nostrils flared, his upper lip peeling back.
Darkness rippled across the dim cavern as a pine-scented breeze washed over us both. The ground trembled, the air crackled, and sparks of power danced in the air.
