“What’s our chance of success?” asked Reeve.
Talon tipped his hand from side to side, his lips once more pursed.
My stomach dipped. Fifty-fifty wasn’t great odds.
“Your only chance is if you manage to walk about undetected,” Keyes explained. “Do nothing to call attention to your presence here. If he senses he has company, he will hunt you down.”
His expression severe, Talon tapped both sides of his head and then thrust his hands forward in aKeep your head straightgesture.
“You give in to panic, you’ll lessen your chance of getting through this alive,” said Keyes.
Seneca bit her lip. “Does he remember once being a man?”
Talon shook his head.
“He has no memories of that time,” Ajax explained. “Think of it as a past life. This is his existence now. He knows only animal instincts.”
“If we do come across the minotaur,” began Bevan, scratching his neck, “what do we do?”
Ajax gave him a sober look. “You die. No one who encounters him ever lives to tell the tale.”
“How long will it take us to reach the heart of the labyrinth?” asked Sable.
Talon held up two fingers, frowned, and then added a third.
Two to threehours? I silently groaned.
“Once you finish this, you finish Xalbia,” said Ajax. “Let that be your motivation to keep going when things get tough. And theywillget tough.”
Talon pointed at Bevan and then jabbed his thumb toward the cave.
“Good luck,” Seneca told him, her brow creased with worry.
Bevan straightened his shoulders and took slow, hesitant steps toward the cave. Ducking his head, he then walked inside.
I inhaled deeply and rubbed my palms along my sides. I felt no shame in admitting that I was dreading the moment when my turn arrived. However, standing around waiting wouldn’t be much better. I’d only become more and more tense as time went on.
None of the candidates looked confident. Some were rigid, some fidgeted, some rocked back and forth on their heels.
Even as I made a concerted effort to stay calm and steady, I found myself nibbling on the inside of my cheek, unable to wrestle back the sense of dread winding its way through me.
Once fifteen minutes had passed, Sable was sent in. Lear went inside soon after. Then Finian. Reeve. Seneca—
“Anara, you’re up next,” Ajax told me.
My throat felt tight all of a sudden. Clearing it with a quick cough, I made my way toward the cave opening. Talon gave me aYou can do thislook.
I hoped he was right.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stepping into the cavern was like walking out of a toasty warm house straight into a winter’s night. Looking around, I felt my skin pebble at the chill. Stalactites hung from the arched high ceiling. Tree roots poked out of the stone curved walls that boasted patches of moss and lichen. Small clumps of hard foliage were dotted around the debris-ridden ground.
There was a deathly quiet here. One that made my nape prickle. Occasional droplets of water pierced the silence as they seeped from the ceiling cracks and pattered the ground. Other than that, there was only the occasional low whistle of air coming through the fissures in the walls.
My pulse beating a little too fast, I rolled back my shoulders and dragged in a steadying breath. I could do this. I could. To prove it, I started walking, my boots scuffing the dirt and dead leaves underfoot.
I froze as I heard the flutter of leather wings.Bats.I barely held back a shudder.
