Page 92 of Of Monsters and Mazes

I started toward the throne, but the second I got within ten feet of Jericho, My whole body vanished and reappeared on the other side of him. I tried again, only for the same to happen, over and over.

“What the hell?”

“It seems there’s one last turn in the maze you can’t quite find, Sela Darling.” He leaned back in his throne, crossed his legs, and continued petting my fucking cat. The clock ticked above, counting down to the three minute mark.

Frustrated, I tried to feel my way around the portals, looking for an opening, but each time I got too close, I was thrown to the other side of him with ten more feet between us.

I was furious. Jericho watched me with an air of patience, while the clock just kept running down.

Two minutes. I swiped at him and got transported.

One minute. I tried a running jump, as if the floor was the problem, and I landed, totally redirected, outside the door.

I stormed back in, and tried again and again and again to no avail.

With thirty seconds left, all I wanted to do was cry.

“This isn’t fair.” I shouted in pure frustration.

“Of course it isn’t.” Jericho chuckled, while Pumpkin climbed off his shoulder and onto the top of his throne. Pumpkin could come to me at any time, but he wasn’t being any more reasonable right now. “Why would it be fair? What part of this world has left you to believe that this was going to be a place where you could win, and I would lose? I’m genuinely curious.”

Twenty seconds.

“Because I fought so hard. I did everything you demanded of me. How can you justify taking all of that away from me now, at the very end, like the whole journey was pointless?”

Ten seconds.

“Because that’s what always happens, isn’t it?” Jericho stood from his seat. “You chase the carrot that you’ll never catch, thinking you’ll finally get your free pass into the kingdom that was never yours.”

Zero.

He snapped his fingers, and I was suddenly facing the wall, his arms were wrapped around my shoulders, and I was secured with my back against his chest. He whispered in my ear. “You were never going to win in my Kingdom, Fraulein.” He squeezed me tighter, while I heard the loud bang of a gong marking my failure. “I never expected a human to stand as an equal to devils.” He nuzzled into my neck, and I was too horrified to move. He nipped at my ear, then added, “You’re a queen, Sela. Never dull your shine to live in a world who doesn’t respect or recognize your power.” He placed a hand on my neck and lifted my chin to give himself better access to dot kisses down to my shoulder. “Never jump through hoops and run mazes for someone who doesn’t notice your wit, your strength, and your intelligence.” Pumpkin’s soft fur brushed my legs as he weaved between my ankles. “The game was a test.” He nudged my left cheek, turning my head to the right. I let him meet my lips with his. “To see how you faired in this world you knew nothing about, that you couldn’t predict, and had no chance to truly survive.” He gripped the back of my head and kissed me harder. “And when you should have died, time and again, you always managed to skirt by. But why was that?” I was breathless when he pulled away from my mouth.

“Because a series of lucky and unfortunate events?” I guessed in a sad attempt at finding humor in my devastation.

Jericho smiled at that. He threaded his fingers through my hair and smoothed it down behind my head. “Because my Minotaur thought you were someone special enough to save, without having spoken a single word to you. He chose you without even realizing it.”

I shook my head. “Then it wasn’t my own power. None of this was. I wouldn’t have gotten into the maze at all without Theron. I wouldn’t have survived the Centimane. I wasn’t able to save myself at any point. So if this was a test, I failed that too.” I couldn’t even look at him anymore. Any pride I had left was buckling under the weight of my inadequacy.

“Don’t be so short sighted.” He moved his hand to my shoulders, where he kneaded my muscles gently with the strength in his palms. “Winning over my Little Nightmare is no small task. Not even Theron, prickly as he is, could look away from your vibrant and tenacious spirit. He knew a queen when he saw one, and he was ensnared by your determination and wit. Because unlike the countless people you’ve tried so hard to convince of your importance, the right person saw it immediately from only the slightest glimpse into your mind.”

I swallowed thickly, not accepting a single word. “No.” It was such a nice sentiment, but it was wrong. “If that was true, he wouldn’t have left me. And even then, I leaned on Alessi. I was never good enough, even then.”

Jericho fluttered a kiss against the side of my neck, first the right then the left. “Imagine being able to convince a spy and a traitor to stand by your side. Because the treacherous fox saw someone who had the drive and ambition to stand up to everything he struggled to hold onto. Not even an angel could miss the fact that you were an unstoppable force, and anyone who didn’t see that didn’t deserve to walk by your side.” The way he looked at me, you would think I was something precious. “You’ve let so many inferior men thrive in the comfort of your shadow, that you’ve forgotten it was always you who stood in the face of the sun.”

Pumpkin kept nudging at my ankles, purring and mewing. My heart melted just listening to him. Or maybe it was melting from the heat generated by my racing heartbeat.

“But despite all of that, I still lost.” My voice broke on the last word, but Jericho only chuckled.

“Lost?” Jericho turned me around in his arms, so our whole bodies were pressed together, chest-to-chest and face-to-face. He held my cheeks between both of his hands, and he pressed one more kiss so gently against my forehead.

My eyes fluttered closed, leaning into the soothing touch. Then they shot back open wide when he braced me by the shoulder with one firm hand, and shoved his other into my chest.

Through bone, muscle, and blood, Jericho shattered my chest cavity and held my beating heart in a vice grip. I was still alive only because of the bonds that kept me alive, but I was speechless as blood filled my mouth and started dribbling down my chin.

“No, Sela.” He whispered as he scraped his thumbnail along the surface of my left ventricle. He removed his hand from my chest with a hard jerk and a sickening pop, then he slipped his thumb between his lips. He lapped up my blood with a languid stroke of his tongue.

The king still held me as he dug into his own chest next. I was too stunned to do anything but watch as he collected the smallest fragment of his own heart under his fingernail, then he slipped it into my mouth.