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CHAPTER SEVEN
KASSIAN
The wolf and Blaise and I had awoken from the mist in a shallow cave. More of an indent in the side of a rocky hill, really. And it had been the only favor we’d gotten since.
The minute we’d stepped outside that small shelter and into the labyrinth corridors, the whole fucking world had come alive, hungry for our blood.
“That was a sunglow starling,” Blaise announced, looking down at the bird Luca had just stomped beneath his boot after it tried to burn us alive with the reflective undersides of its wings.
“Why is everything so fucking vicious?” I grumbled, scanning the area on high alert.
“I’m sure the others are having just as much fun, thief,” Blaise said, closing theBook of Faunaand slipping it into her pack. Because of course she’d brought a pack to the banquet hall.
The girl was annoyingly well-prepared for pretty much everything, but at least she was on our team this time.
Luca and I, on the other hand, had the clothes on our backs and a handful of weapons that were proving little match for most of the beasties in the labyrinth. Then again, Luca had been able to strip and shift in time to fight off a young lilac oso, so really it was just me who was woefully under-prepared.
“It’s gonna be a long Trial, isn’t it?” I said under my breath, and Blaise nodded, sighing.
“We just have to learn the rules. And survive. Let’s keep mapping,” she said, heading down a twisting corridor of the rock-walled maze with a pair of throwing knives drawn and ready.
The girl reminded me just enough of Kana to make me miss the princess.
“She’ll be fine, thief,” Luca said, pushing past me, and somehow, I knew he’d read my mood just enough to know I wasn’t worried about Blaise.
Not that Kana needed protection, of course. But it was just instinct now. The more we shared our blood, the more woven together our minds and hearts got.
I could see why so many vampires avoided blood sharing when they weren’t ready to mate - ever since the night I’d fucked her with blood play as well as the full blood sharing, all my thoughts eventually circled back to taking her as myaima. And although part of me was terrified of that, a much larger part was hungry for it in a way I’d never known before.
I just had to figure out how to survive the Trials long enough to ask if she felt the same way.
We mapped a good portion of the labyrinth before sunset, using some empty pages in our book and a bit of ash from the fire we’d dared make the first night. It felt a little like the first Trial, except none of us knew what we were hunting for or where we were going.
“I’ll take first watch,” I offered, once we’d made a simple meal from a few razor-tailed ground rats.
We’d checked the area as thoroughly as possible for hidden threats like the furry garrote that had almost ended me during the Trial of the Hunter Moon, but there would always be something awake in the darkness.
Luca and Blaise curled together for warmth, and I situated myself against a smooth rock to study the book in the light of the waning triple moons above.
The nights would only get darker from here, as the moons slivered away to start their cycle again, and building fires would only attract hungry things.
We hadn’t seen or heard any signs of the other teams, and our running theory was that each team had been left in a different part of the labyrinth, and probably the four books gave intel about the threats in each place. Blaise and I were keen to steal the other books, and Luca had been on constant lookout for gobbelins. Something about his confrontation with Vento had really shaken him up, but of course, he wasn’t the type for idle chitchat anyway
Flipping through the pages of theBook of Faunaslowly, I covered the characteristics of each beast and quizzed myself. About half were familiar in some way, but there were plenty of creatures that bled into Saori Sang from the mountains and even farther, like Aralia.
A shiver ran up my spine as I examined the drawing of a leather-winged fairy thing I hoped I’d never get the chance to see. Surely, some of these entries had been spared in the labyrinth.
Then again... I was dealing with Merden here.
The night was quiet around me, and so it was easy enough to notice the curls of mist at my side. It had been following us off and on since dropping us in the maze, but this was the first time it had started to take shape again.
I waited for the face of my old man - I hadn’t seen him in the mist since Kana and I had worked out our differences - so I nearly fell over when it was Nicolas who formed before me.
Something about the Trials was giving him strength. I’d heard his voice speaking to Kana, and I’d seen her react when he touched her. It was more than mist, more than the spirit world some Haretians believed in.
Kassian... thank you.
