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And if I was guessing correctly, we might have to do something to complete each of the four sections in order to win. That idiot of an aunt I had really needed to get better at sharing the details.
“Well, there are obviously mirror vines along the ground, so finding protection from those should be our first task,” Darnell decided, and Jillian nodded quickly, clenching her still-healing hand into a fist. Not to mention, she was practically barefoot at this point.
“The game is on, then,” I murmured. We fell into more of a stride after that, Darnell and I scouting each corridor for different plant species, and Jillian hoarding the book. But at least she seemed to have learned the book’s layout, and she got faster at identifying what we’d found.
Things really improved when we came across a wall of leather-leaved pothos, which provided lots of little curled, water-tight containers to hold antidotes in, and could possibly protect us from the mirror vines, if we could find a way to wrap our legs and feet with them well enough. Their waxy leaves could be scraped to make effective seals, and I gathered enough to make each of us a pouch when we eventually stopped again for the night, plus extra to experiment with as wrappings.
“Perhaps tonight is a good night for you to finally tell me what you know of the gobbelins,” Darnell suggested as we settled in to eat the unappetizing mushrooms and greens we’d gathered after carefully checking the drawings in theBook of Flora.
I sighed, thinking again about cheese fries. Earth had the best food.
Darnell cleared his throat to prompt me, and I sighed. “It won’t take long. I was taught the gobbelins were extinct. Then we all saw the same proof of the opposite, that night in the banquet hall,” I said, shrugging.
I didn’t care if he believed me or not. We weren’t anywhere near the sharing intel stage. And Jillian? I’d rather eat a poisonous mushroom than give her an edge.
“They’ve been sighted in the countryside, so I’ve heard,” Darnell offered, like that might goad me into sharing anything else.
“How many?” Jillian asked, her eyes wide with the kind of joyful curiosity only a true psychopath could have.
Honestly, I’d once thought I had crossed that line into caring about nothing except revenge against my aunt, but these Trials were showing me just how much I still wanted for my people - and for myself.
I wanted a full life, not just a revenge mission. I wanted to survive the Trials, not simply as a chance to kill Merden, but to enjoy the days that came afterward. To enjoy Kassian and Luca. To help Cade and Jax find themselves again and heal. To figure out what happened between Rush and me, and possibly to mend it.
Hell, I even wanted to hang out with Blaise and Valentina. Host dinner parties or something grownup like that.
I wanted so much more than what I’d been given in life - and also so much less.
This wasn’t the first time I’d envied those with a simpler life, who didn’t have to worry about becoming Queen or saving the world. But far away from everyone I loved, stuck in a never-ending maze with two vampires I didn’t trust and didn’t even like - well, it fucking sucked.
Jillian’s giggle brought me back to their conversation, and I realized I’d missed any intel Darnell might have given about the gobbelins.
“You’ll have your chance,” she was saying to Darnell, giving me the kind of predatory look that made me want to slit her throat to be done with it. Too bad the mist was preventing that in this Trial.
Really, I could have killed them all in a single night and be done with it. The Sisters and the mist must have their reasons, though. I just had to keep reminding myself of that.
“I’m going to explore a bit more,” I said, rising suddenly. I wasn’t hungry anyway, unless it was for the blood and touch of my men.
As I stalked away, I heard Darnell mutter something about hoping I’d get lost, and Jillian’s following laughter. Maybe Ishouldleave them. Maybe it didn’t have to be a team trial after all.
I walked slowly in the opposite direction of their cozy little campout, choosing the turns and corridors that would lead me closer to the center of the labyrinth. In my head, I was imagining it as a large square or circle, divided into four equal parts. Nineve had tried to cross into our part, but she didn’t know how to survive here.
I wasn’t as worried about surviving animal attack, and if I could find where the Flora and Fauna sections joined, maybe I could leave Darnell and Jillian behind and work with Kas and Luca instead.
That hope kept me going as I mentally tracked the turns I took, winding inward deeper and deeper.
Soft voices began to reach my vampire hearing, and I grinned, spreading my senses to follow them better.
Turning a final corner, I stopped in my tracks.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I said, groaning as I stood with my hands on my hips, staring at Jillian and Darnell.
“What is it, pretty princess? Get lost?” Jillian teased.
I huffed, tracing my steps in my head. I had definitely not gone in a circle. I’d been walking away from them the entire time - I knew it. But the labyrinth had dumped me out right in their stupid laps.
The mist wasn’t going to let us separate.
“I think we’re stuck with each other,” I grumbled, pacing the narrow area where we’d settled to rest.
