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I'd been walking for years. Every time I reached the end of a passageway, a new opening would grind open, or the floor would sink, carrying me into a dungeon I had to navigate with zero light. Whenever I thought I'd found a way out or heard my mates' yells, the floors shifted, the walls changed, and I was carried further from them.
Now, I walked in a daze, barely paying attention to my surroundings. If I fell off a sudden platform, my wings would act on instinct and catch me. If I missed a new gap in the maze, the walls would shift and switch until they guided me onto the Labyrinth's new path.
Sometimes Cronus taunted me when I ignored a new opening or when I muttered to myself. Or when I walked into a wall.1
Foolish, foolish girl,Cronus's deafening voice filled my head now. I didn't know what he was sneering at me for this time. I didn't particularly care; I wiped away the blood at my nose, locked my jaw against the crash of pain in my skull, and walked on.
I sank deep into my mate bonds. Three were frayed, but two were perfect and strong. I'd been walking, dazed, for so long that I couldn't tell whose soul was whose, but I held onto both—kindness and bitterness, frustration and patience, both souls rife with deep, mental suffering. The kind that left scars both outside and in.
The souls tugged me in opposite directions, one straight ahead and one behind. I didn't know which to follow, didn't know which was Wynvail. He was here in this Labyrinth, trapped like me. He could lead me to my mates; he could be with them.
He was the only hope I had, the only bond that could guide me back to them, so I took a guess and followed the soul of bitterness and patience.
The soles of my feet throbbed after another hour, my eyes itchy. At least they’d stopped bleeding—until Cronus spoke next. The walls changed but every passage looked the same: solid grey stone, empty of anything except me.
Where were the nightmares? If Cronus had dumped the Minotaur outside the entrance, where were the replacement monsters? Walking endlessly was driving me mad, but I wasn't fighting for my life. I wasn't battling beasts and bleeding from a dozen places. It unsettled me.
"I need water," I told no one in particular. My mouth was so dry, my lips sore from licking them so often. I'd take being led back to the river in the Wailing Caves over this dehydration. "And a hug."
I wanted my mates, dammit. I hadn't fought through Hell to find them just to be torn from them by an oversized maze. It wasn't fair.
I slumped into a wall and rubbed my face, my eyes sore from staring at grey wall after grey wall.
"I've had enough," I told no one in particular. When Cronus laughed, amusement moving through my skull like thunder, I added, "I'm not talking to you, asshole."
Brave words for someone at my mercy.
I didn't care. I rolled my eyes.
How does your curse glow? Show me, and I’ll consider giving you a boon.
"A boon," I mocked, giving another eye-roll because I was in a shit mood and getting damn near disoriented. "What kind ofboon?"
I can see where your mates are.
A glare slammed my brows over my eyes, and my breathing quickened. Rage replaced the lethargy in my bones, and I bared my teeth at the sky. Was that where he watched us? Looking down on us like a twisted god?
"If you touch them,I'll end you,"I vowed, breathing even faster at the thought. Power rumbled inside me, ready to eviscerate this titan even if I was a lowly hybrid and the attempt would probably get me killed. "And I don'tknowhow the marks glow. If I knew that, I'd be using it right now to blast through your damn Labyrinth."
Even with blood magic bubbling in my core, nothing happened with my marks. No crimson glow. No power. But heartbeats pumped in two bodies, far ahead but close enough for me to sense them. I was following the right bond.
"Get a real hobby, and stop being a voyeur," I told Cronus, pushing off the wall and resuming my walk. Fuck, my feet hurt. "Watching me walk through a maze? That's just weird."
Experiments need observation,he replied, which was even weirder.
A shudder rippled down my body. It was bad enough being sent into the Labyrinth, but being called an experiment? My blood ran cold. Now I knew how mice felt when they were dropped in little plastic mazes.2
But I was a demon, not a mouse, and Cronus had forgotten I had claws.
My aching head swam as I sank into my magic, but I gritted my teeth and powered on. I was surprised I hadn't passed out by now. How long had I been in this place with no water, no food, and no real rest? I'd slept an hour or so, but every time a panel would grate open, I'd shoot back awake. So what was the point? Cronus wanted me on edge, half dead. He was a sadist.
I was just delusional enough to make up a song and start singing to myself as I followed the throb of heartbeats and Wynvail’s corrosive soul.
"My name's Cronus, and I'm a giant anus,"I sang loudly enough that he'd have no trouble hearing me. "I bully kickass demons for sad, nefarious reasons."
This is tedious,Cronus rumbled.
My knees buckled when pain stabbed through my skull on the heels of his voice. Was he doing it on purpose? Trying to break me with agony? I didn't want to admit it was working.
