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I resisted the urge to give chase. Cole had warned getting back out would be the real test. I wasn’t going to failanypart of this. I called on my magic and a thin vine sprouted from beneath my feet. It grew tallerand taller until it reached my waist. I knotted it around my wrist, giving an experimental tug. Sturdy. The vine might be thin, but it would continue to grow and hopefully ensure that once I got the imp, I got back out.
The underground maze was well-lit, at least for what I needed. Torches hung against the stone in even intervals. The ground was unblemished concrete; my feet left no trace and the whole system was oddly scentless. Back when I had first died and wandered into Cole’s castle, my so-called shifter senses had been nearly useless. I’d been effectively blind, and that castle had been as winding as the maze now was. For a wolf who counted on those senses, they would be stressed and anxious, even from beyond the grave. Me, I refused to panic. I had dealt with this before, after all.
I set off in the opposite direction of the wolf. It may have decided to chase the imp, but I didn’t trust it not to come for me if given a chance. There was no way the ghost wolf could beat me. But defeating it… I didn’t want to imagine what agony that might inflict on its already tormented, enslaved soul. If I could spare the creature that, I would.
Cole hadn’t been joking about the labyrinth running for miles. Every ten steps I came to another fork. At first, I tried to reason it out. But there was no rhyme or reason to the maze. It would be a game of speed, and critical to not lose time weighing my options like they weren’t luck-based. At least my ever-growing vine ensured I had a way back.
I listened for any sign of the ghost wolf, but there was none. Part of me was inclined to panic. What if he got there first? But fear was a useless emotion in a situation like this. I was here. I had to stay focused. If I gave into despair, it would all be lost.
I hadn’t surrendered to despair in the godsdamned pits of Tartarus. I certainly wouldn’t do so within my own realm.
Hours passed. The air was stagnant, stifling. Sweat beaded on my neck, dripping down my spine. There was no chance of a cooling breeze down here.
The shadows seemed to move around me. The light from the torches cast the entire space with an eerie glow. Any sudden flicker of the light could have been the ghost shifter. I still wanted to avoid that confrontation, especially once I had the imp. I hadn’t dealt much with imps, even in my previous incarnation. They were solitary things and distrusted others by nature. Catching one wouldn’t be easy, not when they were built to flee. They stayed at the edges of society, darting in and out to take what they needed. Other creatures scorned them for it, seeing them as leeches. The creatures didn’t even have souls; I couldn’t see them on my mental map of the realm. They were simply the realm’s physical manifestation ofwant. Me, I just thought of all the times I had to sneak into the mess hall after hours or risk going hungry because my pack wouldn’t let me eat around them.
I frowned as I came to one intersection, considering. It seemed just like the other hundred I’d gone through, but an awareness pricked at my senses.
Left or right? The same choice I’d had to make over and over again.
Why does this feel different? There was no obvious reason. Both paths were identical, lined with twin flames at equal intervals. The ground was the same; the same scentless air floated from them.
I took a step towards the left, then paused, reconsidering, and pivoted to the right.
The first torch on the right went out.
This… this hadn’t happened before.
I took another cautious step, and a second torched went out, then as I took one more, a third, shrouding the passage in shadows.
Weird. I retreated and the third torch lit once more. Two more steps and they both came back. Grimacing, I angled back to the left and stepped forward. No torches went out.
A trick, or was the maze guiding me? Was this Cole’s doing?
Cole wasn’t above cheating—not if my survival was on the line. Still, I doubted it was his doing. Phaidros had exacted a large number of vows, including ones of noninterference. Cole was powerful, nearly omnipotent, while he held the mantle of the realm. But even he couldn’t break a vow to the Styx.
I went through the left passageway.
The ever-parallel walls widened for the first time in all of the maze. A sign I was on the right path came when the walls widened to a circular room.
The heart of the labyrinth.
And there, in the center of the room, crunching on a piece of stale bread, was the child I had rescued in the bazaar. He was as tiny as I remembered, nearly emaciated. His little legs swung up and down under the table he was perched on. The rest of the room was empty.
“Dario?” I whispered, keeping my voice low so as not to startle him, nor to alert the ghost shifter I’d found the imp.
He looked up at me, his large eyes wide as he looked at me.
“I’m Avery. Do you remember me?”
He nodded, looking conflicted. “I’m supposed to run from strangers who want to catch me.”
He still had the same lisp from those months ago. Despite it all, itmade me smile.
“I’m not a stranger,” I countered softly. “I just need you to come with me for a little bit so we can get out of the maze. Then you can go anywhere you like.”
If he ran, I suspected I could catch him relatively easily. If he decided to simplypoofaway, I was fucked. Cole’s rules had stipulated I needed to walk out with the imp; I couldn’t simply teleport us back to the starting line.
To my relief, after weighing his options, Dario gave me a toothy smile, hopped off the table, and held out his hand to me.
