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The woman had been clear—if Danny or Archer showed any signs of magic, they’d land in here too. Dazed by a whirlwind of thoughts, I fleetingly wondered what she’d meant when she said I wasn’t what I thought I was.
Maybe Archer wasn’t what we thought he was either. Maybe he’d manifest magic next month and they’d toss him in here. Would I even still be alive in a month?
My flood of thoughts ceased as if it had crashed into a solid wall. A single, overwhelming thought remained.
Yes.
Yes, I would still be alive in a month.
My fingers curled into shaking fists. There had to be something I could do to warn Archer and Danny—something I could do to protect them. Mother clearly hadn’t tried to stop that woman from tossing me in here, as painful as it was to admit it, so if my brothers were at risk, it wouldn’t be her saving them from this place either.
I had to get out. It was my only option. Inescapable or not, this prison wouldn’t be my grave. Archer’s face appeared clearly in my mind, and I could almost feel Danny tugging at my hair. We’d assumed they were both free of magic, but that assumption no longer brought me any comfort. Until it was certain they weren’t mages, they were in danger.
And I was here.
I blinked at the mist swirling around me, so cool against my hot skin that it stung. Outside the door, there hadn’t been any mist. This place was different from the outside world, following its own set of rules. The dense mist caught the faint sunlight filtering through the trees, which reflected off it like blue-tinted glitter falling through the air.
The door I’d entered had already vanished, leaving nothing but deep forest, thick with vines and that stinging, blue mist. My heartbeat drowned out the crickets and the birds. Somehow, I’d not thought creatures as simple as crickets would live inside this magical fortress. The blue mist ebbed and whorled around the trees, moving as though independent of the wind.
A shiver raked my spine as a wave of mist blasted around me. I exhaled slowly, trying to keep my panic from rising again and taking over. I shook out my arms and spun in a circle, relieved that my muscles were once again obeying my own desires. Trees surrounded me. Hemlocks and oaks and pines and small saplings and dead, hollow logs but nothing unusual. Vines streaked from the ground to the branches above. The forest felt too normal—too mundane—to be an inescapable prison built by powerful magic.
I didn’t detect a single threat. In a prison built to drive men insane, I’d expected monsters or imposing walls. But a quiet, dark forest? That was somehow more sinister. The anticipation mounted in my gut, twisting into my muscles and gnarling my composure until I was bent double, breathing fast.
“Get it together,” I told myself. This place was designed to incite madness, but I wouldn’t let it. I straightened up and lifted my arms at my sides. “You’re not that bad.”
What if that door in the forest had been a trick and I wasn’t even in the real Labyrinth? What if that mage had sent me out here to scare me? Was I panicking for no reason?
I planted my fists on my hips, embarrassed at the possibility. If this was only the Imperial Forest and the door had been a hoax to scare me, it had worked. Royal patrols were nothing compared to whatever monsters truly lurked within the Labyrinth.
I felt foolish.
Except…the door I’d entered had disappeared. And this blue-tinted mist was new. So either she had an architect with her to manipulate this section of forest, or I really was in the maze. I liked the first option best.
Then I heard a sound like an animal crashing through the leaves. My blood turned to ice.
If even a third of the legends were true, whatever animal now approached me wasn’t one I wanted to meet. Crickets might dwell here, but I wouldn’t trust them not to carve tunnels through me if given the chance.
A thick vine encircling a tree caught my eye. I raced to it, grabbed hold, and began to climb. The tiny purple-red hairs on the vine suggested this was not one I should touch, but the animal sounds grew louder—snuffling and snorting accompanying crashing footfalls—as if the animal was stampeding over whatever lay in its path.
When I was too far from the ground to jump, the vine changed. It sprouted offshoots and curled into the empty air. I now clutched the vine in dazed terror, but the vine ripped free of the tree and lifted me. It continued branching and growing into an impressive web that stretched between three of the nearest trees and held me suspended over the forest floor.
I was too scared to move. My hands gripped the vine, afraid it might decide to twist me upside down and dump me off at any moment. The animal crashed through the space below me, and I yelped in shock.
A hog the size of a small pony charged the very place I’d been standing a few breaths ago. The tusks on its snout were the size of antlers, so large they nearly dragged on the ground. They sliced like scythes through the thick vines, severing them as easily as cooked noodles.
The animal stamped the ground beneath me, tossing its head and those massive tusks. With each wave of its head, the sharp points cut away the vines holding me up.
I felt the web of vines tremble and tilt.
The hog was going to cut me down from this strange hiding place and tear me to pieces.
Pulse thundering, I climbed. Each time I reached out for a vine, it grew a new shoot and lifted me higher. The hog continued to thrash. The vine continued to branch.
Each snort from below drew a whimper of fear from my throat. Each new vine that sprouted into my hands brought the faintest whiff of safety. Clutching the vine with all my might, I hoped the hog would see that I was too far to reach and would give up.
It might have only been a minute, but after what felt like an eternity, the hog finally admitted its defeat and, grunting, crashed away through the forest, leaving a broken tunnel of vines where it had departed.
My pulse raced, and my hands trembled.
