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“Food’s ready,” Edith said over her shoulder to Nan. “I’ll bring you some.”
Edith lowered herself down the rope, then looked up at me. “Your turn.”
Ferrier still walked the perimeter of the small clearing, her steps so measured and neat that I wondered if she was under some enchantment. Ash was scrubbing something in the wash bowl, his back to us. He and Edith exchanged a few words, then he glanced up at me. His shirt…that’s what he was washing. His vest was open over his bare chest. His eyes caught the firelight and blazed like twin sparks in the deep shadows of the misty forest, ghoulish in their contrast to his darkened features. Edith grabbed a small parcel from near the fire and hurried back to the tree.
I tore my gaze from Ash’s strong arms and peered in terror at the ground below.
“Well? Are you coming down to eat?”
I briefly considered asking her to bring me food so I could eat on the platform, but that sounded pathetic—besides, I desperately needed to relieve myself—so with a huff of determination, I grabbed the rope. My puncture wound had closed up, thanks to the healing ointment, but it was still sore. My palm smarted against the rough twine, and I yanked my hand back.
Edith motioned to Ash. “Help her down.”
He threw something into the fire and stood, wiping his hands on the shirt still in the wash bowl, then moved to stand against the tree, one palm uplifted.
“Here,” his gravelly voice came from below. “Throw your feet over. I’ll guide you down.”
Fortunately, he couldn’t see me mouth the word What? or the color filling my cheeks.
I didn’t have much of a choice. I sank to my knees, shimmied backward, cast a prayer like a fishing line to heaven, and lowered my feet over the side. A warm hand encircled my entire bare foot. I trusted him with my weight, trying very hard not to think of the view he was getting. When I was mostly standing in his hands, I grabbed the rope with my uninjured palm and let him lower me down.
He bent to release my foot when I only had a short distance left to drop, but my one-handed descent ended with a clumsy jolt, and I wobbled against the rope. He reached out and steadied my waist, rendering me momentarily mute.
I whirled around, intending to thank him for his help, but I was met with a closeup view of his chest.
Below his collarbone was a raised scar.
I couldn’t take a deep enough breath.
Ash stepped away, pulling his gaze from me while the memory of his hand around my foot burned like a brand into my memory.
He silently resumed washing out his shirt. I imagined the entire maze could hear my heartbeat as I watched him. On battered feet, I gingerly stepped far enough away to take care of my needs in private, hoping no monsters chose that moment to attack. Then I hurried back to the clearing, my appetite leading me to a wooden bowl near the fire stacked with small pieces of grilled meat. Ash raised a brow when my stomach let out a loud gurgling sound.
The meat was leathery and the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted—if scarfing can even be considered tasting. When Ash stood to wring out his shirt, he tossed me an amused look, as if my barbaric eating habits were comical. A laugh burst from my mouth, half-crazed and half-delirious. It felt good to laugh. Ash’s resulting smile surprised me, and my stomach flipped over. Attempting to hide my flash of nerves, I spun away, trying to make it look like I was concealing my wolfish manners.
“You can’t hide from me,” he said. His tone was light, but my blood froze.
He was teasing, surely, but given our present location and his identity, the joke shook me to my core.
Though I was good at hiding my deepest emotions and strongest fears, my surface level reactions always popped right out like oil from a hot pan. My entire body stiffened, and I nearly choked on my piece of meat. Over the steady crackling of the fire, I heard Edith and Nan exchanging a few muffled words up in the fort. Ferrier still marched around in circles, her eyes never straying toward us.
I desperately wanted to fill this heavy silence, so I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Edith said you fought a big snake?”
It sounded so dumb, I cringed internally.
Ash picked up a shirt hanging over a rock and replaced it with his recently washed one. “I couldn’t risk you getting hurt, not until I see that you’ve learned to master your magic.” Then to my shock, he removed his vest—affording me a view that would have distracted me from any monster—and pulled his clean shirt down over his head.
I didn’t rip my stare away fast enough when he tossed his hair back and looked at me.
“Vera, there’s no point.”
His voice was low, meant only for me, and my chest caved in at his words. Of course there was no point in looking at him like he was beautiful. He was him and we were in here.
Defiantly, and with more boldness than I ever had outside the Labyrinth, I locked eyes with him. “I’m not resigned to living out a miserable existence running from your monsters. I’m going to find a way out.”
Edith was descending from the platform, and my pulse picked up speed.
Ash scoffed at my declaration. “I might have made them,” he spat, "but they aren't mine. I’ve spent decades trying to keep them away from people, to atone for what I did in the war, though I know I never can.” Before I could retort, he’d crossed the distance between us. “I know you won’t believe me, but I’m not who I was eighty years ago.”
