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“They can’t get around the door,” I told her. That might be a lie, but she needed a reason to look at me, to listen to me rather than their noxious snarling.
With a shaking, frozen hand, I led Ferrier down the tunnel, uncertain whether I’d sealed our pursuers off or sealed us in. As we walked, Ferrier’s screams became loud wheezes, then breathless notes of despair.
“Ferrier,” I said, using her name as a way to anchor her.
She didn’t look at me. Her arm was mostly limp, and her expression vacant. She still had a magical glow around her, but it was dimming, and the tunnel was growing darker once again. Madness was slipping in, and I had no idea how to stop it.
“Look at me, Ferrier. We’re going to get out. Those things back there can’t get to us. We’re going to be okay.”
My words flitted over her like a breeze, barely stirring her from the throes of her fears. Walking beside someone so afraid, when my own fears were entirely gone, evoked a strange sensation inside me. I wanted to wrap her in a blanket, tuck her into a warm bed, and sit beside her, telling her stories until she fell asleep. But not here. Not now. We had to keep walking.
The tunnel narrowed as we walked. My reasoning brain wondered if we were moving deeper into this trap.
That wouldn’t do.
We stopped to rest, and I never took my cold hand out of Ferrier’s. She needed to know she wasn’t alone, and my fingers were so cold that the hand not linked with Ferrier’s lost feeling quickly. I leaned against the tunnel wall, hating the way its cold stole more of my own heat, but relishing the small relief from the long walk. Ferrier tipped against me, and I wrapped my arms around her shaking body.
She sobbed quietly into my chest.
If Edith were here, she’d know what to say to her sister to quiet her fears. I rested my chin on top of the girl’s head and pinched my eyes shut.
Tiny shards of warmth prickled through me, and a quiet sob of joy slipped from my trembling lips. My shivering had turned to violent shuddering, but as we stood there, my chest stilled to an intermittent trembling. Another moment to warm up, then we would proceed.
As we waited, I envisioned exits in every possible way.
Nothing had changed. The darkness around us seemed to grow deeper as Ferrier’s magical light continued to dim. Her crying had stopped, but her eyes still stared absently into the darkness. She was slipping away, and I had to do something about it.
“Tell me about your magic,” I said, trying to hold her back from the edge where madness lurked.
She shivered and said nothing.
I was out of time. If we didn’t get out of this black tunnel, I would lose her. Edith would lose her. My mind flashed to Archer and Danny, and I pushed away from the wall, guiding Ferrier at my side. If I was faced with losing either of my brothers to the fate of mindless wandering, I would tear the world apart to prevent it.
A wave of sadness struck me, and I steadied myself against the cold tunnel wall. It felt different. I’d only taken two steps, but the wall here wasn’t stone. It was earth.
My fingernails curled into the dirt. It was entirely too soft for comfort, like a mere touch could bring the walls crumbling down. I swallowed. If my mind had been able to fear, I would have frozen in terror. A stone tunnel might not collapse, but one carved out of dirt certainly could.
I squeezed Ferrier’s hand and closed my eyes.
In my mind, I made a last attempt to get us out. Every other kind of door I’d tried to conjure with my mind hadn’t worked. Trap doors, side doors, even windows in the ceiling. The Labyrinth wanted something else from me. It could no longer drive me to madness through fear, so it wanted to drive me to madness another way. This test was for me, but it was also Ferrier’s test.
How she’d been separated from her sister, I didn’t know, but the Labyrinth had placed someone deathly afraid in the company of someone incapable of fear. Suddenly, I knew what the Labyrinth wanted.
The way out was simple, as if the Labyrinth had written it plainly for me. The magic all around me, though I couldn’t see it in the darkness, swarmed in my mind. As Edith had mentioned, I could feel it. My own magic had connected with the magic of the tunnels, and I searched out the space, realizing exactly what I needed to do.
But I couldn’t do it. The way out would push Ferrier into the abyss.
My eyes popped open. Ferrier’s magical light had vanished. She still clung to my hand, shivering in the dark. Her breathing had intensified again. Doing this, even if it meant freeing us, would crack what little remained of her sanity.
“Unfair,” I murmured into the dark, hating this place for what it was asking of me.
Ferrier didn’t respond.
There had to be another way. My mind could almost taste the fresh air on the outside of this forsaken tunnel. Maybe it was in my head, but I sensed the cool mist writhing on the other side of these earthen walls. Freedom was so close, yet to break us out would be to drive Ferrier into madness.
I didn’t think it would work, but I tried explaining it to her.
“I think I can get us out.”
