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“We ran. I was in the tunnels. There were wraiths.” Guilt forced my words out in a fitful confession.
Tears spilled down Edith’s cheeks as she held her sister. A scratch on Edith’s right cheek bled, and her knuckles were bruised.
I took a deep breath and started again. “Ferrier found me in the tunnels. There were wraiths chasing us.”
Edith coughed. “You saw the wraiths?”
My eyes pressed shut at the memory of the horrid creatures.
Edith stared at her sister. “They got to Ferrier.”
I offered a small nod. “The only way I could get us free was to break out of the tunnels. I knew it would frighten her—she was so scared already—but it was that or…” I didn’t finish the sentence.
When Edith’s eyes met mine again, anger rolled off her like steam from a boiling pot. Her face was flushed, but it deepened to a shade almost crimson. Her cheeks trembled as she released Ferrier and stepped around her.
“You did this.”
Those three words were the single worst statement I’d ever heard.
She launched herself at me, going straight for my throat. Before I could say anything, she’d slammed me to the ground. I felt like I had in the stream, as the kelpie almost drowned me, except this time I wasn’t afraid. Exhaustion and shock slowed my limbs, and I barely fought back.
“What’s wrong with you? Aren’t you afraid to die?” Edith shouted, releasing my neck. In a single movement, she rolled off and scooted backward, grabbing her sister’s hand, as if appalled by her own actions.
I stood, one hand on my neck. “I shut my fear away.”
Edith scoffed. “The Labyrinth will kill you now,” she said over her shoulder as she gathered Ferrier into her arms, leading her forward. Ferrier mumbled something, and Edith pressed a knuckle to her mouth, then shook her head. “If it can’t drive you mad, it will send all it has after you. I don’t want to be here for that.”
I couldn’t blame her, and I didn’t want to put her and her sister in danger, so I watched her go. The crack in my reason splintered a little more. Alone had never felt like such an empty word as it did at this moment. Even the walls seemed to loom closer above my head. And then I realized that’s exactly what they were doing—they were closing in over me.
With a desperate inhale, I scanned the mist, looking for anything that might give me an edge over this miserable place. If the magic had a tell, I would find it. I would not allow this place to bury me in its rubble. A brief memory of the crows flooded my numbed mind, and I frowned, recalling that the Labyrinth didn’t like to be one-upped. Edith was right, it would throw everything it had at me now. The magic of this maze was concocting some trial that would fracture the remaining bits of my sanity like a stained-glass window at the mercy of a hammer.
I jammed the heels of my hands over my eyes and tried to think. Whatever the next trial was, it wouldn’t aim at my fear or my pain, as I could lock those things away. The Labyrinth would send something to attack my reason, my lone remaining survival instinct.
The approach of feet drew my eyes away from the patterns in the dizzying mist. I looked up. Edith was running back toward me, ushering Ferrier along quickly beside her. Ferrier ran clumsily, her arms straight at her sides. As they ran past me, Edith looked up at me with narrow, angry eyes.
“Back that way, there’s a—” But before I could warn her of the dead end and the Nameless man, I saw what had chased them back this way.
Loping wolf-like creatures with limbs as long and skinny as table legs bounded toward me. Their claws tore up the earth, and their backs were so ridged along their spines they looked like they could be part dragon.
Skinny tails with tufts of fur at the end whipped out behind them. I counted six before I turned and ran. I passed Edith and Ferrier within a few steps, which didn’t seem fair. I stopped and turned. I wouldn’t let them get eaten by these creatures, not when it was my fault they were coming.
The door in my mind rattled, but I ignored it. I stepped in front of Ferrier and Edith, planting my legs wide. The six slobbering wolves raced toward me. I drew the knife at my hip and held it in one steady hand, then I searched for the magic of these creatures, as I’d done with the minotaur.
Without fear, I could fight these beasts until my dying breath, which would give Ferrier and Edith time to get away. I would not go down without at least trying to help them.
Now I wish I’d kept the bow. Ash’s bow could have taken out one or two of these beasts before they got to me. But it was just me and the dagger.
And my mind.
I would need to be able to tolerate pain to win this. Recalling Ash’s warning, I pictured a second door in my mind, building in a tiny window this time, and prepared to shut my pain away as the first two dogs sailed past me on either side, arcing wide.
No!
I hurled my dagger at the wolf on my right. It sank into the animal’s ribcage, and a loud yelp rang out. With my body angled from throwing the blade, I didn’t have time to turn before the next wolf was upon me. Its snout slammed into my leg, biting down hard.
For a split second, pain blinded me. But in a heartbeat, I slammed the door over my pain, and only a small pinprick of discomfort remained.
It had worked. The small window in the door had let a little pain seep through, but not enough to overpower me.
