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In order to drive mind mages mad, this place had to sever them from their sense of control. I wove magic into the walls, the water, the earth, the seeds I planted, the very air itself. This was magic as I’d never used it before—creation that fueled itself as I went, as if my mind, empowered by the magic of so many others, was a fire that grew stronger with each passing minute.
Soon, I lost myself to the frenzy of this creation, pouring my mind into the maze like a soldier bleeding out upon the ground.
Everything I built was both true and false. The trees were alive, but they never stayed in one place. The walls were solid, but they moved. Everything within the Labyrinth told the truth as often as it lied. Because what was more maddening than being lied to?
The pale face of the woman I’d loved floated in my mind, and the rage mounted.
I brought every dark and nasty thing within my mind to life.
Soon I was kneeling on the ground, exhausted from the effort of building. But I was not yet finished. In order to keep the magic of the prisoners from breaching the walls of the Labyrinth, I had to ensure there were no cracks, no fissures, no doors my mind might have hidden in my subconscious as I built. I planted my hands on the ground and sucked in a deep breath, diving deeper into the magic at my disposal.
If I drained the energy of the mages fueling me, as well as my own energy, I’d kill them and likely myself as well. I’d learned in battle, when the concept of stealing magic from others was still new to me, that a mage only had so much magic to give before their power—and their life—expired. I’d also learned that right before a mind gave out and its owner died, I’d sense a hole opening up in the fabric of my consciousness.
Several holes were now apparent as I reached for the magic I needed to finish this prison. I did not want to kill again, but the king’s control on me was unrelenting, and he wouldn’t let me stop until I was certain I’d completed the job. Gritting my teeth, I stretched out on the forest floor, ready to sink into the sleep that would come when I released the other mages’ minds from my own and sealed myself within this house of madness. The Labyrinth needed to be inescapable, the king had said. But the mind was a powerful thing, even when it was consumed with so much magic, and it wanted a door.
So with a final surge of magic, I discovered a single door, far beneath the ground, that my mind had left for me. It was inaccessible, but it was there. If I used magic to destroy this door, I and all twenty mages fueling me would surely die. So, instead of making it a door that led back to the mortal world, I altered it so that it would lead me, when I was finally ready, to the wretched embrace of death.
After locking every spell in place, I let the energy of the other mages go until it was only the chains of the king’s mages remaining on my mind.
I lay on the forest floor for a moment, breathing. Feeling the scattered parts of my mind coming back together with only my own consciousness within the walls of my skull. The emptiness was vast, and for a moment I was utterly confused.
“It is done,” I croaked, exhaustion overtaking me.
The vast magic in this place made me taste metal and salt, as if someone had poured an entire cupful into my mouth. My tongue was so dry and my desire to drink so strong that I could barely form words.
Seeing this place, the prison my magic had built, the Labyrinth that was my soul laid bare, a dark and twisty maze with madness at its center, I saw for the first time the blackness of who I was. Every monster was a creation of my own mind. Every wicked trap a small section of my soul. The king, enemy that he was, had a reason to fear us.
With a single exhale, the chains on my mind were severed, and I was left alone within the Labyrinth.
The memories shifted violently once more, and my eyes focused on a young woman, perched in a web of poisonous vines. She wore a gray wedding dress and stared down at me with narrow, curious eyes.
Her magic pulsed from her along with the tang of mint. As soon as her magic had entered this place, I’d felt it—the tug of a loose thread that had begun the unraveling of a great tapestry. As her magic slipped from her into the air around me, my awareness of every space, every corner, every monster in this place faltered. I lifted my bow, terrified that she might be a key, an untrained one at that, and her presence here could mean my undoing.
My body lurched and my head hit something hard.
I blinked and saw a bearded face.
Ash’s face.
I pushed against Ash’s mental hold and fought to regain control of my mind. It was like pulling my brain out of deep, sticky mud. My forehead throbbed where I’d collided with his chin, and the small sensation anchored me to myself, to my thoughts, to my body.
Ash’s fingers wrapped around my wrists. I tried to move away from him, but the information he’d shared with me weighed on me like an iron blanket.
“Stop,” I snarled, curling away toward the wall. “I don’t want to see anymore.”
He released me and raked both hands through his hair. “Now you know the truth,” he said, his voice gravelly and raw. “Each enchantment that you break here tears apart a piece of my mind. If I go mad, I can’t keep anyone safe anymore, and the monsters will be free to do as they were told.”
He lifted his hand but froze before touching my face. Instinctively, I whipped my head aside, afraid that if he touched me, I’d be trapped by his magic once again.
His expression sagged a little. “I wanted you to know the truth. I’m sorry if it…disturbed you.” His next words came fast and low. “Filled with the power of twenty others, I could have stripped the world bare and rebuilt it as I had once planned. Yet, as I began to manifest the outer walls of the prison I was building around myself, I saw visions of the blood I’d spilled, the dead faces of those on the battlefield who’d dared come against me when I was at my strongest.”
I blinked, picturing the army of skeletal shadows that I’d seen in the dogwood grove. “You showed me that nightmare already,” I muttered, still shaken by the onslaught of his memories.
Ash’s jaw clenched, and he shook his head. “I haven’t allowed myself to think of that grim sight in years. I’d shut it away, buried deep in this place. Then you arrived, and the horrors I’d blissfully forgotten came pouring out of their confines.”
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I reminded him, bracing myself against the stone wall.
“Your fears were manifesting things you didn’t understand. When your magic entered the Labyrinth, it connected with my own and…” He paused to run a hand over his mouth. “I had to find you, to destroy you. I couldn’t bear what your magic was doing to me.”
