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“Can you get me to the door?” I asked, my voice a broken whisper in the tumult of the rocks crashing down.
His hands traced down the backs of my arms as he turned to face the door. His face turned stony. “However long it takes, however far I have to go, I will find you.”
“Just hurry,” I said, half-laughing, half-crying at the thought of leaving him here.
“Be smart,” he said. “You can’t go home. They’ll find you and throw you back in here. Protect yourself, Vera. I will come for you.”
“I know.” I had to trust that in this one moment, he was telling me the truth. That all the lies were finally over. That even though he might be afraid, and even though he might think that he needed to pay for what he’d done, he would come through that door and not leave me alone forever.
“If that door doesn’t lead to life, Vera, if it leads to a place even worse than this, I will still follow you through it. I would follow you through death itself.”
I pressed another kiss to his lips and then scooted backward off his lap. I slipped from his grip and grabbed his hands. Together we stood.
“Will they hurt you?” I said, glancing at the monsters writhing outside the barrier of mist.
“They will try,” he said. Then he shoved me toward the door.
21
My hand grabbed the knob and turned. Instantly, I was pouring through molten hot light so bright that my eyes burned even with my eyelids crammed shut. The pressure of Ash’s fingers vanished from my back, and I hoped that wouldn’t be the last time I ever felt his touch. I crashed through open space, though it wasn’t exactly like falling. It was as if I was simply flying through the air.
A weight lifted off my chest and cracked as it fell away. I took a deep breath and then crashed into the ground. I rolled and grabbed my shoulder, rubbing where it was sore from the impact. When I opened my eyes, it took a moment for them to adjust.
I was in a forest. My entire body ached from an exhaustion unlike any I’d known before. At my feet was a worn, freestanding, blue door. I pushed my hands into the soft ground and quickly stood. Twigs and leaf fragments clung to my hair. I shook a few of them out and glanced around. I was outside of the Labyrinth, back at the exact place I’d stood before the mind mage had forced me in. That felt like an eternity ago, although it had only been a handful of days.
Staring at the door, I bent double and placed my hands on my knees. A week. How could it have only been one week?
Laughter behind me turned my attention from the Labyrinth. Edith and Ferrier stood several paces away, laughing and crying as they embraced in the cool shade of the forest.
They hadn’t spotted me yet, distracted by their own elation. I pressed my knuckles to my lips and a laugh bubbled up inside me, followed immediately by sinking pain as heavy as the world itself.
I turned back to the door, reaching for it, my fingers brushing the rough, worn wood as my mind pictured the man I’d left behind it.
Curious, I peeked around the door. Nothing but more forest. I walked around the door and then stood facing it. My chest rocked with silent sobs, and this time, I didn’t attempt to shut them away.
I vowed right then that I would never stop waiting for him, even if he never came. The monsters might have killed him, or it might take him years to free all of the Nameless within the Labyrinth from their madness, but I trusted him when he said he would come, and I wouldn’t go back on my word.
After much cajoling, I’d lied to Edith and said I would stop waiting when two years had passed.
I carried a basket under my arm through the market in Ravlin, a town tucked far at the northern corner of Bevon, miles from Westburg and the king’s castle. The early fall morning was crisp, and the sun felt good against my chilled skin. The vendors in the market had heaps of fresh corn, bumpy squash, and beautiful round tomatoes.
It had been two years and sixty-one days, and I still hadn’t stopped waiting for Ash.
In that time, I’d listened for every scrap of news related to the Labyrinth. There were reports of mind mages disappearing, which meant they were likely still getting thrown into the miserable prison. Every time I heard the common myths of the Labyrinth whispered on the tongues of the townspeople and travelers, my shoulders tightened at the memory of that place and my heart sank at the knowledge that Ash might still be trapped. Or worse.
Edith perused the market stalls ahead, picking out a bolt of cloth to make a new dress. Ferrier was in school and doing quite well, considering the fears she’d had to overcome to even agree to enroll. Healing from the Labyrinth had taken time, and none of us was fully free from the nightmares that plagued us, but we’d found a new life in this small village.
I spotted Archer across the square and grinned widely, hurrying to where he stood outside the carpenter’s shop. He dusted off his hands and welcomed a hug. I’d never apologized for hugging him after finding them again, and he never complained.
“I heard you come in late,” he teased, pushing my shoulder with his knuckles.
I smirked. “We had a new member join last night.”
His brows lifted and he leaned in, a conspiratorial tone to his voice. “Did you make him dance in circles and chant?”
“We don’t do that sort of thing. We just…practice. It’s nice to have a few mind mages to learn from and to teach. Danny said he’s ready to come to a meeting.”
Archer stood tall, his hands flat against his chest. A look of sadness was replaced quickly as fierce pride swept his face. “He’s really…he’s just…”
