by Liz Schulte
Labyrinths were tricky. They could show you almost anything. It was hard to know what was real or fake, or what would actually kill you versus what was actually there to guide you. They used your secrets and weaknesses against you. They were as much a mental trial as a physical one.
With that on my mind, I turned to Frost. “I thought you were leaving.”
“Aren’t you lucky I changed my mind? Looked like they might have been getting the better of you. You seemed to be struggling. Oh, and now we’re even.” Her pale eyes smiled up at me, though her face stayed passive. “I couldn’t leave you down here alone. I don’t need another person on my conscience.”
Struggling, my ass. I could have taken care of them…eventually.
“What is this place? It’s nothing like what I saw through the opening.” Her head swiveled, as she took in the giant cavern and marble colonnade. “Flowers?” she asked. “How are they growing without light?”
I hadn’t even noticed them. Shrubs with clusters of bright pink flowers lined the colonnade and framed either side of the entrance. I moved closer to one plant, but not within reach. “Is that oleander?”
She shrugged. “I’m not a botanist. But I do know oleander is poisonous, if that is at all helpful.”
“They were also used as medicine.” Like anything in life, oleander represented two sides. Just as people had the potential to be good or bad depending on their choices, the flower was the same. It could be used to heal or to harm. There was also a time they were thought to mean caution. Could they be a warning against what was still to come, or did they have a more immediate use?
“Neat, but how the hell are they growing miles underground?”
I laughed. “How did dirt take shape and attack me? Shit happens.” I went to the plant. On closer inspection, the petals weren’t quite right. These were unlike any flower I had ever seen.
I bent down and sniffed one. When I straightened, the dust in the room was swirling around my feet—and Frost slowly morphed into my mother. She came toward me.
“What is it?” Even the voice was an eerie blend of the two of them.
This place really thought I was hung up on my family. I blinked several times, trying to get Frost back. Was it an illusion or an illusion within an illusion? I shook my head, striving to focus my thoughts. How did I know if the real Frost was actually here? She could have left; this one might just be a projection. If so, how much would the impostor know about her? On the other hand, if my mother was an illusion, it was a damned good one, right down to the guilt trip and psychotic rage. But I hadn’t tested her, not really. Our interaction had been brief. I backed into the center of the room. Frost didn’t follow. She just watched me from the edge with a puzzled look on her face.
Slowly my mother’s image faded and Frost was herself again, toying with the end of her braid, watching me carefully. “What happened just now?”
“Hallucination.” I looked at the placement of the plants around the room. They sat by the columns, where the creatures had come from. They were also right by the entry where we both had our first hallucinations. “This isn’t the place to stop and smell the flowers. They’re causing the visions.”
Frost veered away from the plants as she inspected the room. “Huh.”
“What exactly did you see when you looked in here?” I asked, still trying to make sense of this place and what we were up against.
She stopped meandering around the room and faced me. “I told you.”
I rolled my eyes. Like any bounty hunter, Frost was picky with the information she chose to share about herself. Most of us didn’t expose weaknesses—so people couldn’t use them against us, but more so we couldn’t use them against ourselves. “Details, Frost, details. Do you love Sy?”
She snorted, her cheeks coloring. “Hardly.”
I led the way into the colonnade. “You’re the one who saw him. I think the visions showed what we’re most afraid to lose, and you saw him. Sounds like someone has a crush. Isn’t that kind of clichéd, though? It must really burn you that he’s also dating Katrina, being that she’s in your coven and all.”
Her dark eyebrows pulled together and her lip curled. “The only one who sounds jealous right now is you. Maybe the plant caused permanent damage in your brain. Are you seriously in love with Sy? He’s not your…” She shook her head.
Turning the attention to me. Classic avoidance. “Still avoiding.”
She threw her arms up. “My vision had nothing to do with love. I saw a lot of people. I saw the entire coven lying dead at my feet, then Sy came in and I killed him too. I had lost control. Gave in to the same darkness that was in my mother. It was basically my worst nightmare. Not that I have to explain anything to you, but I don’t want to kill him. You’ve caught me. I don’t actually want to kill my friends.” She glared at me, hands gesturing wildly as she spoke. “I can’t believe I felt guilty enough to come in here with you. Why do you always have to be an asshole? What did I ever do to you? You push everyone away. That’s your choice.”
“Why did you come back? You’re right, after all. I’ve been a complete asshole to you. I won’t tell you anything. And I’m probably the last person you should be risking your life to help.” I was still struggling to let go of the suspicion that was blanketing every thought I had. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, trying to remember my training. This wasn’t my first labyrinth. We were trained to let our minds and bodies connect with the magic of the goddess, which allowed us to see past the spells of the labyrinth, but this one had gotten its hooks in me, before I knew what I was dealing with. Ideally, when perfectly connected, one could go straight through the maze with no mistakes. Something I used to be the best at doing. My stomach twisted at the thought. I’m going to get us both killed.
“You have no business being down here alone. Obviously this mission is personal, or you wouldn’t be so secretive about it.” She had no idea, and it just kept getting more and more personal. Too personal. Almost like it was made for me. Absolutely everything in this place felt like it was left just for me. I just had to finish this. “It’s not too late to leave.”
I glanced back. Frost was definitely turning out to be a better person than I had ever given her credit for being. Even if I couldn’t leave, she could. It had been a long time since I ran a maze. “You should go. Get backup and I will go through the maze.”
“If I can’t talk you out of going, then I guess we’re both going in.”
“Thank you.” I blew out a slow breath. “Now be quiet. I have to connect with my goddess.” I took deep breaths, in and out, in and out, clearing and opening my mind like I hadn’t done in years. My breath ran through my body, and my muscles relaxed until eventually my mind followed. It used to be easier for me. When my life was simple and I was focused on wanting only one thing: to leave. But now my mind was scattered by so many different pulls, it was harder to hear the goddess as clearly. Tingling started in my toes and traveled up my body then back down. My arms floated upward and I held them out, even with my shoulders, until the fingers on my left hand started to flex then static ran down my arm. Left it was.
“What happens if we go the wrong way?” Frost asked as we passed the white pillars.
“That depends on the setup. Most labyrinths are circular, meaning that no matter which entrance you go through, you can reach the destination in the middle. However, there are those that if you step through the wrong door, you die. Or it could be connected to a world besides ours.”
Her eyes widened. “How do you know this is the right door? Please tell me you have more evidence than just pointing at it.”
I shrugged. “The goddess told me.”
“You heard her voice? Did she talk to you?”
I shook my head. “My fingers tingled and flexed.”
She squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Please tell me you’re going on more than that.”
“I feel the goddess. I can’t explain it how it works, but I can feel her.
” I shook my head, coming to a stop in front of a blank stone wall. “It’s my method of communication. It works. I’ve been talking with Sekhmet like this since I was a kid.”
Frost turned toward me. “You aren’t lying?”
I laughed. “Why would I lie about this? If I pick the wrong door, it sucks for both of us.”
Now we both stared at the smooth wall. I pressed my hands all over it, searching the entire thing for cracks, levers, or any sort of sensor that would open the wall, but it was completely smooth.
“There’s a door on the other side. Maybe this one has been closed.”
Very tricky. Maybe that was how they got the humans to Shezmu. The visible entrance. But why did the goddess send me this way when I too was trying to find Shezmu? I looked back at the other door again, and my stomach rolled. Though I didn’t understand fully, I knew what I needed to do. “This is definitely the way she wants me to go.” I studied the stone wall. “The labyrinth can play tricks on you. The flowers are just a taste of what could be before us. Never trust anything you see.”
“This seems like a theme with you. Are you always this untrusting?”
I looked back at the wall. “Only when people are trying to kill me, which is all the time, so yeah.” I ran my fingernail over my lip as I studied the seamless stone. Something had to be here. I ran my fingers along the entire carved frame around the would-be door. If it wasn’t here, it could be anywhere in the room. It would take time to find the switch. I pulled a protein bar out of my pack.
She crossed her arms. “Why would someone be trying to kill you?”
I hadn’t considered the why. Not really. Leilah had already tried to kill me once when she sent me to be sacrificed to the vampires. But then she had the chance to vote for me to die after I broke their rules, and she didn’t. She voted for me to live, which assured my survival. Had she voted for me to die, it would have tied the score. What did they do if the board was split? Sy didn’t get a vote that night. Maybe he would be the tiebreaker, meaning I would have won regardless, and she would know that. So rather than tipping her hand, she let it look like she was on my side. But the whys for any of this had never really mattered much to me. I had been focused on breaking away from them, but maybe that was short-sighted. Perhaps the whys would tell more about Leilah and the council. “You know, I’m not sure.”
“It just seems a little dramatic. I doubt anyone is trying to kill you specifically,” she said. “Now are we just going to stare at this wall for hours, or can we go through the other door?”
“It’s not a wall,” I mumbled. Then it hit me as I took my first bite. I didn’t have to wait to find the lever. I had the master key. I reopened my pack, dug out the dead man’s hand, and pressed it to the wall. Immediately there was a click and the stone slid back. “As I said, everything’s an illusion.”
Chapter 8
Frost caught my arm with her gloved hand. “Wait, if all the person who placed this bounty wants is for Shezmu to be contained, why are we going in at all? He’s already trapped. Let’s destroy the entrance, then it’s over. They can cast whatever spells they want. If no one can get through, he can’t kill them.”
“And the person behind this gets away with it?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t say it was a perfect plan, but surely we can find who’s responsible through magic. The coven could definitely help. Problem solved. No need to fight underworld deities and probably get killed. I did my research; gods can’t be killed in this world.”
“Well, only if he’s technically a god. There’s some debate. He may be a demon, and if that’s the case, I’ve got it covered.”
“My way is so much easier.”
That was true, but I had a feeling even if we wanted to leave, we had come too far to go back. The labyrinth wouldn’t release us until we beat it or died trying. “The last thing we need is to involve more people in this. We’re already here. Let’s just find Shezmu and take care of him. He doesn’t only kill people. He also likes to drink and make lotions. He loves lotions. I guarantee I can get him to talk and then we’ll know the traitor, no magic necessary. After that, I don’t care if you want to blow the place up or brick in the doors, I’ll gladly help.” Nothing about this case was simple. The solution wouldn’t be either.
“Fine, but if I go with you, I want you to tell me everything you know about this case and who you think is behind it. I’m not asking for a pound of flesh. I just want to know what I’m involved in.”
She had probably earned at least that, if for no other reason than professional respect. After all, she did come back. She had proven she was just as Sy advertised: invaluable. Also, I trusted him. He wouldn’t have sent me with a spy, not by choice, and she didn’t act like someone working for the council—overly helpful. But she also wasn’t cut out to go up against the council or my mother. Yes, the necromancer packed a punch, but she was still very, very mortal.
“I have two suspects.” I took a step away from the door and the stone rolled back in front of it. “It’s either the council or my mother who’s behind what’s happening. I came here thinking it was the council because they blackmailed me into coming and the last mission they sent me on—well, let’s just say they don’t have a high regard for life, especially mine. But now that I’m here, it’s too familiar. A lot of what I’m seeing, I recognize. My mother could have more than a little something to do with it, but I don’t know why she would go through the effort or why I keep seeing her. That’s it. That’s all I know.”
An emotion I didn’t quite recognize crossed her face. Was it sympathy? She looked legitimately sorry. “You think your own mother would try to kill you?”
I was caught somewhere between glaring at her and rolling my eyes. I had made peace with my past—or I had moved on, at least, which was basically the same thing. “I told you, we don’t get along. She’s a warrior and I’m a traitor to my people. I left them. I’m sure she doesn’t have a hard time reconciling her decision.”
Frost looked down. “I didn’t know…”
I shrugged. “No big deal. As I said earlier, there’s always a reason we get into this profession. It only makes us better at our jobs. Besides, Olivia, Holden, and Sy are more my family than my mother ever was. They have never tried to change me.”
Frost chewed her bottom lip, obviously fighting some sort of internal battle that we didn’t have time for. “Just ask,” I said.
She crossed her arms. “Do you think she’s evil?”
Life was never that simple. And neither was my mother. It really depended on whom you asked. She was polarizing. There were those who hated her and those who thought the world revolved around her. “She very much believes what she says, and it has kept her and our people alive and prosperous for centuries, but there is no room in her life for dissent. She doesn’t want to hear that she has bastardized our reason for being to the highest bidder. That instead of being on the battlefield where we belong, we sit back and wait, only siding when the offer is high enough. I’ve always thought the Sekhmets should be involved in the world because we live here too. She doesn’t agree. Everything is about prolonging our lives—even if it diminishes the quality of living. Does that make her evil? Probably not. Does she have empathy? Probably not.”
“But you really think she could do something like this? Kill fifteen people just to get you into a maze?”
“I couldn’t begin to decipher the inner workings of her mind.” I frowned. “I mean, I hope it isn’t her, more for her soul than my peace of mind. I cut ties with her and I haven’t looked back. It was probably the best decision I ever made in my life. I just know that something like this wouldn’t be a leap for her. She doesn’t care about humans or any beings other than the Sekhmets. If she thought this was a necessary step for our people, she could definitely do it. However, I haven’t figured out what it would gain her. Or why she wants me.”
Frost gave me a side-eye glance. “But you still want to go in?”
&nb
sp; “Definitely. I’m not going to let her win. I’ll beat her at her own game.”
She shook her head and paced a couple steps. “If your mother is behind this and got this so-called council to send you here, she’s either using you or trying to kill you. Doesn’t that bother you?”
I laughed, but didn’t feel much humor. “It really burned her ass that I left. It was only a matter of time before she came after me. Through my sister, she has been using guilt to try to manipulate me, but since that didn’t work, maybe this was just the next step in her plan.”
Frost walked around the colonnade, carefully avoiding the flowers. “You’re lucky. You got to choose to leave rather than being left. Now tell me about this council. What are they the council of?”
I sighed. This was where it all got tricky. “Telling you will endanger your life.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you said. My life and the lives of my coven. We can take care of ourselves, or we can if we know where the enemy is coming from, anyway. I want to know.”
I nodded. That would have been my reaction too, and I nodded. I just needed what she was choosing to be clear. I watched her walk around the room, still keeping a wide distance from the flowers. “Fine. But do something for me first.”
She blinked. “What?”
I looked at the pretty plant. It looked like any other plant to me. “Try killing it,” I said.
She sighed. “I don’t want to go anywhere near that thing. I have a bad feeling about it.”
“It’s plant. Just try. I want to see if they die or if they’re an illusion too.”
“If I do it, will you stop stalling?”
