by Liz Schulte
That made sense. Most things came with a price tag. Why should magic be exempt? “And the coven—how did you fall in with them?”
She completely abandoned her dinner and worked on re-braiding her hair. “Luck, I guess.”
I raised an eyebrow. “But going from being a bounty hunter to hanging out with a bunch of human witches has to be strange.”
“I guess.” She closed her eyes and curled up in a ball on the floor, her back facing me. Obviously, Frost wasn’t in the mood to talk. I didn’t hold it against her. She needed rest. We both did. I lay back, trying to relax, but my feet kept tapping against the stone. Instead of actually resting, thoughts about everything hit my brain all at once. How were we going to get out if there was only one exit—that we’d demolished? There was always Olivia. At the very least, she could get us help. What would it be like to never have anyone touch you without dying? That had to suck, but maybe there were perks too. “I bet the curse gets you out of the awkward friend hugs,” I said to break the silence.
“Less than you’d think,” Frost answered, but I could hear the smile in her voice.
I laughed. “Earlier you said Sy saved you. What’d he do?” I asked.
Frost took so long to answer that I didn’t think she would. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it once we’re out of this place.”
I smiled a little to myself. Sy saving her wasn’t a stretch of the imagination. He couldn’t help but get involved. It was one of my favorite things about him.
“Since we’re divulging our personal lives, what’s happening between the two of you?” she asked, still sounding sleepy.
“Nothing,” I said quickly. “He’s dating Katrina.”
She rolled over to face the fire and me. “But you like him?”
I shrugged, staring up into the darkness. “Everyone likes Sy.”
“That’s not what I mean. What if he isn’t serious with Katrina? Would that change anything?”
I shook my head. “Sy and I are friends. I don’t date my friends.”
She snorted. “I’m certainly no expert on the subject, but you should listen to your heart. You always seem to know what you want and resisting just because you’re afraid of losing someone will only ensure the fact that you will eventually lose them. Nothing stays the same forever. That doesn’t mean you don’t collect experiences along the way.”
I drew patterns on the floor with my fingernail. “Even if it changes your relationship for the worse?”
She shook her head. “At least you’d know—and you won’t come to the end of your life and wonder what it would’ve been like to try.”
“I don’t see any reason why Sy and I can’t be friends my entire life. Lust doesn’t last; neither does love. On the very rare occasion that you meet your soul mate it might, but it’s still a liability. I’d be used against him, he’d be used against me, we’d become resentful of each other, or we’d distance ourselves. That’s what my mother did. She distanced herself from my father until he was no more than a servant to her. Maybe that’s why he went on his adventures. Maybe he just wanted to feel something.” My jaw tightened. “That’s the way of my people. I’m not sure I could resist the instinct to protect myself.”
“I thought you didn’t remember your father.”
I looked up. “I remember enough, and I’ve heard stories.”
“I still think you should take a chance.”
“Like you do? Who are you seeing?” I fired back.
She flattened out on her back. “No one exactly, but I haven’t closed myself to the possibility.”
“It’s not like I’m some warrior virgin. I just don’t want to be tied down to one person.”
Frost stood up. “Good for you—but now we should find a way out. Time’s wasting.”
I finished off the rest of my meat and stood up. My jeans were mostly dry. Frost snapped her fingers over the fire and it went out without so much as a trail of smoke. I guessed her magic was back. She moved the light around with us as we searched for an exit, which I found about twenty feet above our heads. Finding barely existent footholds, I climbed to the top.
Once Frost was up, we headed back into the labyrinth’s tunnels. The silence was eerie and all encompassing. Without a speck of ambient noise, our every movement, shuffle, and step screamed out. If anything was nearby, it had to know we were coming, but given the silence, maybe nothing was out there. Nothing at all.
“It’s so quiet, so blank. Like no one has ever been here.” Frost wrapped her arms around herself. “Or maybe it’s my imagination.”
I shook my head. “No, I feel it too. There’s nothing in these corridors.”
“Doesn’t that worry you? We can’t get back if we went the wrong way,” Frost said. “The cavern, the room—”
“Yes, I remember. I’m aware.” That was a comforting thought. “We aren’t going the wrong way, though.” I spoke with more conviction than I felt.
Miles of twists and turns, without any sense of options, didn’t do much for my flagging confidence. Conversation grew rare as the weight of what we had already been through, and worry that we had somehow made a horrible mistake, began to take root.
As we came around yet another turn, the tunnel once again changed. It went from being completely empty to being packed with people. Almost standing shoulder to shoulder for as far as I could see were men, women, and children all dressed head to toe in pure white. There were two rows of them, facing each other, making two narrow paths that might be possible to squeeze through. They didn’t move or blink, standing still as statues.
Frost looked from them to me with wide eyes. “What are they?” she whispered.
I shook my head. They appeared to be human, but it was hard to tell. “Wait here,” I whispered. I crept up on the people, but the closer I got, the stranger they looked. Everyone’s eyes were a bright light blue that put the sky to shame. I waved my hand in front of the blank face of the person closet to me. Nothing. Not even a blink. What could do something like this? They were frozen.
I beckoned Frost forward. “Do you think this is some sort of magic?”
She shook her head slowly. “If it is, I can’t feel it. Are they alive?”
“Touch one and find out.”
She glanced at me. “No, thank you. We don’t know who these people are. For all we know, they came here the same as us and this happened to them.”
I shrugged and poked the man on the end with my fingernail. A spot of blood welled up on his white shirt. “Looks alive to me.”
Frost swallowed visibly. “This is going to be fun.” She pulled her hood up again, tying it tightly around her face.
“You need to take off the gloves,” I said.
“Not a chance. Do you know how easy it would be to kill someone?”
“You’re vulnerable if you’re not ready to fight. We can’t be responsible for these people.”
“It doesn’t mean we have to kill them.”
I didn’t want her to clear us a path or anything, but I wanted her to be on guard and prepared to battle. Who knew how long these people had been here or if they could even leave if we did wake them? For all I knew, they were as much a part of this maze as anything else we’d fought since arriving.
“Which row do you want?” I asked.
“Doesn’t matter.”
We stepped up in front of the parallel rows. “Good luck.”
Frost made one last check that she was as covered as possible.
I slipped between the rows, moving sideways, and suddenly there was a loud shriek behind me. Powerful hands grabbed at me. I swung my arm, hitting the person to my back as hard as I could. All of the people around me were moving now, tearing at my hair and neck, knocking me back and forth as they attacked from all sides.
Frost shouted as she too tried to fight off an attacker.
There was another war cry as fingernails clawed at my back and shoulders. Tearing myself away from the attack, I stumbled out from be
tween the two statuelike people who now had blood—my blood—dripping from their frozen fingertips.
Frost was still batting at hands and fighting them off. Her hood had been torn off and her hair and face had been clawed. I reached into the fray and grabbed her shirt, yanking her from harm. She continued to fight a moment longer, eyes closed. My back and neck stung from the scratches. I gently touched the spots; chunks of flesh had been torn away. This complicated things.
“Bet you wish you’d removed your gloves now.”
She was already pulling them off, eyes bright and angry. Hanks of white hair were pulled loose from her braid. Trickles of crimson dripped from the gouges on her cheeks and forehead. “I don’t think it’s going to matter.” She pointed at her face then back to the inert people.
“Are they undead?”
Frost rolled her shoulders and made a useless effort to smooth her hair. “That’s what we’re going to find out.” She held up her hands, face twisted, chanting again.
Nothing happened.
Her jaw set at a stubborn angle, but still nothing changed. Finally her hands dropped back to her sides. “I have no idea what they are. I can’t kill them and I can’t control them. What else is there?”
I didn’t know, and for once it didn’t matter. “There’s no way to go around. We have to make it through.” I sized up the witch. She was tiny. Barely five feet, if that. I had doubts she’d be able to do what was necessary without magic.
“Can we find another path?”
“How? There were no other tunnels or options. This is it. We have to make it through, and I only see two ways to do it. One, we kill them—but that route depends on them being able to be killed and that isn’t looking likely. Or two, we endure the attacks and charge through at a hard run.”
Frost nodded. “It’s worth a try.”
I waited for her to consider her physical limitations, but she didn’t. Humans. “Do you think you can do it? I mean, I’ll try to knock over as many as I can, but they’re sturdy. When I bashed into one, he didn’t even budge. You could climb on my back, but you’d have to wear the backpack, and we can’t lose it.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did you just offer me a piggyback ride?”
“Well, if you’re going to be touchy—”
“I am. I can manage on my own. You worry about you.”
I shrugged and started to braid my hair, so tight my scalp ached. The less I had to grab, the better. Frost followed suit. “I’d lose the layers.”
She started to remove her sweatshirt, but paused with it half over her shoulders, mouth creased with worry. “If I get trapped, don’t come back. It’s too risky.”
I wasn’t going to leave her. I may have talked big, but I wasn’t in the habit of abandoning my friends, or Frost—whatever she was. “Stay low. You’re small and that’s your advantage.”
I stretched my right arm, then my left, and shoved Frost’s layers in the backpack. I hunkered down, about twenty feet back from the people. Then I took a couple breaths and ran as fast as I could at them. The hands grabbed me, latching on to my arms and legs and body until I could barely step forward. Blood ran down my skin as I pulled through their razor-like fingers. I wasn’t even ten feet in. This wasn’t going to work.
I stopped fighting, hoping they would pull me back closer to where we’d entered, and crossed my arms over my chest in a futile attempt to protect myself a bit. They jostled and prodded and shoved and twisted me until I was so dizzy I couldn’t see straight. But I was moving in a steady one-way direction somewhere.
The hands were clammy and waxlike against my skin, but when I didn’t struggle, they didn’t cut me. The entire process was uncomfortable, for sure. Strange hands touched and prodded at me like I was a doll, but at least I’d make it out with my skin still attached. That had to count for something.
Suddenly, the pressure released and I went spinning out into the open, landing hard on my butt. When the room came back into focus, I was on the other side of the human fence. They’d shoveled me through. Frost was nowhere in sight, however, and there weren’t any sounds.
Looking at my blood-drenched skin from when I’d tried fighting them, I had a sinking feeling it was too late. They had left deep cuts, and the necromancer wouldn’t heal, not like me. “Stop fighting them,” I yelled, hoping she could hear me. “Cross your arms and let them push you through. They only fight if you do.”
Still nothing, and the people that I could see were completely still. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it. “Frost?” I shouted. “Frost!”
I paced back and forth along the line of bodies, trying to talk myself into leaving. She’d said to go. She’d said not to go back, but my feet wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t just leave her. But what if I got back in and they threw me directly into her and I couldn’t stop it? That would definitely kill me. I either had to wait or carry on.
My stomach knotted. “Come on, Frost,” I whispered. “Come on.”
Chapter 12
The rows shifted suddenly and I popped my head up. The formerly frozen bodies were bobbing up and down as they passed Frost’s limp body between them and tossed her out on the other side.
She made no effort to break her fall, and she wasn’t moving at all. The blood was so thick over her that the ends of her now completely loose hair were red and clumped together. Her black shirt lay in tatters around her. Blood pooled around her body, spreading out wider and wider.
I rushed to her side, kneeling into the blood. My hands hovered over her. What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t touch her. I couldn’t help, but I couldn’t watch her die. I slapped my shaking hands together.
“Olivia, now would be an excellent time for help. A little interference, please.”
I waited and waited, digging my fingernails into my palms. Nothing. Olivia didn’t appear. I tried again and again, but Olivia wasn’t coming. Maybe she couldn’t. I’d never thought about whether she could travel between worlds. There went the safety net. We were fucked.
I shrugged off the backpack and withdrew Frost’s sweater. I couldn’t touch her skin, but her blood hadn’t killed me yet. That had to be a good sign. I draped the sweater over her and pressed my hands to her abdomen. Focusing on my goddess Sekhmet, I inhaled shakily. Losing friends in battle was a habit I couldn’t wait to rid myself of.
My mind cleared easily and the focus on healing Frost flooded me. I could do this. I was a descendant of the goddess. I was powerful. I could do this. I could save her.
The hairs on the back of my neck lifted as energy exploded from my body. It felt like a warm blanket had been wrapped around my shoulders. I had no idea what was happening, but it didn’t feel bad, and Frost’s wounds were beginning to heal before my eyes. That wasn’t how my ability worked. I could help speed up the process, but the body still had to do its part. I couldn’t undo injures. That was something more like what Olivia could do.
Olivia. I turned around, expecting my friend.
My mouth fell open.
It wasn’t Olivia who stood behind me. It was a picture brought to life. For once, I couldn’t speak. There were zero words in my head. Tall, muscular, and barefoot with the head of a lioness. Wise golden eyes gazed down at me. Sekhmet was here. It was one thing to believe; it was another to see. I had spent my whole life talking to her, not really knowing if anyone was on the other end of that conversation.
Tears flooded my eyes and it was hard to breathe.
“Nyny, good warrior.” She nodded down at me. “What troubles your heart this day?”
I shook my head, my tears spilling over. Her voice was strong, filling the room and my heart, squeezing out any fear that remained in me. I was still having a hard time forcing my lips to form words.
She continued to watch me, waiting patiently for me to find the answer.
“This mission is bigger than me.”
The lion eyes blinked slowly, possibly considering smiting me for the weakness I had just displayed—for doubting myself and m
y abilities. For doubting her. Her human arm lifted slowly and reached toward me. I kept my hands pressed to Frost’s belly. I wouldn’t leave her. Not even for Sekhmet.
She smiled (actually kind of disturbing on a lion head), hand still extended. “You bestow honor upon our people with your loyalty. Your priestess will not pass while I am here.”
I accepted Sekhmet’s hand then, and rose to my feet. Her grip was fire and my hand burned beneath hers like I was being branded, but I didn’t pull away. I stood with my shoulders back and my head high. We bowed before no one.
She released me, pleased. “Your destiny is great, young warrior. You will lead your people to greatness.”
I shook my head, lips pressed together. “I’ve left my people.”
The lion head tilted. “You have been chosen and the trials have begun. From the moment you accepted the mission and entered the labyrinth alone of your own free will, the trials were started. You have bested your fears that were brought forth and remained true to your word.”
Well, technically, I wasn’t alone. I had Frost with me, but I wasn’t going to argue with her over it. “Wait, you designed this mission? You’ve been killing people?”
She shook her head. “No. The guilty party is still for you to discover. The trials have not ended. The maze is not mine. It was your father’s design.”
My brain swam with questions, more than I could begin to ask. I latched on to one. “My father?”
“Did you not know? Come.” She led me to the wall and waved a hand. Two chairs appeared. She sat in one and motioned me to the other. “Long ago, your father made a choice to save his people and sacrifice himself. Throughout his travels, he learned that Shezmu had happened upon a treasure that should have never been bestowed to your world. It was far too dangerous in his hands. Your mother and father were charged with eliminating the threat, and they succeeded.”
“They trapped him here.” That’s why it was all so familiar.
“With the blood of your father’s sacrifice, this labyrinth has remained sealed. Only one of his blood can remove any object from these walls or destroy the maze.”
