He came to an abrupt halt when he entered an oblong cave that held four other exits spaced evenly about. A pit was in the center, one that was deep enough that the torchlight could not reach its bottom. Alex was about to kick a rock to test its depth when something entered the room from one of the other halls.
The monster that greeted him was covered in scales and had claws like daggers and fangs that could puncture dragon scale. It slithered farther into the torch light on a serpentine tale, and its head full of vipers hissed at him. When he spied the pair of red ones in the back, there was no question as to who this creature could be. All Alex could do was pray some shred of his wife was still inside the nightmare she’d become.
“Euryale,” Alex said, trying to stay strong for his sake as much as hers. “It’s me. We can go home now.”
“Liar!” she roared, driving toward him with claws outstretched.
Alex backpedaled, unsure what to do. He managed to bat her claws away, but Euryale rammed her shoulder into his chest, knocking the wind from his lungs and tossing him onto his back. His head struck the unyielding floor with a wet thump as both the torch and scepter flew from his grasp.
Euryale jumped on top of him. Her talons tore into his flesh with a ferocity that put Mister Lion to shame. “I gave you my heart and swore to the Fates you’d never leave me, and what do you do?” she screeched as the blows came down. “You leave me for a harlot the second you could!”
“I swear, I haven’t!” Alex said.
“Alex? Where are you?”
The cry was soft and distant, but it was enough to pause Euryale’s attack. The gorgon straightened and turned her head. When Alex’s name was called out a second time, she darted away.
“Euryale, stop!” Alex said, pushing past the pain in his arms so he could get to his feet. “Come back!”
The gorgon disappeared into the dark, and Alex raced after her, barely remembering to scoop up both the torch and the scepter as he went. He raced through the tunnels, using the sounds of Euryale’s own chase to guide him. The labyrinth was not kind to those using such methods of navigation. Sounds bounced from all over, and more than once Alex wondered if he was chasing the echoes of his own footsteps as much as he was chasing the noise of Euryale’s pursuit.
Alex rounded a corner and found himself back at the circular room with the pit where he had first run into his wife, only this time, he entered from a different passage. How he’d managed to return to this spot, he didn’t know, but apparently neither did Euryale, for she was a dozen yards away and switching her gaze between three separate exits.
“Euryale, please,” he said.
The gorgon turned and snarled at him, and then when Jessica’s soft cries drifted in to the room from one of the halls, she roared and charged.
Alex intercepted his wife an instant before she escaped down a passage. He had to drop both torch and scepter again to make the tackle, but he managed to wrap his arms and legs around her body and drag her to the ground. “I know you’re in there,” he said as they wrestled. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good because then you can witness every drop of her blood spill from her precious little body,” Euryale replied.
“I love you, but I’m not going to let you hurt her.”
“Save your hollow words for someone else,” she said before sinking her fangs deep into his arms. Her vipers followed suit, striking his face, neck and shoulders.
Alex screamed, and the pain that radiated from each new wound was tenfold stronger than what he’d suffered while on Hades’ wheel, but still he held onto his wife. He held on, that is, until his arms began to numb and his grip on Euryale began to falter.
“You’ll never stop me, dear,” she said with as much venom in her words as her vipers had in their mouths. “If anything, you should give your whore a quick, merciful death before I reach her.”
Water formed in Alex’s eyes. He knew she was right. He wouldn’t be able to stop her forever, but he might be able to delay her long enough to come up with a plan that was better than wrestling her for eternity. He tucked his knees beneath him and summoned what strength he had left in his hands to keep his arms locked around Euryale and dragged her back to the pit.
“Get off me!” Euryale screamed, striking at him with fang and claw yet again.
“Forgive me,” Alex said. He jerked back, spun, and let his wife go.
She fell into the pit and was swallowed by darkness, cursing his name the entire time.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Alex stumbled. His vision had blurred long ago, making navigating the treacherous labyrinth difficult at best. Furthermore, the walls had grown three times their size over the past few hours—assuming his sense of time was right, which he was mostly sure wasn’t—so he’d been spending more time looking up than down, and thus his feet often found debris and divots in the ground he’d normally sidestep with ease.
“Oh, Alex,” Aphrodite said as he rounded a corner and came to an intersection. “How long are you going to delay the inevitable?”
“Get away from me,” he said, swinging both scepter and torch like a drunk playing with the equipment in a batting cage. This in turn exacerbated the headache he had, like a migraine worsened by a jackhammer.
Aphrodite laughed and didn’t bother to move as his clumsy attack missed by three feet. “I’m not the one you should be swinging at.”
A deep grumble came from Alex’s stomach. He dropped with his hands on his knees before puking. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before spitting in a vain effort to rid himself of the acrid taste in his mouth. “What’s going on?”
“Euryale’s venom is ravaging your body. I could help if you want.”
“Take your help and shove it up your ass,” was what Alex tried to say. His tongue, however, was puffed like a marshmallow in a microwave, and all that came out was an unintelligible mash of noise. As such, he willed himself past the goddess, intent on finding Jessica and seeing her out of the maze before Euryale caught up with them both.
“She’ll be out of that pit soon,” Aphrodite said, waiting for him at the next intersection. “Won’t be very long after that.”
Alex grunted and went right. The hall that way had a cooler air to it, and somewhere in his delirious mind he reasoned that this meant Jessica had to be wherever it led because she’d always been the cool one growing up.
He rounded a corner and successfully navigated a half dozen steps down before bumping into the goddess again. This time, she leaned against an open doorway.
“You should rest. Think this through.”
Alex wiped the sweat off his brow and out of his eyes before shaking his head. Even if Aphrodite was telling the truth and Euryale was still in the pit, he couldn’t spare even a moment.
A gentle hand took his shoulder from behind and rooted him in place. “Here, let me help,” she whispered in his ear. “Her venom is too much for you, despite your body from Hades.”
Alex inhaled deeply and fell against the wall. The unseen vise around his head loosened its grip, and the fever that accompanied it faded. In the first moment of blissful relief, he praised the goddess before he remembered how much he hated all she’d done. “Thank you. You have no idea how good that feels.”
“Anytime, love,” she said.
“This doesn’t change anything,” he said, pushing off the wall and setting his jaw in determination. “I’m not giving up either one of them.”
Aphrodite giggled, and she followed Alex. Though he charged through halls faster than a fool charges headlong into love, Aphrodite followed effortlessly behind, gliding along on a cushion of air. “What do you think you’ll accomplish, racing around like this?”
Alex paused at a T in the maze to catch his breath. “How are you keeping up so easily?”
“You can never escape things that whisper to your heart,” she said. “But back to my point: you know you can’t save them both. What wil
l you do other than watch Euryale kill Jessica while you pant for air?”
“I’ll wrestle her for the next hundred years if that’s what it takes before she comes to her senses,” Alex said. “She’s only like this because you enraged her.”
Aphrodite touched his forearm as she placed a hand over her chest. “Oh, Alex,” she said. “You give me too much credit. I didn’t wound her heart. You did when you indulged in your feelings for Jessica. You made that choice. Not me.”
“Under your spell,” Alex added.
Aphrodite shrugged. “If you say. That still doesn’t change the fact Euryale’s so worked up that she won’t be herself until she’s taken a life, be it by blood or stone. Trust me on that one.”
“You’re lying.”
“You know I’m not.”
Tightness gripped his chest, and a lump formed in Alex’s throat. Whatever tricks the goddess might be playing, in the deepest parts of his soul, he knew she was telling the truth. Euryale would never tire or revert to herself until someone was dead, and the only mortal in the labyrinth happened to be the only person she wanted to kill.
“There’s the face I was looking for,” Aphrodite said. “Tell me, Alex, will you still love your wife when the image of what she’s about to do haunts you through eternity?”
“Stop it.”
“Or will you use that scepter of yours to protect your fair maiden in distress? All you have to do is stab Euryale with the pointy end and wish away her immortality. The scepter will do the rest. It’s quite easy.”
“I said stop!”
A growl, ancient and powerful, thundered down the halls, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.
Aphrodite smiled. “Time is almost up. Best say your goodbyes now.”
“I’m not saying goodbye to anyone,” Alex replied, eyes narrowing and heart hardening. “By the River Styx, I swear I won’t let either of them die.”
Aphrodite cringed, but it was plainly all for show. “Such oaths won’t protect her from the gruesome fate that awaits, I’m afraid. You can try all you like. The outcome will be the same.”
“We’ll see.”
Aphrodite pointed down the passage to his right. “She’s that way,” she said. “Take your second left and then your fourth right. You’ll find her huddled in a corner. I’d hurry though. Euryale will be there sooner than you think.”
Most of Alex was wary about trusting Aphrodite’s directions, but not enough of him to keep him in place. Time was not his friend, and he was desperate to find Jessica, so he followed the goddess’s directions. To his elation, she’d been telling the truth, and he found Jessica pressed into the corner of a triangular room.
Thick ropes held her wrists tightly behind her back while also keeping her ankles firmly together. Though her blindfold had fallen off, it was clear she hadn’t seen anything in a long time. She shut her eyes and turned away when the torch light struck her face.
“Please god tell me that’s you, Alex,” she said, hopeful and terrified.
Alex bolted to her side and made short work of her bindings. “It’s me.”
Jessica threw her arms around him. At first, Alex thought it the simple embrace of a friend who hadn’t seen another in a long time, but when she fell into him, sobbing, he understood the primal fear she’d been wrestling with.
“I’m sorry,” he said, stroking the back of her head. “I should’ve sent you home right after the wedding. You should never have been caught up in this.”
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?”
“No.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” Alex kissed the top of her forehead before standing and helping her to her feet. “But unless you want to make me a liar, we’ve got to get moving. Now.”
“Then why are we still standing here?”
They’d barely gone two paces before Euryale appeared in the doorway, her serpentine body easily blocking the exit. Before her eyes could meet Jessica’s, Alex spun Jessica around and quickly put himself between her and Euryale.
Euryale snarled and barreled toward them, claws and vipers ready to strike. Alex caught the brunt of the attack with his hands. Muscles bulged in his legs and arms as he pulled the gorgon off balance and they both fell to the ground.
The fight between himself and his wife felt ten times more frantic than it had ever before. Euryale twisted in his grasp and assaulted his body with talon and fang. Alex, operating out of instinct to protect himself and one he held dear, swung with the scepter. Its head connected with the side of Euryale’s and she fell to the side, stunned.
In the lull, Alex turned to Jessica and yelled, “What are you waiting for? Get out of here!”
Jessica, torch in hand and eyes averted, hesitated. “Aren’t you coming?”
Alex went to follow, but didn’t get a stride before he bent over and emptied his stomach. Euryale’s venom coursed through his veins. Alex heaved again before barking an order. “Go! I’ll catch up!”
Jessica ran, one hand guiding the way as she made sure not to look anywhere near Alex or the gorgon. She’d scarcely left the room when Euryale came out of her daze and gave chase. Alex managed to intercept her one last time, locking his arms with her and keeping her from escaping.
Euryale bellowed, but with Alex’s arms squeezed around her chest, it was not nearly as loud or mournful as it could have been. Its effects, however, were far from benign. A spider web of agony spread from Alex’s heart to his arms, neck, and head. His strength vanished, and he crumpled.
He hit the ground, face first, and Euryale pulled free from his grasp. At the far end of the corridor, he could see Jessica, curled in a fetal position, hands covering her ears. The torch lay burning nearby while blood streamed from her nose, pooling on the stone floor. She rocked, eyes shut tight while Euryale methodically approached.
“Euryale, you don’t have to do this,” Alex said, pushing himself up. It hurt to stand, to move, to think.
“Have to and want to are separate things.”
Alex staggered after her. A few of her vipers turned and hissed at his approach, but she kept her back to him. She didn’t need to pay him any heed. Her prey lay helpless before her, and he could barely walk. They both knew he couldn’t stop her, not without…
“Are you ready to use that on me?” she taunted. “Or do you still want to pretend I mean more to you than she does.”
Alex glanced at the scepter and only then did he realize he’d been thumping it in his other hand. The spike at the bottom looked as if it could shatter a diamond, and a hungering feeling seemed to emanate from it. “I’m not pretending,” he said. “I love you, will love you, always.”
“I’ve heard those words before,” she said. Euryale bent down and effortlessly lifted Jessica off the ground. She traced the edge of Jessica’s face with a single claw. “Come, sweet thing. Open your eyes.”
Alex limped on. Ten paces to go. Five. He shifted his grip on the scepter, sensing Euryale’s playtime was ending. “Don’t make me do this. It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“This ends in stone or blood,” she hissed.
Euryale raised her free hand, claws spread, and swung at Jessica’s neck. Alex lunged, hooking an arm around hers to stop the strike. The gorgon spun, her face contorting not in rage, but shock, as the scepter’s point pierced flesh and heart.
Chapter Thirty-Four
What have I done?” Euryale said, voice weak and body weaker. She stared at her Alex with eyes of sorrow, and her hands, free of talon and vengeance, caressed the sides of his face. Tears welled in her eyes as one hand slipped down his neck to where the scepter stuck from his chest. Her throat closed as she yanked it free, letting it hit the ground with a thud. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him, desperate for his touch, but all she received was the cold press of stone against her skin.
“You killed him,” Jessica whispered from behind.
Euryale
heard the woman take the scepter from the ground and push herself to her feet, but she refused to part even an inch from what was left of her husband. “Take my life if you wish,” she said. “A monster like me deserves no less.”
Jessica thumped the scepter in her hands a dozen times before answering. “No,” she said. “He suffered more than anyone should have just to learn how much he was willing to dedicate himself to you, and even when you came at him—at me—he never gave up. I won’t dishonor his life.”
An uneasy silence smothered the two of them. It lingered for what felt like eons to Euryale, and in that span of time, Euryale could do nothing but sob as the weight of her actions crushed her heart and her dreams.
“What in the name of Cronus is this?”
Euryale peeked over Alex’s stone shoulders to find Aphrodite a few paces away, crass, with Athena next to her looking impressed. “He’s gone,” the gorgon spat. “I hope the two of you are happy.”
“Do I look happy, you beast of a thing?” Aphrodite said, stepping forward.
“You look like a vile, pitiful creature that could never be happy,” Euryale shot back.
“You stupid, insolent—”
Athena yanked her sister back by the shoulder and put herself between her and the gorgon. “It’s over.”
“It’s not over! He cheated! He was supposed to pick!”
“He did,” Athena said. “Now leave.”
Aphrodite narrowed her eyes. “And if I don’t?”
“Then I won’t let you call this a draw,” Athena said. “And before you reject my offer, I’d suggest you consult with Ares on what happens to those who continue to fight me.”
Aphrodite pressed her lips together. Her nostrils flared, and she breathed deep before pointing an accusing finger at Athena. “Fine. This is a draw, but between us, it’s far from settled. I’ll see you in my temple and on your knees, begging my favor, soon enough.”
Euryale waited in stunned silence for the Goddess of Love to leave before speaking. “Why?”
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