Dark Angel Box Set

by Hanna Peach

  Her eyes came to rest on the snow globe that had fallen to the floor on its side. It must have rolled out of Elder Michael’s robes when he fell.

  She walked over to it and picked it up in her hands. The real Mapmaker had been killed for this. Someone—she suspected the real Mapmaker—went to the trouble of hiding it and leaving behind a riddle. But why? She and Israel had almost died retrieving it. What was so special about this snow globe anyway? Why did Elder Michael want it so badly?

  She frowned as she stared at it. She had never looked at the globe this closely before. It wasn’t like other snow globes she’d seen in the real world. Usually they had a small city or figurines inside. The inside of this globe seemed to be empty. Did it even have snow in it? She grabbed the base with both hands and shook.

  The glass filled with tiny violet flecks that swirled around. She squinted as she peered in closer. Those weren’t flecks, they were butterflies flapping tiny wings and flying around inside the globe.

  The center of the snow globe shimmered and the base seemed to break apart as if something was pushing out of it. There, rising up out of nothing, were clusters of miniature buildings with tiny windows and sills, as well as smooth steps leading up to painted front doors. They created streets between them with old iron benches and posts holding ornate Victorian lamps. How incredible. A world within a globe.

  She studied the buildings and one of them caught her attention. It was in the very center of the globe. It had a large red sign out front reading…Mapmaker. These buildings inside the globe were of this very area.

  The butterflies began to fly into a kind of formation. They flew down in between the buildings, creating a long, thin violet line along the streets starting from the Mapmaker’s store.

  Alyx gasped. They were making a path. They were showing her where to go. “Israel, look.”

  “What is it?” He dropped the papers in his hand and jogged to her side.

  She thrust the globe under his nose to let him see it. His mouth parted and his eyes widened and she knew that he could see it too.

  “This isn’t just a snow globe,” she said. “This is the map.”

  Chapter 13

  Alyx and Israel walked down the streets of Saint Joseph following the path on the real street that the butterflies had laid out for them in the globe now resting in her hand. As they walked, the buildings in the globe shifted to keep their current location in the center. The butterflies at one end flew across to the other, reassembling themselves to continue their path.

  Israel nudged Alyx. “See, we’ve got the map. We’ll get you out of here in no time.”

  She chewed her lip and glanced up to the mountain, her sleeping figure still shimmering in the sky above it. Even as they were nearing the edge of the city limits, the mountain still seemed so far away. Who knew what lay between here and her escape. “Maybe.”

  Finally they reached the edge of Saint Joseph. Up ahead the thick stone city walls loomed up higher than their heads, blocking out most of what was on the other side. The iron gates had been thrown wide open as if waiting for them.

  Alyx stopped in the shade of the single giant elm that stood guard at the side of the wall. Israel stopped at her shoulder. Through the open gates was the start of a closed maze, the walls and ceiling covered in ivy creating an emerald and yellow tunnel. Summer was becoming autumn. In the globe, a few of the butterflies had turned into yellowing autumn leaves. They were clearly indicating a path through the maze. She stared at the enclosed maze and shuddered. “I don’t like this,” she said to Israel.

  “Neither do I, but what choice do we have?”

  She let out the lungful of air she had been holding. “Let’s just get through it as quickly as we can.”

  “You don’t want to go in there,” came a soft, watery voice.

  She jumped, looking around her for the man to go with the voice. But she couldn’t see anybody near them.

  She turned to Israel. “You heard that, right?”

  He nodded.

  “So where did it come from?”

  “Up here,” the voice said.

  On the wall? Alyx stumbled back as she craned her neck up. There wasn’t anybody sitting on top of the wall either.

  “Not up there. Up here.” There was a shaking of branches and several golden leaves fell about her head.

  Alyx spun and stared.

  Was that a face midway up the tree trunk? She stepped closer. “Hello?”

  The grooves of the tree trunk shifted into a smile. “Hello, Alyx.”

  “Are you serious,” Israel said as he came up beside her. “A talking tree?”

  “We met a talking stone dragon and I fought a statue of Atlas and you’re shocked that the plants are now speaking?”

  Israel gave her a look. “I guess if you put it that way…”

  “Hello to you too, Israel,” the tree said.

  “Who are you?” Alyx asked him.

  “I am Deciduous, the guardian of the maze.” The tree shivered. “Don’t enter if you value your lives.”

  “But we have to go through it to get to the mountain beyond,” she said.

  “The Heartless Mountain,” the tree whispered and shuddered again, more leaves falling from his branches.

  The Heartless Mountain. The hair on Alyx’s neck rose.

  “Is there another way to get to the mountain?” Israel asked.

  Deciduous gave them a mournful look. “Not that I know of. You’ll have to risk the Maze of Whispers.”

  Alyx swallowed and turned to stare at the entrance. It may have been her imagination but she could swear the light inside the maze had grown dimmer. “What’s inside the Maze of Whispers?”

  “Only what you fear.”

  Her skin prickled. She turned back to Deciduous. “What does that mean?”

  “That’s the thing about fear,” he continued, ignoring her question. “You can’t always trust it.”

  “What can we trust?” Israel asked.

  The tree gave them a pointed stare before his face dissolved into the grooves of the trunk again. A whisper went through his leaves like a soft wind. “Trust each other.”

  Chapter 14

  Alyx took a hesitant step into the maze, Israel at her side. The air here was cooler than before and she was glad for her jacket. She swore she heard something whispering up ahead in the gloom.

  There had to be another way through to the mountain.

  Before she could turn back, the gates slammed shut behind her with a loud clang that echoed through the maze. She grabbed the gates and shook. They didn’t even rattle. Whatever invisible hand that had shut them had locked them too. She gazed longingly through the bars. The dream town of Saint Joseph looked so safe and familiar. Why did she have to be in this cramped maze?

  She shoved down her apprehension and turned her back on the way she just came. The only way out was forward.

  “Stay close,” Israel said.

  They walked deeper into the maze, her ears pricked, her eyes alert. Pieces of interlocking gray stones created their path, small tufts of grass poking up between the cracks. It seemed they were alone in here but she could sense something… The things you fear.

  Every few steps they would consult the snow globe to make sure they were still going the right way. Neither of them wanted to get lost in here.

  The globe was only showing the path they were on between miniature maze walls and a small section beyond that. The rest of the globe was blank. Some of the butterflies and leaves inside were showing the path but most of them were flittering around the globe as if unsure of what to do. Why was this magical globe unable to see what was farther out? Or perhaps it didn’t want to?

  She fought a shiver and gazed up to the low ceiling. She’d never wished for the open sky as much as she did now.

  Israel brushed his fingers along one of the yellow and green vines on the wall, mumbling.

  “What was that?”

  “Your eyes,” he said. “They’re g
reen but with gold flecks just like when it turns to autumn.”

  Alyx started. He had been studying her eyes? She felt her insides flare into heat and her mouth dry.

  There was a crackle and a rustling and out of the corner of her eye she spotted a single sunflower growing out of a crack in the stone.

  Israel stepped closer to her. “Do you know what I’ve noticed?”

  She shook her head. Her throat felt so thick that she was afraid to speak. The way he was staring at her…

  “You said that sunflowers were your favorite flower. In here they only seem to grow when…”

  …When he touched her or when he looked at her like that, making her feel things.

  “It’s…” her voice cracked. She tried again, attempting to make her voice sound casual. “It’s a coincidence. Who knows why anything happens inside here.”

  “This place is an extension of your subconscious.” He moved in closer so now they were almost toe to toe. He slid a hand onto her arm. “These sunflowers…they mean something.”

  She tried to shake his arm off her but he wouldn’t let go. “They don’t.”

  His other hand came up to slide along her cheek, causing yet another flare of heat in her body. There was more rustling and she didn’t need to turn her head to see that another sunflower had grown beside her. He was right. Her cheeks heated. How unfair it was to have her feelings manifest so blatantly, trumpeting something that she was trying so hard to ignore.

  “Why are you resisting this?” he whispered.

  “I’m…not…”

  He shifted in just a little bit closer, his eyes dropping down to her mouth. Her heart ricocheted off her ribcage and the heat flaring in her body dried her mouth. He was going to kiss her.

  “You were bonded then. As you are bonded now.” She had been trying to ignore it, but she could already sense the depth of what could be between them. What had been between them.

  Let it be worth it.

  If she let herself feel these things, if she gave in, if she just let go…when she lost him, when it ended, as all things ended, it would crush her. She couldn’t let herself have this, no matter how right it felt. The greater the love, the greater the fall. When she fell from this, it would end her.

  “How dare you leave without me,” she heard herself shrieking. “I’m supposed to go with you.” She shook Israel with all the fury in her body. But he didn’t wake.

  Panic lashed through Alyx and she shoved him away, stumbling back into a clump of sunflowers, crushing their stalks under her feet. His eyes widened as he let go of her, the air rushing between them leaving her feeling cold. Pain flashed across his face and she felt it echoed in her own heart.

  She shook herself, trying to let all these confusing feelings fall off her. “We… We can’t get distracted. Time’s running out.”

  “You’re right about one thing. Time is running out.” He turned and began to walk again.

  She followed him, hating herself.

  As they walked deeper into the maze, the ivy began to thin out and dark moss started to take over the gray stone walls. Fallen leaves were being blown along by an occasional draft. The colorful maze had become a damp, icy labyrinth.

  Alyx’s nerves were tightly coiled. There was something about this darker maze that terrified her. Something about the tight walls and low ceiling, the gray stone paths that gave her the creeps. A part of her deep down was screaming at her to run.

  Calm down, Alyx. It’s just a maze.

  Just a maze.

  “Well, this isn’t that bad,” said Israel, trying to sound light.

  She whacked him in the arm.

  “Ow, what was that for?”

  Isn’t that bad… “You’ve just jinxed us, you realize.”

  “I have not.”

  * * *

  Israel heard something breathing behind them. He snapped his head around. He could see nothing except for the empty path behind them.

  “This isn’t so bad.”

  “You’ve just jinxed us, you realize.”

  Israel glanced over to Alyx. Either she was better at hiding her fear than he was or she didn’t hear it. She probably didn’t hear it. Which meant it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Right?

  They continued on, Israel listening closely to the silence between the clack of their boots.

  Something breathed behind them again. Israel spun, his hand on his sword. Again there was nothing there. Had it just been the wind in the leaves?

  “What’s wrong?” Alyx asked in a low voice.

  “Did you hear that?” he whispered back.

  She frowned. Then shook her head. “Hear what?”

  He paused, listening. There was just the pressurized silence of an enclosed space. “Nothing. It must be nothing,” he said, trying to convince himself.

  Before he could take another step, he heard a distinct low growl behind him. He wasn’t imagining it. There was something there this time. He spun and icy fear coursed through his blood. In the path some ten or so meters away was the largest dog he’d ever seen, matted fur thick like tar, paws as large as dinner plates, claws like hooks on the ends of them, and a thick viscose saliva dripping off the yellow fangs of all three of its heads. All three of its friggin’ heads. All three sets of its beady black eyes narrowed at him. The sight sent a shot of fear right down into the depths of his soul.

  A Cerberus demon.

  “Run,” he screamed. He grabbed Alyx by the arm and yanked her behind him, his leg muscles burning as he sprinted as fast as he could. The beast thundering along behind them, its growl seeming to be immediately in their wake.

  “Israel,” she cried. “Why are you running?”

  “Are you kidding me?” He glanced over his shoulder to see the demon dog only a few meters behind and catching up fast. He yanked Alyx aside into a right-hand turn, praying this wasn’t a dead end.

  Chapter 15

  Alyx had no idea what had gotten Israel so scared. As he dragged her around this corner, her blood turned to ice at the sight.

  “What’s in the maze?”

  “Only what you fear.”

  Meters away the path fell off into a wide ravine, so deep that it disappeared into darkness below. Israel wasn’t watching where he was going. He was going to pull them both right over the edge.

  “Stop.” She yanked back but his hand slipped from hers.

  He spun right on the edge, rocks crumbling over the side under his boots and falling into the hole. “Don’t stop. It’s coming!”

  She glanced around her. “What are you talking about? What’s coming?”

  “We have to go.” He reached out for her hand but she kept out of his reach. He was mad. He wanted to pull them both over. They’d fall forever.

  His eyes widened so she could see the whites all around his irises, staring at something right behind her. “Oh my God,” he breathed.

  She glanced around her but whatever he was looking at she couldn’t see. “What is it?”

  He shuffled back and went over into the ravine. She screamed.

  But he didn’t fall. He had stepped out onto what appeared to be…thin air.

  Her scream faltered. Dear God. That was impossible.

  Israel was still staring wide-eyed at her legs. He pulled his sword from his sheath. “Don’t move a muscle.”

  Then it hit her.

  “That’s the thing about fear. You can’t always trust it.”

  “Israel, remember what the tree said.”

  “Don’t move.”

  “Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real.”

  “But the dog—”

  “There’s no dog. Look.” She bent down and waved her hands around her legs.

  His mouth dropped open. “Your hands went right through it. It’s…it’s not real.”

  “Which means,” she muttered to herself, “what I’m seeing isn’t real either.”

  She stepped forward until she reached the edge. Her stomach lurched as she gaz
ed down into the abyss. It looked so real. Her body was reacting to this height as if it was real.

  She glanced up to Israel, seemingly walking on air. But he couldn’t be. He couldn’t fly. That was impossible. There must be something underneath to support him. “I can see a ravine that drops so deep, I can’t see the bottom.”

  “There’s no ravine. It’s just a stone path.” He reached out his hand. “Trust me. I would never let you fall.”

  “What can we trust?”

  “Trust each other.”

  She had to trust him. She had to take a leap of faith. She took his hand and took the step out into nothing.

  Her foot landed on something solid. Alyx exhaled. She was standing on something even if it looked to her like she was standing on air. The edges of the ravine drew in, like a reverse of it crumbling away, until it was completely closed over, revealing what was truly there all along. Just a stone path.

  They had fought the maze and won.

  Israel grinned at her.

  She couldn’t help but grin back.

  They began to walk again, following the globe which, somehow, Alyx had managed to hang on to through this whole ordeal. “So…a dog, hey?”

  “Not just a dog. A giant dog with big flesh-tearing claws.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “And sharp bitey teeth in each of its three heads.”

  “Three heads? Like a Cerberus dog from Greek mythology?”

  “Exactly. But scarier.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “And you…I wouldn’t have picked you for someone who was scared of heights.”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. You wouldn’t get it.”

  “Try me.”

  She paused. If anyone might understand, maybe Israel would. “Since I can remember I’ve always dreamed I could fly. I dreamed of flying over oceans, mountains, over cities and forests. I must move around in my sleep, perhaps actually trying to fly, because I almost always fall out of bed and wake up having hit the floor.” She let out a humorless laugh. “It’s in that moment that I become so very aware that I can’t fly. It’s so weird but I feel…totally helpless. Like someone’s cut off my limbs.”