by JA Wren
She was squigged out by the sincerity in his voice, so she nodded and shoved the discomfort aside. “Fine. As long as you promise to explain exactly who you are once we get out of here.”
He didn’t really agree, but since he didn’t argue, she vowed to keep him to that, whether he wanted to tell her or not.
Asher pressed his hand to the glimmering wall and sparks of lightning cracked through it. For a second, hope flared within her. Maybe the division would shatter from that alone and they could be on their way.
But he jumped back with a harsh curse, shaking out it his palm and scowling at the barricade.
She tried not to snicker—honestly she did—but she couldn’t keep the laugh to herself. Served him right for refusing her any answers. He glared at her while rubbing his palm against his jean-covered thigh.
“Sorry,” she said with a shrug. “Guess we know touching it won’t help.” She looked around, searching for—well, she had no clue what, but it beat getting zapped like Asher. “Too bad Tink’s stuck on the other side or she might’ve been able to help.”
“Tink, as you call the WillowWisp, isn’t trustworthy. None of them are. Just because she likes you doesn’t mean she won’t lead you to your death if given the chance.”
“You trusted the Wisps enough to follow a minute ago.”
“Because they were lighting the path we’re already on.”
“Ah, a man of convenience. Good to know.”
“What’s that supposed to—?”
“Hey, check it out.” She pointed at the wall, which now held a huge symbol blazing in bright, electric blue. “A clue.”
He frowned up at the partition, scrutinizing it with hard eyes. “That’s not a clue. It’s a rune.”
“A what-now?”
“A rune. Sort of like letters of the alphabet, often used as magical symbols.”
She popped her bottom lip and nodded, pretending he made a lick of sense. “Cool. Cool. So, uh, what does it say?”
“I don’t know. Never studied runes.”
Right, they were no closer to answers then.
The wall flickered, like a glitch in the matrix, and the huge rune changed. It melted out, blue curls rippling across the surface and rearranging. Reshaping. Until a grid appeared with various symbols inside each of the blocks.
She squinted at the new challenge. “Now we have to play magical puzzles?”
Six
Rayna stared at the symbols, trying her hardest to make sense of them, but they all looked like weird squiggly and interlocking lines to her. She pointed to the one in the very center. “That one kind of looks like fire. Maybe it’ll melt the overgrown ice-cube if we prod at it.”
She definitely wasn’t volunteering for that job after he got shocked, but they had to do something. She glanced around, searching for a stick she could use so her skin didn’t meet the wall. Or a rock. She didn’t have the best aim, but the symbol was pretty big, giving her a decent-sized target.
“That’s not how sigils work,” Asher said softly, brown gaze stuck on the grid. He was extra cute when his face got all scrunchy and serious as he tried to concentrate.
“Sigils? I thought you said it was a rune.”
He leaned closer, talking absentmindedly, distracted by trying to figure out the puzzle in front of them. “The first one was, now these are a series of sigils, but they’re weird. Almost like not all of them are true sigils.”
“Maybe they’re meant to fox us.”
He continued to analyze the wall, tilting his head to the side to stare at it from a different angle. “Maybe.”
“Well, can’t we try something? Staring at it forever isn’t going to get us out of this maze, and I’m starting to feel anxious.”
And hungry.
A hollow pit had opened up in her belly, demanding sustenance since her metabolism had already burned through the granola bars. She wished she’d had time for a proper breakfast. Not that her hunger ever felt truly sated anymore. No matter how much she woofed down, the gnawing continued in her stomach.
She plucked at the blood-speckled white dress hanging loosely from her body. It didn’t make sense with the huge meals and snacks at all hours of the day and night, but she’d been rapidly losing weight for over a year. Enough she’d wondered if she had some life-threatening illness.
But then the weird incidents started.
She suspected it was all connected even if she didn’t know how.
Which was why she really needed answers, and in order to get them, they had to find a way through the massive ice-cube.
“What if we splash some of my blood at the wall?”
Asher gave her a horrified look. “What?”
She shrugged. “I’m grasping at straws here, but it sparked when it made contact with your blood. And again when the trio made it swirl around our heads like a bloody whirlpool. Blood’s the theme of the day, so why not try?”
His frown only deepened. “I think you’re still suffering after-effects of the blood loss. Besides, we’re not sacrificing more precious droplets you can’t afford to lose so you can fling them at the wall.”
“Precious, huh?” She couldn’t help teasing him. He was far too damn serious all the time. Needed to liven up a little. Otherwise this whole trial business was destined to be incredibly dull.
“Well,” he said, voice low as he looked away from her. “You are.”
Her heart jumped into her throat, lodging itself there as it beat too fast. “Look, I don’t want you to get too attached here—”
“We already are.”
His words carried far too much weight. Too much truth. It stirred something deep within her, something she hadn’t acknowledged for fear of what it might mean. But it blazed like a torch in the darkness, demanding to be noticed.
Until he held up their bound wrists.
Oh. Right. He meant they were literally attached.
She forced down the wave of disappointment that was super unfounded and refocused on the damn wall, glowering at it like that might make her feel better. Besides, she’d been the one to tell him not to get attached.
So why did she feel rejected?
Stupid one-night stand. She’d have to ask Kally—or maybe Nick?—more about Asher when they finally got out of the labyrinth. Uh, make that if they ever got out of the labyrinth.
They needed to get through the overgrown ice-cube.
Pronto.
With no other obvious option, and the tension growing between them, Rayna raised her voice and called through the thick ice-like substance. “Hey, Tink? Can you hear us?” The Wisp fluttered back towards the wall, dancing in front of Rayna on the opposite side. She must be able to hear her. “Any chance you know how to make this thing melt like an ice cream cone?”
Asher groaned. “I told you, the WillowWisp can’t help. And even if she could, she wouldn’t—”
Tink cut him off as she flew at high-speed towards the wall. Rayna shrieked as the itty-bitty flame burrowed into the surface, the glow diminishing until it almost disappeared. Just a tiny speck of light surrounded by the icy barrier.
She ran closer to the glass—ice, whatever—hoping the Wisp was okay.
But Asher jerked her back before she could touch the electric blue scribbles, narrowly escaping being shocked the way he had earlier.
The ground trembled, cobblestones coming loose from the path and rattling around them. Vines emerged from the hedges, like spindly hands flailing around, thickening as they coiled into themselves. Rayna just missed getting swatted against the head as one swooshed past her. The vines converged on the wall, sticking to the surface and writhing like a pit of snakes.
“Tink?”
God, had she gotten the little Wisp killed?
“Don’t,” Asher growled in her ear when she tried to break free to get to the Wisp. “See those leaves popping out everywhere? Poison ivy. I don’t know how immune you’d be to something like that, and you’re not risking your life to find out.�
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Guilt burst through her, tears stinging her eyes as she watched the vines cover the wall, waiting for the flame to appear.
Please appear.
As if pulled by invisible strings, her free hand lifted, arm outstretched towards the wall. Towards Tink’s faint glow inside. Her skin under the makeshift bandage tingled. Heated. Red sparks arched from the tips of her fingers, connecting her to the wall surface, but it didn’t shock her the way it had Asher.
The grid of sigils lit up behind the web of vines, the one in the middle she thought looked like fire blazed even brighter. Hotter. Like gazing into the sun on a scorching summer day. Blinding.
Her eyes watered, but she refused to take her gaze off the wall. Waiting for the moment Tink would come flying out. But she didn’t. The barricade of ice rippled, almost like the substance was changing again.
Still no sign of Tink.
“Screw this.” She jerked out of Asher’s tight grip and slammed her clenched fist into the wall. A starburst of intense light erupted under her hand, quickly followed by black and purple smoke wafting from the surface, coiling around her wrist and moving up her arm, tickling her skin.
“Rayna!”
Asher’s bellow was drowned out by her scream as her hand sank into the wall. Into whatever weird substance it had become. Her skin burned, like dipping it into battery acid.
Didn’t matter. She needed to get Tink out, and there was currently only one way she saw how to do that.
Ignoring Asher as he pulled and tugged, trying to extract her from the wall, she dug deeper, until the burn engulfed her entire arm, all the way up to her shoulder. The scent of burning hair teased her nose, letting her know she was frying a few strands in the process.
Too bad. It could grow back.
Tink couldn’t.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, but she could just make out the tiniest shimmer of red inside the blue-ish wall. Deeper. Hopefully there was something left of her scorched hand to grab the Wisp and wrench her free.
There! She swore the Wisp was within reach.
Just.
A little.
Further.
She pushed deeper, until her face grazed the wall and searing agony spread through her cheek and down her neck. Her scream was deafening even to her own ears, but she wasn’t leaving Tink inside the wall. Wasn’t letting the Wisp die on her watch. Not if she could help it.
Bolts of red lightning sparked inside the icy barricade as she made contact with Tink and Asher hauled her back with a hard jerk she couldn’t fight this time. Out of energy.
“Tink!”
She didn’t know if she’d reached the Wisp in time. If she’d survived.
Or if Rayna even had an arm left after the wall was done burning it to the bone.
In a flash of pure white light, the icy structure disintegrated. Or more like melted under the mass of vines.
A wave of sparkling blue water rose above them, rushing upwards like a waterfall in reverse, so high it eclipsed everything. It disappeared into the pool of black high above their heads. High enough the water would collapse like a ton of bricks, shatter anything in its path like a destructive tsunami.
Rayna swallowed the urge to scream. There wasn’t time. They had to run or they’d be crushed by the wave rising higher still.
And then it descended in one huge fall of water.
Asher tugged her into his arms, wrapping his body around her like protective armor a split second before it crashed down around them. She squeezed her eyes shut. No way could she watch as the water ripped them apart.
She knew what it could do. Water was a crazy powerful force of nature and there was no chance they’d survive.
They’d end up like the blood spilled from Rayna by the three hags, split into millions of tiny droplets.
Asher’s body was like a hot blanket over her back as he crouched them low to the ground. Lessening the impact. Water rained down as the wave neared, splashing loudly against the cobblestone.
She clung to Asher, bracing for the inevitable.
But it never came.
Fine mist sprayed her skin and dampened her clothes. Hot steam swirled through the air, like being inside a sauna. Her face buried in the crook of Asher’s neck, Rayna peeked through her eyelashes. Water rushed down the cobble path in rough rapids, but it never touched them, nothing more than the barely-there vapor.
“How—?” She cut herself off when she looked up at Asher.
His face was strained, set in a hard grimace as he stared ahead, brown eyes somehow brighter. More coppery. Hairline cracks broke his skin, spreading out from the edge of his clenched jaw. Like fine veins, they shot up his cheek and down his neck.
And they glowed. Intense sunset red, orange, and yellow.
The steam billowing around them was forgotten as she lifted her hand to touch one particularly bright crack near his chin. Heat radiated from the split skin, beckoning her closer. She pressed the tip of her index finger to the glowing fissure and a ripple went through Asher’s body, a tremor that echoed against her.
He gritted his teeth harder, then turned his newly coppered eyes on her. A different kind of heat swirled in his gaze, one that had her fingers inching higher, closer to his full lips. They parted under her touch, and he gasped.
“Rayna.” His voice had gone gravelly. Gruff and low, it settled deep within her, stirring something she couldn’t name.
Drawn to him, she leaned up, her mouth a breath from his.
“Tink!” The name rushed from her, a sudden memory of the Wisp inside the wall when it evaporated.
Her outburst broke whatever spell had overtaken them. Asher slowly released her, not meeting her eyes as he rose to his feet and tugged her up with him. Her hand. She glanced over the perfect skin, not even a trace of red. No scorch marks. Nothing to prove the unbearable burn she’d suffered.
Or thought she’d suffered.
“Tink?” Rayna called. “Where are you?”
No sign of the little flame. Only the waterlogged cobble path and the vines lying limply on the ground. As if the life had been sucked right out of them. She was careful to give them a wide berth, refusing to add some sort of poison ivy rash to the fun day they were having.
They had enough to contend with.
Not the least of which was the missing Wisp.
She stared up at the flower lanterns, all still glowing in an array of color. “Tink?” Maybe one of the other Wisps knew what had happened. “Tink, are you okay?” She turned to Asher. “Do you see her anywhere?”
He shook his head, face grave even as he said, “She’ll be fine.”
“How can you know that?”
She was so tiny, the smallest flicker of light, and the wave had been huge. How would a little body survive that?
“Tink!” Rayna yelled, voice bouncing around the hedges and echoing out through the distance.
The Wisp appeared out of nowhere. Okay, maybe she’d been hiding out in one of the lanterns. She danced around Rayna’s head at a dizzying pace, leaving a trail of red light like a halo. “Oh, thank God.”
She couldn’t take it if she’d gotten the Wisp hurt or worse. She didn’t want to hurt anything or anyone.
Didn’t want to be responsible for killing another creature.
That was the reason she’d accepted that fucking invitation to this hellhole in the first place.
Seven
“You have passed your first trial,” a voice boomed. Rayna spun around to find Giant-guy standing where the wall had been, arms crossed over his burly chest. “Do not be so foolish as to think the rest will be as easy.”
Easy? He thought trying to figure out the brain-teaser-on-steroids sigils, having her arm deep-fried in battery acid, almost losing Tink, and a tsunami falling on their heads was easy?
Wait.
How did they survive that?
Somehow the crash of water had turned to steam around them. Her damp, slightly see-through—now that she noticed it—wh
ite dress was proof of that.
Rayna frowned at Asher, who may have been staring at her a little too intently, gaze fixed at the translucent dress clinging to her hips.
What had he done to turn the wave into a fine, harmless spray?
It’s complicated.
He’d refused to tell her what or who he was earlier, dismissing her with the lame excuse. Screw complicated. She wanted answers.
Oblivious to her internal rambles, Giant-guy continued, “Nor will the WillowWisp be permitted to aid you again.”
Rayna wasn’t entirely convinced the Wisp had helped. Tink might have brought the wall of ice down—or was that her and her rescue attempt?—but it sent the massive wave crashing over them. If Asher hadn’t done whatever it was he did, they’d be nothing but mushy bits engrained in the cobble path.
She shuddered. Gross. Definitely not the way she wanted to go.
Chastised, Tink ducked behind her, fluttering through Rayna’s hair to snuggle against her neck. If a flame-like creature could snuggle. At least her hair didn’t catch fire. That was a good thing, right?
It also didn’t appear singed from the wall, so apparently it was indestructible now. Who knew?
Giant-guy narrowed his eyes on Rayna and she’d almost take the tsunami again over his scowl. “Be warned, we will not tolerate cheating.”
“What do you mean cheating?” she asked. “Take another look, pal. I might not bear the burn marks to prove it, but I got Tink out of the icy deathtrap. And I’m pretty sure that’s what brought the whole thing down.”
Giant-guy hummed, then turned a pointed look at Asher. “You will be disqualified should your—companion,” he said, drawing the word out with far too much emphasis, “complete the challenges in your stead. You may work as a team, however, so long as you both complete the trials before you.”
“Isn’t that what we just did?”
He didn’t bother acknowledging her as he clicked his chubby fingers and Tink crept out from under Rayna’s hair to hover a foot from her face. Tink danced in some sort of weird symbol that left another red light trail, like swirling a sparkler through the darkness.
