Page 82 of Chosen By the Fae King

Quicker than I could say boo, Sofiya's magic was all over the tunnel's exit. With serpentine movement, vines slithered across the ground. Lots of them.

She shot them across the gulf, intertwining as they went. They continued until they wrapped around the base of a large rock jutting out of the shallow dirt.

“Brilliant,” I praised.

“Almost.”

She added more vines, thickening the width until it looked like a plank. A single vine, thicker than the others, went across. If we walked on the vine bridge, the single one would be at eye level.

I held up the harnesses and we immediately slipped them on. Next we secured the ropes to and carabiners to the top vine.

“Can we go across at the same time?”

Sofiya nodded. “It'll hold.”

I made my way out on the wobbly construct, thankful she had remembered building something like this for us in the orchard when we were younger.

We moved steadily, mist swirling around our legs. Halfway across I envisioned some monster lunching out of the fog to attack and picked up my pace.

Sofiya and I made it to the other side, ditching the climbing equipment. I wrapped the short rope around my waist just in case we needed it again.

A veil of magic covered the path, similar to Marcellus's spell in the chamber. Hand in hand, we stepped through it. And entered the part of the maze designed to drive us mad.

“I swear to all that is holy in this world and the next, if we don't find a way out in the next ten minutes I am going to flay someone open! Preferably the king!”

I'd never heard Sofiya threaten violence like this before. “You probably shouldn't threaten to flay open a sovereign, as much as I agree.”

She huffed.

“I think we're close. This has gotten more difficult to figure out so that must mean we're near the center.”

For what felt like hours, we'd been running around going this way and that. I was pretty sure we were going in circles.

“That makes sense,” Sofiya agreed, “What I don't get is the lack of spells. Nothing has attacked. No obstacles have appeared. What's the point other than to drive us insane?”

We looked at each other.

“Oh, I'm really going to have words with someone. But first, if it's confusing us or tricking us, what do we do about it?”

“I don't feel confused. I feel clear headed.”

“Aeryn, if you were bespelled I doubt you'd know you were, not if it was designed to prevent you from knowing it.”

“What if it's just tricking our eyes? Think about it.”

“We've only touched the walls a few times.” Sofiya spun slowly, looking around at the stone walls. “Start touching.”

Frantically, we began patting at the stone, up and down the narrow path we were on. Nothing.

I closed my eyes and growled, kicking at the wall. And missed, stumbling. Looking this time, I kicked again and hit rock.

“Shit!” That did not feel good.

On a hunch, I closed my eyes and slowly extended my leg. And met air.

Seriously? I inwardly complained.

Withdrawing my dagger, I untucked my shirt and cut off the bottom.

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