Page 113 of Shade of Ruin

I take the central path, just like he told me. Running like I’d do in the forest, I play the directions back in my head. I’d memorized them and repeated them on four different occasions over the last three days. I know the directions backward and forward.

But it’s been hundreds of years since Cole was in this labyrinth.

Hundreds of years of his father being very disappointed in him.

I follow the directions regardless.Second left. Fourth right. Right at the “V”. You’ll know if you’re in the right place because there will be a ladder down. Second left.

I’m getting winded as I run. I haven’t heard anyone following me. There’s no crashing against the steel door that would reverberate through the labyrinth. No shouting. It’s just my footsteps on the uneven floor of the cave. The sound of soft splashes as my feet find the tiny pools that flash with torchlight.

It feels like I’ve been running forever, but I know I haven’t been. Everything’s distorted when you’re hidden under the world. When you feel like the mountain is going to come crashing down on you. Or that Casimir will fill this place with fire, and I’ll be dead and trapped in a hole where no one will find me.

I keep following the directions, though. What else is there to do?

Until I run straight into a dead-end.

Chapter 47

I will be here. For when they need me, but also

in case the hunters find this place.

~Calyr the Gold, A History of Magic and Dragons

“No,” I whisper.I run my fingers over the rough stone. It’s cold and reminds me of the feeling of my shadows. Unlike my shadows, there’s no way I can get through it.

I followed those directions exactly. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going the right way. I sit down. What do I do now? There’s no way I can figure out this maze. I know that I’m close. Or at least, I should be close, but being close and being through it is completely different. I could spend days or months trying to find my way out of this labyrinth even from here, and more than likely, I’d only get even more lost.

I rest my head against the wall, trying not to let the fear that I could be trapped inside these tunnels forever rise inside me.I am not a child. I’m not even a human. I am powerful. This is the last step before I fulfill my obligation to Hazel. The last step before I can leave my human family behind and embrace my Immortal side. To embrace Cole.

I raise my hands and look at the shadows streaming from my fingertips. I can’t shadow walk to the end of the labyrinth because I’m not good enough at it to go somewhere I’ve never been before. Could I break through the wall with shadows?

No. I need to find the path. Casimir must have changed the pathway through the labyrinth after he decided Cole wasn’t trustworthy. There will be signs. There has to be.

I run my hand over the stone. Over the corner where the stone should connect between the dead end and the wall. But it doesn’t. Someone put this here.

That means that he most likely only changed the pathway slightly. Put up one dead end and open another. At least that’s what I’d do. I don’t understand how Casimir could have changed the paths like this, but there’s no doubt that he did.

I retrace my steps and step into a hallway. This time, instead of running, I pay attention to it all. Just like if I were hunting here. I look for any little sign of Immortals being in these tunnels.

I pull out the dagger that Vesta gave me all those years ago. Under the torch directly across from the dead end I’m standing in, I try to carve out a mark, but it’s no good. I can’t tell that it’s there at all.

Then I realize something absolutely insane that should have been obvious from the very beginning. These torches must have been burning for hundreds of years. How is that even possible?

They’re not actually consuming the torch or the pitch on the end. They’re enchanted like my spear was. Except that these are enchanted with fire.

They’re not hot. Just like Cole’s fires at the ball, they put out light but no heat. I put my hand up to the torch, ready to pullback at the first sign of heat. But there’s none. I smile. No heat means that the fire won’t burn my shadows. In an instant, the shadows cover the torch and harden in place. I can’t keep this up for long, but I don’t have to.

Because as soon as the fire is smothered, the shadows fade, and this specific torch doesn’t roar back to life. The single torch in the entire labyrinth that’s out is how I’m marking the tunnel that’s become my dead end. My starting place.

I scour the ground as I walk down the tunnel, trying my best to notice something. Anything. Scratches against the stone from claws. A bit of cloth. Footsteps. I’m looking for something that would tell me that this is where people went.

And then I take a turn. I know I shouldn’t, but it just feels right. Like the air is cleaner this way. And then another turn. It feels like I’m running through the forest again, my eyes catching sight of the signs of game at the same time that I turn. But I always knew to turn before I saw the signs. I just…knew. Just like when I was chasing the gryphon.

I stop thinking about the directions Cole gave me. I stop thinking about the pathways that I’m moving through. The air tells me which way to go, and I listen to it.

Then, in the glittering torchlight, I see something I hadn’t expected to actually find. A door. Emblazoned with gold instead of red, the door feels right in a way that I’ve never felt anything before. I need to go through this door.

I open it and step into the largest cave I’ve ever seen. Torches line the walls, but even in that torchlight, I can’t make out the opposite wall or the ceiling. I can’t make out very much, to be completely honest with myself.

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