Page 49 of Death Match

Was I walking in a circle?

Fuck.

I ran a hand over my face in frustration.

“Not funny,” I shouted up to whoever was watching. It was more like cruel.

I went a few more steps before the ground began to shake beneath my feet. Knees bent, I braced myself for whatever change these shifty rocks were about to throw at me. Just then, I was rising into the air. When I peered down, I saw that the stones under my feet were lifting, more rocks appearing below to form steps and I was on the very top one.

My heart lurched in my throat. I held out my arms to keep my balance as the moving staircase glided closer to the wall. Up so high, I peered out, seeing the elaborate design of the maze. All its twists and curves, moving walls, and about three rows over, the archway I was searching for.

It was a quick glance though because once the stairs and the wall collided, I was thrown forward, falling into the passage next door. Spinning, midair, I reached for anything I could get ahold of. My fingers slid across more slick moss and thorny vines, which bit into my palms and snapped as I fell.

Panicked, I grabbed for something—anything—to save me.

I caught a thicker vine, and instead of snapping in two, it detached from the wall, causing me to swing like Tarzan and bang my shoulders as I continued to descend. I grunted, pain shooting up my arm.

The vine slowed me down some, but still, I landed hard, rolling my ankle and scraping the entire half of my body when I skated across the ground. I hissed at the sharpness of the pain and lay there for a good while as my head whirled. Blood seeped out of my wounds, every tiny little cut. Those were worse than the big gashes I had gotten before. These stung and bit with a vengeance.

Part of me wondered what would happen if I just laid here and waited. Would the Trial come to me?

I snorted. Not likely.

The rocks would probably move again and create a hole that would swallow me up. That was a much more believable scenario.

Well, staying here wasn’t an option. Might as well get up and keep moving.

Slowly—very slowly—I climbed to stand. My bad ankle cried in protest from the sudden weight, and my knee gave out, sending me back to the ground. I managed to catch myself just in time, but my palms were having none of it. They had already endured a beating, and here I was, adding to it.

Dammit.

I clenched my teeth and tried to swallow down some of the agony as I forced myself up again. Making sure to rely mostly on my strong ankle, I started down the path again but couldn’t help but limp whenever my weight had to shift to the bad one. Each time I felt that pressure, I hissed. My eyes watered so bad that my nose started to run. I reached up to wipe it with the back of my hand. I could really use a shower after this.

If I survived, of course.

If only I had been able to get a better look at the maze and archway from up high. Then I would have known which paths to take and that would have made my job a whole lot easier. I definitely didn’t want to start going in circles again.

I came to another three-way split in the road. This time, I didn’t wait. I was over waiting. If I kept moving, the pain in my body lessened. At least, that’s what I was telling myself. Don’t think about it, and you won’t feel it. A totally sound suggestion.

Going right, I followed the curve of the wall until another rumble shook the ground below my feet. Seconds later, the wall opened up beside me. I stepped through, knowing that, from what I had seen briefly while above the maze, the archway was closer to the center. So, any chance I had to get closer to it, I would take.

Continuing on, the passage took an abrupt left, and I cursed, knowing that I was now moving farther away from where I needed to go. Quickly, I spun on my heel and started back the way I had come.

It was hard not feeling like a mouse searching for the cheese at the end of a researcher’s experimental maze when in here.

Again, the ground beneath me shook violently, and I stopped in place. When I began to rise into the air like before and watched as the stones formed another makeshift staircase, my heart skipped with joy. It meant I had another chance to get a good look at where I needed to go.

When the shifting stones began to speed up, though, my fear spiked. It was moving much faster than the last time, and that meant, it would toss me over to the other side of the wall before I could get a better look of what I was up against. I needed to prepare for that.

When I was high enough to see the tops of the stone walls, a thought came to me.

A dangerous one, but with the stones beneath my feet moving so fast, I didn’t have much time to really think it through.

The moment the steps smash against the wall, I could make a jump for it and try to land on the neighboring wall. Then, I could see what else I was up against when it came to finding my third Trial archway.

As I got propelled closer to the wall, I crouched low and readied myself to make a gravity-defying jump.

God, this was stupid. It was easily a two-story drop if I failed. My body had already taken enough of a beating. I really didn’t need to continue to see how much more pain it could take.

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