Page 23 of Dance of Deception

“Flight.”

I say it before I can talk myself out of it. His head tilts, like he’s pleased. Then he gestures to the stone archway behind him. Now that I’m closer, I can see it leads to a long stone hallway lit with flickering candles, then a fork, sending the hallway in two different directions.

My stomach knots.

“What the hell is this?” I breathe.

The Hound’s head inclines. “This is the Labyrinth.”

Ice trickles down my spine.

“What’s in there?”

“A way out,” he says, almost teasing. “…Maybe.”

I swallow hard. “Anything else?”

He steps in front of me, blocking the entrance.

“Me.”

A sharp exhale rips from my lips.

“You get a thirty second head start,” he murmurs, his voice eager, excited.

Turned on.

“Then I chase you.”

My stomach free-falls.

I don’t want to ask, but I do anyway. “What happens if you catch me?”

“Thirty.”

My breath shudders.

“Twenty-nine.”

I turn, looking wildly for another way out. There isn’t one.

“Twenty-eight.”

I stumble into the entrance of the maze, my limbs already preparing to run.

“Twenty-seven.”

“Tell me!” I beg, my voice cracking. “What happens if you catch me?”

He doesn’t stop counting. Doesn’t even hesitate. Just cocks his head to the side again.

“Whatever I want,” he rasps.

My pulse explodes.

I turn, and Irun, fast, breath tearing raggedly from my lungs, bare feet slamming against the cold stone floor as I hurtle deeper into the maze.

The flickering candlelight barely illuminates the twisting corridors, the narrow passageways turning on sharp angles, forcing me to make split-second decisions—left, right, straight. I have no idea where I’m going: I’m just looking for the way out, even if a huge part of me wonders if there evenisone.

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