Page 91 of The Onyx Covenant

I strain to hear, to make out words or recognize the speakers, but the voices are too distant. They echo strangely, bouncing off the maze walls, making it impossible to pinpoint their direction.

Are they other competitors? Something else entirely?

My eyelids grow heavy as the dark moon reaches its zenith. The knife feels heavier in my hand with each passing moment. I shake my head, trying to clear the fog that’s settling over my thoughts.

Just exhaustion. Just the aftermath of combat and poison and death. Nothing more.

The voices come again, louder this time, then fade to nothing.

My head nods forward.

I jerk it back up, blinking hard.

The stars blur overhead.

I dig my nails into my palm, using pain to stay alert.

The dark moon watches.

My eyes close.

Just for a second.

Just to rest them.

Just…

* * *

I jolt awake with a gasp, disorientation flooding my system.

Sunlight. Pale and watery, but definitely sunlight—not the dark moon’s silver glow.

Fuck.

I passed out. After swearing to keep watch, I fucking passed out.

Panic surges through me as I take in our surroundings. We’re no longer in the circular clearing where we stopped to rest. Instead, we lie in the middle of a wide path, thorny walls rising on either side—but not the same walls as before. These are shifting before my eyes, branches untangling and reweaving themselves in new configurations, opening passages that weren’t there seconds ago, closing others that had seemed permanent.

The entire maze is rearranging itself in the dawn light.

Kieran still sleeps a few feet away, one arm flung over his face. Lyra lies between us, her white-blonde hair spread across the ground, her face peaceful in slumber.

I scramble to my feet, blade in hand, spinning in a slow circle. Which way did we come from? Which way were we headed? The maze’s transformation has erased all familiar landmarks.

“Kieran!” I blurt out, kicking his boot. “Wake the fuck up!”

He groans, rolls over, and then his eyes snap open as consciousness returns. “What’s your problem?” he mumbles, then pauses mid-stretch as he notices our changed surroundings. “What the fuck?”

“We moved,” I say tersely, continuing to scan for threats. “Or the maze moved us while we slept.”

Kieran sits up, rubbing his eyes, then freezes as he takes in the shifting walls. “Shit. Are those…?”

“Moving? Yes.” I watch as a thick branch untangles itself from the wall to our right, snaking across to join the opposite side, forming a new archway where a solid barrier had been moments before.

Kieran gets to his feet. The rising sun casts long shadows across his face, highlighting the exhaustion and dried blood still caked along his hairline.

“You fucking fell asleep, didn’t you?” he accuses, scrubbing a hand over his face. His eyes widen as he takes in the shifting walls.

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