Page 75 of What Lurks Between the Fates

“Mab has summoned you to the Labyrinth,” Nila whispered, the reverent, fearful tone to her voice crawling up my skin. It set goosebumps along my flesh, raising the hair on the back of my neck with the chill she created.

“The Labyrinth,” I said, echoing her words.

I knew what one was, of course, having heard of the legends of the King’s infamous Labyrinth at the palace in Ineburn City. A twisted maze of rose bushes meant to make it impossible to find the correct path to the palace; it served as protection for the royals tucked safely within. Only a select few knew the way through the path.

“I’ll cut it down if I must, to find my way through.”

“It isn’t the maze itself that you should fear,” Nila said, shaking her head sadly. “It’s the Minotaur who calls it home.I can’t remember the last time someone came out alive when they were selected for the Labyrinth.”

I swallowed, not liking the sound of that. I’d hardly been exposed to any of the Fae creatures of Alfheimr aside from the Sidhe, hardly experienced even a hint of the horrors I’d heard legends of.

I suspected that was about to change.

We strode in silence as we came to a set of smaller metal doors. They still took two Fae warriors to haul open, allowing us to pass through as the crowd tried to swallow us whole. Outside, the white sand whipped through the air, barreling against the hedges tucked into the valley. All around the valley were the rolling hills of Tar Mesa. Windows were thrown open to allow the Fae within a view down into the maze. I knew if we continued to the east, we would come to the arena we’d carved into the stone of the next valley and the ice pillars Caldris and I had crafted.

Where we stood, though, only an enormous maze existed within the valley before me. The hedges were the vivid green of nature that I never could have found in Nothrek. An intricate, zigzagging path cut through them.

Malachi led us down into the chasm to the Queen of Air and Darkness, where she waited just outside the entrance to the Labyrinth. A creature stood at her side, towering over her. He was easily twice her size, with a humanoid body packed with muscle. His shoulders were broader than a Sidhe, his neck thick and corded as it curved up toward his face. The head that rested upon his shoulders was that of a bull. His massive horns curved out the side of his temples to stretch toward the sky. His feet were hooved and large enough that the ground seemed to shake as he shifted his weight at Mab’s side.

Caldris knelt before them, his hands chained behind his back with iron. His face was beaten, and the blade of an iron sword was pressed against his throat as one of Mab’s men kept him still. My jaw clenched at the sight of his swollen eye and the bruising that surrounded it—the gash that cut across his cheekbone. I raised my chin, a vein pulsing in my temple with that surge of anger. As my heart beat faster, the creature within me snarled.

Malachi guided me forward, leaving Nila behind to avoid the wrath of the creature waiting for me. I felt the moment the Minotaur settled his gaze upon me. His eerie black eyes captured mine, his head tilting to the side as he huffed out a sharp breath.

“You promised me something to eat. This is barely a snack,” he said, turning his attention to Mab. His nose twitched, the hoop piercing shifting with the movement.

She smirked. “Maybe. But if she loses, you can eat him too,” she said, turning her gaze down to where Caldris knelt.

It shouldn’t have mattered, because if I died, Caldris would follow. He would likely even be gone before the Minotaur finished devouring me, but the thought of desecrating his body—my body—in such a way made me clench my fists. Talons protruded from my fingers, my own nails shifting and curving as they extended.

“Then let us fight together. If we both suffer the fate of this battle, surely the Minotaur can handle two Fae,” my mate argued, leaning into the blade at his throat as if he meant to stand. His face remained the portrait of calm, but I felt the echo of his heart beating in time with mine. I felt his fear, his panic, that the Minotaur might not be a fight I could survive.

“So that you can use your magic to protect her? I think not. The entire purpose of this exercise is to force Estrella to do what she refuses. Perhaps some survival instincts will be enough to push through her stubbornness,” Mab said.

She leveled me with a glare, her reference to my inability to perform that morning perfectly clear. I wondered if it had always been me who would have been sent into the Labyrinth, or if she’d changed her mind after my failures that day.

“I’m not refusing to use my magic,” I argued, shrugging my shoulders. “I can’t touch it anymore. It just isn’t there.”

Whether that was because of my own doing, I didn’t know. I didn’t know if I’d pushed it down so far within me that even I couldn’t find it, or if the Cove had done something to me. But my instincts told me it was a bit of both—that I needed to protect the knowledge of what I could do for a little while longer. The hands of Fate were playing with the spinning wheel, maneuvering the pieces into place before my bloodline could be revealed, but the Covehadshifted something in me—awakened something—only to plunge it into the depths of slumber.

The Minotaur walked to the first entrance to the Labyrinth as Malachi led me to the second entrance. I swallowed, struggling to control my breathing. I couldn’t let them know how terrified I was to go into that maze without my magic, couldn’t let them see that fear to use against me. I looked at him expectantly, waiting for a weapon to be given to me. The Minotaur held a massive double-sided axe in his hand, the blades bigger than my head.

Surely, I would at least get a knife.

Malachi smirked as he stepped away, leaving me weaponless as he returned to the queen, who had grown tired of mygames. My eyes shuttered closed for a brief moment before I forced them to open and shoved my fear down.

Fear would do nothing but get me killed. Panic would force me to make mistakes I couldn’t survive.

“The first one to reach the center of the maze wins,” Mab said, smiling at me viciously as an ugly laugh bubbled up her throat. I couldn’t decide if she truly thought I would die in that maze, or if she was expecting a fantastic show.

I didn’t know if she cared either way.

“If he wins, he gets to eat me. What do I get if I win?” I asked, flinching back from her amusement.

She exchanged a knowing glance with Malazan as she appeared at the queen’s side, laying a hand on the top of Caldris’s shoulder. I tensed, my gaze narrowing in on that touch as Caldris stilled beneath it.

Disgust rippled down the thread between us, his shame an echo of what I’d hoped to make him never feel again. What they’d forced him to do wasn’t his fault, and I focused my attention on his face, willing him to see that I did not blame or judge him for those actions in his past. They’d taken from him, and if I survived that maze, I would be sure to takeback.

His gaze softened as I held it, understanding and love spilling over his features.

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