Page 77 of What Lurks Between the Fates

The Minotaur appeared on the other side, raising a leg to step over what remained of the hedge. I would have had to climb over it to escape, but his height allowed him to traverse it with ease. Those enormous hooves thumped against the ground; his legs oddly bent.

Slowing him down, I realized. He might have had the advantage of knowing the Labyrinth by memory, but I would have speed on my side, at least.

He stepped into the path as I sprawled on my back, scurrying backward as he took a step forward. I slipped in the mud beneath me—the ground suddenly slick. The coppery tang of it surrounded me as I hurried backward on my hands and kicked my feet.

To my right, blood trickled out of the hedges, the branches bleeding from where he’d cut them down as if they’d been alive. I stared at them in horror, at the roses that wilted as they died. They bled upon the dirt, as if they’d trapped the life and death of his victims within them. The Minotaur’s hooves hit the wet earth, the mud squelching as he sank into it ever-so-slightly.

It was enough.

“Use your magic, you foolish child!” Mab screamed, her voice cutting through the air.

I glanced above to where she stood on the hillside, looking down into the maze. She was a blur, a single dot in the landscape of Fae surrounding us. The Minotaur approached slowly, watching me, mindful of my every move.

Waiting for me to do something, for me to fight instead of cower. I’d had such bravado outside the Labyrinth itself, making that deal with its master, only to stare up at my death within moments.

The golden threads of Caldris’s magic reached out to me, the gleaming, shimmering liquid of the blood from the hedges providing moisture upon the ground. I grasped onto one, pulling it toward me as the familiar comfort of my mate’s cold surrounded us. Wrapping it around my hand and claiming it as mine, I turned a glare back at the Minotaur and thrust my hand toward the ground.

My palm collided with the wet earth. My hand sunk into the mud. The wet, sucking sound erupted through the silence, and the Minotaur paused. I sank my hand as far as I could, only stopping when I found the dry dirt beneath the surface mud. Turning my full attention back to the Minotaur, I watched as ice spread from my hand and created a halo beneath my body. It spread toward him—the blood-soaked ground turning to ice beneath his feet.

His hooves couldn’t grip, slipping to the side as he grunted, and his breaths left him in puffs of white upon the air. I used the opportunity to race forward, hurrying to my feet. I fumbled on the ice as I moved, forcing my body to keep going anyway as I slipped and made myself small.

My hands covered my head, prepared for the worst. All it would take was a single moment of coordination on his part—one swing of his axe—

I slid between his parted legs.

Dissolving the ice on the other side of him, I ran across the dirt and put as much distance between us as I could. I’d need a weapon of some kind,anythingthat could be used against him,if I wanted to kill him. If not, getting to the center and surviving would have to be enough.

I’d fight the battle for completing our bond another day if need be.

My feet pounded against the dirt so hard that I clenched my jaw to stop my teeth from grinding against one another. I flexed my fingers at my side, knowing that I could only outrun him for so long. There had to be another choice, another way to escape.

I cast my eyes from one side of the path to the other, frantically searching for anything I could use to my advantage.

There wasnothingbut hedges and thorns.

His roar rang through the air as I ran, swerving around a bend to the right and hurrying. I knew the moment he got himself off the ice I’d created. His heavy hoof steps echoed through my bones as they thudded against the ground. The entire pathway shook as he came closer, leaving me scrambling to decide which way to go.

My breaths rattled as they escaped me, the air in front of my face turning white with the warmth of it in the cold air. I couldn’t blink as my legs trembled beneath me. It wasn’t exhaustion that made them weak, but the strong press of fear that darted down my spine.

I glanced over at the hedge beside me, grimacing in frustration as I did the only thing I could. I grasped one of the lower branches, wedging my body into the hedge itself.

The thorns and branches cut my skin, and blood leaked down my arms and my face as the branches seemed to sway toward me. They wanted more, desired my blood as if it was the nourishment that kept them alive. I forced myself to climb, to put one foot on a branch and push myself up. Using those swaying branches to my advantage, Igot higher and higher until I could see over the top. I pulled myself free, draping my body along the top of the hedge that was so neatly trimmed into a straight line.

I kept as low as I could as I rose up just enough to see—keeping myself hidden and silent as I looked through the Labyrinth and tried to make sense of the maze. Searching for the center, I grimaced when I found it in the distance.

I hadn’t even run through a tiny portion of the maze. Too many turns remained for me to keep track once I lost the bearings of the view. I couldn’t walk along the top of the Labyrinth without the Minotaur cutting it down.

I turned, my eyes flashing toward Caldris where he knelt in the dirt. I felt the weight of his eyes upon me, the distant echo of the bond trying to settle me through my panic. His calm spiraled up the thread, striking into my chest and forcing me to slow my breathing andthink.

I flattened myself against the top of the hedge once more as the Minotaur emerged beside me. Covering my mouth with my hand to silence my panting breaths, I peered over the edge as he stomped through the path.

His pace slowed, as if he could sense me. He looked from side to side, waiting for me to reveal myself in the path.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,“ he said, his deep voice reaching the top of the hedge.

He stopped suddenly, his snout flaring as he turned to the hedge where I lay. He took a step closer, breathing deeply and smelling me.

“It will only hurt for a second, sweet blood.” His fur-covered hand reached out, touching the hedge. His hand came away stained with blood,myblood, I realized in horror.

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