Page 17 of Phoenix Academy: Mayhem

Xavier trips, and Reggie catches him, pulling him up. "I got you—c'mon."

We run as fast as we can. Push ourselves to the limits. At the edge of the path, I feel something slither—and throw a fireball right at it. The thing roars and rears back, but only for a moment. It'll return.

It'll kill us all.

So the instant I reach the hedgerow, I don't hesitate. I throw a blue fireball right at the thicket of leaves and branches and run right through it, the guys fast on my heels, the four of us stumbling into a maze of garden plants once again. Panting, I turn around and expect to see a demon crawling through behind us—but the instant David makes it through, the leaves and branches of the hedge regrow and form a wall.

The demon roars.

The hedge wall shakes and rattles.

But nothing comes through. Whatever this place is, whether we're close to the door now or Ezriel is back already and tricking us again, it doesn't matter. For the moment we're safer than we were before, and it's the only thing I can think of. My heart practically bursts from joy.

Xavier is closest to me. Which is how I wind up throwing my arms around him and pressing a kiss to his soft lips, his glasses pushes up to his forehead by my exuberance, the breath leaving him all at once in shock.

When I pull back a moment later, taking in a deep breath of air, he blinks at me. Heat fills my cheeks. David and Reggie are both staring at me, and I can't tell what they're thinking.

"Sorry." I wipe my mouth off and blush harder. "I didn't—I didn't mean to. I don't know why I did. Though I've been wanting to for a very, very long time."

"It's okay." Xavier sounds rattled; he pushes his glasses back into place and sneaks a guilty look over at David and his brother, then straightens up and forces his eyes back to me. "We did agree before all this that no matter what, we wouldn't let you come between our relationship with each other. And it was a very... heightened moment."

Tell me about it.

Licking my lips, I sense David's eyes follow the motion, and my blush spreads down to my chest. Suddenly I find myself wondering how this whole thing works: do I kiss Reggie and David now that I've kissed Xavier in front of them? Would that be gross, because Reggie is Xavier's twin, and David is his best friend? Should I brush my teeth in between? Swish some mouthwash?

I wish Dani were here. She has four boyfriends. Maybe she could explain it.

Then again, none of her boyfriends are related to each other. At least as far as I know. I'm not sure how the whole being-a-demon thing works.

Maybe the only thing to do is change the subject. It's all I'm really good at. Though I can't stop thinking about what would happen if I pushed further—if I kissed Xavier deeper, touched his chest and arms, turned to David and...

The next part is blank because I can't imagine what I'd do afterwards.

"We should explore," I tell the guys, eyeing the healed-over door I made in the hedges. "See if there's a door in this hedge maze like there was in the last one. For all we know, my magic brought us in a circle and back again to the start."

"Stranger things have happened," Reggie agrees, "like you thinking my brother is kissable while I'm standing right here."

Rolling my eyes, I shove past him and stride down the path, ignoring the embarrassment staining my neck and cheeks. It seems strange that there's more than one hedge maze in Hell, but then again, what do I know. There is something sinister about the living wall stretching high above our heads, and the strange peaceful quiet, as if Hell itself doesn't exist around us. Maybe when Hell was built, a particularly ambitious landscaper was involved.

If Hell was built.

I don't know how else it came into being.

"Do you think the hedges are alive?" Xavier wonders aloud, reaching out to twine his fingers in the leaves. The thin twisting branches respond, curling around his fingers and nestling in his palm, making him jump. "Scratch that—they are. I mean, obviously all plants are alive. But the way it repaired itself... it feels like they have an awareness of sorts."

"Is this place safe, do you think?" David muses, his eyes sharp as we turn a corner... and discover only two paths diverging in front of us, with a round rosebush in the middle, bright pink blossoms poking out. "I mean, the last hedge maze had a trickster demon in it. And there was the whole thing with the blood fountain. Maybe your magic led us astray again."

"We should all be on the alert," I admit. Reaching out my naturalistic senses, though, I don't find anything other than the usual living things in a garden. "But I think my magic is running right again. Whatever the trickster demon did, it interfered with my powers in the Spirit Realm. But here... I feel like I have some idea of what's dangerous and what isn't. Especially since I killed my father in that nightmare school."

Reggie looks over at me in concern, raising his brows. "You killed your father, and you think that's a good thing?"

"The Heretic," I correct myself, wishing I'd just called him that in my first place. "I killed the Heretic. Or a version of him, at least. And something about it felt... right. Like it reset my inner compass or something."

"Whatever you say. You're the witch." He sighs, playing with the end of one of his long braids, which make his already-handsome face that much more attractive, framing his cheekbones and casting shadows along his neck. "I just think maybe something else might settle your magic even better. Something like a kiss from me. Or maybe more."

I roll my eyes, and David shoves Reggie, scowling. The two fall into a kind of friendly fight, playfully punching and shoving each other. I'm about to break it up when I feel something shift in the air around us, and a shiver goes through me.

We've come to a strange clearing in the maze. There are even more rosebushes here, and a fountain in the middle of them. But that's not what alarms me.

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