Page 14 of Dance of Madness

Probably his death.

…Definitelyhis death.

“Fight or flight,” I mutter again, growing impatient.

He blinks. “I—I’m not sure I understand?—”

“Choose. You can fight me. One-on-one. If you survive, you walk out of here.”

His jaw works restlessly as he tries to size me up.

“Or,” I continue, “you can run into the labyrinth. You get a head start. And I hunt you.”

His face drains of color.

The maze only has one exit. I know every dead end. Every turn.

I mean, I diddesignthe damn thing.

Riku glances back at the table of weapons, and his throat bobs again before he glances back at the maze.

“F-flight,” he whispers.

Hoo-fucking-ray. I smile behind the mask, a savage, teeth-baring grin that stretches wide.

Dueling pistols can come another day.

I live for this part.

The kill isn’t the thrill.

Thehuntis.

Riku whimpers as the guards grab him and drag him over to the stone archway and the twisting black emptiness of stone and torchlight beyond.

He looks back one last time as I roll my neck.

“I’ll give you twenty seconds,” I call out as he disappears through the entrance, then shrug off my jacket.

I do my best to shove all thoughts of Milena Kalishnik and the way she got under my fucking skin last night out of my head.

Then madness surges through my veins, and I run.

I catch and kill Riku in a matter of seventy seconds.

But Milena?

She stays in my headlongafter that.

Because that particular hunt has only just begun…

4

MILENA

I can’t stop thinkingabout him.

It’s beendays. And although my usual routine already involves pushing my body to the limit in rehearsal, it’s been overdrive since that night.

---