Page 113 of Quarter Labyrinth

Black hair crowned her head, sleek and lustrous, cascading down her back like the dark rivers of the labyrinthitself. Her smile was as vivid as the crimson brush of dawn, cutting through the muted grays of the rest of her skin. She wore a dress the untamed shade of forest green. It clung to her form with a strange, fluid grace, and when she shifted slightly, it caught the light in ripples, mimicking the wind playing through petals.

Clark stilled, one breath away from calling out to Ren, when the girl spoke.

“We don’t see your kind in the labyrinth often.”

Her voice was smooth, almost melodic, but with an undertone that felt ancient and knowing. A shiver went up Clark’s spine that had nothing to do with the rain.

Clark had prepared himself to face the Stone Gods in the labyrinth. He expected their presence, anticipated their tests and tricks, but he’d hoped to avoid them somehow. Yet here was one, standing in front of him on his first morning.

This Stone God carried no weapon as far as he could tell. Yet the Stone Gods didn’t fight with steel. They fought with shadows, riddles, and illusions that gnawed at the edges of a man’s sanity.

Her green eyes locked onto his, unblinking, as if she were peeling back the layers of his thoughts one by one.

It took him a moment to remember her words.We don’t see your kind in the labyrinth often.

“What, clumsy and afraid?” he quipped, forcing a smirk he didn’t quite feel.

“Kind.”

She stepped forward, her dress flowing like water over stones. “Each Stone God is looking at you right now, watching to see how long your kind heart lasts.”

Clark glanced back toward the canopy where he and Ren had spent the night. It still stood there, a fragile pocket of safety in a world designed to tear it apart.

“However long it takes to win this thing for her.”

The girl’s expression flickered, curiosity mingling with something sharper. “Why her?”

“She’s fierce and brave,” he replied. “That’s very attractive to a guy like me.”

For a brief moment, something unreadable passed through her eyes. Then she smiled again. “I have an offer for you.” When Clark moved to wake Ren, the Stone God put up a hand. “No. I’ll have a different offer for her. This one is for you alone.”

These were the sort of offers he’d been hoping to avoid in the labyrinth.

He hadn’t expected this one though.

“Leave,” she said. “Throw up the stone, and leave this labyrinth. I’ll give you money to buy passage back to Haven, and I’ll make your parents love you. You’ll have a good life on the island and never have to leave the shores again.”

Clark didn’t allow so much as a second to pass. “I decline.”

“She doesn’t love you,” the girl said. “And she won’t. She’s already thinking about the boy who will claim her heart—even though he’s never said a word to her. That’s how easy it was for someone else to win her.”

Clark pretended as if the words didn’t gouge a deep hole in his chest. These were the games they played, the lies they spread like seeds.

“Aurelia Brightspire. Did I guess it right?”

Her smile was piercing. “You are right. But so am I.” She lifted a hand, and a mirror appeared—one framed with black roses and large enough to walk through. “Last chance, mortal. Keep your kind heart undamaged, and go home. Heartbreak awaits you.”

But Clark had already spotted Ren over his shoulder—awake and looking for him.

Seeing her was like setting the storm in his head. “I’m good right where I am.”

The Stone God sighed, but didn’t look surprised. “Very well. I wish you luck, Clark Severs. And when the moment comes that your heart is broken and you have no one to turn to, you can always pledge to me. I have a soft spot for broken hearts.”

Clark thought of Aurelia three times more in the labyrinth, and always in passing.

Once, when Ren mentioned Leif’s name not minutes later.

Again, when Ren saved Leif.

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