Page 24 of Quarter Labyrinth

“That’s the goal,” I said, reaching for the door once more. But something about how the girl looked at us made me pause. “Why do you greet us? Why not just let us through?”

She tore her eyes from Clark, and her body eased again. “I’m a fortune teller. Callahan places me here to warn those whose future in the labyrinth will not end well. It eases his conscience, I think. They never listen, but I warn them anyway.”

She dug into the folds of her dress to draw out stones, half white and half black, each etched with runes. “If you want, I can read the stones for you to get a better glimpse of your future.”

I’d seen fortune tellers work before. I never believed them. But something about her felt different, almost like the air moved to her will.

Clark kept like a shadow over my shoulder and the warmth of him felt nice against the cold of the night. He braced a handon the pommel of his sword. “But you can tell without the stones that our future is good?”

“I didn’t say that. I can see that the labyrinth changes everything for you both.”

The labyrinth changes everything.

Good. I was looking for change.

She must have seen my eagerness when her eyes met mine, for her hands tossed the stones onto the ground. She knelt to scour over them. Whatever she found, she rose quickly.

“You may ask one question.”

“Easy. Do I reach the center first?”

Her answer came just as swiftly and with no emotion. “No,” she replied. “You won’t win this Quarter Labyrinth.”

THIRTEEN

It was as if she’d taken all the air and shoved it down my throat. I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t until Clark brushed the heat of his fingers against my arm that I remembered how to move.

He whispered into my ear. “I hear someone coming behind us. We should go.”

Numbly, I reached for the door once more, stepping over the horrid fortune stones.

“Good luck inside the labyrinth,” the teller said cheerily, as if she hadn’t justtold us we would lose.

I pushed the heavy door open, and stepped inside. Clark stepped after me.

The entrance started to shut behind us just as we saw someone else dragging themselves over the side.

Bjorn.

His tunic stretched tight over the muscles of his arms, flinching as he scrambled atop the platform. A wild fear danced in the flecks of his dark eyes as he threw a look behind him and visibly swallowed. I waited for his companions but they didn’t appear.

When he looked forward, his eyes locked with mine.

The door shut between us before I could see what he’d do next.

I pulled myself back together, but it felt like gathering shards of glass with my bare hands. “We should move quickly. I doubt Bjorn stays to hear his fortune.”

“Agreed. But which way?”

I paused long enough to take in the labyrinth. Everything was green—the tall hedge walls, the mossy ground, the envy in my chest for those who’d walked in with a key instead of risking their lives on that ladder. It split immediately into three directions. One was a ladder, dropping down to ground level. One was a tunnel that spilled toward the earth. The other remained high in the sky, beckoning us into a small maze.

“Northwest.” I pointed toward the ladder. “The center is that way.”

“Is that path too obvious?” Clark asked. He looked toward the west path instead, a tunnel that dove into darkness.

“There will be many paths to get to the center. I’d like to take the quickest.”

“So will Bjorn. We should go west and wait for him to pass. There are no guards to keep us alive in here.”

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