Page 49 of Quarter Labyrinth

“Where’s Tove?” I staggered forward. “Is she okay?”

“I’m here,” her small voice called out. She emerged from a hiding place among rocks, and a deep relief flooded me.

Clark’s arms wrapped around my waist. “You’re wounded.”

I couldn’t tell if the wetness at my side was mostly blood or sweat. Either way, I wouldn’t die from this. “Not as badly as Charlotte. Tend to her first.”

It was Tove who scampered to Charlotte’s side first, pulling her small pouch open and riffling through until finding bandages. Her eyes landed on Charlotte’s wound, and she stilled.

Harald hovered behind her shoulder. His mouth flattened into a thin line, and he shoved his sword back into its sheath.

When his gaze slipped to me, he slowly shook his head.

“Why aren’t you doing anything? We must help her.” Aiden had his arms curled over Charlotte, his blue eyes wild like untamed seas and his breaths shallow. “Save her, please.”

“We can’t,” Harald said. “The wound is too deep.”

Charlotte’s green tunic turned red, her skin turned white, and her breathing wasn’t more than rasps that seemed to take all her energy. Aiden reached for Charlotte’s bag to draw out the white stone.

“Don’t,” I cried. “If she surrenders, she’ll be taken to the edge of the maze but still be wounded. Surrendering can’t save her.”

Aiden dropped the stone. “I can’t watch her die.”

His fingers moved for his own stone.

“Ren is right. Surrendering won’t help. But the wolves can save her,” Harald said.

We all looked at him.

He moved past Tove to take Charlotte’s hand in his own. Her light blonde hair stuck to her forehead and her eyes glazed over. She would be gone soon.

“Charlotte, if you pledge to the wolves, the Stone Gods will heal you.”

Aiden tightened his hold on Charlotte as if sheer will could keep her alive. “She’ll be trapped in this labyrinth!”

“For a time. She will serve as a wolf for a period, after which, the Stone God will release her.” Harald brushed a piece of Charlotte’s hair from where it stuck to her cheek. “You don’t have much time. You must choose now.”

“Don’t, Charlotte. You’ll be turned into a wolf for a century.”

“Or she could die. It’s her choice.”

Charlotte licked her lips, then whispered the words.

“Silver Queen of the Labyrinth, I pledge myself as your wolf.”

The transformation came instantly, in shades of blue and silver that wafted over Charlotte’s body until the blood disappeared, her shirt mended itself, and her body flushed with warm, rosy color. A thin band of laurel imprinted itself on Charlotte’s forearm, seen just for a moment, until hair began to grow in thick clumps, shining gray fur that wrapped over her body.

Aiden made a noise in his throat as he fell away from her.

Charlotte continued to grow, tochange, until she was no longer the girl we recognized.

She rose to four legs to stare down her snout at us. Her body wasn’t that of a normal wolf, this was a beast that only the labyrinth could conjure, one that could swallow a person wholeor snap their body with a twitch of their teeth. Her mighty paws stepped forward once, then twice.

“If the Silver Queen asks her to kill us, she will,” Harald breathed.

Aiden scampered back. “This was a horrible idea.”

But she did not kill us. She lifted her head as if hearing a call only meant for her, sniffed the air, then darted away.

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