Page 71 of Quarter Labyrinth

Good. Her distaste for Dimitri had been festering for hundreds of years.

“Her name was Delva,” Delilah said, following my eyes. “Andhestole her from me.”

“So let us scorn him.” I could taste the victory already. The pain in her voice when she said Delva’s name…she still ached for her sister. She would say yes.

But Delilah shook her head. “I don’t care to scorn Dimitri. I don’t care about him at all. I stopped that long ago.”

Before my chest could deflate, she brought a finger beneath my chin to lift my eyes to hers. Pale gray irises bore into me. Her nail dug into my skin.

“And yet.”

I loved that word.

She dropped her hand, and her warmth left me as she stepped back. “I will protect you, young child, and give you what strength I have to give. Then, when all is done, you will free me.”

Confusion must have been written all over my face. The book hadn’t talked about this.

“Free you…”

“From the labyrinth. You are going to set me loose over the Hundred Islands, or I let you die here to rot with my sister.”

A shiver ran through me. “I don’t know how to free you.”

“Bleed a body’s worth of blood on the labyrinth walls. You needn’t be inside to do this. Outside works just as well. When you do, drop this into the pool.” She twisted the green gem at her neck, almost void of color and yet I could hardly look at anything else until she tucked it away. “Speak my name over the body, and you trade my freedom for theirs. They become a Stone God. I’ll be free.”

My stomach lurched. I’d be more than freeing her, I’d be condemning another.

“Has this been done before?”

She shook her head with a smile. “Dimitri doesn’t like when mortals mess with the fabric of the labyrinth. But it can be done. And that is the price I demand.”

I’d come willing to offer whatever it took for my life. And I still believed she was the one Stone God most likely to offer me protection.

Without her protection, I wouldn’t stand a chance against Dimitri or Leif.

But this? Could I give her this?

She watched the battle in my mind with a look as if I’d already let her down. I hardened my spine. “I can do that. I’ll sacrifice Leif to the labyrinth to free you.”

Now that I said it, he made the most sense. If we both survived this, he’d be coming for the Silver Wings. Or he’d have won them, and I’d have to watch him take over the fleet. Either way, I didn’t see a world where Leif and I both lived in the Hundred Islands. One of us had to bend.

One of us had to bleed.

The pastel color of her stony skin took on a new warmth, like she was already becoming human again. “Very well. Vincent’s son it is.” She removed her necklace to place it over my head, letting the weight of the thin chain drop onto my shoulders. The gem fell partway down my chest. Long enough to hide beneath my tunic.

With it, a hum rippled through my skin. I smiled, the first real taste of victory I’d had in here.

The labyrinth might be alive, but so was I. And I was learning its language.

“You have my protection. Dimitri will not easily find you now, though he may try. Go, and be safe. But remember, if you fail to free me, Dimitri will be the least of your concerns.”

I lifted my chin. “I won’t fail you.”

Her head snapped up to look toward the corridor I’d come from. A pause, then she was shooing me out. “Go, Ren. Another is coming, and he wishes to make a deal too.”

I scurried out of the room, finding the closest window to pitch myself out. There I huddled, peonies crowding my feet, watching through the window to see who had come.

A beat later, Harald appeared to drag himself into Delilah’s chambers.

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