Page 93 of The Wolf and the Chimera
I screamed.
The shrill sound bounced off the thick, stone walls, but no one answered my cry. I considered that this was a trick—maybe I was alone in this maze, and my friends and family were beyond the looking glass, eating popcorn and having a good laugh.
“Quit lying to yourself,” I grumbled under my breath, “and think.”
Let your beast be your guide,Circe had said.
For the past half hour, I had tried to use my intellect to navigate the maze. I had followed different pathways, all of which led in circles or dead-ends, and done my best to track which avenues led where. I had been acting based on logic, not instinct.
Circe was a witch. She could’ve spelled the maze to lead me where I wanted under the condition that I used my beastly senses to do so. I couldn’t cheat my way around using my powers.
I closed my eyes and turned my attention inward, to the beast that raged under my skin.
Find them, find them, find them…
Her thoughts were a maddening loop that heated my blood and dizzied my head. I almost closed the mental door between us but reminded myself that to find my friends, I had to work with her.
Besides, at least she was paying attention.
We want the same thing,I told my chimera.Lend me your senses, and we’ll save them together.
In the dark corners of my mind, my beast snapped and snarled. Her anger fueled my own frustration.
Do you want them all to die?I demanded.Do you wantRyderto die?
Driven by the wild desperation of my chimera, my eyes snapped open, and I viewed the world with crystal clarity. Inhaling, sand and musk and jasmine lingered in the air. I sniffed again and caught a whiff of familiar, woodsy scents. They didn’t appeal to me like Ryder’s did, but I recognized them as belonging to Melanie and Bo.
Without thought, I stalked toward the scents. My inner beast guided my steps, and I panicked—I wasn’t in control over my movements.
The creature was.
Unwilling to cede control, my beast continued to wind through the pathways. My heart raced faster and faster.
We took another turn and reached a dark pool of water.
Just as they had appeared in Circe’s conjured image, amid the maze's walls, Melanie and Bo hung from a towering tree by a thick, green vine. The salty scent of fish mingled with their musky scents. Green scales and white teeth flashed in the water. As her blue eyes met mine, Melanie grinned.
“You made it!” she cheered. “Feel like helping us down?”
Yes,I wanted to say, but my inner beast had taken over, and she didn’t care for speech.
She didn’t care for much other than rescuing my friends as quickly as possible so she could get to Ryder.
Gods,I thought.This is no better than being under the sorceress’s control.
With my body, my inner beast growled. Bo cocked his head.
“Elle?” he asked. “You, okay? Want to get us down?”
The vines from which the wolves dangled stretched longer and lowered my friends closer to the infested water. A behemoth piranha arched into the air and snapped for the wolves’ bare feet. They brought their legs to their chests and barely avoided the snap of the piranha’s jaws.
Though my heart hammered against my ribs, I studied how my friends were trapped. The tree sprouted from the other side of the pool, well out of my reach. I couldn’t risk swimming toward them unless I wanted to become piranha food, and I couldn’t reach where they hung from the vine by jumping.
Even if I could, how would I free them and keep them from tumbling into the pool?
In answer to my question, pain seared between my shoulder blades.
Right,I remembered.I have wings.
