Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Ella
.Goetia. - Peter Guidry
A shot resonates in the air, and I’m swept by the wave of women running toward the entrance of the maze. The night is black, and there are speakers playing ominous music. Some sort of gothic, haunting tune.
I have to keep running, pushed by the crowd until the second or third turn I take. After that, everyone spreads out, going the route they think best, some running faster than others. I’ve lost Megan, though I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I take a left turn and jump back in fear, a sharp scream escaping me.
There’s a statue of a half-man half-bull in front of me. The Minotaur that hides in Daedalus’s labyrinth, stuck in here for eternity. And that’s when it hits me. The drugs. Because I could swear statues don’t move. I don’t think his creepy hooves are supposed to make the ground tremble or his nose is meant to let out a dangerous grunt.
The whole world tilts as I take steps back and go a different way, turning another corner and catching my breath by trying to lean on the hedge nearest to me. But I don’t get a minute of rest. The music lowers for a second, and Eugene’s voice resonates all around.
“ Shadows. You may hunt. ”
My heart drops, but my feet are slow when I try to start moving again. I stumble from one hedge to the other, scratching my arms and ripping my dress as the ground ripples beneath me.
I don’t feel like myself anymore. The leaves on the walls of the maze change colors as the wind rustles them, and every time I turn a corner, I fear someone is going to jump at me.
“Fuck,” I groan as I fall face-to-face with the Minotaur for the fourth time.
I’m terrified. That beast is following me everywhere, and as I turn another corner, I bump into someone.
Is he real?
“Ella Baker.”
I don’t recognize him, but he goes to grab me, and I scream as I step back. Turning around, I sprint, not caring where I’m going.
Each step I take feels like I’m flying, the maze never ending. I’m barefoot, but I can’t even feel the rough ground under my feet any longer.
I finally think I’m going somewhere when I notice some flowers in my path that weren’t there before. I’m sure this is a new corridor.
But someone else is running after me now. He’s taller than the other one, blond when the other had dark hair. This fear is intense, almost paralyzing. For someone who constantly feels like everyday life is a life-or-death situation, this is becoming too much. My chest is tight, heartbeat painful, and I make a decision here and now that I didn’t even think of when I came to this place.
When I walked into the country club, I knew I would become an Aphrodite. I didn’t care as long as it meant my family would be safe. But as I lose the third man who tries to hunt me tonight to make me a whore for the Silent Circle, I realize I can’t do it. A flash of my mother’s state yesterday almost makes me lose my balance. That is what they’ll do to me if I become an Aphrodite. So, I must become a Hera.
I must find Chris before Megan does. Fuck the consequences. I’ll think about those later.
A woman screams near me, and I wipe sweat off my forehead as I run toward the sound. I’m too late when I find her. She’s face down on the floor, her white dress flipped over her hips, and her eyes squint shut as the same man who was running after me enters her in one violent thrust. She grunts, clawing at the floor. I’m frozen in place as I watch him take her like an animal in the dirt. He presses against the back of her head, pushing her harder against the ground, and her groans of pain turn into something new.
My eyes widen, mouth dropping open. She’s moaning. The man turns his head to the side, watching me with a smirk as he thrusts into her over and over again.
“Don’t be jealous,” he pants. “You’re next.”
His eyes flick behind me, and I move just in time to avoid a hand going for me.
“Ella,” a voice sing-songs as I break into yet another sprint. “Imagine all the good grades you’ll get once I can fuck you whenever I want.”
I whimper when my foot catches on a root, and I go crashing to the ground. I try to catch myself on my hands, but the force still has my cheek pressed to the earth. I taste dirt in my mouth, and it mixes with the bitterness of whatever they had us drink earlier. There’s the copper tang of blood too. I must have bitten my tongue or cheek, but I can’t feel any pain. The adrenaline is rushing too harshly through my veins for me to notice my body.
I only need a split second to take a breath and open my eyes. In my position, I can see through the roots of the hedge. It’s almost pitch black in the labyrinth, so the lit-up area I’m seeing is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. I can see feet wearing expensive, polished shoes. Oxfords and Monkstraps. Those are the shoes of the rich men who are waiting for women to throw themselves into their arms.
I’m so close.
The hope sends a new wave of strength through me, but as soon as I try to get up, a hand grabs my ankle.
“ No! ” I shriek as Professor Reeves drags me through the dirt.
I kick behind me and hear a grunt. I’m only free long enough to flip and crawl backward.
“You’ve been caught, Ella. Surrender.”
I shake my head, feeling crazy as dirty blonde locks slap against my face. “I’m not caught if you haven’t brought me to the center.”
He laughs softly, wiping the blood from his lip as he slowly advances toward me. Red and yellow auras shine around his head from the drugs I’ve taken, and I can’t focus. His face distorts the closer he gets, and I could swear he’s growing horns like the Minotaur that was following me earlier.
I squint my eyes for a split second, and he’s multiple steps closer. “Please,” I whimper as I crawl back.
“Are you scared?” he asks in the sweetest voice I’ve ever heard from him .
Nodding, I pinch my lips to not let out a pathetic sob.
“Good. That’s going to be your life from now on. At the mercy of men you should absolutely be scared of.”
My chest trembles as he lowers himself, grabbing two fistfuls of my dress between my boobs and ripping it in one gesture. The crack resonates through my body, and the right sleeve falls down my shoulder, revealing one of my breasts.
“S-stop,” I panic.
He shakes his head. “Not a word you get to use anymore.”
My body takes over, short-circuiting my brain so it can defend itself. Before I know it, I’ve grabbed a handful of dirt, and I’m throwing it in his face.
He grunts, standing up and stumbling back as his hands come to wipe his eyes. I don’t wait for him to be done. I stand up and go in the direction I saw the light. When I’m not sure where to go anymore, I drop to the floor and look under the hedges again. It takes me what feels like forever to run through the maze and find my destination, but when I do, the weight of the world falls off my shoulders.
There are around fifteen men standing there, some of them already with a woman in their arms, some of them talking, laughing and drinking from chalices as they wait. They’re the new Shadows with their Heras. Some men already have a roughed-up Aphrodite by their side, and I’m assuming they’re the old Shadows who caught someone tonight, ruining their chances to become a wife. Later tonight, they’ll go back to their own wives, happy to know they added mistresses to the Circle.
I want to scream from the unfairness of the situation. They’ve been having a wonderful time while the women were running for their lives, chased by whatever hallucinations their minds created. Some of them didn’t make it to the center, probably still being raped by Shadows in the darkness of the maze.
I’m in the last run, the path I’m on leading straight to the group of men. They’re in the light, and I’m in pitch-black, so I doubt any of them can see me. I take a minute to look for Chris. He’s here somewhere. I just hope Megan is not in his arms.
When I find him standing slightly to the side, chatting quietly with another man, a chalice in his hand, my heart explodes in my chest.
I made it.
He can’t see me, but I’m ready to run into the arms of the man who’s always protected me no matter what. I don’t care that this isn’t what he planned. I don’t even care if he pushes me away, telling me he wants Megan. If I get to him before she does, he’s mine. Consequences be damned.
I put one foot in front of the other, ready to go, when a feminine voice calls out for me.
“Ella!”
My mistake is turning around when I should have run to the man who could have saved me. She backhands me so hard I fall to the ground, blood spilling from my mouth. There must have been a ring on her finger.
When I look up at Megan standing right above me, my vision is hazy.
“I have a question for you,” she snarls, crouching next to me. “Did you enjoy fucking Chris last Christmas?” She’s smiling, but it looks terrifying.
I can’t answer. The shock from her revelation, the pain in my mouth, the fear gripping me, the drugs. It’s all too much.
But she doesn’t expect me to and keeps going. “Do you know how many times he tried to leave me for you? How many times his excuse for a breakup was that he still had feelings for someone else. And yet I still managed to keep him.”
Nearly hyperventilating, terror bubbles up my throat. Chris isn’t far. He can’t see me, but he could hear me.
I take a deep breath, ready to scream for my life.
“Chr—” Megan’s hand slaps on my mouth so hard I choke on my own breath.
“Shut the fuck up,” she hisses. “I’m not playing some dumb high school game here, Ella. I’m playing to win. And my prize is him.”
She lowers herself slightly to look me right in the eye. “If you act like a slut, sleeping with men who are taken, you might as well become one. Aphrodites get all the attention, darling. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
I try to shake my head, tears gathering in my eyes. He wasn’t taken. They had broken up.
“I think I’ll quite enjoy seeing you get caught by some perv twice your age and become a whore for him.”
Tears of anguish spill down my cheeks, a sob tightening my chest. This woman doesn’t care. I can see it deep in her eyes. She won’t let anything get in the way of what she wants. Or who she wants.
She looks behind her, and a laugh bursts out of her mouth. “Well. He’s not twice your age, but he’ll do. I heard he’s pretty sadistic.”
She finally lets go of me, standing up. “She’s all yours, Professor Reeves.”
She doesn’t even run to the center of the labyrinth, seeming to glide above the ground like a real goddess of chaos.
I cry out when Reeves grabs me by the hair, forcing me to stand up. Holding on to my dress, I desperately try to protect it from falling off my upper body.
“You’re hurting me,” I whimper as he drags me with him to where the crowd is gathered. “P-please, Professor Reeves…”
“That’s how you’ll learn,” he purrs. “You were the only girl I wanted to hunt tonight, Ella. Starting tomorrow, you’ll belong to the whole Circle, but whichever Aphrodite we catch is ours for the night.”
My teeth clatter from how hard I’m trembling. He yanks harder on my hair as he lines up with the other Shadows who hunted tonight, and right across from us, I see the men and women being initiated as couples standing hand in hand.
My body freezes when I see Chris and Megan holding hands. He still hasn’t seen me, and I’m desperate for reassurance. That somehow this is going to get better.
Lips trembling, I try to force a sound past my throat. “Chris.”
My rasp barely lifts above the buzzing of everyone’s voices. Reeves is still holding me tightly by the hair, but he’s talking with another man. He didn’t even hear me, so I doubt anyone else did.
And yet I see Chris’s back straighten, and he pulls away from Megan. She’s talking in his direction, but he ignores her, looking around until his eyes find mine. I believe with all I have that he’s going to get me out of this. If not for me, then because he loves my brother. He knows I’m not someone who thinks twice before putting myself in danger, especially for the people I love. He’ll know I made a mistake. That I need out.
Everything around me disappears as his gaze crosses with my teary eyes .
Help me. Help me. Help me.
His face falls when he sees the way Reeves is manhandling me, and in a split second, he’s already trying to make his way to me.
That’s until Megan’s hold tightens, and he stops dead in his tracks. His desperate gaze doesn’t leave mine, and I don’t know what exactly she says to him, but it’s enough for him to stay where he is.
My professor chuckles behind me. He follows my gaze to Chris and taps my cheek condescendingly. “Don’t look for help where there’s none. Murray has no power when he’s around his girlfriend. With a family as powerful as hers, it’s easy for her to keep control of him.”
His words are only confirmed by the way Chris’s eyes now avoid mine. There’s nothing left of the man who would do anything to keep me safe. He looks as helpless as I am.