Chapter 15
TRY NOT TO DIE AGAIN, WOULD YOU?
Seryn
As if answering my unspoken demand, a thundering growl tumbled toward me.
Fucking void.
There was nowhere to run, and frankly, any attempt to retrace my path would only draw more attention. I pressed my body against the wall, hoping to minimize the chances of a head-on attack.
A pair of crimson eyes materialized, suspended at least eight feet above the ground as the creature scanned the thinning haze with predatory focus.
Darkness eddied around the brute’s hulking frame, floating cinder drifting in and out of its wide, bullish snout. Two gnarled horns crowned its head, scalping the shadows into ebony ribbons.
I gulped, fist squeezing tighter around my dagger.
The silver hilt pressed into my bitten thumb, and a sharp sting shot through my hand as the skin split.
I winced, blood beading along the wound before melting into the cool metal.
The faceted pommel flickered with molten iridescence, and every muscle pulled taut as fractured light danced across the swirling mist.
Air and iron zipped past my nose as the Minotaur swung its colossal double-headed axe, slicing downward through the chilled, twirling cloud my exhalation had formed. The weapon slammed into the stone, and cracks splintered from the impact.
Then, as if escaping, the fog crept away entirely. I grimaced as the beast’s glowing gaze locked on mine. Its bulbous nostrils flared, and a guttural grunt reverberated through its chest as it jerked on the axe, dark cloven hooves bracing against the ground.
Corded ropes of muscle bunched and strained across its gray, human-like torso with each wrench.
Before it could free its blade, I dove to the side, landing in a clumsy crouch. The axe snapped loose, and the Minotaur swung its trunk-like arm, clearly aiming to send me to the aether.
I rolled as the beast stepped forward and sprang to my feet, slicing laterally across its thigh with my dagger. It roared, eyes blazing, as I sprinted past, boots hammering against the earth.
Behind me, the predator’s axe whistled through the air, each swing matched by the thunder of its hooves and the frantic pounding of my heart. This couldn’t be how I died. I wouldn’t let it.
My family.
My friends.
Midst Fall.
Gavrel.
They needed me.
I tore through passage after passage, the Minotaur relentlessly stalking me through its lair.
Far ahead loomed a thick pack of fleshy mauve vines.
My tourmaline ring tingled around my forefinger, as if it already knew what I meant to do.
I’d avoided using it in this cursed maze—couldn’t risk reappearing in yet another trap.
But I was out of options.
After sheathing my blade, I sucked in a ragged breath and forced my legs to keep pumping.
The beast’s roar spilled over my shoulders.
My thumb scraped over the ring, and I splintered into a sphere of fractured light, hurtling forward, ripping through space and time.
My desperate cry broke free just as I reformed before the wall, fingers stretching.
The vines caught me as my body slammed into the rock, knocking the air from my lungs. Frantically, I clawed upward, boots scrambling against the knotted lattice, dragging myself over the uneven crest.
The air itself contracted, squeezing in from all sides as my vision tunneled, then snapped back into focus. Thunder rumbled through my ears, and I shook my head to quiet it. No—not in my head. The Insomnis Sea churned far below, its reddish-orange waves shattering and spitting in blackened sprays.
Chest heaving, I clung to the vines, digging my boots deeper into the tangle. The monster roared and slammed into the barrier, metal clanging against rock.
My palms burned, grip faltering. Pebbles and grit rained down, stinging my face. I pressed flat against the wall as it quaked, each tremor rattling up my spine.
I froze, muscles locking and shallow breaths fluttering in my chest. The Minotaur was going to break through. The sea would claim me. And with it, everyone I’d failed to protect.
I crushed my eyes closed.
Gavrel.
His face seared behind my eyes, every line etched in perfect detail. I pressed my cheek to the clammy vines, imagining my thumb tracing the furrow between his brows.
The tremors of cracking stone faded, distant and unreal.
Then my heart lurched. The thread between us yanked taut. My khorda was pulling—demanding my attention, commanding me to move. I gasped, jolted to life, sinew and bone warming, snapping into action.
I jerked my dagger free, hacking through a thick vine and holding tight just as the wall exploded into black shards. Nyxvein poured out in a writhing cloud, like ink swirling in water.
Instinct took over; I swung to the side of the opening, my fingers clutching a jutting cobble, pressing against the cliff face to anchor myself.
The billow flitted away, and the Minotaur’s mammoth body filled the space, horns stabbing the open air. Its glowing eyes searched for its prey.
Searched for me.
Its axe carved a wide arc, the sharp edge snipping the end of a fluttering, wayward curl. The auburn strands floated into the chasm below, and a chill seeped over my vertebrae.
No.
Breathe.
You can do this.
My ember agreed and flared around me in a brilliant burst of radiance as I pushed my legs against the rock, running to the side just like I had during the Winnowing Trials.
The beast’s hungry gaze fixed on me as I darted across the crag, like the deadly swing of a clock’s pendulum.
Everything else—the wind nipping at my flesh, the vine slipping from my grip, the screaming sea—vanished. Left was only my will to survive and the urgent need to act. Seconds slowed, and my heart calmed. My gift condensed, branch patterns flickering down my wrists, flesh peppered with goosebumps.
The Minotaur’s axe smashed into the wall above my head, severing the plant in two. Before the weightlessness of falling could claim me, I dove, hurling my dagger and a sparking orb of power with precision.
All at once, I latched onto the edge of the opening, grimacing as my knees crashed into the rock. After a brief scramble, I jammed the toe of my boot into a divot in the cliff face and braced myself.
The dagger buried itself in the Minotaur’s eyeball with a sickening thunk while my ember slammed into the crook of its hock, forcing the joint to buckle.
The creature roared, its weapon spinning out of its grip and plummeting into the thrashing waves below.
Hastily, the Minotaur wrenched my dagger from its face, letting the blade fall to the stone. Bellowing and clutching its ruined eye, it stumbled, teetered, and then pitched over the precipice.
Its wail reverberated through the labyrinth and down into the abyss until the ocean swallowed it whole.
“Look at the fire tits on you, Firefly!” Breena skidded to a halt in front of me, a grin splitting her bloodied, grit-stained face.
Behind her, Therrok nodded at me, his frown slightly less frown-like than usual.
“Little help?” I huffed, hauling my body upward.
She bent down, grasping my wrists, but before she could drag me up, something grabbed the back of my waistband and hoisted me onto the ledge.
Breena and I toppled into a pile, shooting matching glares at Thesa as her wings settled gracefully behind her.
“Were you watching the whole bleeding time?” I snapped.
Her wings ruffled, and she sniffed, black eyes boring into mine. Her clipped tone followed her as she stepped over us and toward her brother a few strides away. “Try not to die again, would you?”
“I swear to the Ancients, I’m gonna chop her wings off,” Breena hissed.
A tired chuckle rumbled in my throat as I rubbed my shoulder, kneading the soreness within while we caught up to the Grim Twins.
Thesa’s body stiffened, but she ignored Breena otherwise.
“No, ya won’t. You’ll be friends before long,” Therrok grumbled.
“How dare you?” Breena scoffed, eyes wide.
Therrok stretched his thick neck from side to side, wings lifting as he turned his head slightly.
“Keep up. It won’t take long for the Minotaur to regenerate.
” His eyes lingered on me just long enough to assess, then the corner of his lips twitched—a ghost of a smile that exposed one elongated incisor—before settling into his usual displeasure.
Recognition. Approval. Gone in an instant.
“Enough fun for one day, eh?” he snorted.
“Quite,” I muttered, taking in the capital as we exited the labyrinth. I stood tall, drawing in a breath that tasted of smoke and iron.
Before us, a massive, tarnished bridge spanned a furious river.
Beyond it sprawled Nekrionn, a nightmarish metropolis turned inside out; a dark mirror of Aion.
Twisted banestone towers jutted at impossible angles, their spires tipped with verdigris-stained copper that caught the dim light in sickly glints.
A dark fog clung to every surface, and black-fire-opal paths coiled between the buildings, beckoning us forward.
My gift thrummed restlessly against my nape.
“Think you meant: ‘for the first part of the day,’” Thesa groused, responding to her brother’s earlier comment about enough fun.
“Fecking quite,” Breena sniggered.