Chapter 23
The door slid shut behind me, sealing with a hiss like a snake.
I should’ve known it wasn’t over. A chill swept over me as the walls shifted. I heard it, the groan of stone rearranging itself, the scrape of mechanisms I couldn’t see hidden in the very bones of the maze. This was alive in a way the others hadn’t been.
Before me, the shadows cleared, as if a breeze had swept through and blown them clear out a window that didn’t exist. In front of me again were three paths.
One narrow and jagged, lined with fractured mirrors, like the way I had already come. One soaked in crimson light, pulsing like a racing heartbeat. One cloaked entirely in black, no floor visible at all. And floating above it all was another sign, spinning lazily in place.
FINAL ROUND: ONE IS A TRUTH, ONE IS A LIE, ONE IS DEATH. DON’T MESS IT UP.
The sign spun slowly overhead, as if it had all the time in the world, while I stood there trying not to sweat through my shirt. No hints, no clever riddles. Just the paths and a choice.
The mirror path felt too familiar, like it wanted me to believe I’d already survived it once and could do it again. The heartbeat corridor thrummed in my chest, beating a rhythm of chaos. The more I stared at it, the more my anxiety spiked. And the black corridor…just was. Cold, quiet, and blank.
I stepped toward the mirror path. Paused. Turned.
Then, I did the only thing I could think of: I closed my eyes. There was no logic that could help me here. So instead, I listened.
The heartbeat was loud. Too loud. Like it was trying to crawl inside my brain and take me over. If I listened hard enough, I could make out a tiny whisper of a voice coming form the mirrors. “This way, come back, come baaackk…′
But the dark corridor?
It was silent. Utterly still. Calming.
I opened my eyes and stepped forward into the black.
The floor caught me, just barely, velvet-soft and uneven, like walking on the back of a broken beast. The shadows didn’t part or brighten, just folded tigheter around me like a shroud.
And then, the path shifted beneath me. Feelings, sensations pressing against me from all angle, the sting of being told I wasn’t enough, the hollow ache of being left behind. It was the fury, deep, unending fury I harbored inside of me and never let anyone see.
The blackness grew heavier with every step, sinking into my skin, pressing into my bones.
And then, I saw her.
Me again, but not in a mirror. Not in a vision. She was there, solidly there, standing in front of me, watching me. Her eyes glowed faintly—not quite the same green as mine, but sharp, like they were daggers ready to strike.
“Why the fuck do you always keep showing up?” I hissed, my rage boiling just under the surface.
A slow, predatory smile spread across her lips.
“Because you keep dragging me with you,” she said, voice low and venomous. “Every step you take, pretending you’re better, that you’re good, and I’m still right here, rotting beneath your skin at all times.”
I stepped forward, hands curling into fists. “You’re not real.”
“I’m as real as the next person,” she snapped. “You made me. Every time you swallowed your anger, every time you let someone walk all over you, I grew.”
She moved fast, a blur of motion—her fist slammed into my shoulder and sent me stumbling back, teeth rattling from the impact of my jaw clenching. The shadows around us writhed, licking the floor like hungry flames, feeding off the palpable tension.
I caught myself and surged forward, slamming back into her without a second thought. We tumbled, striking the hard ground with a crack. I swung wildly. She caught my wrist and kneed me in the stomach, knocking the breath from my lungs.
We rolled, exchanging blows, only the sound of our pants and cries of pain piercing the air in the dark. She fought like she wanted to hurt me, and I wanted to hurt her back.
“You think getting a couple of keys makes you worthy?” she snarled, dragging me up by my collar. “You think you pass one kingdom and suddenly, you’re so powerful? You will fail. You will let them down. Maybe if you were better, Dad wouldn’t have left us.”
My elbow connected with her jaw. Her head snapped sideways, but she only laughed.
“Fuck you,” I spat. She lunged. I ducked, grabbing a jagged shard of stone we must have broken loose from the floor and drove it up, scraping along her side and eliciting a satisfying hiss.
The blackness lightened a bit, and I could make her out more clearly, shadows leaking from the wound I’d made in her side.
She kicked me off and sprang to her feet, chest heaving. Still, she grinned. I stood too, my body aching, lip split as blood slowly dripping down my chin. But I met her stare head-on.
“You’re not stronger than me,” I said, breathing hard. “You’re just a figment of this fucked up book, meant to mess with my head.”
She paused. Just a flicker, but it was enough.
I charged, slamming her into a wall I couldn’t make out in the dark.
The shadows shuddered on impact. I grabbed her by the collar and yelled, “I’m done letting this book toss me around!
I am getting out of here, one way or another.
” I reached a hand up, threading my fingers through her hair, closing into a tight fist.
And then, I slammed her head into the wall with all the force I could muster.
“Stay.” Slam. “Out.” Slam. “Of.” Slam. “My.” Slam. “HEAD!!”
With a final slam, she shattered like glass, fracturing into a million little smoking pieces of who knew what.
The pressure in the corridor eased, the darkness peeling back and fading slowly, like dusk giving way to the edge of dawn until I could freely see where I was. A plain hallway, no signs of the chaos that had just taken place.
At the far end, a pedestal rose from the ground. A key sat atop it, ordinary, shining faintly in the quiet glow of my victory.
I limped toward it, my firsts still clenched. Part of me thought it was another trick, that the moment I touched the key, I would be sucked into another cursed trial of chaos in this godforsaken maze.
The King’s voice rose like mist behind me, but I didn’t turn. I wouldn’t stop until that key was in my hand.
“Well, well, little sky girl,” he drawled, amusement lacing his tone. “The key is yours. Color me impressed.”
A door opened, a red, blaring exit sign posted above it. Finally, I reached the key, its cool metal sliding into my palm. A few deep breaths later, and I still held it, the world staying exactly as it should. There was truly no more to this hellish maze.
With a flip of my favorite finger at the King I knew would still be watching, I walked through the exit.
A warm pair of arms immediately enveloped me, cheers drowning out the thrum of my heartbeat as I struggled to reel in my emotions. The soft scent of amber and vanilla wrapped around me, and I closed my eyes, burying my face in Tarran’s neck as she held me.
“I knew you’d do it,” she whispered before we finally separated.
The hug had gone on a few beats too long to be just friendly, and I could see in her eyes that she’d felt it too.
Suddenly, I was pushed back a few steps as both Carls charged in to hug me, squeezing me tightly, their chatter running a mile a minute. All I could do was grin.
***
“We’re leaving as soon as we can tomorrow,” I told Tarran later that night. We sat in the living room of the house we’d been loaned, the Carls already fast asleep and snoring loudly, a noise that would find me no matter how far I tried to get away from them.
“What happened in there?” She shifted closer to me, setting the steaming cup of tea she’d been drinking on the table. “That look on your face…I’ve never seen you look like that.”
I swallowed hard, not sure if I wanted to get into every detail with her. Nothing I could tell her would change what had happened in there, would ease the wounds I’d been carrying from my life outside this book. All it would do was further upset me.
“This Kingdom was so hard for me,” I eventually said, choosing my words carefully. “Both Kings seemed to know my deepest scars, my biggest fears, and they used them against me. I had to confront things I would be happy to never see again.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, not prying for more information and instead just listening, which I appreciated. I jumped a little when her soft hands found mine. Our eyes clashed, and I swallowed hard against the darkness lurking in hers.
A beat of silence passed as the moment stretched longer and longer, a strange tension settling between us as we looked at one another. Without realizing it, I’d leaned forward, our faces only inches away.
“We can leave first thing in the morning,” she whispered, and I realized then that her gaze had travelled further south, toward my lips instead.
She looked nervous, but she didn’t pull away.
We were fast approaching being much too close, but still, she didn’t move.
“Anything you need. We got what we came for already.”
“Hey Tarran?” My voice was quiet, the emotions of the day bubbling up under the surface. I wanted to do something rebellious, something reckless, without having to worry about the consequences. Something that would help me forget the struggle of today.
“Yeah?”
“Stop me if you don’t want to,” I whispered.
My eyes met hers one last time, giving her the chance before I closed the inches between us, capturing her lips with mine.
They were just as soft as I’d not let myself admit I’d imagined countless times, firm but greedy as she kissed me back.
Our tongues tangled together, breaths coming in increasingly heavy pants as I scooted as close to her as I could.
A sharp thud startled us away from each other, eyes wide as one of the Carls let out a pained groan before he settled back into a cacophony of snores.
Tarran stared at me, one finger coming up to touch her swollen lips before she stood, speeding off to her sleeping area, leaving me to stare after her in a breathless panic.
Shit.