Chapter 28 Taera
Taera
Nikolai leads me through a sequence of corridors, surprisingly empty, until we spill into a huge glass dome packed with magicians.
My mouth drops open.
A young woman walks past me, completely naked and surrounded by turquoise butterflies.
Actual butterflies. I stare, then make myself look away.
Then, when my curiosity gets the better of me, I sneak another look.
The cloud of butterflies flutters around her.
For as long as I look, they flit in just the right places to stop me from glimpsing anything I shouldn’t.
Even as she sashays away from us, hips swaying, the butterflies just happen to be wherever is necessary to keep her decent. It’s perplexing.
Nikolai catches me staring and chuckles. “That’s Gwen.”
Embarrassed, I pull my eyes away from her.
Another student struts past me in a sky-blue floating amorphous tube that encircles her from neck to knees. It wriggles like a worm, not paying any heed to gravity.
“If you’re impressed by these costumes, you should see the masquerade,” Nikolai murmurs.
The dress of the next student who sweeps past is completely upside down. The pink skirt flares up at the chest to support her prominent breasts. What should be shoulder straps are instead garters at her thighs, holding up what looks to be stockings of water. The ensemble hurts my head to look at.
“Welcome to the labyrinth, Taera,” Nikolai says.
Labyrinth? I follow his gaze over the crowd of students and take in the huge marble archway engraved with symbols I can’t read.
Beyond it lies a narrow path between two towering glass walls.
The entrance to what looks like the beginning of a gargantuan glass maze.
My chest tightens. I hope I don’t have to find a twisting path through it to escape this place.
But if I need to, I’ll learn its every turn.
“Look who came.” The sleek, feminine voice makes my stomach sink. Jezebel steps in our way, and when I see her, I do a double take.
Only the thinnest layer of black lace clings to her skin from the neck down. The nonexistent mesh contours her full breasts and hips and thighs, leaving nothing to the imagination.
I make myself avert my gaze, a blush prickling my cheeks. I thought my own strapless gown was risqué, but next to her I might as well be wearing a burlap sack.
She looks me up and down and smirks. Her smug satisfaction makes me want to punch her.
“Morning,” Nikolai says, perfectly at ease.
“Niko!” Annie skips over, and Omi follows close behind.
Annie’s playful red overalls bloom—literally—with tiny leaves and flowers unfurling right out of the linen and growing before my eyes.
At least I can stare at the garden-like garment without it feeling inappropriate.
Omi’s clad in a crisp white button-up atop their flat chest, layered with a purple vest and matching purple skirt.
I eye their legs, trying to discern if they’re shaped like a man’s or a woman’s but can’t decide.
“So this is the new source.” Another low voice.
I look up at the shadowed, hard lines of a student in plain black tunic and pants. Everything about him, from his hair to his frown, is dark and rather sullen. He takes the space beside Omi, nodding a greeting to them and to Annie.
“Taera, meet Sasha,” Omi provides.
“Nice to meet you,” I say.
The brooding magician purses his lips but doesn’t say anything more.
“Love your dress.” Annie grins at me. “Matches Niko’s eyes.”
I frown, glancing at Nikolai, then down at myself. My mood sours. Is this another of his ploys to make me look like I belong to him?
“Ready?” Annie asks, practically bouncing on her toes.
“Not sure what I’m ready for,” I say. “No one’s told me what these glass games are about.”
Annie’s already waving to someone else. “That’s the spirit.” She winks and scurries off into the growing crowd.
“Follow me.” Nikolai touches my elbow and peels me away from the group. Jezebel scowls after me, making me glad to leave—even if we’re moving toward the huge arch.
“You could have warned me,” I mutter once we’re alone.
“Of what?” He lifts his brows. Just as I’m about to cut into him about the indecent costumes, the excited buzz of conversation quiets. It’s like the room has been submerged in water, every sound far away.
Everyone is turning toward the arch over the entrance to the labyrinth, and I crane my neck in that direction.
“Alright, everyone!” a high voice bubbles up over the quiet. “Welcome to the glass games! You all know the rules: the Glassmasters have opened the forbidden labyrinth for one day.”
Nikolai places a hand on my back.
My breath hitches, skin tingling beneath his touch.
I scowl, ready to shove him off, but look up to see his gaze is focused ahead.
He’s not touching me to tease me. He’s weaving us forward, through the crowd, urging me wordlessly toward the front.
I grit my teeth and follow. I have to ignore the way that magic must somehow be slipping through the thin fabric where he’s touching my back; the warmth of his hand feels far too sensitive against my skin.
I huff out a breath.
We reach the front and his hand drops thankfully away. I spot the announcer: a girl with bright pink hair and a butter-yellow dress on top of a marble step.
Nikolai gestures to her and murmurs, “Anyone in yellow is a chaser.”
“What’s a chaser?” I ask.
“If they tag you, you’re eliminated.”
“It’s that simple?”
I look up at Nikolai, the motion bringing our faces closer together than I expected. His eyes are bright and sparkling.
I startle, jerk my chin away and back toward the announcer.
Her voice reverberates through the room. “We’ve taken great pleasure in filling this year’s labyrinth with devastating traps and marvelous treasure.”
At the mention of traps, I frown.
“Any perks or hexes you acquire will wear off by sunrise tomorrow. Except for the grand prize.” Her crazed smile frightens me. What have I gotten myself into?
“Don’t worry, we’ll comb you all out by nightfall.” Her voice swoops up. “Your ten-minute head start begins now!”
The crowd cheers and students pour forward, sprinting, shoving, laughing, diving toward the archway. A whirlwind of motion. My limbs stiffen within the moving mass of bodies until Nikolai’s gloved hand clasps my wrist and tugs me out of the way.
“Shouldn’t we hurry?” I ask.
“That’s not how it works,” Nikolai replies.
My eyes flit to the entrance to the labyrinth. “Aren’t you trying to win the prize?”
“Of course.”
“Then why aren’t we going in?”
He chuckles. “Patience, Taera.”
I close my mouth, unwilling to argue with the irrational magician. I’m here to find a way out, not win some game. Learning something, anything, about this cursed place is worth it. Even if it means stepping deep into the stomach of the Halls of Glass.
I shiver. “What’s at the center?”
“No one knows,” he murmurs.
The hairs on my neck prickle.
Once most of the crowd has poured through, Nikolai saunters forward. Only the chasers—in yellow dresses, vests, jackets—lag back and watch us. Their unearthly faces are worse than the rest: one reptilian, another made of stone…
A shiver wriggles down my spine. “They’re coming after us?”
“Yes, they’re the chasers.” Nikolai crosses the threshold, below the arch, and I step tentatively after him.
The maze is even larger from the inside. Glass walls tower upward on both sides, translucent enough to let me peer into a dizzying knot of passageways behind. Endless paths. But I can only see glass—no other students, except Nikolai at my side.
Something fizzy and electric skitters across my arm, little sparks coating my skin. I stick close to him as we take our first turn.
Within seconds, we lose sight of the chasers, the entrance. The outside world, noise, color, people, vanish. The corridor squeezes narrower until our shoulders are almost brushing.
I take a controlled breath in and out, trying not to feed the panic stirring between my ribs.
Nikolai turns to the right and leads me down another looming passageway, strolling like we’re on some leisurely morning walk. My steps press after him. Even if this labyrinth holds the key to my escape, I want to get in and out of its creepy corridors as quickly as possible.
“Careful,” Nikolai murmurs, making me jump. The labyrinth is silent around us.
“Of what?” My whisper comes out hoarse.
“The faster we go, the longer we’ll take.”
My momentary terror drains, and I glare at him. “Everyone else is ahead of us.”
“Not ahead,” he says. “Just apart.”
Apart? What in the desert does that mean?
I ignore him. I need to study the labyrinth, to see if it leads to a way out of the Halls.
But every glass wall and square turn looks the same.
I’m having trouble remembering the dozens of lefts and rights we’ve already taken.
The idea of getting separated and being lost in these long, dark corridors makes me shudder, and I stay close to Nikolai as we tread deeper into the maze.
“Left or right?” Nikolai asks, reaching a split in the corridor.
“How would I know?”
He shrugs. “That doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighs, turns to the left, and continues. “The labyrinth takes you where it takes you, just like the rest of the Halls.”
“What are we trying to find, anyway?” I ask. “Something to do with your book?”
Nikolai halts mid-step and whips a look at me. “Don’t mention the book again.”
I blink at his sudden intensity.
“If it’s secret, why do you carry it around?”
He looks at me, as though considering how much to tell me. “There are some secrets valuable enough to get you banished from the Halls… if you’re caught with them.”
I perk up, my mind racing with ideas.
He scowls. “Other secrets are valuable enough that once you know them, you’ll never be permitted to leave the Halls again.”