21. Ah-Maze-ing
TWENTY-ONE
ah-maze-ing
Keira
A feral tangle of hormones are pulsing through my body at the sight of this man. Or maybe it’s the feel of his slow trailing gaze across every inch of my gown, my breasts, my lips … dark eyes are ringed with silver as his gaze meets mine with a look that feels like he wants to eat me alive right on here on the academy steps.
“You’re late.” Headmaster Reign stands before Arcane with a coldness in his gaze that would chill most men to their bones.
My mate’s attention pulls away from me as he clears his throat gruffly. Tense annoyance darkens his features at the reminder that other people also exist.
“I was told the banquet was this evening, and that the trials don’t begin until midnight,” Arcane counters, but the headmaster is already shaking his head.
Students pace the academy gardens in fine ties and billowing gowns, their eyes big with worry as they speak in hushed tones to one another. My palms sweat beneath the lace gloves covering my hands, but I try to look grander than I feel as we stand among the blooming roses scattered about the rocky courtyard this evening.
“The King of Attika is in attendance for this evening! You’re to be an example for our men. They look to you for guidance, and you’re failing them!” His words shake out like he might burst into angry tears at any moment.
“I apologize,” Arcane offers flatly, and it’s the sincerity in his tone that I feel even within myself that has me watching him closely.
Reign is a terrible man. But I think terrible men are all Arcane has ever known. And he’s not about to start disappointing them yet, it seems.
“We begin in one hour,” Reign says with a shake of his head as he strides off to the table of refreshments just near an enormous six-foot-tall vase of red roses.
Arcane lifts his onyx goblet toward the headmaster’s back before downing its contents in one big gulp. He turns, and his gaze falls on the shining eyes that pin him in place. He doesn’t dare to so much as swallow his drink with the glare his sister is slicing through him.
“Clawd will be joining this evening’s festivities, but he’s been grounded from this semester’s trials. He’ll have to repeat the semester next year,” she says through tight red lips.
She’s wearing a velvet cascading black dress that matches my own lacy gown. It hugs her slender frame and makes her seem more mature, older somehow.
“I’m—sorry to hear he can’t risk his life with the rest of us,” Arcane says carefully.
“I won’t forgive you, Arcane. My mate has my loyalty,” she tells him tersely.
“A terrible choice, if I do say so myself,” Arcane murmurs so quietly I’m not even sure she heard him.
“But I want you to promise me you’ll be safe.” Big blue eyes look up at him with so much honesty.
She isn’t anyone’s Fated in this moment. She isn’t a woman scorned. She’s just a little girl asking her big brother to not die tonight.
And my stomach sinks knowing he can’t promise her that.
He nods to her stiffly, and she dabs the corners of her eyes as she rushes away from him before another word can be spoken. He looks to me for a long moment. His hand slips through mine with a squeeze that presses calmness into my nerves before he trails after her.
There’s a strange brick wall at the center of the sprawling gardens, if you can truly call them that. A few gloomy shrubs border the academy entrance, and aside from that lively bit of nature, all of the flowers here tonight sit in big round pots or tall dark vases. The bricks beneath our feet are as dark as the stone the academy seems carved from. From this side of the school, we overlook a city that I know nothing about. It spans on for miles past the academy gates. The twinkling lights of the city burn bright while the rocky bones of the ocean at our backs is heavy with darkness.
It occurs to me then how much the academy has consumed me. It’s swallowed me whole from the very moment I awoke here. If I was meant for something down there, something in this kingdom rather than this academy . . . Fate wouldn’t have put me here in this hauntingly beautiful place.
It’s all a pretty show tonight, possibly for the royal family that will soon be arriving to watch my classmates meet their Fate this evening. Unless they survive. And then we’ll be crowned bloody Protectors, killing the very animals this academy promised to protect.
“Heard my brother didn’t even rank in yesterday’s trials,” a voice says to me from over my shoulder.
I turn, and the kindest eyes meet mine.
“You made it!” I beam at Aelix, and he wraps an arm around my waist in a half hug.
A black suit hugs his lithe frame, and I’m deeply reminded of how princely he looks with his dark hair combed back from his sharp features, like a knight all cleaned up for the final pages of a fairytale.
“You look—incredible,” he says a bit too enthusiastically, but it’s probably how tightly this lace gown is pressing against my breasts if I’m being honest.
I smile at his compliment, but his shining eyes linger on my features, searching for something within them.
“Arcane’s never lost.” His words are admitted so bluntly that I don’t really understand them at first. “He’s never gone out on a hunt and not brought home a bounty. It’s not in his nature. He’s a predator, Keira. Always has been. Even when we were little kids. Just cruel. A total asshole.”
“Okay! I get it. He’s not great.” I lift my hands to try to stop his onslaught of criticism against my mate, but damn, Arcane really does deserve it sometimes.
“I meant, he lost yesterday’s trial. And I don’t know why he lost. But I know he did it for you. Ever since you showed up, it’s like you own him or something. I can’t explain it.”
Because you do, a familiar voice says, and their words whisper right into my ear.
Aelix continues, but the surroundings of the night pull at my attention. My thoughts reel as I search the voice out among too many faces and too many words spinning around me. The other students toast to one another. Professor Correll steps onto the crumbling academy steps behind us in heels that clack over the brick with her every move. A group of older men and women enter through the wrought iron gates, and someone calls out to announce:
“The Ruler of the Seven Isles, the Protector of Dragons, the Northern King of Attika has arrived!” And applause overtakes the audience.
All while a skinny boy with hair so dark it bleeds into the shadows looks right at me from around the corner of the brick wall. It’s him again! I hold his big dark eyes for several seconds, and then, like a magnet, I’m pulled to him. I leave Aelix, and I feel his attention hanging on my every move, but I can’t explain right now.
That spirit knows. He’s known from the very start why I’m here. It’s time he shares with the class.
When I round the corner of the wall, I halt instantly.
It’s a hall of sorts. And the boy is gone.
“ Keira,” his voice calls from down the length of the brick hall like a breath lost in the wind.
That’s all it takes. I follow after his baiting tone. At first, I wander on slow steps through the strange high brick walls until I get to the end and turn the corner. Only to be met with sharp winding halls venturing straight ahead or to the right.
“It’s a maze,” I whisper to myself.
“You always were too clever, Keira,” he whispers in my ear like he’s known me my entire lifetime, and I’ve only just begun to meet the person that I am today.
An eerie knowing sensation crawls up my spine, and I turn in a small circle to search him out.
But he’s deeper into the stone labyrinth. For a moment, I peer back at the few students I can still see at the entrance of the maze. They linger with goblets of sweet wine and fluffy cakes of desserts, oblivious to the girl who’s stepping deeper into the tangled mystery of her own life. I decide on the passage to the right, and the whispers encourage me to keep going.
“Arcane Deces belongs to you, Keira.” His words echo against the bricks, bouncing all around me like fireflies in the night.
“Is he why I’m here?” I can’t help but ask, and I have to stop once more when I come to an intersection. A crossroads of walls where I stand pinned at the center. I wait for his reply, but nothing comes. Frustration climbs through me, and I force myself to choose. With heavier steps, I turn left. Only to find that the glossy bricks come to a halt just a few yards ahead.
“Dammit!” I hiss at myself as well as the spirit who might have just abandoned me in this mess for all I know.
“He is why you’re here. But he’s not the only one who needs you,” the whisper crawls across the walls, and that taunting answer has me spinning on the heels of my shoes and backtracking.
On quick steps, I pass the passage I came from and march straight ahead into what must be the heart of the labyrinth. Too many turns rush by as that voice echoes endlessly on, and I feel like I’m being consumed by the madness of this academy with every step I take.
“You found me. You found the souls of the catacombs,” he tells me, feeding me breadcrumbs one by one, and I eat them right up. “But you didn’t go far enough, Keira. He distracted you instead of helping you.”
“Arcane distracted me?” I ask him, and my eyes scan the hanging shadows for any hint of the boy’s bone-white face.
I round the corner as fast as it comes, and heels skid against the stone as soon as I see him standing at the center of the maze.
“He did,” he answers on a flat tone. “You didn’t go far enough down, Keira.”
My reflection is mirrored back at me from the four glossy brick walls that surround us. The stark black lace of my gown gives my skin a glowing appearance while the boy in front of me reveals no true reflection at all. The bricks show the two of us: my face peers back at me and the mysterious skinny boy, he’s a beam of light standing at my side. For a moment, we only stare at one another.
A booming voice shatters the moment, and we look back at the way we came as Professor Correll’s words carry through the starry night sky.
“Please give a round of applause for our annual academy trials!”
Cheers and hollers crackle through the warm air.
“Protectors, please make your way to our Ah-maze-ing starting line. Shifting of any kind is strictly prohibited this evening!” Her words echo through the night. I peer at the spirit from the corner of my eye, and a slow, knowing smile spreads over his cracking white lips. “The first one to complete the labyrinth will be met with a surprise! The first student to crawl out of the dungeons below will be our winner!”
“Dungeons?” I ask with a pull of my brow, and when I look back at him, that sinister smile spreads wide to reveal blackened teeth.
“I said you didn’t go far enough down,” he repeats oddly.
Then the ground shakes. The bricks beneath our feet fall away one by one, starting at the four corners. I scatter away as they tumble down, but my footfalls aren’t fast enough. The floor rips away beneath my feet, and I’m falling. The lace of my dress tangles around my kicking legs. Rock scrapes over my arm. Bricks slam into my skull. My screams are devoured. Darkness swallows me whole.
The concrete below comes all too fast.
I put my hands out as if I can stop it.
The breath in my lungs is jagged, and I’m ashamed to say, fearful.
Because part of me knows I can’t survive this landing.
My wrists buckle on impact. The slick cracking of my skull is the last thing I hear.
A warmth overtakes my body as everything goes black. I bask in that spreading sensation that seeps all through me and out of me.
All I ever wanted was to feel alive.
Nothing has made me feel more alive quite like dying.