Chapter 12 Drayven
Drayven
Death hunts all in the Labyrinth, but it fears the Queen.”
— SCRAWLED IN BLOOD AT KASAROS’S TEMPLE
Glimmering stars are diamonds strewn across black velvet. Flori’s laughter rings out, bright as a bell in the crisp night air scented like blooming roses.
Which is odd because nothing grows here.
Her blue hair shimmers silver in the moonlight as she points out constellations, her other hand entwined with mine. Also odd. She’s too young to show affection like this. She’s more likely to shove me and shout “tag.”
“There, that cluster there—doesn’t it look like a unicorn?” Her finger traces the pattern, and I can almost see it gallop across the sky.
“If you say so.”
“Maybe that’s what I’ll become,” she muses. “A celestial unicorn, free to roam the heavens for eternity.”
I chuckle and squeeze her hand. “I thought you want to be an adventurer. Visiting the Drei to see dragons, charting unexplored lands, discover ancient ruins, maybe even find the lost treasure of Amara…”
“I do, I do! But maybe after that…” She trails off, and her smile falters just a fraction. “What will you become?”
Her question catches me off guard. I swallow hard, my chest tightening. Instead of answering, I ask, “Is that still what you want? To get out of this place and find adventure?”
With me?
She’s quiet for a long moment, eyes fixed on the distant stars. Then, a slow smile curves her lips, starting small but growing brighter until her whole face radiates joy.
“I was born for adventure,” she whispers, “for discovery, for forging my own path. I feel it deep in my bones. It’s my destiny.”
Pride and affection swell in my chest. My brave, bold, beautiful Flori, finally accepting she has the power to do whatever she wants. She always has. “Then that’s what you shall have, my blue star unicorn.” I tap her cute, button nose. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“You need dreams, too.” Her smile softens, and she turns her gaze back to the night sky. “They’re so pretty tonight.”
I nod, but my eyes never leave her face. “They are. But their beauty pales next to yours.”
Somewhere distant, I know I wouldn’t say this. I’m too cowardly to tell her how I truly feel. And she’s too young. She wouldn’t understand. Not yet. I barely do.
Flori laughs, a soft, tinkling sound that warms me to my core. “It’s a miracle all the girls in the village aren’t swooning at your feet. You’re such a charmer.”
“Only for you,” I murmur, brushing a stray lock of blue hair from her cheek.
She leans into my touch, eyes drifting shut for a moment. Then they open again, wide and thoughtful. “Do you ever wonder why Amara chose the stars? Why she left our world behind to dwell in the heavens?”
I consider her question, following her gaze upward. “Everyone knows why. She sought peace, a refuge from the chaos and cruelty of mankind.”
“Maybe,” Flori muses.
“Maybe someone broke her heart,” I offer.
She blows a raspberry. “Boys are stupid.”
“Hey!” I punch her shoulder.
“Present company excluded. You’re not really a boy.”
“Again, I’m offended.”
“No, you’re not.”
“What am I then?”
“My Drayven,” she blurts, as if it’s obvious what that means.
“Anyways, she was probably searching for something greater. A higher purpose, a destiny beyond the bounds of earth and flesh.” Her voice takes on a dreamy quality, distant yet full of longing.
“What if that’s what I’m meant for, Dray?
To ascend, to become a star myself? To light the way for others, even if it means leaving this world behind? ”
An icy fist clenches around my heart. “Don’t say such things. You belong here, with m—”
Before I finish, a blinding light sears my vision. I cry out, shielding my eyes, reaching desperately for her. My fingers graze her wrist, just like in our Shadow Stalker game. I catch her hand, but she slips from me. “Flori! No!”
I blink away spots dancing across my sight.
The breath leaves my body in a rush of horror.
Flori is rising, lifted by an unseen force, her form growing brighter and more translucent with each passing second.
The starlight is consuming her, burning away her mortal shell to reveal the shining essence within.
“FLORI!” I bellow, launching myself upright, arms outstretched. But my fingers close on empty air. She’s drifting away, becoming indistinguishable from the stars.
“No, no, please, no,” I rasp, my voice breaking on a sob. “Don’t leave me. Don’t go where I can’t follow. Flori, please…”
But she’s gone, leaving me alone, grasping hopelessly at the light of a star I’ll never touch.
“FLORI!”
Searing pain rips through my stomach, jolting me awake. I gasp and open my eyes as the remnants of my dream shatters for reality. The starlit clearing is gone, replaced by the damp confines of a temple covered with foliage, flickering with torchlight.
Disoriented, I struggle to sit up, only to collapse with a groan. Agony lances through my midsection. My hand comes away slick with blood, but the wound is closed when I look down to check the damage. Maybe weeks old. Puckered and scarred.
I clutch my head and try to remember. Fragments come back to me. I found Flori in the courtyard, saved her from that scum but then—my cock jerks, arousing at the memory of losing control and feasting between her thighs.
She refused to back down. Pushed my face into her sweet cunt, demanding more. Then after, she slipped her hand inside my pants and—I groan and rub my hardening erection. She brought me to climax. Fuck.
Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined a reality with her hands on me like that. But… what happened next?
A flicker of blue catches my eye. My heart stops. My lungs seize. She’s beside me, face down.
Still.
“Flori, what are you doing?” I ask, voice hoarse.
No answer.
I roll her onto her back. The white scraps they dressed her in are stained and torn. Shock barrels through me at the blood smeared over her stomach. My blood? I swipe her skin and find a swollen, puckered gash. It looks two days old, fragile, and ready to split open.
She gave her blood to me—to heal me. But at a cost to herself.
Is she breathing?
I lower my face to hers. A warm, shallow plume brushes my lips. Relief drops my shoulders and I lower my face into my palm. It’s then that I realize my mask is gone. My skin is bare, exposed. Vulnerable.
She knows.
Clear and undeniable memories flash through my mind.
Flori and I, innocent children, chasing each other through snowy streets.
Her defiant smirk as she evades my capture.
The night we spent hiding from adults. The night we met—her frail voice hopeless and down a well.
The weight of her small hand in mine after I beckoned for my stolen apple, the affection in her eyes.
The rose growing from her womb’s first blood.
I always knew she was special. There’s something unseen in the air around her that magnetizes me, that makes anyone she crosses paths feel the same.
She’s too good. Too pure. Too clever and determined.
And I’m hopelessly in love with her. But I destroyed any future for us when I put on that cursed mask and became the Huntsman.
Shame and self-loathing swarm over me. I don’t deserve her sacrifice. I don’t deserve her.
I stare at her beautiful face, pinched with pain, and know I can’t stay with her. Nor can I abandon her.
She mumbles and reaches for me.
“Enough, Flori,” I say softly, catching her hand in mine. “You’ve done enough.”
Her eyes flutter open, burnished with exhaustion but also with relief. “You live.”
“I’m furious.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other…” Her voice fades with her breath.
“Rest now,” I murmur, stroking her hair. “I’ll watch over you. I promise.”
After she drifts into a deep slumber, I investigate the haven we’ve found ourselves in. Danger lurks in every corner of the Labyrinth. Usually, I sense Kasaros’s presence everywhere, watching me, mocking every thought in my head. But he’s not here. It’s a strange sensation.
I’ll need to nurse Flori back to health without divine intervention, which means keeping this place warm and finding food. The torches give off light but no heat from the edges of the chamber. I’ll build a fire closer. Plenty of fresh water drips from the tiny gap in the canopy further down.
Morning sunlight filters in and stains Amara’s stone effigy with a rainbow.
My search for dry firewood brings me closer.
I pause to inspect the familiar shade of blue paint peeling from the Goddess’s hair.
Behind her, rain drips from a hole in the ceiling, filling a natural lagoon with fresh water.
It’s small, but a stream trickles outward, overflows, and is swallowed by ferns.
The vegetation around here grows even more lush and wild than the rest of the temple, as if she’s still present and feeding her magic into the fertile land.
I’ve traveled all around the realm, from the snowy wastelands to the deserts. Nothing this lush and green exists.
Could it be that we’ve genuinely found a refuge hidden from Kasaros’s eyes? Could this verdant temple be Amara’s lost treasure—hidden within the Labyrinth itself?
Whatever the case, if she deigned to offer protection by leading us here, she’ll expect something in return. She’s a God. That’s what they do.
It’s difficult, but I find enough dry wood to build a fire. Once it blazes, I hunt for food and find ripe berries, herbs, mushrooms, and nuts hiding in abundant foliage. I don’t know how long we’ve been out, so I rouse Flori to drink water. She takes a few greedy gulps and falls back asleep.
I clean her wound, pleased to see it already looking another day old. Whether rapid healing is normal for a magical gift or some kind of blessing from this place, I don’t care. She donated a fair amount of blood to me. That’s the only explanation for her state.
Foolish woman. She has the power of a Goddess burning through her veins, and she wastes it on me. Think of all the people she could save, the sick, the wounded.