Chapter 6
Not what I was expecting.
The world warped as we entered the blackness, then violently snapped into this.
A fucking dank cave of nothingness. A tangible, suffocating nothingness, surrounded by black craggy walls.
Though, wait a moment, it’s not literally suffocating.
Air! I breathe in deeply, and it’s not hyperbole to say it’s the most satisfying inhalation of my life.
Donovan stumbles against me. “You alright?” I ask.
“Yeah, just a bit swimmy. Oh, wow. Air! Shit, and I made it through.” In the gloom, I see him blink several times. “And we’re in a cave,” he says, stating the obvious.
“Well, yes.”
I cast an illumination spell and set up some spheres of light. I’m just finishing up when the rest of the traveling circus appears. The dud doesn’t stick her landing and crashes onto the cavern floor. The janitor and Feniks instantly start fussing around. So tedious.
Dono’s eyes flash in her direction, but he stays by my side, not joining them, for which I’m grateful.
I reach a hand out to his shoulder, and Dono turns, giving me a half smile. “I know it was unlikely, but I’d really hoped Wes and Max would just be here, like waiting for us.”
“Those fuckers aren’t the type to make life easier,” I reply. “Where the fuck do you think we are now?” It’s a rhetorical question. None of us have answers.
Theodora is back on her feet, but now the janitor is stumbling around like a bull in a china shop.
“Ludo, what is it?” she shrieks. “He’s choking! Help him!”
Hmm, it’s true, the giant doesn’t look too good.
I move closer and see his skin ripple. “He’s going to shift.”
Theo goes to stroke his forehead, and the janitor's eyes meet mine. “Step back, dud…”
Ludo stumbles away from her as Feniks tugs her into his arms.
An unearthly groan comes from deep within the janitor, then he releases the snaps on his coveralls, revealing a chest already monstrously large.
Suddenly, my jaw gives a phantom throb. Wait? Why does this moment seem familiar? Ludo shedding his coveralls…almost feels like I've seen it before.
Fuck.
Machete?
The janitor?
My stomach twists, but I can’t focus on the memory. My attention is drawn to the green glimmer of sparks now surrounding him. Is this what I looked like? There’s an intense snapping, crashing noise—and then he’s shifted.
At first, all I can see is a huge, hunched-over silhouette. But then I notice the horns.
Wicked-looking horns.
The creature's head turns, and the janitor is no longer recognizable. His head is warped, huge, and shit—there’s a ring glinting through his nostrils.
Ludo has a bull's head atop his giant body. And by giant, I mean he’s grown upwards and outwards by at least a couple of feet.
If Donovan in his centaur form is graceful beauty, then this right here is the beast.
The minotaur beast stands slowly, rising to a height of at least nine feet—but remains silent and impassive. I watch his nostrils flare, and bull-Ludo takes a forward step.
As he walks towards me, I smell damp earth emanating from him.
I decide to keep calm and carry on, as they say.
The minotaur’s massive shoulder brushes against me as he passes by, ignoring me.
“I can still hear him,” the dud says quietly.
Has that bitch had access to my thoughts all along? My jaw clenches hard enough to crack a tooth. I immediately slam down my mental shields, visualizing a steel vault door locking tight, complete with an alarm system. I don’t know if it will work, but she needs to be permanently out of my mind.
Or there will be trouble.
“Is he forming, er, sentences? Human sentences?” Feniks asks.
“His voice is there, but different.” Theodora cocks her head on one side like a little bird. “Oh,” she replies after a minute. “Ludo is still in there, but it’s harder for him to let me hear his thoughts.” She looks up and smiles. “He says it’s his job to navigate these tunnels.”
“That makes sense,” the professor replies, like any of this makes sense. The lights I’d cast are fading, so I spell some more illumination as Feniks goes into professor mode. “Minotaurs can lead you through a labyrinth, but only if they deemed the person worthy.”
Good thing I’m not on my own with the janitor, or I have the suspicion I’d be literally left in the dark.
An uncomfortable feeling stirs in my chest. I’m a person that others would happily abandon to a labyrinth. I usually don’t care in the slightest what other people think of me, so why am I bothered now?
It’s almost as though all the dragon fire running through my veins is forcing me to see things from another perspective. I don’t like it, and I won’t have it. I hate this weakness.
Fuck off feelings.
“He wants us to follow him,” the dud says, grabbing the hands of Donovan and the professor. The minotaur makes a noise of heavy breathing. Then, with a rattle in his throat, he steps into the darkest area of the cavern and disappears into the gloom. Donovan, Feniks, and Theodora quickly follow.
As I take up the rear, a lullaby one of my nannies used to sing echoes around my head. ‘One is one and all alone, and ever more shall be so.’
I follow behind the group.
The minotaur strides along, decisively taking one route after another. There are so many tunnels branching out like roots from a tree, each one offering the potential to be either a path to escape—or eternal purgatory lost down in the dark. Fuck. Wes and Maximus could be anywhere.
Or dead.
How would they survive in this place? Now I’m breathing air again, all my bodily functions have returned. The need for water and food is becoming extremely present. Don’t think about water. Don’t think about cool, icy pitchers of water.
I glance over my shoulder, and all there is behind us is solid blackness. Already, I have no sense of direction or idea of which way the original cavern could be. Putting out a hand, I trail it along the tunnel's rough walls.
Each branch that opens up pulls at me slightly, like I’m being invited in.
But I have a sense that what the invitation holds is to spend eternity lost in this subterranean prison.
“Is anyone else thirsty?” Donovan’s voice is deadened in the enclosed space.
“I’d forgotten what it feels like to need water.
And food. I could really go for chicken-fried steak and hashbrowns right now.
” His wistful tone suddenly shifts. “Fuck! Guys! NO! If I’m hungry after being down here for just an hour, then Wes, if he didn’t find his way out… ”
I can’t help but snap. “You just now coming to that realization, dumbass? That Wes and Maximus were probably fucked months ago?”
“Stop it! They’re alive, I know they are,” the dud says firmly as we enter an even narrower artery. “We can’t panic; all we can do is follow Ludo.”
This is what my life has come to, putting my faith in a bovine janitor.
The little gang ahead of me reverts to walking single file. I can hear Donovan mumbling to himself. “Spiders don’t exist in other dimensions. This is just a feeling. My thoughts are not facts.”
Oh yes. I remember his intense arachnophobia.
Seems like some of the therapy he did stuck.
I’ve never been claustrophobic, but now, with a giant dragon living beneath my skin, small spaces don’t suit me.
The dragon wants the sky. He wants to spread wings that I don't technically have right now.
The rock walls feel like they are crushing me.
On and on we go. The janitor is a machine, taking twists and turns without a single pause for contemplation. He’s headed in one destination, and one destination only. I can only hope that it’s out of here.
Suddenly, the bull halts, turning on a giant heel and pushing himself in front of the girl.
“Something's coming!” Theodora cries out, panic in her voice. “And it’s not good.”
The minotaur spreads his mass to form a solid wall of muscle. Instinctively, I move to join the others circling the girl. My dragon growls a command in the back of my mind—Guard her. It’s annoying, but I can’t help but obey.
A growl echoes through the tunnels. Deep. Hungry.
And then again.
Sounding far too fucking close.