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I could forget the way I felt when he was about to die, how my entire being couldn’t think until he was safe. I could forget the way he’d looked at me when I came to his rescue.

Just like that, I wouldn’t think of him anymore.

My dreams proved me a liar.

I woke after too many hours of sleep. I knew it as my eyelids opened. Too much light spilled into my hiding place for only a few hours to have passed, and my body felt too rested. I waited to be sure there was no noise, then broke through the vines.

“Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked.

Silence.

“Clark?”

I turned each way, finding labyrinth walls and nothing else. He might have gone for water, or have found food somehow. If I only waited, he’d come around the corner in a moment with his innocent smile and I’d get to tell him that I was sorry for whatever happened last night and that he means more to me than anyone. We’d spend the next two days reaching the center of the labyrinth and then our life would begin.

A slip of paper peeked through the labyrinth wall. I grabbed it, and unrolled the parchment.

Ren,

You always told me you couldn’t love me. I don’t think I saw it until now.

I’m going to win this labyrinth for you and prove that I’m the man you deserve. But I can’t stay and watch you fall in love with someone else.

When this is over, I hope to have earned your respect.

Stay alive. I love you.

Yours forever, Clark

FORTY-THREE

I shoved the note in my pocket and ran. Clark had to have gone toward the east. If I ran fast enough, I could find him. It was easier to run without the weight of my sword but my legs still couldn’t move fast enough. I dug my feet into the ground and forced myself faster.

I had to find him.

The chill of the labyrinth licked my face, its icy tendrils soon sinking below my skin to freeze my bones. Snow capped the labyrinth walls, their intricate patterns blending into the pale, overcast sky. Icicles dangled like sharp, crystallinedaggers from gnarled branches above, their dripping tips whispering secrets of a season that had come and taken over without my noticing. Even the grass beneath my boots felt brittle, its crunch underfoot an audible reminder of how fragile things had become.

We’d slipped into winter without me realizing it. Fitting, I thought bitterly. The labyrinth seemed to be dying along with my relationship with Clark, both suffocating under a blanket of cold that neither of us had been prepared for.

I’d hurt him—I knew that now, the truth settling over me as heavy and cold as the snow. The realization stung, and for a moment, I couldn’t tell if it was the wind biting at my cheeks or the shame flushing through me. It was a painful epiphany, one that broke me in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

Clark had been so perfect, in every way that mattered. His kindness, his unwavering devotion, his ability to see beauty where I saw only darkness—it had been more than I deserved. Yet, I’d hurt his spirit, that bright and unshakable light within him, because I couldn’t force myself to love him the way he loved me. I had tried so hard to love him. But feelings couldn't be conjured from will alone. Love, true love, refused to be commanded or shaped, and no amount of wishing could make it different.

I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering against the cold. Was it always this freezing in winter? Or was this chill something I carried now, lodged deep in my soul, a permanent reminder of what I had done?

I was a miserable mess.

When I pulled myself together, I set my resolve on one thing—reaching the end so the Quarter Labyrinth would be over. Things could be mended when the chaos was through.

With my heart shoved back into my chest, I trekked onward, telling myself that my heartbeat tattoo was another pair of footsteps so I didn’t feel so alone. A merciless wind snapped through the branches overhead, making them crack against one another. Dark clouds formed. My clothes worked fine in spring, summer, and autumn, but they were wildly unfit for a cruel winter.

I heard Clark’s voice in my head as if he stood next to me.It’s only for a few days until someone wins this labyrinth. We’ll be fine.

I pressed on.

Winter snuck in like a thief at first. But now, it had claimed the maze entirely. The walls, once lush with ivy and vibrant moss, were now draped in glittering sheets of ice that caught the pale sunlight and refracted it into cold, sharp rainbows. Snow crowned the labyrinth’s edges to glitter like diamonds. The wind made a soft song as it darted through the branches.

The winding paths were no longer soft with soil or overgrown grass; instead, they were coated in a thin, slick layer of frost that turned each step into a cautious gamble. I favored the paths with the least snow in order to keep my footprints hidden. Hours had passed, and I came upon no other traces of human wandering. The trees, which had once burst through hedges to stretch their leafy arms overhead, now stood bare and skeletal, their branches heavy with snow and adorned with icicles that dripped like frozen tears.