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Paige reached for the doorknob when the mouth on the door opened wide with shock.

“Just a moment! Don’t you dare!”

Paige leapt back, her jaw falling open. “What?”

“How dare you touch my knob!”

Paige’s forehead wrinkled as she lowered her eyes, studying the ground. “How else would I open you?”

“Ask! How would you feel if someone wandered up to you, kicked you, and then grabbed your knob?”

“Well, that seems…” She flicked her gaze at the door. “Not nice. I’m sorry.”

The face in the door seemed to give a nod. Paige winced and tried again.

“Would it be okay if I…” She closed her eyes for a moment before she uttered the next words, feeling ridiculous. “Turned your knob and opened you?”

The lips formed a pucker before the door answered, “I shouldn’t after all this, but I suppose I shall let you. Go ahead.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate it,” Paige said.

She inched closer and, after a moment of staring at the door, reached for the knob, turned it, and pushed the door open.

She stepped through into the next corridor.

A throaty growl sounded to her right. Paige snapped her eyes in that direction, gasping at the sight.

A dark gray wolf, its eyes on her, bared its teeth, snarling.

“Oh, wrong way,” Paige exclaimed as she attempted to retreat.

“I don’t think so. Have fun with your new friend, door kicker!” the door shouted at her as it swung shut.

“No! Wait,” Paige screamed, pounding against it. “Let me out!”

Another low growl called her attention back to the pressing matter of the wolf. Paige pressed her back against the wall, her eyes widening.

She pulled the sword from her pocket and held it in front of her. “Don’t come any closer.”

The wolf snarled again, stalking back and forth with drool dripping from its sharp fangs.

“I’m serious,” Paige warned, thrashing the sword in the air. “I’ll use this.”

The wolf stared at her for a moment. “That door was right to trap you.”

The sword’s tip fell to the ground, and Paige’s jaw fell almost as far, too. “You talk?”

“Well, of course I talk.”

“Then why were you growling at me?”

“What did you expect? You burst through the door and scared me half to death. I’m stuck in the corner here with nowhere to go! I had to defend myself.”

“Defend–“ Paige fluttered her eyelashes as she tried to acclimate to the strange new circumstances. “All right, look, I don’t mean anyone any harm. I’m just trying to get to the center of this stupid labyrinth so I can get home.”

“You and me both, girl.”

Paige cocked her head. “You, too?”