Page 79

“Aye.”

A slight smile crossed her features. “Maybe we can help each other.”

The wolf’s eyebrows wiggled. “That would be nice. I’d like to get out of here. I’ve been here for twenty years.”

“TWENTY YEARS?” Paige shouted.

“Yep. Been stuck in this corridor for almost ten of them. That stupid door left me in here and didn’t tell me it led to a dead end. And now it won’t let me out.”

“I won’t have much luck either. As you can see, the door hates me too.”

“Then I suppose we’re both stuck.”

“No way,” Paige said, shoving the sword into her pocket again. She dug her fingers into the wall and braced her feet against the stones. “I can scale the wall.”

“Lucky you. I can’t. I keep slipping.”

“It’s fine. I’ll pull you up once I’m up there,” Paige said as she attempted to scramble up the wall.

Her feet slid a few times before she gained traction and pulled herself to the top.

“Really? You’d do that for me?”

Paige lowered herself to lie against the wall’s top and reached her hand down. “Yes, grab my hand.”

The wolf approached, eyeing Paige’s outstretched arm. It stood on its hind legs and reached a front paw up. Paige latched onto it, wrapping both hands around it and tugging.

Her face reddened with effort as she pulled. “Climb!”

The wolf placed its back feet against the stone and clambered up the wall. Paige hauled it over the top, breathing hard from the work.

“There,” she said as she gasped for air. “Made it.”

The wolf scanned the remaining portion of the labyrinth before turning to Paige. “Yes, and I see a way through.”

Paige’s head lolled to the side as she rolled onto her back, and a smile crossed her lips. “Thank goodness. Now we can–“

The wolf turned its backside toward her and kicked.

Paige toppled off the wall’s top and landed in a heap on the ground below. The sword flew from her pocket and clattered to the ground several feet away.

“Hey,” Paige shouted as she pushed herself up with her hands.

“Sorry. It’s nothing personal. But I’ve been in this maze for too long. I need to get out, and I can’t take the chance that it’s a race to the finish with you. Good luck.”

With that, the animal leapt off the wall and disappeared from Paige’s sight.

Paige grimaced as she climbed to her feet, dusting herself off and retrieving the sword. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I hate this place.”

She stuck the sword in her pocket again and climbed the wall a second time.

“Stupid wolf,” she murmured as her muscles protested her efforts. “Man, I really need to work out more.”

With sweat dripping down her face, she pulled herself over the top, noted a path forward, and slid down into the next passage.

She grumbled to herself about the book’s unfriendly characters as she traced her way through the rest of the labyrinth. The glow from the center grew brighter with every turn, becoming blinding as she made the last left and stared at it.

“Finally,” she exclaimed as she withdrew her sword from her pocket and inched closer to the light.