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RIORDAN

“F or the record, I didn’t let Evie fucking do anything.” Eldric clawed at Blake’s hand, banded around his throat, eyes darting toward the dark hole. “She was here one minute, the next, she was gone,” the scholar panted. “Disappeared.”

“You were supposed to be watching her, asshole.”

I closed my eyes. Don’t fucking say it. Don’t…

“I had my eyes on her the entire time, so yeah I watched her disappear,” Eldric choked out, and Blake’s crushing grip tightened until the scholar’s larynx cracked.

“Put him down, this isn’t his fault. Ravok took her.” I tried to think past my anger as I crossed to the top of the spiral staircase, peering at endless darkness. Beneath the reek of spilled revenant blood, I picked up Malachi’s scent…and Evie’s.

Fury roared through me. The fucking revenants had only been a distraction.

And they had fucking worked, because now Evangeline—Ravok’s true target—was gone.

“She’s down there, so that’s where we’re going.” As much as I wanted to, we couldn’t dematerialize through solid stone, but we flew down those steps and along the passages at preternatural speeds.

The scent of Evie's magic hung in the air like smoke—desert storms tinged with fear. I followed her sweet spice like a beacon through the labyrinthian stone passages, Blake and Eldric panting at my heels.

“She's right up ahead,” I muttered, slowing down to keep my bearings. These ancient corridors bent and turned without logic, as if the mountain itself were trying to trap us.

And then…I lost the trail, like she’d disappeared into thin air.

Cobwebs fluttered around me as I lifted my head, catching nothing but the chalky reek of limestone and stale damp air that hadn’t been disturbed in centuries. Beneath my feet, the ground hummed, like we stood on top of a boiling volcano, ready to explode.

“How did we get turned around?” Blake hissed. “There’s only one fucking tunnel, where did she go?”

“These corridors were made to change after someone passed through,” Eldric murmured, running his fingers over the walls. “This entire place is a maze meant to trap its victims, which means we could be anywhere. And so could Evie.”

“The walls move?” I scraped the floor with my foot, revealing grooves cut into the stone, and in the walls around us, cleverly made seams where the stones fit together, magic glimmering in every crack and crevice, like cosmic mortar.

“This is fucked up. Can you still track her?” Blake asked, his voice tight with concern as he rubbed his chest. “I can’t get a read on her, it’s like our bond has gone…” His voice trailed off, the dim light turning his brown eyes murky.

“Just barely.” I nodded, drawing a deep breath through my nose. But Evie's floral scent was fainter, smothered by the stench of ancient magic, the dust and the damp and her own panic, now laced with something else.

Raw, uncontrolled power.

“She's losing control of her magic,” I said quietly, noting the fresh gouges cut into the walls around us as we headed in the new direction the maze had chosen for us. “We need to get to her before she brings this entire mountain down.”

The sour stain of Eldric’s fear stung my nose. “We’d never make it out of here in time, we have to be what…three hundred feet deep?”

I didn’t bother replying.

We rounded the next corner and I threw out an arm, stopping them both in their tracks. “ Wait .”

The corridor ahead looked identical to all the others, but my instincts prickled. Something felt wrong. I crouched, examining the stone floor more carefully. There—almost invisible in the dim light—a glimmering hairline crack bisected the floor. Not a natural fissure, either—a straight line.

“Some sort of pressure plate,” I murmured. “Stand back.”

I picked up a loose stone, tossing it onto the suspicious section. Immediately, the ground gave way, revealing a pit that plunged into darkness. The stone clattered, bouncing off the walls for what seemed like an eternity before finally hitting bottom with a distant splash.

Blake swore under his breath. “What the fuck is this?”

“Traps,” Eldric answered grimly. “Aurelius was known for creating games of death. The biography I found online said he’d herd his enemies beneath the castle and force them deeper into the tunnels to see who would survive.”

“And you never thought to mention this before we started down here?” Blake hissed, his fingers curling into fists.

“Well,” Eldric rubbed the back of his neck. “Kind of hard to explain when you were choking the life out of me. Consider yourself informed.”

Blake’s gaze locked with mine. Did Evie run into the same thing?

She’s smart, Blake, well trained. If she did, she would have spotted them, faster than us. I closed my eyes and focused. I still felt her ahead of us, still moving. She’s okay, working her way through this maze. We need to keep moving, too, if we want to catch her.

“Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to talk in front of people?” Eldric crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your plan?’

I backed up several paces, gauging the distance. “We'll have to jump.”

One by one, we leapt across the chasm, landing on solid ground on the other side. We continued forward, moving cautiously now, tracking every inch of the walls, ceiling and floor for any signs of traps.

The next one was more subtle—a nearly invisible tripwire strung across the narrow passage, neck level. Not metal, but a hair thin strand of severing magic, and thank fuck Blake spotted it, his keen eyes catching the faint flash of reflected light against the darkness.

“Would have taken our heads,” he said, crouching down as he scanned the rest of the corridor. “And if anyone made it past that, I'd bet my left nut those alcoves in the wall shoot something unpleasant.”

I took a deeper whiff and caught the acrid scent of poison. “Not just unpleasant. Deadly.”

“All of this is slowing us down.” Eldric's patience was wearing thin. “Disarm them and keep going.”

“No need,” I replied, since I could actually see where I was heading, I dematerialized to the far end of the corridor, landing past the threats. Best of all, I caught Evie’s scent again, coming from in front of me.

“Come on, she’s just ahead.” Blake didn’t hesitate and jogged ahead of me as I waited for Eldric.

“There’s something else up there.” Eldric’s eyes narrowed as he reached out and touched a patch of sparkling rock-like mold growing in splotches around us. “I can’t say I’ve ever sensed magic like this. It doesn’t feel right, if you know what I mean.”

“What else did this book of yours say?” I asked, letting Blake put some distance between us. “What else is down here?”

Eldric shifted uncomfortably. “There was mention the tunnels are haunted. Ghosts, strange sightings, those sorts of things.” He pulled his hand away, the tips of his fingers sparkling like they were covered in diamonds.

“But this is something different.” He frowned. “Fiona would know for sure, but if I had to guess…” He frowned up at the ceiling. “Ley lines give off a primordial energy signature that sometimes manifests as crystals. The kind you find in deep, subterranean caverns.”

“Cast a flame down the corridor,” I told him softly. “Let’s see what happens.”

Eldric sent a long, controlled plume down the passageway, Blake turning with widening eyes as the fire spiraled straight toward him, extinguishing just before impact. “ Assholes .” His curse echoed up to us, but…

This entire passageway was lined with a layer of glittering crystals, and they seemed to grow larger as we progressed. By the time we covered another three hundred feet, my fingers were raw from tracing the crystal-lined walls, but Evie's scent was stronger. We were gaining on her.

And then, the third trap nearly killed us all.

We’d reached another intersection when I noticed faint symbols etched into the floor—ancient runes drifted over with dust, like imperfections. Before I could shout a warning, Blake stepped onto one.

The air grew thick as runes flared to life on the walls, the entire intersection suffused with blue light.

“Don't…anybody…move,” Eldric gasped, fighting to breathe as he examined the pattern. “The runes…are linked. Step on the…wrong one…the spell intensifies and we all die.”

Blake was frozen, one foot lifted, sweat beading on his forehead. “So what's the... right one?”

Eldric crouched down, peering at the symbols intently. “There,” he pointed to a rune near the far wall. “That's the anchor. Disable it…and the spell will break.”

I picked my way around the edge of the floor, back pressed to the wall, stepping only where Eldric directed. When I reached the anchor rune, I drew my dagger and drove the blade deep into the stone. Air rushed back into the chamber, and we all doubled over, gulping greedily.

“Another few minutes,” Blake wheezed, “and we'd have suffocated.”

“Told you my book learning would come in handy,” Eldric said airily. “A simple thank you will suffice.”

“How about a big fuck you?” Blake growled.

Now that we could breathe again, Evangeline’s scent was strong, fresh, and flush with fear. She was somewhere just ahead, and that strange humming that rattled my teeth and settled into my chest was stronger.

I pulled my dagger free, cursing my trembling hands. “Ravok’s been using the labyrinth to slow us down. Which means he knows we’re coming. But we’re getting close.”

The tunnels sloped downward, taking us deeper into the heart of the mountain, the air grew colder, tinged with the scent of sulfur and old magic.

And then, suddenly, we weren't alone.