Page 32 of Minding the Minotaur

“He’s also my best friend Clem’s brother. After I met you… I fessed up to her, and she knew about the Labyrinth. Because Jax works down here.”

Jax. Now the name is ringing a bell. “Tall skinny guy?”

She nods enthusiastically. “Smoker.”

My brow furrows. I recall seeing him in Otis’s office quite a few times. “He’s something to do with exports, right?”

“I don’t know what he does exactly, but I—I needed a job, and he found me this one.” She looks up at me, and this time when she smiles, I see the sweetest dimple in one of her cheeks. “And truthfully, I hoped that I’d bump into you again if I worked in the Labyrinth.”

“Really?” I feel myself blushing under my scruff.

“Yeah, really. You made quite an impression on me.”

I’m so happy I don’t know what to say. Finally, I mumble gruffly, “Erm, yeah, ditto.”

We both laugh, a little embarrassed, and I’m aware of my huge arms hanging at my sides, like a fucking virgin on their first date.

She breaks the connection by looking around her. “Wow, it’s so bright out here, and you have so many flowers. How do you light it?”

I point up to the huge overhead lamps hanging from a network of wires strung across the cave roof.

“Oh, that’s clever. I didn’t get to see much on the way in because the windows of the jeep were blacked out, but it’s lighter down here than I expected.”

I nod. “It’s common practice with humans new to our culture to limit the visuals. Humans can get what we call Labyrinth overwhelm. Culture shock. The confined spaces, all the different species—it can all be a bit much at first.”

“I get that. It’s a lot to take in. So, is everywhere else in the Labyrinth this brightly lit?”

“Some parts are—the trading areas and manufacturing levels. But not so much in residential parts. I had to purchase these lights, and the cost is high for the energy. But there are places in the Labyrinth where you do get to see natural light.”

She frowns. “As in, light from Sparkle City?”

“No, I meanrealdaylight. From outside.”

Her brows shoot up in surprise. “You mean from Earth?”

“Yep.”

“B-but I thought it was permanently dark out there?”

“That’s a lie. It’s light half of every day. And when it is dark, there are stars. Real stars.”

“No way!”

“Yes!”

“You’re jerking my chain.”

“Shouldn’t you be jerking mine?” We both laugh at that. I get this bubbly feeling in my belly and realize that I’m happy. I haven’t felt this way in a long time. I also realize there is so much more that I love about Sammy than my crazy attraction to her. Her sense of fun, her curiosity, her sweet nature.

“Maybe when I’m free from this stupid house arrest, I’ll take you to a place where you can see true daylight—and stars.” Memories from our childhood picnics to One Moonbeam Lake make me suddenly nostalgic, remembering all us younglings scrabbling up the rocks to find the tiny gaps in the canopy overhead, then gazing in awe at the blanket of stars in a midnight blue sky. I can’t think of anything more romantic than taking Sammy there.

She’s silent, frowning, as if trying to digest all this. Or maybe she doesn’t like the idea as much as I do.

“Want to come sit with me by the fountain?” I ask shyly. She nods.

We sit on the bench seat, eyeing the waterspouts from the golden nymph statue. After a long moment, she asks, “So this house arrest is all because you escaped to Sparkle?”

“Yep.”