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Instinct had him drawing on his Gift to spirit them out of there. But it was gone. He set his jaw and started walking. He’d just have to get used to it.

They turned a corner—and halted.

They were outside the castle. Above them, the first quarter moon peeped above the horizon on a chilly September night. His breath hitched. He and Marjani spun around, looking at the jagged black castle behind them.

She spoke first. “He let us go—just like that?”

Uneasiness prickled Fane’s spine. “This isn’t like him.”

Her eyes met his. “Maybe he has something else planned. Anyway, let’s get the hell out of here while we can. Just let me change first.”

She was already dragging off her dress. She knelt on the tundra to rummage in her backpack, covered in only a couple of silky gold scraps.

His mouth dried. He could just make out the shadows of her nipples, and when she leaned forward to dig deeper in the pack, the gold material stretched taut over her round behind.

She stilled and glanced up. “You’re looking. I feel it.”

“Yeah. Does it bother you?”

She shook her head. “I like it. I never thought I’d be so comfortable with a man again. But with you, I am.”

“Good. Because I intend to do a lot of looking.” He waggled his brows at her. “Among other things.”

Her lips twitched as she pulled on her jeans. “Don’t distract me.”

“Sorry,” he said meekly.

She just snorted and finished putting on her clothes—a T-shirt and a gray hoodie. She shoved her feet into a pair of sneakers and slid the switchblade into her front pocket.

The dress she rolled up carefully.

He scowled. “Leave it.”

She hesitated. “I know he gave it to me, but it’s pretty—and it must have cost an arm and a leg.”

“Leave it,” he repeated. “I’ll buy you another one. Even if I have to save up for a year to do it.”

She gave the dress a last regretful look and then with a shrug, dropped it on the grass. “I don’t have anywhere to wear it anyway.”

Fane slung the pack over his shoulder. When she objected that he should take it easy until he felt better, he said, “When it gets to be too much, I’ll let you know.”

“Men,” she muttered, but stopped arguing.

He pointed west. “That way. We’ll find a portal to the human world. From there, we can hitch a ride to Reykjavik.”

“What about your SUV?”

“It’s Sindre’s now.”

“Oh. Right.”

They started jogging across the tundra. At least this side of the castle wasn’t as boggy as the south side. Still, without his Gift, Fane felt like he was running through molasses. He grimly slogged on.

They’d gone about a mile when he realized nothing had changed in their surroundings. The moon was the exact same height in the sky, and the castle hadn’t grown any smaller.

He muttered a curse and halted.

“What’s wrong?” Marjani asked.

He knelt to finger a clump of weather-beaten grass. It felt real, but… “Sindre’s Gift is chicanery. The man can create illusions so real you can touch them.”

“You think we’re still in the maze.”

“Yeah. I do.”

Her nostrils flared and then she let out a single pithy word. “You’re right. I smell silver. Just a hint, but it’s obvious now I’m aware of it.”

“Damn it, I should have expected this.” Fane rose to his feet. “I know what he’s capable of, but I thought he’d use the maze itself to mess with us.”

“He did. If we’re still in the castle, then we’re in the maze. We just don’t know it.”

He nodded grimly. “How in Hades can we get out of it when we can’t see where it begins or ends?”

“Or when dawn comes.”

They met each other’s eyes.

And then the illusion faded, and they were in the maze, the pearly walls towering over them. Before them was a forked intersection with three options—left, center or right.

“Gotcha,” Marjani murmured. “Or do you have us?”

Fane peered down each of the paths, looking for a landmark, but all three were blank as a sheet of paper. “I have no fucking idea where we are. The maze is impossible to navigate without Sindre’s permission.”

The adrenaline that had fueled his jog had dissipated. He leaned over, hands on his thighs, suddenly so weary he could barely keep on his feet. Beside him, Marjani slumped against a wall.

“Nothing is impossible,” she said, but she didn’t move.

Silence fell. A thick, watchful silence.

The walls on either side pressed closer, squeezing in, inch by slow inch. His nape tightened. He shook his head from side to side.

It’s not real. It’s an illusion.

Beside him, Marjani drew a jagged breath, and he knew Sindre was getting to her, too. A hot, cleansing fury swept through him. She’d been through so damn much, and now she had to survive Sindre’s mind games as well.

Mind over matter, Fane.

He had to be strong for Marjani. He touched her hand, and damn if the encroaching walls didn’t recede a little.

“We have to keep moving,” he said. “Part of Sindre’s Gift is that he can manipulate things to seem worse than they are. He tries to steal all your hope.”

Her mouth tilted wryly. “He must not know what the Darktime was like. Okay.” She let out a long breath. “Let’s do this.”

He nodded and straightened back up, and then reeled as the maze swooped around him.

“Take it easy.” Marjani grabbed his arm, twin creases between her brows. “I wish I could help, but I have no healing Gift.”

He swallowed dryly. “I’ll manage. But now would be a good time to hear that plan of yours.”

She touched his cheek, concerned, and then nodded. “Okay, here’s what I think. An illusionist can only fool a living thing. He can’t fool an inanimate object like my quartz. And I’ve been studying the maze every chance I got. I think I’ve figured out its underlying logic.”

He shook his head. “I told you, that won’t work.”

“But north, south, east and west don’t change. I can use my quartz as a compass to keep us on track.”

He nodded slowly. “It’s worth a try.”

Setting her hand over where her quartz was concealed by her hoodie, she focused for a few moments. When she opened them, she said, “We’re a little east of the north tower. Where’s the closest portal?”

He dropped his voice. “The one by the east tower—the one I took you out of the other day.”

“Okay.” She pointed toward the left fork. “East is that way.”

“Lead on.”