Page 14

“Clark?”

I hissed. His bag was gone as well. I hustled to my feet and held my axe like a shield before me, stepping through the curtain of pink flowers to find a forest of tall, white barked trees where I was alone. I dared to speak louder. “Clark!”

No reply, save for the shimmering rain that tapped against petals. All around, the silver streaks fell through the forest, hanging like a mist. Where were the screams from last night, or the competitors racing through?

Where was Clark?

We’d slept too long. We needed to move.

I turned, and froze.

I was not alone. A woman stood under a canopy of pink petals with a smile painted red and dress stained green. She looked like a bride getting married in the labyrinth, with her sandals built of twisting vines and her lashes painted brown. She had a glassy complexion, rosy cheeks, and sparkling green eyes.

Her black hair had been pinned on the top of her head. On her finger glinted a silver ring.

“I trust you slept well in my forest,”

she said. Her voice was as smooth as a river, and an icy feeling spread over my shoulders.

Her forest? Something about her didn’t look human. Perhaps it was her sculpted figure as if drawn from someone’s imagination, or the way her eyes glinted as if she’d captured the sun within them. Whatever she was, I didn’t care to anger her. So I said.

“I did. Thank you for it’s protection.”

I started off toward the south, before her melodic voice called out.

“He’s not that way.”

Slowly, I faced her. That smile hadn’t left her face, but gooseflesh rose on my arms.

“Where is he?”

She beckoned me to follow her.

“I will show you.”

“I’ll search for him on my—”

Two doors appeared, captured between trunks of snow-white trees. One a golden pink, fitted with gold hinges and a black knob. The other a silky brown and looking like something stolen from a castle with ancient carvings etched on it.

My breathing hitched. The woman watched me with a keen eye as if my face might give something away. I schooled it to neutrality.

“What is this?”

“You’ve slept in the Forest of Choices. As such, I’m giving you your choice. The boy, or the labyrinth.”

I kept my distance, but looked over the doors better. Nothing sat behind them, but I had no doubt that if I walked through either, I wouldn’t be in this forest anymore.

It was only then that I noticed a small temple nestled in the heart of the forest. Falling petals landed upon the colonnade of white columns, raised podium, and a triangular pediment adorned with pink vines. A pool had been built before it, and the surface of the water glistened like a mirror that rippled with each raindrop.

The realization hit me like a tide.

The stone gods are real.

And I’m looking at one.

Her too-perfect smile deepened as if she heard my thoughts.

“Choose the oak door, and you continue on in this labyrinth—alone. I’ve even arranged that everything Clark purchased for himself will go to you. Double the food and water. But—”

her green eyes snapped toward the pink door.

“This path leads you to Clark.”

“Is he not in the labyrinth?”

“It wouldn’t be much of a choice if he were.”

Clark had been my best friend, closest confidant, and lifesaver multiple times. But right now, I hated him. Where had he gone? Did he wait for me to drift asleep to decide he didn’t want to be in the labyrinth after all, slip out the way we’d come, and flee the island?

He had his reasons. He never wanted to enter the labyrinth. He had no stakes in this year’s game. We’d heard multiple people die yesterday when they fell from the ladder, and their screams still haunted me. I couldn’t blame him for leaving, but my mind refused to allow reason in.

He’d left me alone.

Her voice broke my thoughts.

“He doesn’t have long.”

My inner grumblings halted.

“Clark is in trouble?”

She didn’t confirm, nor deny. Stubborn Stone God. All she said was, “Choose.”

That changed things. If I left now, I still had until midnight tonight to get back inside. And now I knew the way. We’d made it up the ladder once, we could do it again. All I had to do was find Clark, help him, and get back in. I could still do this.

Plus, the fortune teller had warned me that I would not win this year. But Clark brought up a good point. He might accidentally reach the center first, making him the technical winner, even if he still gave the Shallows to me.

In order for that to happen, he had to be here.

I hated everything about this. Hated Clark for making me choose, hated myself for not waking earlier to stop Clark from leaving, and hated the Stone God for showing me a way out and insinuating that Clark needed my help. How far had Leif gotten in the maze already? Bjorn? Were they a mile ahead of me, while I couldn’t get more than a short distance before having to leave?

I’d help him once. The next time he left, I’d find a way to win on my own.

“The pink door,” I said.

She quirked her head as if I’d surprised her.

“You’re choosing Clark over the ships you believe to be yours?”

“I’ll find a way to get back my birthright, even if it’s not in the labyrinth,”

I replied. Then I reached for the door.

I’d been wrong on two accounts. The door didn’t lead me outside the labyrinth. When I stepped through, I was still in the Forest of Choices, just on the other side of the door.

And Clark was there.

He stood in a clearing with two doors behind him, the Stone God simultaneously behind his doors as she was behind mine. He had his bag on his shoulder, his sword at his waist, and appeared fully unharmed.

I glanced behind me.

“You said he wasn’t in the labyrinth.”

She had the face of innocence with the voice of a villain.

“I lied. I wanted to see what path you’d pick.”

I don’t think I care for these Stone Gods. If they were all like this, they were best avoided.

“What if I’d picked the other door? Would Clark not still be behind it?”

“He would, but I’d have told him what your choice was. As it is, you’ve impressed me with your loyalty to each other.”

Her silky hair fell over one shoulder as she tilted her head to the side, those vibrant green eyes staring into mine. I got the feeling she could see something I couldn’t.

Then she threw back her head and laughed.

She stepped forward to grab my wrist. Heat flamed my skin. She didn’t remove her gaze from me, staring harder as she tightened her grip.

I tried to pull my arm free, but she held fast.

Black spread beneath her hand. At first I thought it was a mist, but it darkened, pooling together to form shapes that sank into my skin.

When she pulled away, a tattoo presented itself on my forearm. Brown ink, streaks of red, and saturated gold. A heart.

And it beat.

The sound was subtle, like the fall of the rain, but it was there. The tattoo pulsed with each beat as if it were alive on my arm.

“What is this?”

I hissed through gritted teeth.

She inspected her work with pride.

“A heartbeat. Guard your heart.”

Then she stepped back, smoothing the folds of her dress.

“I’ll send you a warm meal tonight. I’m suddenly very interested in keeping you alive. When you are ready to rest your head, the meal will appear.”

Then she and the doors were gone.

The sound of my tattoo filled the space she’d left.

I really really didn’t like the Stone Gods.

Her mirror image remained on Clark’s side a moment longer, saying something to him I didn’t hear. When I took three steps toward him, he nodded, and she disappeared from there as well.

Clark looked at me. I swore heartbreak rested in his eyes.

“We should leave this cursed forest,”

I said, aiming myself toward the center. I pulled the sleeve of my tunic to cover the tattoo, though nothing could stop the noise of it.

“Leif’s probably halfway to the center by now.”

Clark frowned. “Leif?”

“Vincent’s son.”

When that didn’t seem to register, I added.

“The boy from the market who had a key to get in.”

“Right. The sooner we get out of this labyrinth, the better.”

I didn’t ask him where he’d gone this morning. Didn’t ask what the Stone God had asked of him. I simply pressed my arm close to my side as if that could hide it’s sound, and pressed onward.

The forest broke up ahead for a staircase that looked as if it would crumble underfoot. It didn’t. We climbed to find two staircases, each leading in opposite directions. The one we picked led to a corridor with stained glass windows and a broken chandelier, and that led to two more staircases.

All day, we wound through the stairwells and corridors as rain fell endlessly, until our bodies were soaked and our legs so tired we had to drag ourselves up by the railings. And all the while, my heartbeat tattoo beat along.

“I will never go up another stair in my life after this labyrinth,”

Clark said. He flicked his red hair from his eyes, as rain fell down his cheeks.

“We can swear off stairs together.”

But not yet. As long as there were no Stone Gods in this endless loop of stairs and broken glass, I’d be happy.

At last, the stairs led to a balcony overlooking a sparkling sea. Leap pads drifted aimlessly on it, daisies growing by its shore, and rocky hills beyond. A castle once stood there, but now it’d broken down to become part of the hills.

And not a stairwell in sight.

I swam while Clark waded to the other side.

Clark took the new landscape in with a wary eye.

“Let’s find cover quickly. You never know who is lurking behind the stones.”

It took an hour to find a crevice between two rocks that led to a cave. We nestled ourselves inside as the sun set, enjoying the first moment of dry air we’d gotten all day.

“I’ll take watch first,”

I said as I wrung out my shirt.

“I’ll wake you at midnight—assuming we are close enough to hear that clock still.”

Clark leaned his head back against the cave wall. If he didn’t regret coming earlier, I bet he regretted it now. A day of climbing stairs, and we couldn’t tell if we’d gotten closer to the center or further away.

I was starting to be very impressed with all those who had won before.

True to the Stone God’s word, warm soup and bread arrived that night. We ate quickly, before Clark curled himself into a corner to sleep.

“You never told me what your choices were,”

he mumbled as he closed his eyes. He almost looked peaceful, if he weren’t clutching his sword in his hands like he was frightened it’d run away if he didn’t hold tight.

“She made me pick between the labyrinth or you. One door led to you, the other kept me in the labyrinth. Though, she’d led me to believe you weren’t in the labyrinth anymore.”

I wondered what she wanted to know by my choice. She claimed to be impressed by my loyalty, but my loyalty was thin at best. It should be ironclad. Clark abandoned his entire life for me without hesitation, risking everything to follow me into the labyrinth so I could live my life that I’d been clear wouldn’t include him. Any other girl would swoon for him. He was handsome, kind, and loyal, and everything someone should want.

Yet I didn’t. Try as I might…I just didn’t.

There was only the sound of rain for a while until Clark spoke.

“Which one did you pick?”

“You of course. I picked you. Turns out, you were in the labyrinth the whole time.”

The truth, but the words tasted wrong on my lips. Twisted and bitter.

In the darkness, I saw him smile.

If only he knew half the reason I picked him was his theory about reaching the center first. I cleared my throat.

“How about your two doors?”

Clark stayed still for so long that I thought he’d fallen asleep. Then he mumbled.

“Nothing of note.”

His words sounded like a lie too.