Page 25

When I woke, I knew something was wrong. The nighttime colors were too saturated, the hunger in my stomach gone, and my fatigued muscles felt as if I’d slept on a bed of clouds instead of a root-ridden ground.

The next realization hit harder.

I was alone.

I lifted to my feet before spotting a figure braced against the side of a tree, a pear in his hand. He watched me with great interest, like I was an act he’d paid to see. An invisible string pulled at the corners of his lips.

“What do you want?”

I asked with a scowl.

He didn’t move. Just watched unashamed.

“To see who you are when you dream.”

When I dream? I checked under my shirt to find my wound gone. Not healed, just…gone.

My sight returned to him.

“You’re a Stone God, aren’t you?”

He pushed off from the tree, his long legs making quick work of striding through the forest until he stopped near me.

“Does that frighten you?”

Perhaps when I was awake, it would. But sleeping made me bold. “No.”

His mouth twisted in amusement. Bright green eyes wandered to my necklace where they hovered a few beats before pulling away. I took him in as he studied me. He adorned himself in layers of black—his riding gloves, a long cloak, even the color of his shoulder-length hair—paired with a sharp nose, angled eyes, and a smile sharp enough to draw blood. In his hand was a thick candlestick dripping white wax. The small flame cast a golden glow over the forest.

The only true color came from a ruby ring on his smallest finger.

“Which one are you?”

His eyes met mine.

“The fun one. They call me August Apothecary.”

I got the feeling he dealt more in poisons than medicine.

“And what do you want from me?”

Once more, August’s gaze drifted to my necklace, but he didn’t speak of it.

“Your group has caught the eye of more than one Stone God. The seven of you are growing thick as thieves.”

I willed iron into my spine.

“Scared of a little Seaweed?”

“Amused is more like it. I wonder what it would take to break you. In fact, I made a bet with Thief, and I wish to see if I’m correct. One of us bet you’d kill the others if you got the chance, and the other bet you wouldn’t.”

His head cocked to the side.

I blinked at him.

“You Stone Gods have too much time on your hands.”

August waved his hand.

“That’s neither here nor there. Amuse me. I’ll poison everyone in this group if you wish, with the exception of your lover boy of course.”

I didn’t care for the way he said that, nor for how he put on a mock smile as if he knew everything about me and Clark. I hated even more the thought that we were being watched.

“And in return, what? I owe you three years of my life?”

“You appease my curiosity, that is all. And, if you answer how I think you will, I win my bet.”

“How did you bet?”

“I don’t want you selecting my way on account of your great love for me.”

August grinned as if we’d known each other for years.

I had more questions. Who was Thief, why did he keep looking at my necklace, was there any chance the fortune teller at the start of the maze had been wrong, but he had a devilish look to his gaze that I didn’t trust. Plus, his comfort with poisoning people unsettled me.

Before I could answer no, his head snapped up, eyes pitching to something over my head that I couldn’t see. He lifted his candle to sniff the air.

Then his expression brightened.

“Ah, someone beat me to it. You’d better wake up.”

With a snap, his world melted away. I woke, lying on the floor in the forest where I’d fallen asleep, my belly rumbling from hunger and my muscles unbearably sore, and the air much hotter than I remembered.

No, that wasn’t the rumble of my belly. I sat up.

The forest was on fire.