Page 26

Flames danced through the trees, crackling like laughter as they consumed bark, leaves, and branches with relentless hunger. Smoke curled upward in thick, choking plumes. It turned the sky an eerie orange-gray, as though the clouds themselves were ablaze.

The fire leapt from treetop to treetop in fiery arcs. Sparks rained down like malevolent stars, igniting the dry undergrowth below. The once-green canopy glowed red and gold, a twisted beauty in its destruction.

Set upon devouring us.

“Run,”

I screamed. The others were jostling awake, each of their eyes latching onto the fire before growing wide. I reached to shake Clark.

“We need to move!”

He woke and drew in a breath. If we didn’t move now, there wouldn’t be clean air left to breathe.

“Aiden, don’t forget your sword! Astrid, your bag is there!”

Harald shouted at us. He made quick work of packing his own things before seeing to Tove, all while keeping an eye on the rest of the pack.

I grabbed my bag, while Clark strapped my axe in. I passed him his sword, then sheathed my own. The fire roared closer.

We helped Gunnar check for a fallen knife, passed Astrid her water flask, and surveyed that everyone was ready.

“Go!”

Harald shouted.

We all bolted.

This was no natural fire. Magic bled into it, urging it faster, hungrier, and hotter than it ought to be. It prowled toward us. As we moved, it moved. Its edges closed in. The flames kept with us as if it’d been born out of a desire to burn us, and it wouldn’t relent until it had its taste of flesh.

“To the east,”

Harald shouted.

Smoke moved through the trees. Black in color, thick in nature, it overpowered everything it came upon. The smoke curled around our bodies until we could hardly see one another.

“Remain close,”

Harald kept yelling. We were blindly following his voice.

“Stay together!”

I thought of August watching us. He’d never get to know if we would turn on one another.

If he didn’t set the fire, who did?

“Astrid, ask Lady Luck to send rain!”

I shouted.

Astrid called out to Lady Luck to save her. The roar of flames only grew.

Then she gasped.

“There’s a slide up ahead,”

Astrid called out.

“We need to drop to a lower level before this one burns!”

A tree fell with a loud crack. Then Harald shouted.

“Lead us to it!”

Astrid kept calling, while we followed her voice. Heavy air clouded my throat. I breathed through my shirt and still hardly got air. Clark was at my side…wasn’t he? Someone moved there. I heard the crunch of their boots and their raspy sighs.

“Almost there,”

Astrid called. Her voice grew further away. I picked up my pace.

“Jump!”

she yelled.

Something came into view—a stone archway, two pillars, and a steep slide leading into darkness. Through the smoke, I watched figures leap onto the slide.

I threw myself after them.

The air cleared almost instantly. I half slid, half plummeted down the slide as it twisted and turned. For almost a full minute, I fell.

That couldn’t be right. It shouldn’t last more than a few seconds.

No one else made a noise. Perhaps they were too far away to hear. I called for Clark to no avail.

A wind tore through my hair. Then a voice.

Remember, guard your heart.

Aurelia Brightspire?

The Stone Gods were playing a game with me.

A light came from the end of the slide. It approached fast, too fast to process, before the slide spit me out upon a narrow parapet with nothing but air below it. I threw my hands to the stone to stop my body from rolling to my death. My chin came down to slam on the hard ground. My legs sprawled behind me.

I stopped inches from a deadly drop.

The Stone Gods, indeed.

The slide hadn’t taken me down. I’d gone up. Up to the top of the labyrinth, too high to see more than distant leaves and hedges below, as hazy clouds sat at my heels. I checked for fire, finding one in the distance. Far, far below me.

If I fell, it’d be a straight drop to my death.

I stood shakily, before a voice made me jump.

“Took you long enough.”

When I turned, Leif stood on the small platform with me, his dark hair shifting in the wind, his knees bent to brace himself, and a deeply bothered expression on his face.

“I would have preferred a Pearl,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

He nodded to a podium I hadn’t seen, with an inscription on it.

“It seems we play in pairs.”

I looked at Leif warily before stepping to the podium, holding it tight with both hands in case he decided to throw me to my death.

Wind yanked my hair around my face, but I dared not let go long enough to right it. I stared through the brown waves to read the words aloud.

Fate, or the will of the Stone Gods, has granted you an advantage

This path does not turn, does not wind, does not hinder

It leads directly toward the center

Yet the journey depends on trust's fragile thread

For only united can this trial be led

May fortune guide you, steady and true

And swift be your steps as the gods watch you.

I’d only just finished speaking when the ground shook. Leif and I both dropped to a crouch to steady ourselves as the slide I’d fallen from crumbled to rocks that plummeted toward the labyrinth. They landed with a shattering crack.

To the left, new stones rose, materializing from nothing to create a narrow path we could walk across. It quaked, snaking through the sky, breaking at points where we’d need to jump.

A stepping stone path high above the labyrinth, leading us toward the center.

The rising sun in the east blinded me as I tried to study the path we must walk.

A heavy link wrapped around my ankle, clanging shut. My heart lurched into my throat. A chain crawled from the shackle, weaving toward Leif.

“No,”

he said, as if the chain would listen to his command. It was too late. A second shackle and chain had made a home around his ankle, and the two halves clasped together. We had no more than three feet of chain between us, both tethered to the other by our ankles.

For only united can this trial be led.

I couldn’t decide if this saved me or condemned me. On one hand, Leif couldn’t throw me from the parapet now without him falling to his death too. But from the way he scowled, he might kill me and carry my dead body on his back out of annoyance. He made no effort to look pleased, instead cutting his frown deep into the sharp lines of his face and brushing past me to reach the parapet.

The landing might be wide enough for us both to stand, but the parapet was far less forgiving. It stretched like a fragile thread in the wind, leading toward what I could only hope was a second landing on the other side. We lingered upon the edge. The weight of the chain on my ankle pressed down like an unforgettable reminder that whatever fate befell us, it’d be shared.

Leif glanced at me as if I had already cost him the labyrinth.

“I’ve wasted hours waiting around for a partner to show up. Don’t hold me back further,”

he said. His black shirt rippled in the wind, his gaze sizing up the path we must tread before taking the first step.

My hands tightened to fists, my knuckles pale and my palms slick with sweat. But I bit my tongue as I followed behind.

The first step was the hardest. The ancient stones were uneven, worn smooth by centuries of weather, and each one felt like it could crumble beneath our weight. The leather cord tugged at our movements, forcing us to find a rhythm, to trust each other’s balance.

My heartbeat tattoo pounded twice as hard as usual. Fitting, because my heart might pound out of my chest with fear. I was made of the salt and the sea, not the sky. Humans weren’t meant to be like birds. I might not breathe again until I’d reached the ground.

Below, the labyrinth yawned open, its depths lost in shadow. I’d take being attacked over crossing such heights.

Leif wouldn’t see my fear, though. I wouldn’t let him.

Instead, I pretended I were as confident as him, crossing the slip of stones that were the only things separating us from our deaths.

Leif moved quicker than I could, and toed a dangerous line with the expanse of our chain. Many times, he reached the end and I’d feel a tug at my ankle. He’d pause long enough for me to take a step, then continue.

“If you don’t slow down, we are likely to both fall.”

I wished he could see the glare I was sending.

He didn’t look back.

“Move faster.”

Leif moved with surprising agility given the size of him, his feet angling to catch the stones in the right way before shifting his weight forward, again and again, with no hesitation. Only when a breeze came would he still, find his balance again, and advance.

I was far less graceful.

“Don’t fall,”

Leif grunted, right after I’d almost slipped.

“I’ve no desire to drag your body along.”

“Stop talking and let me focus.”

I hated that he saw me this way. If we had a sailing challenge, he could see my skills, and wouldn’t look at me the way all Pearls look at Seaweeds. If he cared to look at all. Leif only glanced my way twice, and it was only when the chain stretched taut. When he did, he shook his head.

I wrestled my pride away and continued.

Leif paused to take a swig from his flask and dig into his bag for a chunk of dried meat to chew before continuing. My stomach groaned at the sight.

That’s why he can move so much better. He was a Pearl. He could afford proper food and water. Meanwhile, I was testing my body’s ability to survive on drops of water and sheer determination.

Additionally, the adrenaline of running from the fire wore off, allowing me to feel every ounce of pain from the injury at my side. It throbbed as I treaded along, a biting pain that summoned a blinding ache in my forehead.

Hungry and wounded. No wonder he looked at me as if I wouldn’t last the day.

The ground at our feet narrowed, affording no more than a few inches past my shoulder-width.

Now Leif slowed.

“Can you see how much further?”

I asked. I could hardly see the path ahead of him, but everything I could see faded into the clouds.

“Quiet,”

he grumbled.

Out of all the people I could have been stuck with for this…

A grating noise echoed through the sky. Leif stiffened ahead of me, his head twisting to the side.

“What was that?”

An arrow whizzed ahead of him.