Page 28

I catapulted myself over the edge, onto the slide, and down as quickly as I could. Safety no longer meant solid ground. It meant away from Leif.

I was vaguely aware of him regaining his balance to throw himself down the slide behind me. I used my hands to push me faster. The labyrinth rushed up to meet me. Shades of green and the scent of turned earth, welcoming me back.

The slide—in true labyrinth fashion—stopped five feet above ground. I tumbled the rest of the way, rolling to my feet and running.

I registered the forest, the tall evergreen trees, the sticky air of summer, the disconcerting silence from the absence of animals. Branches whipped at my face. They clawed the skin, leaving flashes of pain in their wake. It paled in comparison to the pain at my side, which I largely suspected was an infected wound, but I kept going. I had to. If Leif caught me, he might not be so slow about using his blade.

I’d be quite the sight. My hair tangled beyond hope, my side infected and from the feel of things, bleeding, and running for my life.

Leif’s roar cleaved the labyrinth.

I ran faster.

Around the bend of trees, toward the largest pine I could find, then I threw myself into the umbrella of its branches to press myself small. There, I willed my tattoo to stop beating as I listened to the crash of Leif coming through the forest.

He wasn’t the only one. Someone else moved ahead. Just my luck.

I couldn’t hear Leif anymore. But I heard the newcomers, their voices loud and mocking, laughing as they paraded through the trees. The shape of them came into view, three stocky men in their twenties moving in the wrong direction, waltzing as if they were on an evening stroll.

Despite the leisure of their movements, they were armed to the teeth. They might as well have purchased the whole arsenal of weapons from the market.

Across their broad chests were a crisscross of weapon belts, holding daggers sheathed over hearts and throwing axes resting just below. A longsword hung at one’s hip, its pommel worn smooth from countless draws, while a dirk was tucked into another’s boot. Its hilt peeked beneath the hem of his cloak.

One had strapped a massive two-handed sword to his back with its blade poking above his shoulder like a silent sentinel. A quiver of bolts peeked out beneath it, paired with the small but deadly crossbow slung across his other shoulder. He was the tallest, and the one to avoid. His arms bore bracers lined with hidden knives, the hilts discreetly peeking out, ready to be drawn in an instant. Even his gloves had reinforced knuckles, meant to turn a punch into a bone-shattering blow.

The sight made my blood boil. Only Pearls could afford so much. Their money bought weapons meant to kill us with.

That thought made my breathing hitch. Their slow strolling, their array of weapons, the way they walked in the entirely wrong direction…these three weren’t here to win. They were here for sport.

A new weapon came into view, this one a slender blade with a tapered tip, and it slid against my neck. My breath loosened. Muscles flexed. Before I could decide whether to fight or plead, a low voice spoke.

“Don’t move,”

Leif whispered. The warmth of him rested over my shoulder from where he’d slid into the canopy of the pine trees with me. I’d been too focused on the newcomers to hear him.

Suddenly, the newcomers weren’t my biggest worry.

My hand went to my own blade, but Leif’s hand was already there, grabbing mine to hold steady.

“They will kill you faster than I will,”

Leif said.

“Don’t move.”

He held my hand fast, but the blade twisted so the dull end pressed against my neck, holding me back. Not poised to kill. Positioned to defend.

When I looked back at the newcomers, the tallest one was watching us. He smiled.

“What have we here?”

Leif groaned, dropping the blade to put himself in front of me as he shifted out of the trees. Before he did, he glanced back and mouthed, “Run.”

Then he stepped toward the three newcomers.

“I was hoping to find you.”

“We heard,”

the biggest one said. The other two shifted as they took in Leif and I, noting our swords, axes, and daggers. Minimal weapons compared to theirs. Still, I pulled my shoulders back to appear as threatening as possible.

I could run. The scenario ran through my mind. I’d run, leaving Leif with three on one. He’d die. They’d come after me. I’d die. My best chance of surviving them was for Leif to survive long enough to kill them, and his best chance at killing them was with me at his side. My presence didn’t improve his odds by much, but it counted for something.

And they were looking at him like they wished to devour him whole.

Momentary allies it would be.

I planted myself at Leif’s side. His eyes darted to me, widening slightly, before hardening as they returned to the three men.

“Figured the three of you would come hunting again,”

he snarled at them. Leif seemed to take up more space now, building himself up like a shield that he angled between me and the three men. His eyes were as dark as his hair, and his jaw clenched tight.

The big one grinned.

“It’s always good fun. We heard you had a vendetta for what we did to Luke.”

Leif shook at the mention of his brother’s name. When he spoke, his voice came as if through a thick throat.

“I’ll allow you to fall on your swords in mercy. Otherwise, the death I give will be far more painful.”

I second-guessed my decision to stand at his side.

As if sensing my doubt, the big one tossed his gaze my way.

“We won’t spare your girlfriend.”

“She’s not my girl,”

Leif said at the same moment which I realized he didn’t know my name.

“She can fight for herself.”

As if he’d thrown down a gauntlet, they all reached for their blades.

“Guess we are about to find out.”

The tension between us snapped as they advanced. Leif met the big one with a clash of swords, steel against steel, their heels digging into the soft earth. The other one might be bigger, but Leif is quicker, and fights with more finesse. He twists his blade so the other one slides off, then slides upward. The big one steps back and hisses.

The other two are advancing at me. Coming for the easy kill.

I draw my axe and say my prayers.

Then they are lunging, but they have even less grace than the big one. They are all strength and no brains, whacking like drunk fools trying to slice down a tree.

No, not fools. I realize. Cowards. They are swinging so hard to keep the fight at arm’s length. If I can get close, they will break.

In the meantime, I’m using all my strength to block their swords with my axe while trying to catch one on the hook of the arched blade. I can’t. They are too strong. Too skilled. And I’ve had zero training.

Fighting won’t save me. I shove my ego aside, and remind myself that surviving is what matters, not that I bested them by my own strength.

I yanked my axe away and threw myself toward the pine trees. Their full branches shielded me, pine needles digging into my skin, and put up a barrier between me and the swords.

When one swung again, his blade was slowed by the branches.

Now I could hook it. I yanked my axe through the bushes, hooked the sword with my blade, and yanked down.

He fumbled while trying to hold on. I pressed my heels into the ground for balance and finished ripping the blade free.

The opponent wasn’t defeated. Not by a long shot. But he had to waste time in picking up his blade, and his eye was on me.

Behind him, Leif had been dealing with one opponent. But he kept watch over me, and when one of my two attackers knelt for the blade, Leif swiftly threw his dagger at the second. It sunk into the soft skin of his neck, and he went down. His body fell into the trees, landing at my feet.

Leif’s dark gaze swung to me. I tried to read his expression, but it pulled away too fast. Back to his own problem.

Before the other attacker could retrieve his sword, process the death of his friend, and come after me, I slunk backwards, out the back end of the pine tree, and into the coverage of another.

It wasn’t glorious. I hated myself the entire time. But I ran from tree to tree before anyone saw me, and crouched to survey the damage.

It wasn’t pretty.

The one who’d been attacking me looked ready to snap. Red eyes scoured the trees for my frame, before landing on Leif. Leif braced against the one he’d been fighting, swords between them, their limbs shaking, sweat dripping down their bodies. But Leif appeared more in control. His movements were sure. His stance unwavering.

Until the other jerked back, and swung up with his steel knuckles.

Red erupted along Leif’s cheeks. My heartbeat tattoo thumped wildly.

I felt for the dagger at my hip. The attackers were closing in on Leif. They’d be coming for me next.

He’d be dead in a moment.

With that thought, I aimed my dagger, and threw.

It wasn’t a perfect throw. But it sank into the shoulder of the largest one, the one fighting Leif, and he roared.

Leif delivered the final blow with a sword through his chest.

As he went down, I shifted position again, darting back through the trees. I was aware of Leif at my side, searching for me, before he grabbed the dagger I’d thrown and used it to cut down the remaining one.

When it was finished, Leif dropped to his knees.

“It’s done,”

he whispered.

“It is finished.”

I thought to ask about what happened with Luke that haunted him eight years later and drove him to such revenge. The labyrinth had been stained red from his killings. With each one, a part of him loosened, his breaths and the tension in his shoulders, like weights dropping from his hands.

He seemed to forget about me for the moment. I used the time to sneak back to my original tree, and retrieve the dagger Leif had thrown earlier. Right now, it was my best chance at staying alive should Leif now turn on me.

His head lifted.

“I know you’re still here,” he said.

I stayed silent.

“You saved me,”

he went on. He stood, and sheathed his dagger—my dagger—before turning to look for me.

“I thank you, but I have a deal with Dimitri, and that depends on me discovering the truth about Allison. I think you know something.”

I held my breath while he looked, as if that could quiet my tattoo. But the trees weren’t thick enough to hide me when his gaze landed my way.

Leif grinned—a thin, vicious thing.

“There you are.”

I stepped forward, holding the dagger like a shield.

“Even if I knew something, I’d never tell you.”

He released a sigh.

“You’re becoming more trouble than you’re worth.”

Just then, to be my savior or my demise, the familiar pattering of hoofbeats pounded through the forest. Leif’s eyes hardened, his body sucking back all the tension it’d just let go of. I noted it all with interest. He was frightened of Dimitri, as much as he didn’t wish to be.

I should be frightened. Dimitri wanted to kill the descendant of the one who trapped him in this labyrinth.

He didn’t know it, but he wanted to kill me.

“Leave,”

Leif told me.

“Get that necklace away from him.”

I slinked back into the coverage of the trees, heading further back than before.

“Do you never do as you’re told?”

Leif groaned, but there hadn’t been time to run.

Dimitri had come.