Page 29

I clutched Leif’s dagger as if it could single-handedly save me.

Dimitri rode in like a king after a battle, surveying in the bodies before inspecting Leif’s torn cheek.

“Are you satisfied then?”

he questioned. His blonde hair gleamed in the summer sun, his resplendent cloak flowing behind him like a curtain of starlight. The only flaw in his majestic composure was the severe frown etched from one chiseled jaw to the other as he regarded Leif.

“Is your thirst for revenge properly quenched? The ones you sought are dead.”

“Yes, they are.”

Leif wiped his cheek before glancing at the blood it left on his fingers.

“And yet, I find the anger burns still.”

Dimitri circled Leif while atop his white horse, much like a vulture circles the dead.

“Stubborn humans. Let your past die with Luke. Your future is what matters.”

“I couldn’t have a future until they were all dead.”

Leif moved as he spoke, leading Dimitri away from me, the soft grass bending beneath his tall boots.

Dimitri wrapped his reins around his fists. He looked much like a father trying to talk sense into his son.

“I knew you had a future when you were eight years old. I found you, a trembling boy covered in your brother’s blood, and I marked you as mine then. You are still mine, even if the Silver Queen and Lady Luck claim you too. You are, and always have been, my prodigy.”

He swung from his horse to stand tall next to Leif.

“Show me I wasn’t wrong to put my faith in you. Find Allison. Kill her. Then bring me her head.”

My blood chilled.

I wrapped my fingers tighter around the hilt of the dagger. He won’t be getting anyone’s head.

Dimitri’s blue eyes widened, then narrowed to dangerous slits.

“You know something.”

Leif’s silence condemned him. He stood in defiance, body covered in dirt, face smeared with blood, staring down the regal king of the labyrinth.

“Tell me what you know.”

Dimitri didn’t ask. He threatened. The shape of him seemed to grow, taking up more space than one man ought to. Or perhaps it was my heart shoved into my throat that made it hard to breathe.

“I know Allison is dead, and Callahan had no other heirs. Let me kill him instead. His line will die, and you will have your satisfaction.”

Dimitri bent his head in thought, while Leif broke away to rummage through the bodies and collect what weapons he liked, acting as if Dimitri’s presence didn’t faze him. I used the cover of his noise to move. Away from one tree. Into another. Quiet and gentle.

There was nowhere in the labyrinth I could go to feel far enough away from Dimitri.

“What if she’s not dead?”

Dimitri challenged. What would it take for him to let this go? We’d been hidden on the island for so long to stay safe from our father’s enemies, never considering a stone god wished us dead just as much. He had a determined way about him, in how he spoke and how intensely he dealt with Leif, that told me he’d never give this up.

“Her body was found.”

“It was mangled and waterlogged. What if it wasn’t her?”

I watched as Leif went from exasperated to relenting to considering the possibility. It happened slowly, the stretch of appeasing Dimitri just for his questions to end…breaking into something more. Something real. Dangerous. His expression tilted, his eyelid flinching, his gaze flicking to the bower I’d hidden in moments before.

No. No, no, no.

From my new position, I could see the gleam in Dimitri’s eyes, the victory in the twist of his smile. “Tell me.”

A spool of fear tightened against my spine, holding me captive. It stole my ability to think or run. In this cage of my own making, I watched as Leif debated telling Dimitri what he knew.

Telling him about me.

But Leif’s face hardened once more.

“I will search the labyrinth for Allison. If we do not find her, I kill Callahan. Either way, you get your blood before the month is over. That is what I’ve promised you, and that is what I shall do.”

He slammed his new blade—my blade—into his old sheath with an air of finality. The sound severed the evening, snapping through the trees like the lash of a whip, while Dimitri studied him like he wanted to break his body.

“See that you do.”

The frown Dimitri wore was so sharp, it could cut mountains.

“If his line does not end, I will never be free of this labyrinth.”

He gripped the horn of his saddle to mount his horse, ushering it forward.

“I’m losing patience, Leif. Your blood or his…I will have my due.”

So that was the truth of their deal. Leif would end the Lord of the Isle’s line, which would free Dimitri from the binds which the knight, Dawson, put upon him. My ancestor, Dawson. It didn’t feel real yet. But if I didn’t keep my head about me, the ghosts of Dawson and his princess would haunt me to my grave.

When this was over, I was stealing Clark’s book to read about the history of the labyrinth.

For now, I had to find him.

Dimitri left for the west, while Leif tightened the bracers on his arms, working his jaw.

“Her body, mangled and waterlogged. Dimitri is right. She might have lived. And if she did…”

I didn’t care for where his thoughts were leading him.

“If Allison didn’t die, and if she had a child…”

His dark eyes swung back to the trees, to where I was once hidden. My fingers tightened around his dagger as his reached for mine. We’d kill each other with the other’s weapons if it came to that.

“I know where you got that necklace,”

he shouted to the trees. A snap of resolution went through him. His next step was with purpose as he grabbed a spear from the ground to inspect its blade.

The spool of fear shattered within me.

Run, my thoughts whispered. Run before you die.

Leif spoke before I could move.

“I’m not here to kill Allison. I’m here to kill you.”

He adjusted his grip, and threw the spear straight into the trees. I watched from my hiding place as it cracked against the tree I’d once been in.

Then I ran for my life.