Page 9 of The Survivors (The Children of the Sun God #4)

Ciara

“Scorching my seared heart with a pain, hot hell shall make me fear again.”

~ Edgar Allan Poe

I hit something solid. Hard.

The impact knocks me backward, and I land unceremoniously on the forest floor. Dazed, I look up and realize I’ve collided with him—Ioannis.

From a tree, he retrieves something that glints dully in the moonlight: shackles.

“Put these on,” he demands, holding them out.

I laugh. Why would he think they would hold me? Confident in my powers, I comply rather than argue with the man who holds my best friend’s life in his hands.

The cuffs snap around my wrists, and the icy metal bites into my skin. And then—pain.

It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt, a searing agony that tears through me as if a part of my soul is being ripped away. I collapse to my knees. I let out a blood-curdling scream across the forest. Not even the crashing waterfall is loud enough to drown my cries.

Ioannis laughs. “I knew you’d scream,” he says. His words dripping with satisfaction.

Tears stream down my face, hot and relentless. I try holding them back, to deny him the satisfaction, but it’s impossible. The pain is too much.

“What did you sacrifice for this?” I choke out.

Ioannis grins, and then reaches into his mouth. To my horror, he pulls out a full set of dentures, flashing his gumless smile.

“The look on your face right now made it all worth it,” he says, sliding the false teeth back into place with a click.

“Stand up,” he commands. “We’re not done yet.”

The forest trees hang over me. Swaying, laughing along with Ioannis.

The weight of the shackles drags me down, and I stand on trembling legs.

Lenore cries out from somewhere above—her voice a thread of comfort in the darkness. She hasn’t abandoned me yet.

Ioannis leads me deeper into the forest, and a sinking feeling takes hold. I am doomed.

He stops and stands unmoving, like a towering force against the dark outline of trees. His head tilts, and then he stoops, gripping me with strong hands as if I weigh nothing at all.

I don’t even have time to fight before I’m slung over his shoulder. The world tilts. I gasp.

My surroundings close in around me, and the temperature drops. The scent of earth and decay fills my nostrils, and the sounds of the forest fade into silence.

A labyrinth.

The realization hits me like a punch to the gut. All hope drains away, leaving only dread in its place. This isn’t a place meant for mortals, and certainly not for me. I’m not bonded to this realm; it offers me no mercy, no escape.

The corridors twist and turn. The air constricts my lungs with every step Ioannis takes. I lose all sense of direction, and I’m reduced to a powerless observer.

Finally, he stops.

With a single, effortless motion, he tosses me against a wall. The impact rattles my bones, and I slump to the floor, breathless.

The darkness here is absolute, pressing against me from all sides. I can’t even see my hand in front of my face. My heartbeat pounds in my ears, and the smell of rot clings to my every inhale.

I force myself to sit up. My bound hands scrambling against the slick, cold floor. “Why—why are we here?” My voice trembles despite my best efforts to sound defiant.

He doesn’t answer right away. I can feel him watching me. His silence is suffocating.

Finally, his voice cuts through the dark, low and almost... amused. “Because this is where you tell me how to find Persephone, or where your life ends. Your choice.”

Something stirs in the air—an almost imperceptible hum of power. My chest tightens, and panic claws at the edges of my mind.

“No,” I whisper, barely audible, more to myself than to him. He doesn’t have her. But the charm? How?

He kneels with his face inches from mine. Although I can’t see it, I sense his presence. His breath heats my face.

“Oh, yes,” he murmurs, the words curling around me like smoke. “I tricked you.”

He raises my hands above my head and fastens the shackles to the wall. And then he’s gone.

His footsteps fade, and I’m left alone in the labyrinth’s choking silence.

With him gone, I allow myself to cry.