Page 6 of Voices in the Stars (The Lost Witch #1)

There he was. The little boy I saw earlier that evening with the blue suit and greased, blond hair was standing in front of me, a smile plastered on his face as he stared at me. I sat up with my knees tucked underneath me. Branches still scraped the top of my head.

“Hi.” I kept my voice soft as I looked over him. There were only a couple of holes torn into his suit. “Let’s get you home. I’m sure plenty of people are missing you.”

I held my hand out, hoping he would take it and let me lead him out. Instead, he let out a piercing laugh. I clasped both hands over my ears as the noise rattled around my head. He turned away from me, racing through another wall. With a curse, I chased after him.

This time, he didn’t stop at the next clearing. I caught a glimpse of his blue suit as he immediately raced through the next wall. His high-pitched giggles followed me as I tried to catch up. They echoed through my mind until it sounded like he was next to me.

The small light the moon was providing slowly started to fade away.

Glancing up, the hedges were twisting high into the sky, canopying above me until they blocked out most of the light.

My brows furrowed as I kept running. Something wasn’t right.

I would’ve been able to see any imperfections like this from my rooftop.

No, the maze was perfectly uniform from start to finish.

Something caught my wrist as I tried to keep running. A yelp left me as I was forced to turn around.

“What are you doing?” Adrian hissed at me.

I rolled my eyes, ripping my hand away from him. Anger lit his brown eyes, his lips twisted into a snarl.

“I don’t have time for your bullshit right now,” I growled, turning away from him.

There was no sign of the little boy. This was the only path, though; he had to be somewhere in front of me. I was only able to take a few more steps before Adrian grabbed me again.

“Get your hands off of me,” I snapped. “There’s a little boy stuck out here. I don’t have time for this.”

“What are you going on about?” Adrian huffed. “I just came from that way, there’s no one out here.”

I threw my hands up. “A boy from the party is hiding out here. When I found him, he took off,” I tried to quickly explain.

His brows furrowed as he looked at where I was trying to go. My eyes rolled. There wasn’t time for him to decide if I was lying or not. I didn’t care what he thought because nothing he said was going to change what was happening.

When I pulled away, he didn’t grab me again. As I started running, I was shocked to hear his footsteps following.

“Go home!” I yelled back at Adrian.

“You need help. Obviously, you can’t handle this by yourself.”

I ground my teeth at that. Him being here didn’t make a difference. It certainly wasn’t needed. If following me made him feel better, then he could have at it. It changed nothing.

The further we ran, nausea started twisting through my stomach. There was no sign of the night sky as the leaves blocked everything out. Our run slowed to a quick walk. I kept a hand to the side, touching the branches to find out where we were going.

“We should go back.” His voice was a whisper from beside me.

I shook my head. Every muscle in my body ached for me to turn around, but I couldn’t. I needed to get to the end. To find this kid and take him home.

“Cece.” His fingers brushed my elbow as he tried to grab me again. “We can come back in the morning.”

“No,” I ground out. “Leave if you want.”

Black spots danced across my vision. It would be much easier to stop now. To go back and never get this far out again. The logical thing would’ve been for us to turn around. No thought I had was enough to get my feet to stop moving. Adrian grunted from beside me before there was a loud thud.

“Adrian?” I called out, kneeling beside his dark shadow sprawled out on the ground.

I shook him. When he didn’t respond, I kept going until there was a soft groan. I tried to pull him into a sitting position, but he barely moved.

“Leave,” he mumbled out.

My head shook again. My stomach rolled at the thought of moving any further, but I had to. That boy was out there. If I didn’t find him now, there was no knowing how far he would go. He could find an exit and be lost forever. I had to keep going.

“I’ll come back for you,” I promised.

My legs shook as I stood. Each step I took was uneven.

It felt like I had been walking for hours.

After several steps, I glanced back but there was no sign of Adrian.

There must’ve been a turn I didn’t see, because there were only more hedges behind me.

I sucked down several deep breaths before I kept moving.

As I stepped forward, my knees gave out, sending me crashing to the ground with a loud gasp.

Tears streaked down as I stared at the grass.

The world felt heavy as it bared down on me, pressing me further into the dirt.

The edges of my vision turned black. My entire body begged me to just close my eyes. To let the world swallow me whole.

My hands shook as I pressed against the weight.

Every inch of me trembled as I found my way back to my knees.

I made it this far; I wasn’t turning back now.

I refused. My stomach rolled again, nausea flooding me as I started gagging.

For the first time, I was thankful I hadn’t eaten since this morning.

I pulled myself back to my feet, keeping a hand pressed against the hedges as I crept forward.

It was only a few steps before something passed over me. It was like an invisible layer of my skin had been pulled off. A warm breeze swept through the maze, pushing me forward like a gentle hand against my lower back.

Then, in a single blink, everything changed. There was no longer a maze. Instead, I was standing in the middle of a forest.