Chapter 7

Zirah

Malachi urges us toward the maze entrance, and the women begin to panic, turning and running, yet I stay rooted to the spot, staring up at the large hedges. Guards snatch the other women trying for their freedom, shoving and pushing them toward the entrance.

Snarls and growls suddenly fill the air, and we all spin to see the three kings standing in a line with three huge wolves snarling by their feet. The animals are white as snow with blood-red eyes. They don’t look like ordinary wolves, but they also don’t look like werewolves either.

These must be the savage pets Malachi spoke of, raised from pups by the kings. They are larger than normal wolves, but they don’t have amber eyes like the werewolves.

“Get them ready. I need to find out what is going on. The kings aren’t meant to enter until morning,” Malachi orders one of the guards before stalking off up the hill.

I try to listen closely, but a guard seizes my arm and hauls me closer to the maze entrance with the other women struggling and thrashing against their hold.

“Well, it was nice meeting you ladies. You’re all fucked now,” a guard announces, and the girl from my community whimpers. “Change of plans, you don’t need to fear the lions.” He nods toward the kings walking down the hill with Malachi.

“The kings have brought their pets to play,” the vampire guard tells us. The women sob and cry while I watch them draw closer. “When the horn sounds, the wolves will be released. Survive the night and you shall be rewarded.”

I scoff as we are all shoved into the maze’s entrance.

“Well, start running, the kings haven’t fed them yet. They are hungry,” the vamp taunts. The others instantly take off, but I stop just inside the entrance, turning and looking up at the high hedges surrounding the path the women rushed down. My eyes scan my surroundings as I stare at the intricate vines.

“Seems this one wants to die first.” The vampire laughs, and I glare at him over my shoulder, walking in a little deeper.

“As long as they are all dead by morning, I don’t care who dies first.” I hear one of the kings’ voices, my guess is Zeke.

“Are you staying to watch my kings?” I hear Malachi ask.

“No, we will stop by in the morning to pick the wolves up. They’ll handle them,” King Regan speaks confidently.

Shaking my head, I move deeper, following the maze. Yet, the deeper I go, the darker it gets. The only light comes from the full moon above me. Bending down, I dig my fingers into the dirt, feeling for the vibration and energy of this place, just like Granny taught me.

Everything has a vibration, an energy, an aura, you just have to train your mind to feel and see it. Let the earth speak to you. Yet, the moment I dig my fingers into the earth, my runes tingle up my arms. Most are protection runes, some give the gift of sight, but I am not as good as Granny was.

She could see flickers of the future, while all I got was glimpses of the past, sometimes voices, and as I dig my fingers in, I can feel the essence of those who have died here. I can hear their screams as if they were all standing around me. With a gasp, I yank my hands out of the soft, moist soil.

“Thirty years,” I whisper, that was the last time someone survived the maze.

Listening intently, I can hear the women’s rapid breathing, their footsteps, and I try to focus on their location. I stare around in their directions before focusing harder, searching for their auras as I navigate the maze. Their auras are like a mystical glowing beacon, even with the high hedges, I can see them glowing brightly, flickering like phantoms in the night.

When I see a bright yellow aura, I know it is the familiar girl from my community. I recognize the blue outer edges of it. I follow her, picking up my pace. The other women I don’t know where they came from, but she is one of us, so I will try to stick close to her.

When her aura flickers, I slow, trying to focus on where she went. I forget my surroundings and propel forward only to jump back at the last second, not having seen the giant hole in the ground.

My hands shoot up to cover my mouth, and I stagger back when I see the girl I am following lying dead at the bottom, impaled by huge stakes. It’s so dark, but the vines around her seem to coil and slither over her body protectively. That’s when I realize the vines are snakes winding their slippery bodies around her, strangling her bones as she stares off vacantly with eyes unseeing.

I look around to see a narrow lip along the sides of the hole, and just as I move toward it, the horn sounds, making me look up at the night sky. Seconds later, the menacing growls grow closer.

Gripping the thorny branches of the hedge walls, I use them to climb across. The other women must have taken a different direction because I suddenly can’t make out their auras in the dark, but by the time I cross the snake pit, I can hear one of their screams.

Moving down the narrow path to the next turning point, I stop mid-step when I hear panting. A wolf whines loudly before ripping into flesh. I drop to my knees, trying to see under the hedge as bones crunch against sharp teeth.

A dried leaf cracks beneath my hand, and the wolf growls its threat before hitting the hedge with two feet. I fall back on my hands and ass. The beast attacks the hedge, trying to break through to get to me .

Five of us entered, and in less than an hour, already two are dead. We were set on an impossible task—one that will end with my death.

Scrambling to my feet, I follow the hedge and make yet again another turn. For most of the night, I continue to creep quietly from one dead-end to the next, trying to navigate this never-ending maze. A loud howl rings through the night, and the air freezes inside my lungs as another scream follows.

I listen for the direction, but the sound is all around me, and I am not even sure which way I am walking anymore. Her cry came from somewhere left of me, so I go right at the next intersection. It only takes a moment to realize how wrong I was.

My hands dart back to my mouth as I come up directly behind a wolf feasting on another woman. The third victim of this maze. I carefully step back, when my back brushes the thorns and branches of the thick hedges. The wolf lifts its head, sniffing the air.

If only I could manipulate the air the way Granny could. She was a mystic when it came to the elements, almost as if they spoke to her. She could manipulate them all to do her bidding, and through I tried my best to master the elements, I was never as good as she was. Plants and water I had luck with, but air or fire were not elements I ever picked up in her teachings. The most I could do with fire was make a candle go out or make the fire pit blaze, but controlling it was too hard. I had caught far too many things on fire before Granny gave up teaching me that one.

My hands brush the hedge, searching for its source of energy. I can’t part it, but maybe I can get it to accept me within it, absorb me into it. I press back further as the wolf eagerly sniffs the air for his next meal. His white fur is caked in blood, and his ears are pricked listening intently. I only have seconds before it turns its attention to me. Sucking in a breath, I grip the branches, letting the thorns dig into my hands and slice them open.

Shutting my eyes, I envision the hedge absorbing me, forcing my own aura and frequency out, asking it to accept me. The branches rustle slightly, and my eyes open. When they do, I see the wolf sniff the ground, turning slowly to look for my scent, which I know must be emitting fear as I try to focus on the hedge and its energy.

At the last second and just before the huge beast turns, the hedge swallows me whole. The branches and thorns scrape my skin and cut me to pieces, but I hold my breath through the pain as the branches close around me, covering me from view completely and hiding me from the savage beast. The branches and leaves that encase me rustle as the vines twist around my body in a strangle hold. The plants do not like me within their confines at all, they want me out. Its vines snake around my body like a serpent, warning me not to hurt it or it will strangle me. Just as the hedge stops testing me, the wolf pivots and faces my direction, eyes scanning for the intruder before it looks at the hedge.

The huge beast sniffs the air, stepping closer and searching for me. It growls knowing something is watching it, yet he’s unable to see me within the branches and thick leaves. I just hope the scent of roses will cover me enough because, right now, I am a sitting duck. If the wolf attacks the hedge, I have no doubt the hedge will spit me out to become dog food.

It sniffs the hedge, huffing and grunting as he searches frantically. Seconds before burying his nose in the thorny hedges, a howl rings out, and the wolf lifts his head. His tongue hangs out the side of his mouth, and he wags his tail in the air excitedly before taking off in the direction of the sound.

“Thank you,” I whisper to the hedge as it forces me out, practically tossing me onto the thick grass. As the adrenaline subsides, the stinging pain across my skin doubles. My arms, face, and legs have been shredded by thousands of thorns, and my white dress clings to my frame in tatters. The skirt, or what’s left of it, sits high on my thighs, and the sleeves are the only thing holding up the remains of my dress.

Walking over to the wolf’s newest victim, I see it is one of the older women. Her throat has been ripped out, blood soaks through her satin blue dress, and her vacant green eyes are wide with shock.

That could have easily been me lying beside her, but I shake the image from my head as I continue into the maze. Another shrill scream makes me stop. She’s so close that I can hear her last pleading gurgles for mercy as a wolf silences her tortuous screams. I cover my ears against the sick sounds of bones snapping and flesh ripping. The coppery scent of her blood thickens the air as the maze turns deadly silent.

And then there is one.

Looking up at the night sky, it almost seems daunting as the moon and stars peer back at me. Granny used to tell me you could tell the past, present, and future with the constellations, you just have to know what to look for. To me, they were just balls of gas floating in the vast space. I never understood her obsession with them but would always listen to her speak and enjoyed watching the moon cross the sky during some of her rituals.

No matter how much I didn’t understand her musings sometimes, I have always been drawn to the night, to the moon. Like some part of it was calling to me on a deeper level, one I could never understand. Maybe it was because I received my runes during a full moon.

Yet peering up at the sky now, I wonder what my future says, and if is written in the stars like Granny claimed. If only she saw her death, maybe then we would have escaped the lycan kings’ clutches. In a way, I guess she did escape after all. I only wish she would have taken me with her.

My runes tingle, drawing my attention down to my arms, and beneath the tattered remains of my dress, they glow brightly. “Why must you taunt me so?” I whisper to the moon.

Shaking my head, I continue walking, although I am beginning to think there is no end to this maze and that the only way out is the way we came in. Yet finding my way back almost seems impossible now when I step into what must be the center of it. This space was the biggest I’ve come across so far in the maze, it is an odd octagon shape. Different branches of the maze split off in all directions like an intricate root system.

Was it too much for them to put in an exit sign somewhere? Each narrow corridor branching off the octagon looks the same as the others. Sighing, I move to the center, trying to pick which eerie path to take.

Unable to choose a path, a savage growl behind me makes me spin to face it.