Through the doorway, the tunnel was straight. It didn’t branch off, nor did it look like it was going to end anytime soon. I felt like I was stuck in a dream where I kept on running forever.
I needed to wake the hell up.
Okay, so the blood thing hadn’t been that hard, but it still cost me in terms of time.
Glancing at my phone’s countdown the screen read: 04:06.
My chest constricted. I had just about four minutes to face whatever else Silas was going to throw at me and make it to the center. Easy peasy. Right? Not really.
Panting, I pinched the cramp at my side and took a few seconds to hydrate. Thank the cauldron I’d packed a water bottle. Without it, I would have fainted by now. With a last gulp, I shoved it back in my bag and sprinted down the tunnel.
My thighs burned as I pushed them faster and harder because I knew my time was nearly over. Would there be a fork in the path? A door? Something to tell me I hadn’t taken a wrong turn? Would this path lead to the center of the labyrinth?
Being underground in the dark for what seemed like forever—with dirt crumbling onto my head, walls rubbing my shoulders, and a demon possibly waiting at the end of the tunnel—ranked right up there with this being my worst day ever.
Just when my lungs felt like I’d swallowed shards of glass, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, I knew how that sounded.
I staggered into a huge space. Looking around, it was oddly shaped, like a hexagon, with different tunnels leading to it, just as mine did.
Smoking braziers rested around the chamber, the only source of light. Warm air with the sharp scent of incense and some other, more acrid spice, filled my nose. Across from me, right in the center of the chamber and raised on a platform of stone was a gleaming, six-foot, silver star.
That was the center. I needed to get to that star.
I took a shaky breath and stepped forward—
A moan caught my attention to the right.
“Willis?”
The little witch was on his knees, blood trickling down his nose. “Tessa? Is that you? I can’t find my glasses. They fell… and I can’t see anything without them.”
I was so shocked at seeing him that I just stared at him stupidly. He’d made it this far. That was something.
My heart clenched at the panic that flickered across his face. “Yes. It’s me. I’ll help you find your glasses.” I made to move, but something else shifted in my peripheral vision.
Silas rose from the shadows of the chamber and faced me.
“Neat trick,” I told him, wondering what the hell he was doing here. “Would love to know how you did that. But I’m kind of busy right now.”
“Leave him,” ordered Silas. “He’ll never get past me.” He shrugged. “Well, neither will you.” He laughed and flashed me a smile that I wanted to kick off of him—if I could reach that high.
The runes and sigils tattooed to his chest, arms, and neck all began to glow red.
Damn. I cocked a brow. “Aha. So, I have to fight you? Is that it?”
“It is,” said Silas and he crossed his muscular arms over his chest, his tattoos fading to their normal black. “You need to get past me if you want to complete this trial. So far, only sixteen have made it. And those who did were from the winning group. There are no places for losers within the Merlins.”
Arrogant prick. “Yeah… well… we’ll see about that.” Did I just call myself a loser?
“Found them!”
I looked over my shoulder and found Willis on his feet, adjusting his glasses. The left lens had several large cracks running across it. He wouldn’t be able to see through it, but at least he had one good eye.
He staggered like he was drunk and fell to the ground on his knees. “I think I’ll just sit here a while. Until the stars go away.”
“Good idea.”
Now that I looked closer, I could see blood in his left ear, and a wet spot at the back of his head. Willis had taken a serious beating. If the rest of the witches had played fair, Willis would have had a real shot at this. But someone made sure he didn’t. And that someone was long gone by now.
I didn’t like these trials. In fact, I hated them. I homed my hate towards the tattooed freak. Behind him was my ticket out of this hell.
My eyes flicked to Silas. “Inflitus!” I cried, flinging up my hands as I pulled on the energy from the elements around me.
A saw a split second of red flashing from Silas’s chest, and I went sprawling back in the air like I’d been hit by a giant fly swatter.
I hit the ground and rolled, my cheek smacking on something solid following a crack, which I knew was bad. But I didn’t have time to worry about bruises.
Brushing the hair from my eyes and spitting the dirt from my mouth, I got to my feet with a groan, my lower back throbbing. How much time did I have left?
Silas hadn’t moved. The cocky bastard was still standing in the exact same position.
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that, loser,” said Silas. “Look at you. You’re broken. If you want to give up now, I’ll understand. It’s what losers do.”
“Shut up. I’m not giving up.”
Without a single hesitation, I slammed down on my will and snarled, “Fulgur!”
A bolt of white-purple lightning blasted from my outstretched hand. It flew straight and true, right at Silas’s dumbass head.
The bastard’s runes flashed red, he snapped his fingers, and my beautiful bolt of lightning turned to water. It fell to the ground in a puddle next to his feet.
Silas laughed. “You’re pathetic. What was that? And you call yourself a Davenport witch? Tick-tock, loser.” His smile faltered, and something dark moved behind his eyes.
Call it my witchy instincts, but I tapped into the elements just as a rune on his neck glowed red.
“Protego!” I howled. A sphere-shaped shield rose above my head just as a red blast of magic hit it.
Both my shield and I flew back by the sheer force of the blow. Without the shield, I would have been witch toast. The force of Silas’s magic reverberated inside my shield, and I felt it in the ground beneath my feet. The tattooed creep was strong. How could anyone beat him?
“Tessa? Are you all right? Tessa?” came Willis’s voice from somewhere off to my right.
“I’m fine,” I called back, peering through my shield as I found Silas’s shape.
A volley of a hundred red, glowing darts sprouted from Silas’s chest, flying straight for me.
“Okay, not fine.”
I ducked, just as I felt a release on the hold on my magic. There was a pop of displaced air, and my shield fell.
“Crap.”
“Oops, my bad. Guess I burst your little bubble,” said Silas. I raised my head to find him grinning. “Just accept it. You’re not strong enough to beat me.” He pointed at himself. “Winner,” he said and then pointed at me and added, “Loser.”
“Very mature.” I pushed to my feet and staggered. The power words were stealing all the energy I had left. I shook from just the strain of standing. I couldn’t keep this up much longer.
“Don’t listen to him,” encouraged Willis, still on his knees. The blood that kept dripping from his ear worried me. “You’re not a loser, Tessa. You wouldn’t have made it this far if you were. He’s a liar and a bully.”
A well of gratitude filled my chest. I really started to like this little witch. “I hate bullies,” I told him with a smile.
“Me too.”
My heart pounded as I strained my body from shaking. Yes, I was tired and yes there was pain. But I still had a hell of a lot of fight in me. I lowered my body and spread my hands in a fighting stance.
He’s a liar. This wasn’t about beating him. It was about getting past this a-hole and reaching the platform.
I just didn’t know how to do that.
A smile of satisfaction blossomed over the tattooed witch’s face at what he saw on mine. “Loser,” he crooned. “Can I call you loser? Okay then. This is pointless, loser. You look like hell, loser.”
“I look better than you,” I said, making Willis laugh. Yeah, he’s a keeper.
Silas gave a mock laugh. “You’re out of time,” he warned. “Face it. You were never going to be a Merlin. Your aunts were idiots to think they could make you one. Hell, they’re so old, they’re not even real Merlins anymore, more like Merlin shadows.”
“You shouldn’t have said that,” I growled, feeling feral. I was going to peel off those tattoos.
Silas flashed his teeth. “Why’s that?”
“Because I’m going to kick your ass.”
Willis laughed and clapped his hands, reminding me of Iris.
Silas spread his arms, and his biceps bounced, the tats glowing red. “Losers don’t make Merlins. You’re a loser,” he said and dipped his head toward Willis. “And he’s a loser. You’re both finished. It’s over.”
I didn’t like the way he’d said that, with so much finality in his voice.
“Oh no!” cried Willis.
I pulled my head back to Willis, who had a watch practically stuck to his right eyeball. “He’s right,” said Willis as he dropped his watch looking defeated. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I was rooting for you. You’ll have a chance next year. Me…” he didn’t finish.
I frowned. “What are you talking about? There’s still time.”
Willis looked at me and shook his head. “Can you get to the platform in twenty-five seconds?”
“What!” Panicked, I yanked my phone out of my bag and gasped.
00:24
No, I thought in horror, seeing that everything I’d accomplished so far had all been for nothing.
Silas laughed, a deep, horrible, self-satisfying, mocking laugh that made me sick to my stomach.
No. No. No!
I hadn’t come all this way for nothing. My panic rose anew, and I shifted from foot to foot, trying to jumpstart my brain again.
I needed to get past Silas. But how? If only I could slip past him and reach the platform without him being able to stop me.
A thought occurred to me. The only way I could do that was with a ley line. But the nearest ley line was miles away from the castle.
If only I could bring it here…
A spark of energy blossomed in my chest.
Hello.
It grew, and stretched, and squeezed. I recognized the source. This was the ley line…
But how? It was as though the ley lines were answering my desperate call.
And then it hit me. Could I move the lines? Could I bend them?
As if in answer, another spark of energy welled in my core, only faster this time, stronger. The ley line was answering me. It wanted me to do this.
With my heart thrashing with exhilaration, I drew in my will and reached out to tap the ley line. A burst of sudden energy hit me as it answered, like a rushing river, ready to sweep me away. I felt it in my body, my bones, vibrating with its power. With the ley line’s power.
I’d never done this before, and yet, somehow I knew what to do. As though I was born to do this.
I glanced at my phone and gasped.
00:15
“Time’s up,” said Silas. “You’ve failed. But it’s like I said, losers don’t make Merlins.”
A powerful wind rose. Silas lost his smile.
“What’s happening?” cried Willis.
I leaned my energy, focused on the ley line—and pulled.
With only my will, I yanked the ley line closer and closer to me, like pulling a rope. I could see it clearly in my mind, like a translucent river. And like an elastic band, I manipulated it. I bent it until I could feel its trembling energy beneath my feet, until I could see it race across the chamber to the center of the labyrinth, to the star on the platform.
00:09
Silas’s roar of outrage echoed around me.
00:08
It was now or never.
I rushed over, hooked Willis’s arm through mine, pulled him to his feet—and jumped the line.
I’d never brought anyone else with me, so I was purely running on instincts. Please don’t fail me now.
Willis screamed like a girl as we both landed together, speeding forward in a howl of wind and colors. Energy rushed through my head, my body, everywhere. The stone walls of the labyrinth blurred as our bodies shot forward. Silas’s angry face blurred past us like we were on a speeding train.
And of course, I had to flip him off.
Then, I felt a sudden release as the images around me slowed until they weren’t blurred anymore, until I could make them out—as though time itself had slowed, just for me.
All the while Willis kept screaming, but I never let go of him.
I focused solely on the platform, on the star, on where I needed to go, knowing I was about to jump.
A dark shape appeared in the ley line with us that wasn’t there before. It resembled the outline of a man, tall and fit. At first, I thought it was Silas. But it wasn’t him. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but his eyes, silver and gold reflected the dim light of the labyrinth, luminous and eerie.
And just as I tried to see him more clearly, he was gone.
I’d hit my head, but he was not a figment of my imagination. He’d been there for only half a second, but long enough for me to see him. I couldn’t think about that right now because if we didn’t jump at the right moment, we’d end up in Canada.
With the last of my strength, I leaped, pulling Willis with me, and we landed on the platform.
I let go of Willis, just as he bent over and began puking his guts out. Totally understandable. Adrenaline pumping, I checked my phone.
00:02
We made it. Two seconds left. We made it!
“We made it.” I turned and looked down at Willis who was wiping his mouth with his hand “We did it,” I told him. “Two seconds left!” I did a little happy dance, which was a twirl and an awkward side kick. Don’t ask.
Willis blinked up at me, his face twisted in wonder. “How did you do that?” He looked past me at what I figured was our point of departure.
I looked back over my shoulder. “I have no idea.” Which was partially true. I had no idea how I’d bent the ley line, but I did.
But the real winner was the shock on Silas’s face.
Yeah, there’s the ticket.