Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Roxy.” He sighed out my name as his hands went out, grabbing the sides of my face, inspecting me like he expected me to be injured.
“What’s going on?” I asked, blinking at the concern in his gaze as he looked at my clothes. He reached for my arms, lifting them, brows scrunching. “What?” I asked, then looked down at myself.
To find the cuts had sealed themselves over. And the bruises had yellow and green around the edges. Like they were healing.
But, no.
That didn’t make any sense.
It had only been a few hours.
Right?
“You were in a spell,” Nathaniel told me, his hands still lightly holding my wrists. Neither of us seemed inclined to pull away.
His hands felt oddly… warm. You know, for a vampire.
But a shiver still worked its way up my spine regardless.
Yes, of course it was a spell.
I remembered opening the door in the hedge, then stepping into a replica of my apartment. I even remembered sitting down to rest. But then… then it was starting to blur.
There were visions of eating, of drinking, of bathing, and changing. But it was all starting to slip away.
“How long?” I asked, stomach twisting.
“It’s hard to tell,” he admitted, glancing around. “The world is gone. A day? Maybe longer.”
“A day?” I gasped. “How? Where did you go?”
“It seemed like the deeper you willingly went into the spell, the more it pushed me away. It felt like I was being dragged back, like the labyrinth was trying to spit me out,” he admitted. “How did you know?”
“I… I heard you. And then I started remembering things. My shower was suddenly the tub in the hotel. I remembered you carrying me. Then it just all trickled in until I was standing here and it just all flooded back. Were you calling to me the whole time?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, nodding. While I got distracted by the way his thumbs were lazily stroking across the sensitive undersides of my wrists.
I couldn’t tell you exactly where the impulse came from. I just knew I didn’t fight it when I felt compelled to throw my arms around him, holding on tightly, letting him anchor me back into reality.
“Thank you,” I said as his arms went around me. “I could have been lost there forever.”
“I was starting to think there was no hope,” he admitted, squeezing me tighter. I swear I felt a similar squeeze in my chest too.
“From here on out, no falling for temptations,” I said when his arms finally released me, prompting me to take a step back. “At least I’m clean and fed, though,” I said as I turned and saw a door that didn’t belong in my apartment. “Shall we?” I asked, waving toward it.
“Let’s do it this way,” he said, reaching down to grab my hand, twining his fingers between mine. “No one drifts away this way,” he added as his hand tightened on mine.
“Okay,” I agreed, sucking in a deep breath as we moved toward the doorway.
I reached for the knob, then opened the door, and walked us into whatever challenge was next.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nathaniel
I was starting to suspect that the labyrinth used the witch’s weaknesses against them. That the vines and the apartment were perfectly tailored to Roxanne.
For another witch, maybe that room would be full of loved ones who had passed, people the witch would have wanted to spend the rest of their time with, soaking up the love they so dearly missed.
And the vines, well, they really did seem to suit Roxy’s innate laziness, didn’t they? Any time she slowed or stopped, they grabbed her. But if she fought past her instincts to take it slow, to put in as little effort as possible, they left her alone.
It was a challenge to her instincts.
And if her most prominent instinct was toward sloth and lack of effort, each challenge was going to put that to the test.
I wondered, though, if she proved herself enough, the challenges would change.
“Ugh,” Roxanne grumbled as soon as the door closed behind us.
“What is it?” I asked, wondering if she was seeing something that I wasn’t.
“Look,” she said, waving down at herself. The loaf pet pants and cozy sweatshirt had been replaced for the outfit she’d walked into the maze in. “And my stomach is empty,” she said, lip curling. “I didn’t know a spell could snatch food right out of your stomach.”
“I don’t think it was actually food to begin with,” I told her. “It was just the illusion.”
Even as I said it, I heard her stomach rumble. I felt a similar gurgling in my own gut.
Hungry.
I was hungry.
And while I would never admit it aloud, I was exhausted too. My usual stamina was gone, leaving in its place that of a normal man.
“What is this?” she asked, looking around the empty room. White walls. White floors.