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)
Unfortunately, all I had to fall back on were quick reflexes and the scrappy skills that came from street fights when I was young and stupid or older, drunk, and still rather stupid.
“We don’t have to do this,” I said, trying to move myself toward the opening of the dead end, so I could flee backward and give Roxanne some time to figure out how we got through this challenge.
The me I’d been just days ago wouldn’t feel anything akin to fear. I could take a sword to most places in my body and recover. I would just need to protect my head.
It was strange to be so incredibly aware of my own vulnerability. Even a small thrust of that sword into my flesh could cause death now.
That meant, being swordless myself, my only choice was to dodge and flee. As much as that went against everything I’d come to accept about my nature.
The guardian thrust but managed to get his sword stuck.
Desperate, I reached for it myself, yanking it out of the trunk of the hedge and wielding it, feeling like I might finally be useful for once in this maze.
Until I watched another sword materialize in the guardian’s scabbard once again.
“Great,” I grumbled as the guardian reached for it.
Sucking in a deep breath, I swung my sword, the clang of our swords meeting filling the labyrinth.
As I hoped to hell that Roxanne was working on the solution to this challenge…
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Roxy
Of course the stupid maze would ruin what was a sweet, tender moment between myself and newly human Nathaniel.
I had to give it to the witches, though, a labyrinth guardian with a sword and armor was certainly unexpected.
The last thing I anticipated in the maze was to encounter another person. Though, to be fair, I couldn’t say if he was actually, you know, a person.
For all I knew, he was some sort of ghost or apparition. He might not actually exist, even if he was corporeal.
It could just be a really good spell.
So I followed Nathaniel’s advice and ran far enough to give me a second to think, to try to sort through this challenge.
I mean, what did the witches want from me here?
This didn’t feel like a challenge to me personally. Like with the tempting apartment, the vines, and the blocks. Things that were made just for me, that would be different with each witch who came into the maze.
But maybe if you got through all of your personalized challenges, then the ones that had to do with basic elemental magic, and the healing spell, the guardian was the last basic challenge.
To do what?
Keep us from the cure?
Which must have meant we were getting close.
I couldn’t even be excited about that, though, as I suddenly started to hear the clang of swords as, it seemed, Nathaniel and the guardian began to actually fight.
If he was simply guarding the cure, then killing him might be the answer.
But that just… felt wrong.
By nature, these witches seemed to be on the side of, well, good.
I mean, for a lot of us, we existed in a middle ground. Like my little hexes. And the ones Sora, the other witch I knew, did.
Mostly harmless hexes, but not exactly white magic either.
But these witches spent their lives cursing vampires because they represented darkness. Why would those same witches demand we do something as dark as killing the guardian? Even if he didn’t truly exist?
I heard the grunts from Nathaniel as he fought the guardian. It seemed like he was holding his own for the moment.
I tamped down my guilt and kept running forward, sure there had to be some sort of answer ahead of me.
The hedges remained the same for a frustrating long time as the sounds of the fight grew more distant.
“It’s a test,” I reminded myself, forcing myself to slow, then take a slow, deep breath, fighting down my impatience as I closed my eyes, envisioning a break in the hedges, then some white light since I couldn’t draw up an image of what the cure might be like.
When I opened my eyes, I felt calm and confident as I began walking again.
It was almost comically quick how fast the hedges led to a large circular break in the maze, looking like it might be the actual center of the labyrinth itself.
There was a glass table set in the middle of the circle, almost disappearing into the space, making the two items sitting on top of the table seem as if they were floating.
I knew the cure immediately.
It was situated in a large spell jar, the fluid inside taking on a purple hue, likely from some of the flowers or herbs that were within.
Sitting beside it, though, was something much less aesthetic and a lot more creepy.
Nestled within a glass dome… was a heart. An actual human heart.