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)
The… heart of the labyrinth?
I didn’t know.
But I knew I was running out of time.
I rushed forward, grabbing the cure in one hand, and the glass dome in the other, then rushing backward into the maze, listening and following the sounds of clashing swords, and Nathaniel’s increasingly desperate-sounding grunts.
My heart seized in my chest as I kept going, worried I might not reach him in time.
What would happen if the guardian won? If he thrust the sword into Nathaniel’s newly human body?
No.
I wasn’t going to think things like that.
With my luck, that would make it manifest.
For good measure, I imagined Nathaniel having renewed vigor, charging and dodging and standing his ground as I finally rushed around the last corner in the labyrinth to find them a few yards from where I’d left them.
Nathaniel was looking rough. Sweat was pouring down his temples and darkening the material of his shirt.
His pale face was flushed, his breath rushing out frantically with his exertion as he charged forward, then rushed backward when the stronger, more experienced guardian came at him harder.
“Nathaniel, here,” I said, rushing forward to move between him and the guardian, knowing to my core that the magic in this maze would not let him kill me. “Take this,” I demanded, shoving his cure at him.
The sword stayed in his hand as he reached for it reverently with his free hand.
As I expected, the guardian froze mid-strike as he looked at me.
His gaze moved over me, stopping when he saw the glass dome that I was holding against my own chest.
Seeing it, his arm fell, the sword clattering to the ground at his side as raw longing filled his eyes.
“Do you want this?” I asked, holding out the dome toward him. “Take it,” I said, stepping closer.
His gaze lifted to me, sadness filling his brown eyes. But, it seemed, he could not speak.
“Is this your heart?” I asked, watching him. “Do you need it to be free?” I asked.
At that, his gaze cut to mine, pleading.
“Then take it,” I insisted again, pushing it toward him. But the motion seemed to repel him back.
“Roxy, I think it’s spelled,” Nathaniel said, moving in at my side. “If he could just take it, he would have already.”
“Right, yeah. Okay. Here,” I said, passing it into Nathaniel’s hand so I could lift the lid. But it wouldn’t open.
“An unlocking spell?” Nathaniel suggested.
As someone who routinely forgot their keys, that was a skill I was particularly adept at.
“It didn’t work,” I grumbled as the glass dome stayed stubbornly stuck to the base.
“Maybe it’s not just locked,” Nathaniel said. “Could it be more symbolic than that? Something about the heart of the labyrinth? The thing keeping it alive?” he suggested.
“I don’t know of any spells like that,” I admitted as the guardian just looked on, watching his heart with the kind of longing that made my own heart break for him.
“It’s probably meant to dissolve the other magic here. Logically, there is only one cure. So once the cure is obtained, you have to… undo all of this. Something about… giving the heart of the labyrinth back to its rightful owner?”
Okay. Alright.
I could do this.
Making up spells wasn’t exactly my strongest skill. But this labyrinth has shown me how much more capable I was than I previously believed. If I got this far, I had to have the ability to finish it once and for all.
With victory won, I demand
Release the chains, unbind this land.
To the guardian, true, the heart return.
Let ancient magics cease and burn.
By my right and will, the path made clear.
The labyrinth fades, its end is near.
I’ll admit, I was pretty proud of the spell. But to be fair, it took me a solid hour to come up with it, repeating it back in pieces to Nathaniel, so he could remember the former lines for me as I worked out the new ones.
But when it was finally done, and I had it memorized, I took back the heart and the cure, then stood away from the other two men, both of whom had their fate in my hands, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and chanted the spell with as much conviction as I could muster.
I swear I could feel the magic even as I spoke, an electrical current in the air that sizzled across my skin and made my hair stand on end.
When I was done, and my eyes opened, the hedges had been lit up once again, but this fire was oddly cold as it burned the maze to ashes, leaving all three of us standing in a field surrounded by dense woods.
“You did it,” Nathaniel said, looking at me with so much wonder that my heart squeezed in my chest.
“Here,” I said, turning to the guardian whose heart was now lying limply on the base in my hand, the glass dome gone.