Page 62 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

Up ahead, Lennox and Luka had stopped at the top of the hill, when I joined them I did too.

The catacombs resided in a landform similar to a bowl. It was curved on all sides. The terrain was hilly and hosted mouths to a handful of caves. Discovering which cave led to the labyrinth was part of the trick. A dark, shimmering mist covered the land—making it appear even more eerie.

We left our horses at the top of the bowl and carefully made our descent down the hill.

The air got thicker the farther we descended into the bowl. The sounds of leaves blowing in the wind and animals scurrying about halted—they were exchanged for the low groans andguttural roars of the creatures of the catacombs. As we made it to the bottom of the bowl, the mist swirled around us on a phantom wind, seemingly stirring the catacombs to life.

It was aware of our presence. I could feel it. The mist pressed thicker against us as we pushed forward—blinding us from seeing anything more than a couple feet ahead of us.

“Everyone still here?” Declan called out.

A murmur of yeses were called out in response.

“Stay close,” I said. “It will be easy to get separated. The land will try its best to do so.”

“I hate magical land masses,” Nico mumbled.

“What other magical land mass have you been to?” I asked.

“None. This is my first, but I don’t like it.”

“How do we know which cave will lead us into the labyrinth?” Lennox asked.

“According to my research, it will only reveal itself if it wants to. The catacombs will try everything in its power to trick and deceive you, Astria designed it as such. It’s up to us to show it we deserve entrance to the labyrinth, that we are worthy of entering Astria’s sacred place.”

“And how do we go about doing that?” Luka pressed.

We continued to press through the mist. I kept my senses open, feeling for any kind of pull—only to have my senses pulled in five different directions.

“I never found any explicit directions,” I continued. “But I have an idea. First, we need to make it to what we can assume is the center of the catacombs.”

I looked over towards Declan, his face was half covered in the mist, but his golden eyes glowed through the fog.

“Would you be able to fly over and direct us to where the center is?”

“I can, but I doubt we’ll be able to see one another.”

“If you talk to us we should be able to hear you, and as for you seeing our location…”

I looked towards Lennox. “Think you could put up a towerof flame so he can direct us where we need to go?” She placed her hands on her hips and smirked.

“Of course I can.”

“Alright, Declan?” I looked toward the harpy again.

With a dip of his chin, he flapped his mighty wings and took off to the air. The movement of his wings momentarily cleared the fog, giving us a larger view of the rocky landscape around us.

“I think it’s that cave,” Kara gestured to the rocky arch in front of us.

“It’s not.”

“How do you know?” Lennox pressed.

“That would be too easy. That’s the whole game of the catacombs. It’s trying to trick you into thinking what it wants you to believe. I’m sure there’s a nasty monster in there waiting for easy prey.”

Kara shivered, her cheeks and the tips of her pointed ears turning a shade of light pink.

“Hey.” I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t be ashamed of thinking that was it. I did a ton of research last night to find out these things, why would you know?”

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