Page 38 of The Labyrinth

Instead, it was Rissa who spoke. “Sometimes, I think the most beautiful things in the world are also the darkest.”

I couldn’t look away from her gaze, captivating me with such raw power that I was held in place, trapped by her aura. “What do you mean?”

She smiled, a sad smile that had seen too much. “I think it’s hard for pretty things to be truly beautiful because they only know half of the world. For things to be beautiful, really beautiful, they need to have seen the shadows as well. They need to have experienced those depths we’re so terrified of to embrace the totality of what they really are.”

I knelt at her feet, still towering over her even on my knees. A Master kneeling at the feet of his pet, how the roles had changed. But this wasn’t submission. This was respect, and Rissa had earned that tenfold. I wanted to know more. I wanted to hear that she thought I was beautiful, darkness and all. “Do you want to know why I hate the word…monster?” Even the taste of it in my mouth felt wrong, soured on my tongue. I didn’t like it.

Rissa ran a hand down my horn, and I shivered against the sensitive touch. “Yes.”

I rested my head on her lap as she rubbed my horn, unable to look her in the eyes as I spoke, the words falling from my lips like a flood I couldn’t stop. “There’s a certain connotation that comes with the word. The grotesque creatures that go bump in the night, terrorizing children, and eating their flesh. We’re horror stories. Never meant to be beautiful. Never meant for anything outside of nightmares and tales meant to haunt. But it also ostracizes. It dictates people as good, and us as bad. There’s a distinction, a line in the sand. I’ve met good people like me, and I’ve met bad people like you. What I am isn’t what makes me a bad person. My title, the horns on my head, the size of my hands…none of those make me a bad person. The rot growing inside me,thatmakes me a bad person. But not the wordmonster. That’s just a bunch of letters strung together with a meaning that’s long outgrown its usefulness. It’s an insult to my people. The good ones. The ones who deserve better.” My heart was tight, putting more on the line for Rissa than I had ever expected to. I couldn’t be certain how she would react.

“Ten?” Rissa whispered. She brought her hands to either side of my face, pulling me to look up.

Finally, I did so, staring into those eyes that had captivated me the first time we met. “Yes?” This was it. The moment of truth. She could sentence me to my doom or fly me to the heavens with a single word from those lush lips.

But the words she spoke weren’t the words I expected to hear. “You’re good, Ten. You’re a good person.”

Every ounce of tightness released from my chest all at once, shocked at her quiet admission. What I had anticipated to be a sentencing judgment on my people, was instead an acceptance of me. All of me. The darkness and the light. The broken and the whole. The decay that bloomed inside me, sickening sweet. I buried my head in her lap, listening to the gentle thump of her good heart as it beat against my ear.

Rissa thought I wasgood. Even though I knew in my black heart I was far from good, Rissa thought otherwise. And I was beginning to realize hers was the only opinion that mattered.

Chapter17

Rissa

There was a strength in submission I didn’t think we fully understood. A special kind of power in obeying. When I yielded to Ten, I wasn’t just agreeing blindly. I was offering him my trust. In exchange, I was given respect. It wasn’t taken. It was willingly gifted, a present. And in my offering, I found my soul strengthening. Of course, you didn’t grow up with three brothers in the village without learning how to fight, physicallyandemotionally. But the way I was growing with Ten was different. I was learning to push back boundaries I thought existed, to stretch limits I had never attempted to stretch before. I knew my own strength before Ten had come into my life. Ten made me brave. Submission made me powerful.

Of course, it wasn’t like that with everything. Ten was still leery, wanting to keep me locked in my room whenever he met with the council. He told me it was for my safety. While I wanted to believe him, sometimes I had my doubts.

In no surprise, the library became my sanctuary. A reprieve from the monotony of my room. Deep down, I knew I couldn’t safely walk the streets. I understood Ten’s fears and concerns. He was keeping me when he shouldn’t be. If I was discovered…fuck. I didn’t want to think about how bad it would be if I were found by anyone else.

Even still, sometimes I wondered if there wasn’t more going on that I didn’t quite grasp. His fear seemed to verge on paranoia. If I even brushed past a curtain, I was promptly scolded, led away like a misbehaving child. While he allowed me my choice of the library or my room, either door was still locked despite my protests. Sometimes it just wasn’t worth the fight. More often than not, I chose the library.

I was here today while the council met, their once-sporadic meetings now sometimes twice a day. Ten said the Ravens were making moves, but nothing they could pin down. I knew he was stressed about it. He would come into the room, tense and furious, needing a release. I wandered the stacks, trying to decide on a book. Not poetry. I had read that yesterday. Not an action, either. There seemed to be too much action in my life for my liking lately. I needed something to take my mind off it all.

A tiny blue book caught my eye. In black lettering on the spine it bore the word “Diary.”

Huh. I didn’t take Ten for the diary-keeping sort. Curiosity made me pull it out, and I told myself I would only peek at the inside to see if it was, in fact, Ten’s diary from when he was younger. But the carefully written name on the inside wasn’t Ten’s.

This diary is the property of Iris May Alden, 13 AF.

Year 13 after the Fall, so almost ten years ago. I knew I shouldn’t be reading someone else’s private thoughts, but the first line pulled me in.

People like to say the Fall began with the appearance of the monsters, but those of us who survived it know better.

I read through the first page, and then the second, captivated by Iris’s tale. My mother had survived the Fall as well, but the only time she ever spoke of it was to tell us all the things she missed from before. Iris had no problem detailing the storms that destroyed home after home, washing away the world everyone thought was concrete. I didn’t stop reading as I brought the diary over to the chair, taking a seat, completely engrossed.

Iris was young during the Fall, but old enough to remember. Her mother died in one of the first waves of infection in the villages, leaving her in the care of her step-father who was low on funds. He had no problem selling her off to the Labyrinth. Iris didn’t say how old she was when she entered the Labyrinth, but some simple math left my mouth open. She was far, far, younger than me. But she wasn’t brought to the breeding camps. She was sold at auction to one of the fine families in the city.

I flipped the page, and the name I saw there made me stop.Furie. She was purchased by the Furie family. Ten. Monsters aged differently than humans, I knew, so there was a possibility he was far older than I was. It was possible he was the Furie she was talking about. My heart sank at the idea. Maybe I wasn’t special to him. I was just another girl on the roster, the next in Ten’s lineup. I tucked my finger in the book, closing my eyes and taking a breath. There was no point in being upset until I had the whole story. Right now, all I had was a last name, which wasn’t enough to go on. I nodded to myself, ready to continue.

A few pages detailed Iris’s day-to-day life. Serving the unknown man of the house, amongst other duties like laundry and cleaning. It wasn’t overly exciting, but I found myself glued to the page, desperate to know more about this mysterious man who purchased her.

When I saw the name, I wished I hadn’t been so desperate. Because there it was, in faded black ink.

Tennyson came to see me today. He was in a good mood, it seemed. It was nice to see him happy.

I covered my mouth with my hand, unable to stop the emotions rising to the surface. Ten had bought this girl.Iris. He had bought her at the auction, and he had made her his slave, like he had made me. The only difference between us was that Iris was allowed to go outside. She was allowed to be seen. I found myself jealous of a woman I had never known, and my heart breaking for a man I didn’t realize I cared so deeply about.

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