Page 57 of The Labyrinth

I turned to his other arm, glass in hand, but Neo tried to pull away. With a quick snap of my hand, I yanked his arm straight, glaring at him. “Stay still, or I’ll make it hurt worse.”

“Fuck you,” he muttered, trying to pull away. But my grip was tight, and he was stuck.

I opened the vein on his other arm, enjoying the way his dark blood pooled against my touch.Suffer, I thought.Suffer for your sins.

I thought of Rissa as I opened another vein, Neo gasping in pain in front of me. I thought of the way she fought. I thought of the way she smiled. I thought of the way she called to the demons inside me, not thinking any differently of me because of them.

I opened another vein. I thought of the way she was a better person than most of the people inside the Labyrinth. How she was right. Maybe we needed to learn to live without, so others didn’t suffer as much. Maybe it was time for a change.

I thought of Rissa again and again, making the inside of Neo’s skin come to the surface with my glass until he was crying and moaning in pain, unable to speak. His lungs would be struggling, I knew, trying to keep up with that awful statue shoved in his side. I thought of Rissa, until I knew what I needed to do.

As much as I wanted to drag this out, Rissa needed me. She needed me to tell her it was all going to be okay. That she was okay. I smiled up at Neo to see his face sagged in pain. “See you in Hell.” With a quick swipe, I sliced my glass across both of his wrists, opening his arteries.

He collapsed to the floor with a strangled gasp, blood pooling from all the cuts I had inflicted. I left him choking to turn to Rissa. She was standing still as a statue, her eyes fading. She was going to that place again, that place where her mind protected her.Hiswords had put her there. I raced to her side, pulling her to me. I didn’t care that I was covered in Neo’s blood. I only cared about her.

I pressed my hands to either side of her face, smearing blood across her freckled skin. “Listen to me, deliciae. You listen tome, not him. He is not your Master.Iam. Do you hear me?”

She nodded, her eyes still distant, but I knew somewhere she was listening to what I was saying. I just had to make her believe it enough to pull her out of wherever her mind was taking her. It was protecting her, saving her from this awful part of life she had no business seeing. But my Rissa, my girl, she was far stronger than most. She could do this.

“You belong here. You belong at my side. Next to me, the whole way through this fucked up life. I’ll protect you as much as you need, but I won’t shield you. You’re mine, Rissa, but this is yours. All of this can be yours if you want it to be. The city. The people in it. You deserve to be a queen.Myqueen.”

She met my gaze for the first time, her eyes coming alive with a sharp fire. She looked around the room, at the body collapsed on the floor next to us, and the blood covering the floor. “Queen of what exactly? Queen of the ruins?”

I pulled her face to look back at me, not giving her the space to stare anywhere but into my eyes. “It depends on what you do with those ruins, deliciae. Build something new out of them. Something worthwhile. All I can tell you is that you belong here. If you don’t like the way something is done, we’ll change it. If you want to burn down the Cage, I’ll stand back and watch you do it. Belonging doesn’t mean a place is automatically perfect. It just means it’s worth the effort to turn it into something beautiful.”

I watched as the green of her eyes shifted, coming alive once more, bringing her back to me. I told her I would bring her back as many times as I needed to, and I meant it. I would do whatever it took to keep her by my side, and keep her safe. I watched as comprehension flooded her gaze, realizing I meant what I said.

“I belong here,” she repeated. “I’ve earned my space inside the Labyrinth.”

“You’ve earned it, deliciae. You’ve earned it through blood. You clawed your way through the darkness, and no one can take it from you. I won’t let them.” I squeezed her cheeks, staining them with the blood of our transgressions, the sins that bonded us. “I love you. You are my deliciae. My whore. My treasure. My everything. You are mine, forever, and I’m yours.”

“I’m yours,” she murmured, placing her hands on top of mine. “I’m yours, and you are mine. Forever.”

“Forever,” I repeated. I could stare into her soul for all eternity. I bent to kiss her, to give her everything I had to offer. I would protect her until my dying day, of that I was certain. I began to deepen the kiss, but a knock at the front door startled us both. We pulled apart, looking at each other, and then at the body next to us. There was no time to hide the mess.Fuck.

“Knock, knock.” The front door swung open, and Hades jogged inside the house, looking around at the destruction with a glimmer in his eyes. His smoke was filling the room. “So, as much as I would love to discuss what just happened here, we have a problem. We just got intel from Grif’s guys. The Ravens are close, and they’re moving in on Solaris, fast.”

I scrubbed my hand over my face. “How many of them?”

Hades twisted his lips to the side, trying to decide how to answer my question. “All of them.”

Chapter25

Rissa

Next thing I knew, we were racing through the streets following Hades, the odd gray smoke that trailed him guiding our way. Somewhere in the city I could hear shrieks and screams. My heart sank. War had come to us. Ten knew it was going to happen. I just didn’t think either of us expected it to be today, with Neo’s blood still staining our skin.

I wasn’t sure what help I was going to be, but I was willing to do whatever it took to defend my new home.Ourhome.

Except we weren’t headed toward the sounds of the screams. This block was too familiar. I knew where we were.

We were back at Ten’s house, standing outside the massive double doors.

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. I’m coming with you.”

“This one isn’t up for debate. You’re staying here.” Ten pointed toward the house. “Don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

“I’m not going back into that fucking house without you,” I hissed.

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