Page 6 of The Labyrinth

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Always.”

She hugged the next brother with decidedly less enthusiasm. “Be good, Sam,” she whispered.

She hugged the oldest with even less excitement. I didn’t miss the sharp gaze she gave him as they pulled back. “Ettiewillgo to school, Lars. If I hear anything otherwise…”

I couldn’t make out what Lars’ grumbled response was, but I could imagine. As for what Rissa thought she would do about Ettie’s schooling while locked away in the camps, I couldn’t be sure. I watched as she pulled away from Lars, and without a backward glance, stepped outside. She left the shack’s feeble tin walls, the lone bed where her mother still lay, and the fire on the verge of going out—long since forgotten in the turmoil I had caused. I followed suit, stepping out into the late afternoon air. We should be able to make it to the camps with more than enough time. Because that was what mattered, wasn’t it?

I shut the door, listening to Ettie’s screams on the other side, along with the soft sobs of Bear. Rissa was already ahead of me, walking away from her family, likely the only home she had ever known. And yet it was me who stayed behind, listening to the sounds of a family torn apart while she trudged on, one foot in front of the other.

Something uneasy grew inside of me. I had gotten what I wanted.Exactlywhat I wanted. So I couldn’t understand why I felt like I had made a tragic error.

Chapter3

Rissa

Icouldn’t look back, as much as I wanted to. If I did, I would’ve cracked, broken under the weight of leaving them behind. There was no time to mourn for my life, ripped away from me in the blink of an eye. I needed to stay strong for Ettie, her tiny face so torn up as I hugged her goodbye. For my mother, who would never be able to stand up to Lars, as much as I wished otherwise. And for my brothers, who’d have the emotional weight of the family to carry now, equal in its mass to the financial burden they already struggled with. I needed to stay strong for all of them, and hope like hell I had made the right decision.

Then again, what other decision could I have made? It was me, or it was them. When it came down to it, it was always going to be me. It wouldalwaysbe me. That was the way of life, and that was the way it was always going to be. I’d let the ashes of my old life fall where they may. The sun would always rise in the East, and I would never allow my family to pay for my sins. I had ignored the sign, taken the ring, and now I would keep putting one foot in front of the other as I paid the price.

Besides, I couldn’t let the monster silently stalking behind me sense any form of weakness. I could tell by the look on his face he expected me to be frightened of him. I should’ve been, really. Terrified, if I were sane. But, I wasn’t sane. Maybe I never had been, or maybe all my time in the sun and dust had slowly eroded whatever sense of reason I’d been born with. So when I looked up into his face, the deep purple skin stretched taut across muscles the size of my head, no fear trickled through my veins. Instead, only a sick sense of fascination. Yes, he was a different color than I was used to seeing. Yes, he was massive, barely fitting into the shack that was tall enough to house my lanky brothers. Yes, every inch of his body screamed murder, fury boiling beneath that rich skin.

But I could only see beauty.

Of course, all of this was before he opened his mouth to speak. Before he condemned me to a life in thecamps. I had no idea what the camps were, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t be a great place to spend the rest of my days. They were meant to punish me, take away my freedoms and my family’s chance at a life, a real life, because I had taken something I had stupidly assumed wasn’t wanted anymore. I should’ve just left the damn ring where it was.

The thought sliced through my heart with a quick blade. Because now, who would make sure Ettie got protein every now and again? Bear loved her to death, but he wasn’t always home to check up on her. Shit. Would she just waste away to nothing, her last moments spent resenting me for abandoning her to a cruel world?

A stray tear found its way down my cheek, and I angrily swiped it away with my dirty hand. No weakness. I couldn’t let this…monstersee any chinks in my armor. I whirled around to glare at the beast trekking behind me. “You’re a fucking jerk, you know that?”

He looked at me, his eyes like the night sky filled with stars as he raised one brow. “She speaks.”

I stopped dead in the sand, the dust clouding around me. It was a humid day, the air sticky around me, and the dirt was absolutely going to cling to my skin. Whatever. Wasn’t like I had anyone to pretend to look nice for anymore. “Of course I speak. You heard me speak in my house. You know, myhomethat you forced me out of for taking your ring that I didn’t even know was yours. It was in the garbage.”

The monster stopped, too. “It’s the first time you’ve spoken since we left. Thought you might stop talking altogether as an act of rebellion or something.”

I sneered. “Believe me, if I wanted to rebel, you’d know.”

He shrugged. “You don’t need to speak to work in the camps. Makes no difference to me.”

That made me pause.Asshole. He really didn’t care if I spoke or not? Fuck him. “You took me away from myfamilyover a ring. A miscommunication, at best. Do you have no remorse?”

I studied him. His clothes were typical for the desert, long and protective from the sun’s scorching rays. But they were finer than mine. Much finer. The horns that rose out of his forehead were almost elegant, dark and ridged in a way that captivated me. I wanted to touch them, to see how they would feel beneath my fingers. He was oddly beautiful.

“Remorse for what? Actions have consequences. You stole something from me, and so I took something in return. Makes perfect sense.” His plum skin was far less beautiful when he was being a dick. And those fucking eyes kept staring at me, emotionless as they watched my anger from a safe distance.

“I took your ring out of the goddamn garbage. You took away my life. How are those two things even slightly the same?” I snapped. “You disgust me. You’re a jerk. No, you’re worse. You really are the very definition ofmonster.”

He closed the distance between us, and all at once I became very aware of his size. His palm was the size of my face as it wrapped around my neck. He could quite easily crush my skull with a single hand, but for right now, his grip tightened around my neck—tiny and frail in his massive hold. “You will not speak that word in my presence.Do you hear me?Never again. You can spew your hateful words all you wish. I know that is a given for your kind. But you will never again say that word.”

Monster, I thought. As if he could hear my thoughts, his gaze narrowed, and his fingers tightened. My airways restricted, and I gasped and spluttered for breath, clawing at his hand.Monster, monster, monster.“Or…what?”

His fingers gripped tighter. The edges of my vision began to fade to black. He wasn’t playing around, and I had a feeling this was only a fraction of the strength he possessed. “I’ll kill you,” he growled.

So what?I thought. Wasn’t I as good as dead anyway? I certainly wasn’t any good to my family anymore. What was left for me in these camps? I didn’t doubt for a second he wouldn’t kill me, either. The look in his eyes told me he was only a moment, a single word away from it.

His gaze tightened, and his voice dropped to a low murmur I had to struggle to hear against my fading senses. “I’ll kill you, and your family will get none of the money they’d get for your work in the camps.”

“Wha…t?” I croaked out.

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