Page 60 of The Labyrinth

I didn’t cry. Not this time. Not now. I was pissed. I was pissed, and I was trapped.

But not for long.

If I had anything to say about it, I wouldn’t be trapped ever again.

Chapter26

Ten

Iran through the streets of the Labyrinth with Hades, a pit in my stomach and a hole in my heart. I knew I had to keep Rissa safe. I knew it with every fiber of my being, but I still wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing. When I shut the door behind me, my heart cracked. When I turned the key, my hands shook. It felt wrong after everything we had been through, to keep her locked inside my house. I should have offered her more trust. Maybe I could’ve kept her in the house without locking her inside her room.

She wouldn’t have stayed though. She would’ve followed me, trailing me through the city like she had when we went to find Neo. And if she followed me into battle, I wouldn’t be able to focus on the fight at hand. What if she saw something that shocked her brain into retreat again, and I couldn’t get to her in time? I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t lose her.

As much as I supported her while she found her footing again, remembering what it was like to be whole once more, Rissa did the same for me without realizing it. Just by being there, being herself, accepting me for who I was, my flaws and all…she brought me back to life in a way I’d never be able to repay her for. The thought of losing her because she was too fucking stubborn to stay behind was too much for me to imagine. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t.

Still, my feet froze, pulling me to a stop on the street. Hades paused as well, cocking his head to the side as he looked at me. “What’s up, bossman?”

I closed my eyes, thinking for a moment or two. I knew I needed to keep her safe. I knew I couldn’t lose her. Not again. But the bigger part of me was screaming that I would lose her anyway if I didn’t set her free. Fuck’s sake. “I have to go back home and unlock Rissa’s door. I can’t leave her like that. It’s eating me alive.”

Hades gave me a brief nod. “Can you do it quickly? I’m not sure how much time we have.”

“Yeah. I’ll be back before you know it.” I turned, ready to jog back to my house, when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I watched in horror as one of the taller buildings only a few blocks away sank to the ground. A moment later, the air was knocked out of my chest, and the sounds of an explosion rattled my ears. I felt it in my core. In the distance, I could tell it was one of the buildings in Panshaw, an apartment building filled with families. The Ravens had just bombed an apartment filled with countless lives just to make a point. My heart sank with the building crumbling in on itself. “Fuck. Come on.”

Rissa would have to wait. She would have to forgive me. I’d explain everything to her, and make her understand. I’d tell her I was on my way back to fix things and make amends, but this needed to be dealt with now. She’d understand.

Our feet couldn’t carry us fast enough to the wreckage, the streets filled with a thick black smoke that made it hard to breathe. My chest hurt, aching for my people who had been inside—people who didn’t deserve any of this. Could I have stopped this? Could I have done something different to prevent the deaths of innocent lives? I pushed myself faster, running harder. Everywhere, people were screaming, crying for their loved ones. Bedlam broke out in the streets, and Griffin and his troops were nowhere to be found. All I could see were dusty citizens, confused and scared.

We needed to get past the explosion. The Ravens wouldn’t be too close, so as not to risk their own men. They had probably set the explosives up and were now ready to move in, to take advantage of our weakness. I faced Hades, screaming to be heard over the chaos. “I’m going to find Grif. Find Draven, tell him to get these people under control. They’re in danger out on the streets like this. It’s what the Ravens want.”

He nodded. “I’m on it.” With a quick turn, he disappeared into the crowd, only the smoke that followed him lingering. I had no doubt he would find Draven. Hades had a knack for things like that, which made him an invaluable member of my council. But right now, I needed to find Griffin.

I pushed through the throngs of people, everyone too caught up in the destruction to pay me much attention. They shouldn’t be out on the streets. I’d bet money on the fact this was what the Ravens hoped for. But Draven would be better at organizing them, getting them to listen and get them somewhere safe.

Over the crowds of people, I saw Griffin’s lone horn, and took off in his direction. “Grif!” I called. “Griffin!”

He turned, catching my eye. “Thank fuck you’re here.”

I caught up to him, and the troops surrounding him. There was a mix of monsters and half-monsters, everyone looking concerned, but prepared. “What are we looking at?”

“The Ravens moved into Panshaw earlier this morning. We thought we had caught them, pushed them back far enough, but it was a diversion. They snuck the rest of their men through our openings when we weren’t ready. And there’s a lot of them—a lot more than I realized. Either we’ve had a shit ton of diverters, or they’ve been planning this for longer than any of us knew.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. “And the explosion?”

“Their handiwork.” His face was grim. “I was evacuating these buildings when it dropped.”

My heart. Those people, thinking they were so close to escape, only for it to be torn away from them. “How many did we lose?”

Griffin shook his head. “There’s no way of knowing until the smoke clears. How do you want to play this?”

I pressed my lips together, running my eyes over Griffin’s troops. “We take them down. We can’t let them get away with this. If they want to play pretend in Beggar’s Hole, that’s fine. But they brought their shit into my neighborhood now. They killed my people. That can’t stand.”

“Agreed. I’ll send half the troops through Panshaw, get them to circle back around so we can try and trap them in. They have a lot, but we still outnumber them.”

Griffin went to speak to a group of men, and with quick nods, they headed out, disappearing through the black smoke. I hoped Griffin was right, and splitting up the troops was the right call. Because if it wasn’t, and the full force of the Ravens knocked us on our ass, we were fucked. If they got through Solaris just as effortlessly, then they had a chance of getting to Rissa without resistance. That couldn’t fucking happen. I clenched my fists at my sides, knowing exactly what I wanted to do to all of them. It was similar to what had just happened to Neo, just on a larger, more public scale. Neo was personal. This…this affected my city.Fuck. I hoped Rissa was okay. If she ever forgave me.

A sharp bird call cut through the air, piercing the wails of the people looking for their loved ones. I knew that call. It was the call of the Ravens. They were here. And they were ready to fight.

I grabbed two of the closest men, pulling them by their shirts. “Get as many of these people off the streets as you can. Now.Go.” Civilians on the streets would only confuse us, and they were putting themselves at risk being there. They hurried off, and I turned to face the wall of smoke in front of us, Griffin's remaining men doing the same. No one trembled, although they must have been scared. They stood straight and tall, facing their fate with confidence. For that, I was proud of my people.

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