Page 54 of Let Me Win You

“Invi!” I screamed, struck by panic. The horror of being left alone in the maze sent me to my feet. I clawed at the rising wall, breaking my nails, but it was already too tall for me to climb over.

“Nic!” He grabbed onto the top edge of the wall, risking his head being crushed as the wall neared the ceiling.

His tail lashed over the wall, scooped me from the ground, and dragged me over to his side. Reaching its full height, the wall slammed into the ceiling with a crashing noise and a cloud of rock dust just as Invi and I fell to the floor, both on the same side.

Invi landed on his back, with me dropping on top of him.

“Invi.” I climbed up his torso and hugged his neck. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. You?”

I buried my face in his shoulder. “Don’t you ever, ever leave me.”

He wrapped his arms around me tightly.

“Never,” he vowed.

I couldn’t imagine being left here without him. I would never find a way out of here on my own. I simply wouldn’t survive. But it went further than that. I no longer wanted to be without him even beyond the maze, even in the world where I lived.

“Let’s go,” I urged, climbing to my feet. “Let’s get out of here and win this damn thing.”

My clothes were left on the other side of the new wall. They were blocked away from us now, with no way of getting them back. I had nothing but my sandals on my feet. But I didn’t care. I’d do this naked if I had to, as long as Invi was with me.

Holding my hand, he rose from the ground and looked around, searching with his senses for the right direction for us to move.

“This way.” He pointed at one of the several corridors that had opened all around us this time.

I headed that way, walking alongside him, but he lifted me in his arms again.

“It’s safer this way,” he explained.

I didn’t object. The scare I got when we got separated had rattled my nerves. The closer I was to him now, the better I felt. Besides, he moved faster than I could walk, which meant we’d be out of here sooner, and I was so ready to leave this damn maze.

“It’s not far now,” Invi assured me, as if sensing my mood.

He sounded calm, but I noticed how alert he was, scanning the walls carefully. The black stains on the dark gray walls appeared to move. Some undulated along the stone surface byspreading out then contracting again. Others bulged out of the rock, forming knobs and tendrils.

A faint humming vibrated through the air. At first, I dismissed it as background noise. After a while, however, words formed in the humming.

“Come…”

“Come with me…”

“Help me…”

“Do you hear it?” I asked Invi.

With his mouth pressed into a firm line, he nodded. “Just ignore it the best you can.”

The stench of sulfur grew stronger, making it harder to breathe. The air seemed warmer, too, sweat slicked my hair around my face and trickled down my neck in a thin, chilling rivulet.

Black smoke seeped from the walls, blending with the stains and the shadows. An impenetrable darkness moved in the same direction as we did, slithering along the walls in tendrils and gathering under the ceiling in drips.

“Come with me!”A clawed hand reached out from the smoke, grabbing my foot.

I screamed and kicked it away.

Another hand pulled at my hair.

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