Page 47 of Wrath

“Ohhh. Does this mean we have to walk in lines of two and hold hands whenever we leave the tent?” Bash asked, blinking up at the genie innocently.

Devlin simply flipped the mage off and stalked outside.

Once Killian and Devlin were gone, I turned to the others. “I want to get in touch with Axel and Atta at the capital.”

Mali’s breath hitched at the mention of her mate. One of her tan hands fluttered upwards until it landed on her throat, her nails digging into her flesh.

“Lupe sent a letter to Atta days ago,” Ryland said.

“And?” A thread of trepidation unfurled in my stomach, curling around the knot of wariness already present there.

“No response yet,” Dair answered. He offered Mali a sympathetic smile when her shoulders slumped. “But we had to be careful sending it. Didn’t want to risk it falling into the wrong hands.”

“Like the council members,” Davia said stiffly, her eyes turning flinty. “They still have way too much damn power for my liking. I don’t understand why we can’t just kill them?—”

“The same way we can’t just murder the kings,” B answered, and from his tone, it sounded like they’d had this conversation before. Numerous times. “There would be riots. Nothing can be done until Z and all of her mates receive Lilith’s blessing.”

“Besides,” Ryland added, “it’ll be harder to kill the council members than it would be to kill the kings. The kings are at least contained for the time being. But the council members have their own security in place and fail-safes. Who knows what can of worms we’ll open if we attack them?”

“I think?—”

Whatever Bash was going to say was lost by a blinding white light that sent disconcerting shivers through me. The entire room faded away, one minute molecule at a time.

No. Not again.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I blinked the bright light away, half expecting to find myself tied up in an abandoned hospital again.

But I wasn’t.

I actually had no idea where the fuck I was, but it certainly wasn’t any building I’d seen before.

The walls were made out of a strange red rock I didn’t know the name of, as was the roof overhead. The flooring was nothing but tightly compacted dirt. I wasn’t in a room, per se, but a hall that was twice the size of me in both length and width. It made me feel oddly claustrophobic, as if at any moment, the walls would close in on me and crush me alive.

Directly in front of me, the path branched in three directions. I peered down the right hall first, unsurprised to see nothing but red walls, red ceiling, and brown flooring. It was the same with the left and middle pathway.

Holy fuck.

How was I supposed to know where to go?

The answer came to me with startling swiftness.

I wasn’t supposed to know.

I was in a goddamn maze.

Another one of Lilith’s trials.

But which mate was here with me?

I chose a direction at random—left—and hurried down it, veering down another pathway when the cave branched out again. There was no sound that I could hear. No water trickling over rocks. No birds chirping in the distance. No crickets serenading the night sky. The silence was almost uncanny, and goose bumps pebbled on both of my arms.

And then, slicing through the silence like a katana, came a roar. My heart squeezed.

Something was in this maze with me.

Something bad.

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