Page 103 of A Darkness So Sweet

“Rose.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rose. Would it be easier if I came under there with you?”

She shook her head, and then hesitated. “Maybe. I don’t know if there’s room, though.”

A plan formed. When Maia was little, she used to hide under the blankets, too. It was hard to face the world sometimes. Hiding under the blankets made it feel like the world didn’t exist for a little while. She twisted and grabbed the blanket behind her, throwing it over her head and the woman, so she made an extension of the safety Rose had created for herself.

“There,” Maia said. “Now we’re both under the blanket.”

Rose breathed out a long sigh. “You’re too nice for this place.”

“I don’t even know what this place is.”

“It’s where the king sends people to punish them,” she whispered, her eyes going wide again. “You must have done something to make him very, very angry.”

“I did. I came back when I was supposed to remain dead.”

“Oh. That would make him furious.” Rose tunneled further into the blankets. “You really don’t know where you are?”

“Has anyone else heard of this place?”

The other woman seemed to consider her words. Her brows furrowed while she thought, and then she shook her head. “Probably not.”

Maia needed an explanation for where they were, though. This woman had been through a lot, and talking about it would not be easy, but Maia needed to know what she had gotten into. “Rose? What is this place?”

A shadow darkened Rose’s features, the remnants of what she had been through bleeding through her form until the hollows underneath her eyes appeared bruised. “The king sends us here to run the labyrinth.”

“The labyrinth?”

“He keeps fighters here. They all battle each other in the center, and nobility watch from the stands around it. The men here fight to the death. But the winners...” She swallowed, her throat working hard. “They get their prize.”

Fuck.

Oh, fuck, that was awful. She hadn’t thought...

Maia closed her eyes, squeezing them shut as she reminded herself that she was a troll wife. She would get through this, just like she had gotten through so much in her life. “I’m sorry, Rose. That is an awful and terrible thing.”

“It is.”

“You were...”

“I am a prize,” Rose whispered. “Myself and another. She had just arrived here, like you. But she was so terrified that she wouldn’t stop screaming, so he gave her to... to...”

Silence. Just a sudden silence that was full of so much meaning. She had no idea who this mythical warrior was who killed women, but she intended to find out. Maia knew that was likely her own fate.

The king hated her. He’d made that very clear when he’d attacked his own people with that explosion just to punish Maia and all the other trolls. He would stop at nothing to get his revenge. For what reasoning, she had no idea. All she knew was that she was stuck in this place and she had to find a way out.

She had to find a way back to Ragnar. No matter the cost.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay, so there has to be somewhere to go. There has to be a way out of here.”

“There isn’t.”

“There’s always a way out. Maybe if we talk to the guards, we could find one who could cast some pity on us. Someone here doesn’t agree with what the king is doing. If we can just get them to help us, then we can get out of here. We can tell other people what the king is doing, and maybe then we’ll be able to get everyone else out. If we can get out of here, then we can send help.”

Rose was shaking her head vigorously. “The guards don’t care.”

“One of them has to care! You just said you’re being given to people as agift, Rose. And then whatever the...” She stopped speaking the moment she saw the expression on Rose’s face.

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