Page 137 of Fated In Ruin

“These corridors were made to change after someone passed through,” Eldric murmured, running his fingers over the walls. “This entire place is a maze meant to trap its victims, which means we could be anywhere. And so could Evie.”

“The walls move?” I scraped the floor with my foot, revealing grooves cut into the stone, and in the walls around us, cleverly made seams where the stones fit together, magic glimmering in every crack and crevice, like cosmic mortar.

“This is fucked up. Can you still track her?” Blake asked, his voice tight with concern as he rubbed his chest. “I can’t get a read on her, it’s like our bond has gone…” His voice trailed off, the dim light turning his brown eyes murky.

“Just barely.” I nodded, drawing a deep breath through my nose. But Evie's floral scent was fainter, smothered by the stench of ancient magic, the dust and the damp and her own panic, now laced with something else.

Raw, uncontrolled power.

“She's losing control of her magic,” I said quietly, noting the fresh gouges cut into the walls around us as we headed in the new direction the maze had chosen for us. “We need to get to her before she brings this entire mountain down.”

The sour stain of Eldric’s fear stung my nose. “We’d never make it out of here in time, we have to be what…three hundred feet deep?”

I didn’t bother replying.

We rounded the next corner and I threw out an arm, stopping them both in their tracks. “Wait.”

The corridor ahead looked identical to all the others, but my instincts prickled. Something felt wrong. I crouched, examining the stone floor more carefully. There—almost invisible in the dim light—a glimmering hairline crack bisected the floor. Not a natural fissure, either—a straight line.

“Some sort of pressure plate,” I murmured. “Stand back.”

I picked up a loose stone, tossing it onto the suspicious section. Immediately, the ground gave way, revealing a pit that plunged into darkness. The stone clattered, bouncing off the walls for what seemed like an eternity before finally hitting bottom with a distant splash.

Blake swore under his breath. “What the fuck is this?”

“Traps,” Eldric answered grimly. “Aurelius was known for creating games of death. The biography I found online said he’d herd his enemies beneath the castle and force them deeper into the tunnels to see who would survive.”

“And you never thought to mention this before we started down here?” Blake hissed, his fingers curling into fists.

“Well,” Eldric rubbed the back of his neck. “Kind of hard to explain when you were choking the life out of me. Consider yourself informed.”

Blake’s gaze locked with mine.Did Evie run into the same thing?

She’s smart, Blake, well trained. If she did, she would have spotted them, faster than us.I closed my eyes and focused. I still felt her ahead of us, still moving.She’s okay, working her way through this maze. We need to keep moving, too, if we want to catch her.

“Has anyone ever told you it’s rude to talk in front of people?” Eldric crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s your plan?’

I backed up several paces, gauging the distance. “We'll have to jump.”

One by one, we leapt across the chasm, landing on solid ground on the other side. We continued forward, moving cautiously now, tracking every inch of the walls, ceiling and floor for any signs of traps.

The next one was more subtle—a nearly invisible tripwire strung across the narrow passage, neck level. Not metal, but a hair thin strand of severing magic, and thank fuck Blake spotted it, his keen eyes catching the faint flash of reflected light against the darkness.

“Would have taken our heads,” he said, crouching down as he scanned the rest of the corridor. “And if anyone made it past that, I'd bet my left nut those alcoves in the wall shoot something unpleasant.”

I took a deeper whiff and caught the acrid scent of poison. “Not just unpleasant. Deadly.”

“All of this is slowing us down.” Eldric's patience was wearing thin. “Disarm them and keep going.”

“No need,” I replied, since I could actually see where I was heading, I dematerialized to the far end of the corridor, landing past the threats. Best of all, I caught Evie’s scent again, coming from in front of me.

“Come on, she’s just ahead.” Blake didn’t hesitate and jogged ahead of me as I waited for Eldric.

“There’s something else up there.” Eldric’s eyes narrowed as he reached out and touched a patch of sparkling rock-like mold growing in splotches around us. “I can’t say I’ve ever sensed magic like this. It doesn’t feel right, if you know what I mean.”

“What else did this book of yours say?” I asked, letting Blake put some distance between us. “What else is down here?”

Eldric shifted uncomfortably. “There was mention the tunnels are haunted. Ghosts, strange sightings, those sorts of things.” He pulled his hand away, the tips of his fingers sparkling like they were covered in diamonds.

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