Page 95 of Skyshade
She ran down row after row, until there was a gap. She needed to jump. She did, over and over, using skills honed from prowling the towns, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. On her last leap, her ankle twisted below her, and she hit the side of the opposite hedge with a thud that stole her breath, before sliding to the ground. Her head spun. Her body was sore everywhere. But she was close. She had seen it. Ignoring the pain, she got to her feet, turned the corner, and was nearly blinded by sparkling metal.
Her breathing labored, she inched toward the coffin. Curled her hands around the side. Pushed.
Nothing happened.
She tried again. Heaved against it with all her might. But it didn’t budge. Almost like it was enchanted.
Or cursed.
She remembered what the blacksmith said. Her blood was power.
She didn’t spare a moment before smearing the blood from her ankle across its opening.
Immediately, the blood began to spread, melting across the coffin. This time, she pushed—and it opened.
She looked inside, expecting to see a corpse. Waiting to steal a bone to use for her skyres.
But the coffin was empty.
Impossible. Had the body been moved? Stolen?
A screech like a talon across the sky shattered the silence, and the maze seemed to tremble around her, in anticipation.
The creature. It had finished with the others, and now, it would find her. She tucked the book to her side, scrambled to the closest hedge, and climbed for her life.
She ran, dragging her ankle behind her, along with a trail of blood. She had lost so much already.
After the next jump, she collapsed against the top of the hedge, her vision blurring. Her head spinning. She dragged herself back up,letting the pain pulsing through her ankle anchor her consciousness, but she stumbled, dropping the book. She didn’t even see where it landed.
Already, she could barely feel her hands and fingers. This was bad.
Then it got worse.
There was rustling behind her, and she turned to find the demon from the book crawling up to the top of the hedges.
She whipped around and ran faster. Faster. So fast, she barely saw in front of her; all she knew is she needed to move. The castle was right there. So close. But her head was spinning now.
And there was one more jump left to the outer ring. She didn’t think she could make it, not when her entire leg now had gone numb from the loss of blood. It was freezing. She sunk to her hands and knees and felt the ice, slippery beneath her palms. The cold seemed to stick to her, crawling into her lungs, stinging against her wound, slowing her breathing. Her eyes fluttered closed.
Somewhere behind her, the demon from the book screamed again, and she folded over, covering her ears.
There was an answering roar.
She recognized it immediately.
Grim.
With renewed hope, she flung herself through the air, just barely making it across the way. She hung off the side of the hedge and groaned as she pulled herself atop again with her last remaining effort. Just a little farther.
Stars spotted her vision. She saw the mouth of the labyrinth and forced herself forward. There. Just there.
She crawled to the edge, and her fingers were cut to ribbons as she reached within the thorned hedge for purchase. She tried to climb down the wall without her daggers, but she had lost too much blood. Her vision went black, and her hands went wholly numb. She fell halfway down—
Into Grim’s arms.
Snow melted against the window; the glass heated by the roaring fire beside it. It was the first thing she saw when she awoke.
She was still in the winter palace, then. Flashes of the maze came in spurts. The four-legged creatures. Her ankle, torn open by their teeth. The demon from the book. Her running atop the maze.
