Page 40 of Demanding Discord
“I tried to heal you with magic.”
“With magic that’s getting weaker every time you use it. I felt it, but you’re going to have to get physical—and not in the Olivia Newton-John way.” She angled toward me, taking my hand and placing it on her dangling arm. “Lift, twist, and push.”
“That sounds like it will cause you more pain.”
“Oh, I’ll wail like a dying raccoon, but it’s the only way to fix it.”
I hesitated, loath to cause her more agony. “Are you certain it will work?”
“I’ve done it to Ember multiple times.” She braced a hand against my shoulder and widened her stance. “On three.”
I lifted, twisted, and shoved her arm back into place before she could utter the first count. A string of profanities spewed from her lips as she crouched and groaned, cradling her elbow in her hand.
“I said on three.” She rose, her face pinching, and she massaged the culpable joint.
“You would have tensed more if I’d waited, thus increasing your pain.”
Her nostrils flared, and her eye twitched. “Thank you. Now, how do we get out of here?”
“We run.” I clutched her hand, and we darted up the path. “Focus on the energy around you. Do you feel the low vibration?”
“Since the moment I got to Hell.”
“Go deeper. Feel the current running beneath it.” I tugged her down the path to our left.
“Whoa. That’s low and slow.” She visibly shuddered.
“That’s the energy of the maze.”
“It’s everywhere,” she said.
“Except for the center. Search for the void, the lack of vibration. That’s where we need to go.”
“It almost feels like a map.”
I nodded, keeping my gaze sharp for any movement in the maze. “If you concentrate, you’ll notice patterns within the vibration, a pulse guiding us.” The air prickled against my skin, the labyrinth preparing to shift. “Stay close and trust your instincts. The energy can help us, if we let it.”
“I’ll take all the help we can get.” Cinder matched my pace. “I really thought Lucifer had let us go for a minute. I thought he’d given us another chance to find Hecate.”
“He has. We’d be imprisoned or obliterated otherwise.”
“Then why in the goddess’s name did he throw us into this death trap?”
We turned right, and the hedges shifted, snaking across the ground and forming a wall in front of us.
“One word,” I said, my body tensing, preparing for whatever damned soul might emerge from the bush.
“Let me guess.” Cider clutched her knife and widened her stance. “Ego.”
“Precisely.” I slowly turned, expecting to find a creature behind us, but the maze had boxed us in. “His pride forces him to always appear in control, even when he’s obviously spiraling. He knows he needs our help, but he insists on reminding us of his power to destroy.”
The thorns hummed, and vines shot over our heads, creating a canopy above us. Leaves grew in the thickening bramble, blocking the moonlight as the walls closed in around us. Determined to devour us, to trap our souls and torture us for eternity, the labyrinth shook and grew, the leaves rustling as if in a windstorm.
I called on my fire, gathering the magic in my palm, but a vine jutted out, encircling my wrist and yanking my arm into the thicket before I could ignite a flame. The sensation of a million fire ants feasting on my flesh exploded across my skin.
Another vine snaked across the ground, latching onto Cinder’s ankle and jerking her from her feet. With my free hand, I shot a stream of hellfire at the branch. The thorns squealed, and it unraveled, releasing her.
I focused my flames onto my section of the hedge, burning a ring around my ensnared arm. The bush recoiled, ejecting me from its clutches, and Cinder joined me, shooting fire from her palms.
