Page 41 of Demanding Discord
The maze closed in quickly on three sides, but the wall we burned shuddered and screeched, inching backward as we advanced.
“Which way to the center?” Cinder asked. “Let’s burn our way through.”
I opened my senses, searching for the void in the magic, but the pitch at which the thorns hummed and screamed hindered my ability to find it. “I don’t know. I can’t sense it.”
“Neither can I.” Cinder extinguished one hand and grasped my arm.
The moment her skin touched mine, my senses heightened. I felt a hollow emptiness to my right, so I turned and sent flames in the direction of the sensation. “It’s this way.”
The maze continued to close in, the canopy lowering as the walls pressed against us. But the bush we burned was no match for our combined heat. We pressed forward, each step a battle against the writhing, angry bramble blocking our path. The air thickened with the scent of scorched arbor, and our combined fire carved a narrow passage through the chaos.
Ahead, the heart of the maze pulsed with malevolent energy, its presence growing stronger as we advanced. The hollowness called, beckoning us forward. We pushed through, burning everything around us until we stumbled into the center of the labyrinth.
Silence and frigid air engulfed us. Goosebumps pricked at my skin, and Cinder rubbed her arms. I stiffened, expecting a new wave of monsters to attack, but what entered was a gust so cold it rattled me to my bones.
A stone altar stood in the center of the void, and as we stepped toward it, the walls around us disappeared, inky blackness taking their place. A knife lay atop the table, and next to it stood an ornate, gilded vase depicting scenes of Lucifer’s subjects kneeling before him.
“Is this the center?” Cinder asked, her breath coming out in a cloud of steam. “How do we get out?”
“We make a sacrifice.” I eyed the ground, watching shadows dance across the stone and gather in a darkened corner. “Three drops of blood in honor of the king, pledging fealty.”
“Well, get on with it then.” She gestured to the altar, her gaze darting about on high alert.
The shadows undulated, gathering more darkness as they rose.
“Escape requires a sacrifice from us both,” I said.
She barked an incredulous laugh. “I am not giving the devil my blood, and I am definitely not pledging fealty to an egotistical dictator.”
From the darkened corner, a figure emerged, its outline shifting between solid and smoke. It turned its featureless face toward us and paused, regarding us.
“This is new.” My pulse thundered in my ears, and I held an arm in front of Cinder, ready to block the shadow creature’s advance.
“Friend of yours?” she asked, centering her weight.
“That beast is a friend of no one.”
16
CINDER
“What the hell is it?” I tightened my grip on the knife, but with the way the creature shifted from solid to smoke, I doubted a blade would do any good.
“That is a tulpa,” Discord said. “An entity created from nothing but the imaginings of its master.”
“A thought being. Fabulous.” I’d heard about these guys. Dark witches sometimes created them to do their bidding—or so I was told. I’d never seen one in person. The magic needed to create them was forbidden in my realm. “Can we kill it?”
“The only way to kill a tulpa is to kill its creator.”
I laughed dryly. “Something tells me Lucifer would be impossible to kill.”
“You’re right about that, but Lucifer did not create this being. Ruin did.”
My stomach sank. “Ruin? As in the guy who took your place? The one who’s hunting us?”
“Indeed.” He inched closer to the altar.
“So he knows we’re here, and he sent a shadow dude to finish us off.” At least Lucifer wanted us to get out of the maze alive, whether he would admit it or not. Ruin only wanted our heads. “Fan-frigging-tastic.”
