Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51038 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
I touch the creamy-white feathers, running my fingertips over them. This makes him shiver, his skin prickling up with tiny bumps. “Sorry,” I say. “If you don’t like it—”
He grabs my hand when I try to pull it back, looking me in the eye. “No. I do. It feels good. I just don’t like the wings. They’re embarrassing.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s just a reminder that I’m the outcast in the family. I have seven half-siblings and while not all of them inherited the messenger gene, the ones that did all have winged feet. It’s just me with these dumb ears.”
“Huh. You’re the eighth?”
He pauses here to reflect., “Uh, yeah. Why?”
“Like me!” I say. “We’re both the eighth sibling. We’re both outcasts.”
“Hmm. I guess that’s true.”
I place my hands on his hips, hooking my fingers through his belt loops as I smile up at him. “Don’t you see, this is what connects us.”
His eyebrows go up. “Our status as lesser siblings?”
“Come on, look around, Declan. Tell me one thing about this place, or the experience we’re having, that implies we’re anything but special? I mean, we’re standing inside the Labyrinth looking at a portal that leads to Paradise.” I turn, pressing my back up to his chest, and point at the closest archway. “We’re gonna go there. And I don’t know what it’s gonna be like—maybe it’s horrible? Maybe it’s our own version of the Odyssey? But I don’t think too many people make it this far. I mean, Aric ran this maze a thousand times, he said. And he never made it this far.” I turn to face him again. “We made it this far.” I hike a thumb over my shoulder. “And your power is gonna get us there.”
“Yeah,” he says, smiling now. “That’s true. I can’t argue with that. Whatever is happening here, it’s epic.”
“Of course, it is. We’re heroes, Declan. Like Odysseus.”
He points at me. “And Theseus, your half-brother. He’s the one who really killed the Minotaur and beat the maze.”
“Did he return home? Or did he find this place and go through to Paradise?”
“Went home. So if he found this place, he didn’t go there.” He points to the archways.
“Hmm. Makes me wonder why Ares wanted Aric to run this maze so bad.”
“Maybe Theseus did find it?” Declan asks. “And maybe Ares heard a rumor or something and he decided to send his bastard son in to map it out?”
“Aric never found this place, though.”
“No. He killed this version of the Minotaur and everything ended.”
An idea forms in my head. “Maybe killing the monster removes access to this room? Maybe we have to defeat the Minotaur, but not kill it?”
“Or….” Declan counters. “We have to kill it in here.” He points to the ground.
I’m nodding. “That makes sense.”
Declan stares at the land on the other side of the archways. “It would explain why no one has found that place yet. Because if you think about it, thousands of people have run this maze in real life. I always thought the goal was to kill the monster, and that they all failed until your brother came along and took the Minotaur out. But what if the gods knew something about this Paradise place and the goal wasn’t to kill the Minotaur, just get past it to find this room where the doors are?”
I’m nodding as he talking. “Which is probably the center of the maze.”
“What do you think that paradise really is?” Declan asks.
“No clue. But back in the jail, Quaid said some cult was after me, remember?”
Declan nods. “Yeah. Helix, or something.”
“Maybe it’s not me they want, Declan. Maybe it’s this room?”
“Maybe you’re the key to the room, Star. Ever think of that? Because it was your brother who killed the Minotaur. Thousands have tried, only he succeeded. Maybe this maze is connected to you by a bloodline?”
“Why wouldn’t they just get one of my sisters then?”
He points up to the domed ceiling. “They’re up there. In the night sky. And you’re not, Star. You’re down here. You’re the only one they have access to.”
I smile, once again reaching up to lightly brush my fingertips across the feathers of his ear wings. “I want to know what’s on the other side. Do you?”
He nods. “Yeah. Should we go back now? So we can tell the others and make a plan to get the hell out of this dump and spend he rest of our lives in Paradise?”
I don’t even have time to open my mouth to respond before I’m sucked back into reality. Which is a nice place to be, even in comparison to paradise, because I’m on top of Declan and we’re still coming.
I’m moaning and writhing, and he’s got a death-grip on my hips.
We’re back in Aric’s room and both he and Quaid are watching as Declan and I finish.