Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Rushing forward, I tore at some as she worked at others. But it felt almost useless, as more and more vines flew out and snaked around her, trying to hold her in place.
Hold her in place.
That was it.
When she’d been moving, they’d left her alone.
The second she paused, they tried to grab her.
“You have to move,” I said, yanking at the vines on her ankles, the thorns biting into my flesh.
“I can’t.”
“You have to,” I snapped, grabbing another before it twined around her. “They are only grabbing you when you are still,” I added.
Her eyes widened, likely realizing I was right, so she took a step forward, then another until she was running.
All of the vines drew back into the hedge as I rushed to catch up with her, feeling a burn in my chest, a feeling I only remembered from my youth. When I would run to the town to meet my father after his long day at the factory, bringing him a slice of crusty bread with cheese that I had to fight the urge to eat myself as my hungry stomach cramped.
This, this was what it felt like to be human.
Exhilarating.
And terrifying.
I grabbed Roxy’s arm, pulling her to a walk. “I don’t think you need to run,” I told her as she gasped for breath. “I think you just need to keep moving. No breaks. I don’t know what will happen if those vines completely wrap around you.”
“You never said this would be dangerous for me,” she said, still panting for breath.
“I don’t think it is,” I said. “I doubt the witches would want to kill one of their own. They’re just trying to discourage you from completing the labyrinth.”
She nodded at that, looking forward with hopeless eyes, seeing no end in sight.
It would end.
Eventually.
And she would be faced with another task entirely. Then another. And another.
I had no idea how many lay ahead, nor how long we would be inside of this maze.
All I knew was that we were here now.
And we’d figured out the first challenge.
As we continued to walk, Roxy’s pace getting slower and slower with each passing hour, though, I had a sneaking suspicion that this labyrinth was not only magical, but that the magic was catered to each witch who stepped inside of it.
Which meant that each challenge that Roxanne was about to face was going to challenge her personally.
“Look!” she said, arm shooting out, the little cuts all down her skin from the thorns mingling with the darkened bruises from the young vampires. “A door,” she said, practically running toward it.
She was right.
Wedged right into the hedge was an old, rounded wooden door.
I had no idea what was on the other side of it.
But as Roxanne reached for the knob, I had a feeling that it was going to be something else that would make her need to fight against her every desire, against her very nature.
As the door swung open, and a perfect replica of her apartment came into view, I knew I was right.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Roxy
Home.
That was the thought, the feeling, that overwhelmed me the second the heavy wooden door pushed open, and my apartment came into view.
All of the tension that had been clinging to me, all of the exhaustion, the throbbing in my feet, the pounding dehydration headache in my temples, it all fell away as I stepped into the familiar space.
It wasn’t my apartment.
Logically, I knew that.
This was some sort of spell meant to look exactly like it. The image likely conjured from my very mind, my every desire.
But knowing that didn’t change the feeling of comfort that enveloped me as I moved toward my familiar couch, still covered in the pillows and blanket that I’d left behind the night that Nathaniel had tricked his way inside.
I was sweating, but I still reached for the blanket, needing the familiarity, the comfort.
I knew it had only been a few days since I’d been home, but the homesickness that took over me had tears pricking my eyes as my gaze slid to the TV, finding that it had magically paused the program I’d been watching last.
As I thought that, the show started to play, pulling me back into the plot line that had started to get hazy with so many other things on my mind.
“Roxy, it’s a spell,” Nathaniel said from somewhere behind me.
I knew he was right, I did.
But I didn’t care as I kicked out of my shoes, as I pulled my throbbing feet up onto the couch to let them rest.
There were no vines here trying to wrap around me. No thorns digging into my skin.
There was just comfort and familiarity.
I was going to go ahead and soak that up.
“Roxanne!” I heard my name called, but it sounded further away, muffled for some reason, as I got sucked into my show.