MIRA
The maze walls tower above us, carved stone casting eerie shadows in the flickering torchlight. My bare feet find purchase on the cold marble floor as we move deeper into the labyrinth. The red silk clings to my skin, offering no protection against the chill or the growing dread in my chest.
“This place is massive,” Cora whispers beside me. Her own outfit—a flowing gray fabric that barely covers her curves—rustles with each step.
I nod, trying to focus on memorizing our path instead of the way my heart hammers against my ribs. Left turn, straight corridor, another left. If we need to double back, I want to know the way.
“The other women scattered quickly,” Cora observes, her voice barely audible above our footsteps.
They had. Bianca disappeared down the first right turn we encountered, while Keira and Sadie went left together. Lia had actually laughed—laughed beforesauntering down a center path alone, hips swaying like she was heading to a party instead of becoming prey to hunters.
“Good,” I murmur back. “Fewer variables to worry about.”
The maze feels alive, shadows shifting with each flicker of torchlight. Stone gargoyles gaze out down from alcoves, their expressions frozen in various states. The architecture screams old money and older secrets—exactly what I’d expected from the Blackwoods.
Every instinct I have tells me to document this, to remember every detail. However, right now, survival takes precedence over investigation.
The corridor ahead branches into three paths. Cora touches my arm, her fingers trembling. “Which way?”
Before I can answer, a sound echoes through the maze that makes my blood turn to ice. A low, bone-deep alarm that reverberates off the stone walls and seems to penetrate straight to my core.
My stomach drops.
“They’re coming,” I breathe.
The alarm cuts off abruptly, leaving behind a silence that feels infinitely more devious.
Cora’s face has gone pale; her confident façade is cracking. “Mira?—”
I grab her, pulling her against me in a fierce embrace. She trembles against me, and I realize I’m shaking, too. The reality of our situation crashes over me like a tidal wave. We’re trapped in here with fifteen men who want to hunt us down like animals.
“We stick together,” I whisper fiercely into her ear, my voice stronger than I feel. “As long as possible, okay? Whatever happens, we don’t separate.”
Cora’s nod is shaky, uncertainty flickering across her features like candlelight. Her emerald eyes dart between the three paths ahead of us, and I can see her trying to process what we’ve gotten ourselves into.
“Stay close,” I whisper, choosing the middle path. It feels safer somehow, though that’s probably an illusion in this place.
We move together, our bare feet silent on the cold marble. The torchlight creates dancing shadows that make every unlit recess look like it might hide a predator. I keep one hand trailing along the wall, feeling for any irregularities, any clues about how this maze works.
The silence stretches between us, broken only by our careful breathing and the crackle of flames. Cora’s shoulder brushes mine as we navigate a narrow section, and I draw comfort from her presence even as my nerves fray with each passing second.
Then we hear it.
Footsteps. Fast, purposeful footsteps echo off stone walls somewhere behind us.
Cora’s breath catches beside me. “Oh God?—”
The footsteps grow louder and clearer. They’re no longer trying to be quiet. They know we can hear them coming.
“Run,” I breathe, but Cora’s already moving.
She bolts to the right, pure panic propelling herforward like a startled deer. Her gray silk streams behind her as she disappears around a corner.
“Cora, wait!” I sprint after her, my heart pounding so hard it drowns out everything else.
I round the corner where she disappeared, but the corridor is empty. No Cora. No gray silk.
That’s impossible.
