“Where do you travel to in such a hurry?” he asked, his voice low and smooth like honey. A voice I could listen to all day…
“I-I…”
His gorgeous lips parted in a smile, revealing white teeth, as he pressed a finger to my lips. His touch sent tingles running through me, turning my insides to mush. This guy… I’d never come across a guy like this before even in a romance novel. I… I wasn’t prepared.
“Speak no more,” he whispered, “for it matters not. It is too fine a day to not stop in this calm, peaceful forest.”
He traced my jaw, which made my lips quiver.
“You must stay a while and rest… You look so tired and hungry… Are you not?”
Even though my conscience screamed at me to deny it, I found myself nodding and my mouth replying, “Yes. I am both things.”
“Then come with me … We shall feast and rest.”
The sounds of Tejus struggling with the three female nymphs faded out as the male nymph engulfed me in his arms and swept me away into the depths of the forest, carrying me like some kind of prized possession… which I supposed to him I was.
Hazel
My brain descended into a sickly sweet haze. The male nymph had taken me to the base of a large hollowed-out tree. Within the hollow were soft beds of leaves which served as cushions, and he gathered luscious berries from nearby trees, collecting them within a carved wooden bowl. He set them in front of me and began to feed them to me, one at a time. I couldn’t bring myself to wonder whether they were edible for humans, whether they might even be poisonous. I just ate from his fingers while gazing into his entrancing blue eyes.
After he’d finished feeding me all the berries, he set down the bowl and licked his juice-stained fingers before sweeping a stray strand of hair away from my face and placing a flower behind my ear. Then his eyes roamed my face and settled on my lips, which, to my vague discomfort, I found myself parting, as if beckoning him closer. And closer he did come. He leaned in, nearer and nearer until our noses were touching and then our…
The sound of another man laughing echoed through the forest, disturbing the moment. The nymph drew away from me and gazed outside. I followed his gaze to see another male nymph, just as fine as the one I found myself holed up with, marching within view carrying a familiar blonde-haired girl.
R… R…
As her head turned, I caught sight of her smiling face.
Ruby.
A question pierced my haze. What is she doing here? It was followed by a dozen more questions until…
Oh, God. Ruby! Tejus!
I jerked out of the hole like a rocket, stumbling over the ground as I neared Ruby. Her nymph appeared to have already started undressing her. Her shirt was unbuttoned, revealing her bra, and her pants also seemed kind of loose.
“Stop!” I shouted—hoping to attract Tejus’ attention, wherever the heck he was— as I leapt toward Ruby’s nymph. I managed to grab hold of her right arm and tug at her before my own nymph caught me from behind and pulled me away.
He twisted me to face him, his palms cupping my face.
“What is wrong?” he asked, his eyes drilling down into mine again.
I shut my eyes and attempted to shove him away, but he only gripped my arms, sending more involuntary chills through my body. “Let go of me!”
Ruby’s nymph was carrying her further and further away, and it seemed she had not woken up to reality yet.
“But why?” my nymph crooned. “Why are you in such a hurry? We have all the time in…”
A whoosh rushed past me and a split second later, the nymph grasping me went quiet. Opening my eyes to look at him, I gasped to see an arrow shot right through his forehead. His grasp loosening, he teetered before crumpling to the ground.
I looked toward where the arrow had emanated from, expecting to see Tejus standing with his bow. But although it was a tall, dark, long-haired sentry… it wasn’t Tejus.
It was Jenus.
He shot another arrow at Ruby’s nymph, slaying him too. Ruby went falling to the ground on top of him.
Then, stowing his bow among his other weapons, Jenus loped toward me. Before I could make any kind of serious effort to get away, he’d reached me. Grabbing me with his powerful hands, he flung me high over his shoulder.
Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Hazel
No!
Whatever was going through Jenus’ mind, it couldn’t have been good. That much I could say about him without ever having exchanged a word with him before.
“What are you doing?” I seethed. “Ruby is your human!”
“If you remember,” he corrected me in a low steady voice even as he continued to lope through the forest, “you were my first choice of human.”
I suspected the only reason he’d chosen to save me was out of rivalry with his brother. There was no other reason why I should be more valuable in his eyes than Ruby.
“But you can’t just carry me off! It’s against the rules! I’m Tejus’!” I died a little inside at my last statement. I couldn’t believe I was actually yelling that I belonged to that guy, but he was better any day than this monster.
“It’s not against the rules to swap—no such rule has been passed. We’ve reached a communal area—all of our separate paths flowed to here. There’s no reason why we might not do a little… mixing and matching in the process.”
Ugh. No! This can’t happen. What was Ruby going to do now? I was sure that the death of her nymph would snap her out of her daze fast, but she needed to make sure that she wasn’t caught again.
And myself… As much as it killed me, I found myself yelling out Tejus’ name like a damsel in distress.
But he didn’t answer.
I realized why as the sound of three giggling girls came within earshot. As we whipped through the trees, I caught sight of Tejus, backed up against a trunk while the girls, bare from the waist up, fawned over him while twining their fingers in his long hair.
Tejus was no longer fighting them.
In fact, he was butt-naked.
Oh. My. God.
“TEJUS!” I roared.
As his brother carried me right past him, I couldn’t stand this any more. I stopped struggling and focused all my efforts on trying to get at an angle to reach one of the sentry’s weapons—a dagger. Stretching a hand down, I managed to swipe it. I moved as swiftly as I could, pushing myself into a more upright position before pressing the blade to his throat.
“Let me down,” I hissed. “Or I will drive this through your throat.”
He stopped still.
“And don’t you dare start trying any mind games. I know now what it feels like to have a sentry attempt to enter your mind. I don’t care if it will see Tejus disqualified… I’m a woman with nothing to lose.”
Apparently he’d underestimated me—thought I was just a weak human girl.
I could practically see the cogs in his brain turning. What options did he have? Attempt to break into my mind anyway, and risk me driving this dagger through his neck?
He didn’t know about the deal Tejus had made with me—he didn’t know that I couldn’t afford to kill him and this was all a bluff.
Slowly, his hands loosened around me. As he lowered me, I was careful to keep the knife pressed close to his body before quickly reaching for his belt and swiping his bow and quiver.
“Now go back to fetch your human,” I hissed. “And stick to what is yours in the future.”
A mixture of fury and indignation sparked in his eyes, but apparently he wasn’t willing to waste his time with me any longer. It would be easier to just fetch Ruby rather than dealing with me battling him at every turn. Thus he turned on his heel and rushed back into the woods. I pitied Ruby being stuck with him, but she needed to get out of this dangerous forest. At least with Jenus she would keep heading toward the center of the maze, where we all needed to head. It would also buy us a little time as Jenus searched for Rub
y.
But I had to fetch Tejus first.
I hurtled back toward the sound of giggling. At least I wasn’t at risk of falling for those girls’ charms. I crept to a tree that gave me a direct view of the four of them standing, and stopped behind it. Peering around the trunk, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
Tejus might be a master of control… but he was still a guy. Three hot chicks were apparently more than enough to unravel him. I wondered again how Jenus had managed to roam freely when his brother hadn’t. Surely there were other nymphs stationed in this forest, waiting?
I shook the thought aside and focused on the task at hand (while I desperately tried to avoid raking my eyes over Tejus’ body—he was a finer man than I liked to admit).
Looks like the “damsel” will be the only one doing any saving around here…
As I nocked an arrow to the bowstring, I thanked my grandfather Derek for the archery lessons he’d personally given Benedict, Grace and me. The nymphs were in their physical forms—enjoying contact with Tejus—so if I could just aim right… I shot an arrow against the trunk of the tree they were leaning against, very close to one girl’s head. I didn’t actually want to kill any of them. Just get them away from him.
I broke out from my hiding place and charged toward them.
“Enough!” I hissed.
They stumbled backward and stared at me, while Tejus’ dazed eyes also fixed on me. That was apparently enough to stir him, snap him out of his fantasy land.
Apparently he was mortified, because the first thing he did was leap for his clothes, which were piled in a heap, and pull them on, as I continued to fire arrows at the nymphs. When I reached Tejus, I felt that familiar uncomfortable sensation pass through me. He was regaining mental strength from me, prying himself out of the daze he’d allowed himself to fall into.
Hopefully now he’d get his act together and resist them. They had assumed their subtle states to keep themselves safe from my arrows, though they started to approach Tejus again. He darted toward me and grabbed me before rushing into the trees. Even while he ran, I felt him continuing to drain my energy. The nymphs were still hot on our heels and trying to lure him back into their arms, but he managed to resist. Finally, they gave up and fell back, allowing us to flee.
Recalling something Tejus had told me in a stern voice not so long ago, this seemed an appropriate opportunity to serve it right back to him. Clucking my tongue, I said:
“You must learn to harness your emotions, Tejus Hellswan.”
He threw me the deepest scowl.
Hazel
“I deserve as much of a medal as you do if we get through this,” I said sourly, once we’d reached the end of the forest and began to dart back into the maze.
We weren’t sure where Jenus was. We hadn’t seen him on our way out. Either he was on his way now with Ruby and we had managed to gain some advantage over him, or he had exited the forest and reentered the maze by a different route.
There hadn’t been any goblins to inform us of the “moral” of the last obstacle, but I supposed it should be self-evident: brain over passions. Tejus had been caught off guard, and with three goddesses flooding toward him, a small part of him must have allowed himself to be overcome. I couldn’t believe that he couldn’t have fought them back if every fiber of his being had been against them.
As we turned a corner, a whispery voice above us confirmed my suspicion—the voice of a dervin: “Let nothing, however sweet, divert you from your path.”
I groaned internally, fearing that it was going to start following us again and causing us more grief by creating illusions in the maze, but its only job seemed to have been to inform Tejus of the moral, and then we were left to continue alone.
Tejus stopped talking to me. I suspected a large part of that was because he was still embarrassed. But that was okay by me. I was also still recovering… trying to keep my mind off what lay beneath his clothes (which was harder than it should’ve been since I was clinging to him).
As I thought of my brother, however, I quickly became distracted. What’s going to happen to him when he and his sentry enter that forest? For all I know, they could have entered already. But Benedict and Julian were still only kids. I had to hope that the nymphs wouldn’t take an interest in them and would instead go straight for Tejus’s brothers.
I wondered what could possibly be up next. I felt more nervous than ever as we continued to traverse the maze. Oddly, the temperature felt like it was starting to spike.
“Do you feel that?” I breathed against his ear. “Feels much warmer.”
He grunted in acknowledgment.
One of the watchers swooped overhead on his vulture. I waved up at him sarcastically, to which he responded by looking at me with disdain before soaring out of sight.
The further we ran, the higher the temperature climbed until I was positively sweating. I never could handle the heat well, but I didn’t have any more layers I could tear off.
Higher and higher the temperature spiked until it grew positively unbearable. The problem was exacerbated due to the fact that I was forced to cling to Tejus. He wasn’t exactly the warmest of creatures, but he wasn’t a vampire either.
When we reached the next opening in the hedge, we finally discovered what was causing it. Boiling air engulfed us. We were standing about twenty feet away from a moat of churning, molten lava. I was once again left to marvel at King Hellswan’s organizational abilities. How the heck did he pull this off?
Beyond the moat was an island that was bordered entirely by a high, stone building. Built into its walls, opposite us, were five large doors, each painted with a red cross. Flaming torches were dug into the ground on either side of each entrance. It was obvious that the brothers were supposed to reach these doors.
But how?
We circled the moat of lava entirely, but there was no bridge. Returning to face the five doors, we did spot piles of heavy rocks.
“We’re supposed to build our own bridge?” I murmured.
“Yes,” Tejus said tightly, as we approached the rocks. What bothered me was their lack of thickness. Either the lava was not deep or we were expected to pile them to stand on top of one another.
“God, this is madness,” I whispered, clutching my forehead. My headache was beginning to return.
Tejus merely swallowed and gathered three large rocks in his arms. I slid off his back to free him up, otherwise the rocks were going to crush my legs. He lost no time in approaching the edge of the lava where he placed the rocks. Then, kneeling on the bank, he cautiously and steadily eased the first stone into the fiery liquid.
My first guess had been correct: this lava was not as deep as it looked. The stone sat fairly easily, its top remaining dry.
Now it seemed to be simply a matter of replication. Tejus picked up the next stone and, daring to stand on the first, he placed the second in the same manner. As he returned for the third, we were met with a most unwelcome sight.
Jenus emerged from one of the openings in the hedge. He had Ruby slung unceremoniously over one shoulder. His eyes quickly found us. He glared before scoping out the area and spotting his own pile of rocks nearby.
He was able to take advantage of our groundwork, assuming that we had already figured out that the only way across was to build a bridge, and began replicating our actions. After dumping Ruby on the ground, he rushed over and began to collect stones, while Tejus sped up.
“Come on,” I said beneath my breath as Tejus placed another stone.
I wanted to help him carry more stones to make things quicker, but they were far too heavy for me to handle. I’d damage my back.
As Jenus began to work with frenzied speed, I exchanged a nervous glance with Ruby. Poor Ruby. She must have been with her nymph quite a bit longer than I had with mine when I’d found her.
“Are you okay?” I mouthed.
“Yeah,” she mouthed back, though she looked anything but. She looked shaken, and like she neede
d nothing more than a good hug. I wished that I could rush over to her, but it was not a good idea to get so close to Jenus after I’d threatened him in the forest. He might also think that we were fraternizing.
There wasn’t a lot Ruby could do to slow Jenus down as he worked. Tejus was still ahead of him, but not by much.
Where is my brother?
Where is Julian?
Almost as soon as the thought entered my head, Julian came into view, emerging from another hole in the hedge with Tejus’ other brother, whose name I hadn’t even caught yet.
Julian’s clothes were ripped, his hair a matted mess. His sentry hardly looked in any better a state. God knew what they had been through back there. I didn’t want to think.
I glanced up at the sky, searching for watchers, hoping to yell out and ask if they had seen my brother, but I couldn’t spot them now. Where are they just when I need them?
“Hazel,” Tejus hissed to me from about halfway across the river of fire. “Come to me now. I can jump the rest.”
Oh, gosh. My eyes widened into saucers as I took in the terrifying mass of seething liquid.
But there wasn’t time to think. I slanted a quick glance at Jenus—he had seen his brother’s idea and he had only a few stones left before he would be in a position to do the exact same thing.
I rushed to the edge of the moat and, spreading out my arms to balance myself, took a leap of faith onto the first stone. It wobbled slightly, which almost gave me a heart attack. One slip, and I was dead.
“Come on! Faster!” Tejus demanded.
Shut up! I felt like snapping back. I was under enough pressure as it was in this moment without him stressing me out.
I took the next step, and then the next… Then I realized that he had started spacing them further apart in order to save time. When I landed on the fourth, I almost slipped, and the gap between the fourth and the fifth was even wider.