There’s no more time to waste. I leap to the next wall and then use my momentum to leap to the third. Again and again, flying over the top of the maze. I vaguely register that many of the screens are showing me now, which means I have to hurry. Even if no one else can successfully scale the walls and use them the way I am—which is a big if—they will all know my location. I might as well have painted a target on my back.
The center of the maze isn’t particularly large, maybe a twelve-by-twelve space. In the center is a steel beam crafted to look like a tree with five branches sticking out. On each dangles a skeleton key.
The center of the maze also contains another champion. Theseus.
He hasn’t seen me yet, but he will as soon as he turns around. I don’t need to take him out. I just need him to stay down long enough for me to get a key and flee. I can climb another wall further into the maze once I’m alone. I don’t stop to think of all the ways this could go wrong. I throw myself at him, using my momentum and a healthy dose of gravity to drive him into the ground before he can reach the tree.
The impact jars me down to my bones. He’s a big guy, but jumping down ten feet hardly makes for a soft landing. Can’t stop. Doesn’t matter how much it hurts. Keep going. I shove off his back and stagger to my feet. The tree is only a few feet away, but I barely make it a step before he grabs my ankle and yanks me down.
This time, when I hit the ground, it knocks the breath from my lungs. I don’t let that stop me, though. Not with Theseus crawling up my body. If he pins me, he might actually kill me. He’ll definitely incapacitate me to ensure I don’t pass this trial.
Fuck that.
I bend at the waist, sitting up and putting as much strength as I can behind my fist when I punch him in his face. It’s barely enough to stun him, but I manage to wiggle a few inches away before he recovers and tightens his grip on my leg. He drags me half under his body with a harsh yank. My bodysuit might have been designed to be hard to hold, but it doesn’t matter when he can wrap most of his hand around my thigh.
Panic takes hold. I am so fucking close to what I want, and this man threatens to stand in my way. “Let go.” I aim another punch at his face.
He just grunts in response and releases my thigh long enough to hammer a blow to my quad. Pain makes me light-headed, but I will not be stopped. Not now. Not by this man.
“You’re fighting a losing battle.” Theseus makes a sound perilously close to a snarl and rears back. “You’re just a pampered little daddy’s girl playing pretend warrior. You won’t win.”
I can’t flip him. He’s too damn big and I’m not in the right position for it. “Watch me.” I grab a fistful of his dark-red hair and jab my fingers into his eyes.
Theseus howls and flinches back. It’s enough for me to scramble out from beneath him. My injured thigh threatens to buckle when I stand, but I grab a key and drape the lanyard over my neck. Each step hurts, but I don’t have time to worry about that now.
I turn in time to see Theseus plant a hand on the ground and stagger to his feet. He teeters almost as if he’ll fall but manages to stabilize. Damn it. His eyes are red and watering, but he must be able to see okay because he narrows them at me. He curses. “You’ll pay for that.”
“Get out of my way or I’ll hurt you for real.” There are two entrances to the center of the maze, but he’s standing in front of the one that leads where I need to go. If I take the other, I’ll have to work my way around the center again, and that’s out of the question. I know my body well enough to know I’m on a timer with this thigh. I have to get out of here before adrenaline crashes and it gives out entirely.
Theseus shakes his head like a bull about to charge. “You Kasioses represent everything wrong with this viper’s nest of a city. You’re not making it past this trial.”
The words send a shiver of true fear through me. I’d considered and discarded the notion that Theseus and his people might be here to attempt a coup on the Thirteen and, by extension, Olympus. Apparently I was right the first time. They truly are here for Olympus. “You can’t win. Even if you take Ares, you can’t win.”
“I’m not the one you have to worry about.” He charges me.
I dodge at the last minute, ducking under his grasp and to the side. Theseus clangs into the tree and staggers back a step, but I’m already moving. I drive a kick into his knee at an angle, using all my strength. It gives with a stomach-turning pop and he lurches to the side, collapsing to the ground.
A dark, sickening desire rises inside me, an urge to stomp on that knee a few more times and ensure he’s truly down. But I resist. It might protect me from this man, but it won’t actually benefit me in the long run. The longer I stay here, the higher the chance of someone else coming in.
I curse and skirt around Theseus. He’s moaning and cursing my name, but he makes no move to rise again. I don’t think he can. Good enough.
My leg aches something fierce. It’s now or never. I take a shuddering breath and break into a sprint. Each step threatens to buckle my injured thigh, but I manage to scramble up the wall on the first shot. It takes longer this time to haul my body up to the top, and by the time I find my balance, I’m panting.
Next is hauling myself up two more sections to the tallest bit I can easily access. I’ll need the height to plot my way to the exit. This is easier, my balance surer, but I’m still overly cautious with my leg. A fall from ten feet would hurt like a motherfucker. A fall from fifteen?
Best not to risk it.
I look up at the screens in time to watch Atalanta nearly knock the Minotaur out with one well-placed punch. I manage a tired grin. “Nice.” I don’t look forward to facing her in the final challenge if it comes to that, but from our limited interactions, I like her quite a bit.
Then I refocus and survey the top of the maze. No one else has joined me up here yet, but I can’t take for granted that there isn’t someone else among the champions who’s capable of it. I have to get moving. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to be able to jump from wall to wall the way I did before. If my leg gives out, a fall will do more damage than Theseus did.
I twist a little, searching for the door to the exit. It’s near the archway we came in, which is in front of me and to the right. I try to control my rapid breathing as I map a path there. It will take more time, but I have a key and I just need to avoid the other champions. I should be able to do it.
The roar of the crowd changes. I thought it was intense before, but it’s nothing compared to the sound that shakes the arena now. It’s bloodthirsty. I turn in time to see the screens switch to Patroclus and Hector fighting.
I gasp as Hector delivers a devastating punch to Patroclus’s stomach. From the look of them, they’ve been fighting for some time. Both sport bloodied knuckles and their handsome faces are broken and bruised, almost unrecognizable. Both weave on their feet as they circle each other.