The air is slammed out of me when I hit the cobblestone and I lie there staring up at the stars gasping for a breath.
My chest is on fire. My vision is blurry.
I can’t do this.
“Get up, Ana!” Haven shouts.
The blade cuts through the air above me. I roll to all fours and the steel hits the stone with a clang, missing me by mere inches.
I rise to my feet.
The blade swings again.
I duck and barrel toward the figure. I only mean to make him disintegrate, but instead I slam into him.
We go down together, me on top of him. His face is an eddy of smoke and rage. His form shifts and swirls beneath me like he’s trying to break apart but can’t.
The dogs snap at me and when one bites into my arm, teeth sinking to bone, pain burns through my entire body. Tears immediately burn in my eyes, blurring my vision.
The shadowman bucks me off, rolls me and then climbs on top of me. His mouth widens into a dark maw. Though he has no solid body, his weight still presses into me, crushing me. And I swear I can smell his breath. It’s like swamp muck and decaying vegetation. Something that’s rancid and sulphuric all at the same time.
The shadowman’s mouth comes closer and inhales and… It feels like the skin is being flayed from my body one strip at a time.
There is pain everywhere.
Everything is on fire.
I scream and thrash and scrabble for purchase.
There’s only the burning in my veins and the driving need to go, go, go.
Golden light lifts from my skin and disappears down his dark throat.
In that moment, I realize what he’s doing and maybe what he is.
He’s feasting off my energy.
I have to get him off of me.
I have to get up.
I have to run.
The shadowman lets out a guttural roar.
The pain ebbs.
I open my eyes and find my hands have clamped over his wrists and my hands are burning red.
His misty edges shrink in on themselves like parchment that’s been held to flame.
Now it’s him who thrashes.
I tighten my grip. The stones beneath me tremble. The jarring force of him trying to escape vibrates through my bones.
But I’ll not relent.
He shrinks.
Smaller and smaller and smaller.
I can do this.
The Fates didn’t bring me to this moment just to watch me die.
So I won’t.
I’ll win.
I focus on that building heat in my belly and pull on it, forcing it down my arms and into my hands.
The shadowman’s roar turns into a high-pitched scream that pierces my ear drums with a sharp pop.
My hands glow like the sun. The shadowman coalesces into a ball in my hands. The tendons in my wrists stand out beneath my skin as every bone and joint and muscle in my body tenses to try to hold on to him. I grit my teeth. The acrid scent of him overwhelms my senses.
And then…
SNAP.
He explodes in a shower of light and mist.
The ground shakes.
The hedges rattle.
I lie there exhausted and breathless blinking up at the sky.
The dogs bark and snap.
Someone yells.
Haven. Haven is still in danger.
Why do I care?
Why does the thought of losing him make me sick to my stomach?
I roll over just in time to see a dog tear into his leg and the shadowman’s blade sink into Haven’s shoulder.
I’m up. Running. Cold sweat breaks out across my back as my stomach plummets and Haven cries out.
No. No no no.
He goes down on a knee.
My heart leaps to my throat.
The dog hunkers down and yanks back and the tangy scent of blood coats the air.
The shadowman pulls his blade out and cocks his arm back, ready to swing.
“Haven! No!”
There’s too much distance between us. Too much ground to cover. I’m not quicker than a cutting blow of a sword. I can’t reach him in time.
But I don’t want to lose him.
I hate him and want him and hate him more.
But to lose him would be to lose some part of myself.
Because when I’m around him, I want to be better than him, but also better than myself.
He makes me feel reckless and dizzy and bold and bigger than I’ve ever felt.
He makes me feel…
Powerful.
The ground cracks beneath my boots.
The dogs whimper and cower.
The shadowman turns to me.
I stretch my arms out.
“Get away from him!” I shout.
A blinding golden light shoots from my hands. My body quakes. The hair lifts along the back of my neck. A heady thrill zings up my spine.
Save Haven. It’s the only thought in my mind. The only ringing truth.
I clench my jaw and root my feet to the earth as the air splits open with a deafening crack. The light builds into a vibrant glowing spiral and I have to slam my eyes closed against it.
Blood runs from my ears. My skin goes taut and hot like it might break open and weep.
And then…
Silence.
Only the sound of my panting breath and the whimpering dogs.
Something drifts from the sky and settles into my hair. I open my eyes to pluck it out.
It’s a leaf from a hedge row.
I look up.
The maze is gone. Like gone, gone. As if it never existed.
There’re no torn branches or shriveled leaves. No shadowed paths.
It’s just...gone.
All that remains is one leaf, the Medusa fountain, two whimpering shadow dogs and—
“Haven!”
I rush to him. He’s lying on his back on the cracked cobblestone. Blood has stained his shirt a darker shade of black. There’s more running from the corner of his mouth and from both ears.
His mouth is moving but I can’t make out his words. His voice is muffled and far away.
“What?” I shout.
He points at his ears. “Ear. Drum,” he says.
Right. Our eardrums are blown. That explains the blood.
“Can you sit up?” I mouth slowly and he nods.
With my arm behind his back, I help him rise to sitting. He grits his teeth and grimaces. More blood gurgles from the wound in his shoulder and the bite in his thigh.
I tear off my shirt, put a sleeve between my teeth and yank on the other end until it tears into strips. “This will probably hurt, I’m guessing,” I say, my voice sounding far away in my own ears, so I’m pretty sure he can’t hear me. I tie a strip around his shoulder and tighten it with two knots.
Haven’s face crumples with pain.
I move to his leg next. The flesh is torn into ribbons. I try not to look too closely at it as I tie a wider piece of cloth around it. When Haven groans this time, I can hear it. The world is getting louder by the moment.
“I think that will have to do for now.”
“I heal quickly,” Haven says.
“Can you walk?”
“I’m gonna have to.”
I sling his arm around my neck and then brace him around the waist with my arm. “On the count of three,” I say. “One, two, three.” We go up together and all of Haven’s weight falls to me. I stagger back, nearly lose him, and then tighten my grip on him, widening my stance until we’re steady.
He grunts, teeth clamped together.
The dogs come to heel at my side.
“What do we do with them?” Haven asks and I don’t miss the thread of fear in his voice.