27. Draven

P lease let me help you.

"You won't believe me, just like them!"

I blacked out the moment Max slipped from my grasp, and when my vision clears, I'm surrounded by near darkness. I blink a few times, making sure my eyes are actually open. That's when I hear a low, feral growl.

I'll always believe you, don't push me away. Tell me, please, Alyson.

I glance down at Shade, the fur along his spine bristling, his lips curled back to reveal his deadly canines. His focus isn't on me but on the ground beneath my feet.

I love you, Sunflower, just talk with me. Tell me who did this. Was it that boy!? Let me know how to make it right... I beg of you.

Dark eyes lock onto mine, piercing through the shadows. In the dim light of the nearly full moon, I can barely make him out. How long has it been? My hand instinctively pats my pocket, but the memory flashes back—I don't have my phone. Max dropped it.

I haven't blacked out from my rage in seven years. My therapist tells me it's my body fighting for oxygen because I tend to hold my breath to try and stifle my anger. It always seems to have the opposite effect, and now, I suppose Oscar is going to find out why they truthfully call me Death.

"D-Draven what the fuck man…"

My head twitches involuntarily as rage floods my senses, dragging my eyes down to a half-lidded glare. I've broken his shoulder it would seem, he's leaning onto one side, and it's possible I broke his leg at his shin, the way it's bent outward awkwardly.

"I'm okay… I just need time…"

I can see Oscar moving his mouth, but all I hear is the high pitch noise in my ear that is blocking even Alyson's voice from my memory. He starts to crawl away, and I glance down at my hands.

"She's in a coma, son."

My pulse quickens as I close my eyes, the trembling in my jaw and the uncontrollable twitch surging through me feels impossible to suppress. My teeth are on the verge of cracking from how tightly they're clenched. The sharp snap of one chipping forces my eyes open, and I move to stand over him. His one mobile arm lifts to shield his face .

"You touched her," I don't even recognize my own voice, and I can hear the throaty bark of Shade adding to the Hell that is befalling us.

He shakes his head, "In the maze—"

"No!" I can swear the trees tremble at my shout, and so does Oscar. His body collapses flat against the ground, but I can't hear his pleas—only see them—because that piercing, high-pitched screech is back.

He grabbed her when she was clearly free from the maze, and I'm done pretending to be what I am not. I've made it very clear to everyone, Max is mine, and now more than ever, I will not show leniency.

They think me soft because I've never felt it in my best interest to punish them.

I'll fucking show them soft.

Taking the hunting blade from my hip I step around him, and kneel down. I seize his short, tightly twisted braids, barely long enough to grip. He immediately attempts to swat me away, but fails miserably. With a sharp whistle, Shade has his jaws gnawing on his bicep, the scream he produces outweighs the ringing in my head.

" That night I tried to kill myself— "

"They found her in the strait…"

The sound of his skin tearing as I drag my knife along his scalp cuts sharply through the air, piercing my ears. His screams turning to background noise, as the skin peels backward the further I cut.

"Grab her hair, I take yours." I know that I'm cutting too deep, but I lack the ability to care. As I begin tearing back his scalp, I can hear the sounds of the connective tissue popping and snapping.

Tears fall from the corners of his eyes, and I grab his throat as leverage and anchor myself to pull it back as though the glue on a toupee was all that was keeping it in place.

"I decided I just had to live with it."

"They had to pull the life support, Draven, we tried to call you. Where were you?"

Pulling his head up with his barely attached scalp, I seethe, "You will serve as a reminder of why I'm Midnight Menagerie's only maze winner, Oscar." His scream is silenced as I snap his neck between my grip. After his head bounces back once, it falls limp, and I release him to the dirt.

I was getting the money…

I sniff, rubbing the back of my hand across my nose as I stand.

If I had finished the mazes faster, before midnight—before they pulled the plug on my only means of living, I'd be only living with these monstrous tendencies you kept subdued, Alyson.

"I'm sorry I failed you."

"It's okay, Buba." Fuck, I miss you.

"It's not, Sunflower."

Turning away from Oscar, I whistle the command for Shade to eat, and as I'm putting distance between us, I can hear the shredding of his skin and muscle under the mighty tear of my wolves jaw.

It doesn't take me long to find my way back to the mazes, I dragged him quite a distance. I hope I haven't been gone too long; I need to be there when Max gets out of Marcella's maze.

I just hope, to whatever overseer there might be, she makes it out. She's strong enough to defeat Marcella, and although Jun is powerful, I believe Max could outrun him, even while drugged .

I find my phone on the ground, and I'm grateful it's been barely thirty minutes, I can at least catch her at the point between both mazes.

I have to get to her before she gets into Po's. I'm now running, my phone against my ear calling Chris.

"Draven, did you—" I cut him off.

"Last request, please find me Max's father."

"Find him, or… find him?" The second one was the one I wanted. Not for him to tell me where he last jerked off, no, but where he is.

"Bring him to me, send Talon, whomever you need. I don't give a fuck where he is or who he is; I expect him here within forty-eight hours."

"Alive?" I could hear his fingers smashing against his keyboard, and I suspect by the tone in my voice, that is why he is hasty.

"Yes." Then I hang up the phone.

As I'm sprinting to the end of Marcella's maze, I can see only a few people hanging about, and I'm worried none of them are Max. All eyes laser in on me, and I know it's because I've got Oscar's blood all over my chest. I hadn't had time to get a shirt, and I sort of forgot about it in the moment.

I'll wait only a few minutes.

She has three of them. If she doesn't come barging out that door within that time, I'm going in.

I do not give a single fuck about the rules when it comes to her.

One… two… three…