Chapter 48

I climbed the stairs as fast as I could, while the clock ticked louder and louder in the shrinking distance. The crimson steps slowly dissolved their color, fading rapidly from red to dark grey to black. At the top, a large door stood in my way, and I stopped to take a ten count before I opened it. I put on the front of needing to catch my breath—not hard to do after climbing what must have been 30 floors worth of stairs—but more than anything, I needed to process the full extent of what this entryway meant.

This was really it. The end of my journey. Pumpkin was just on the other side, and I couldn't wait to see his cute, squishy little face again.

I drew a deep breath through my nose, until my lungs were as full as could be, then I pushed through with everything I had.

The door swung open easily and silently, with well-oiled and perfectly maintained hinges. Admittedly, I'd have been more surprised if anything about Jericho's personal home was subpar or neglected. He seemed like a very particular kind of person. I could respect that.

On the other side, I entered a large hexagonal room, with stairways and doors embedded into each side of the shape. The clock now appeared on the ceiling, where less than fifty minutes were left on its face.

"Which door is it?" I asked my companions with a frown. I didn't have much time to waste.

It was Rai who stepped forward to answer that question. "To the right. The stairs." He nodded towards a particularly well decorated spiral staircase that had just enough gold and gaudiness for me to believe him.

But then again, wouldn't that be a little obvious?

"Are you sure it's not a trap?" I asked, feeling uneasy at the idea of committing to any of these unknown pathways.

"It is." Rai confirmed with a shrug. "Everything with the king will always be a trap. But that's part of what makes it fun."

Reassuring…

"You live here. How are you still leading her into a trap, when you know damn well what entrance it is?" Theron snapped, and they were right back at each other's throats.

"Because they're all traps, but that trap at least goes in the right direction." Rai rolled his eyes. "Stop pretending you don't know how this works. The king obviously wants her to make it, or we wouldn't be here. If he actually wanted the clock to run out, he would have, oh I don't know, locked his front door." The Minotaur was unexpectedly sarcastic when it came to Theron.

Theron bit his lip before he responded. He placed his hand beneath his scarf and closed his eyes for a few short moments. "Fair point." He nodded after another minute of silence. I wanted to say something, but Alessi stepped in and placed a hand on Theron's shoulder like he was grounding him. "Fine. We'll try the stairs. But don't get used to me agreeing with you."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Rai shot back with a mocking smirk.

Maybe that was their way of getting along. Hard to say.

Regardless…

" I'll try the stairs." I corrected the both of them. I looked between my three companions, building my courage to say what was next. I knew what I had to do, and I'd been thinking on it since I'd danced with Jericho in my… maybe dream? Maybe reality? I kept the dress, so I was fairly certain that had all really happened. "I really appreciate everything you guys have done for me up until this point, but I think we all know I have to face him alone."

"What?" Rai stared at me, his red irises centered in his widened eyes, and his slitted pupils so dilated, they were nearly round.

"I said I have to do this alone." I repeated as I started towards the stairs, trying to swallow down the honest fear in my heart. I had to do this. There wasn't any other choice. I'd leaned on them for the entire maze, from the moment Jericho caught me on the cliff, to Rai giving me his blood as an antidote, to Theron getting me through half the sectors, to Alessi helping me through the others. I'd relied on everyone but myself until now, and that wasn't how I functioned. If I won the game at the end, it wouldn't be my win. The rules had always been that I was the one who had to face him. "It's okay. I'm not scared. I've got this."

Half way to the first step, a hand gripped my wrist and yanked me backwards.

"The fuck you do." Theron growled. He held my hand at eye level, like he needed that small barrier between our gazes. The look in his eyes was familiar yet impossible at the same time.

Because the look in his eyes was… fear .

I opened my mouth, but it took several moments before anything came out. I stood, arrested by his lightning blue eyes, and I searched for an argument. "You know he won't let anyone else through. It has to be me, and only me, Theron." My voice was barely a whisper.

He tightened his grip. The subtle shake he transferred between us said more than any words or longing look could.

"I won't allow it." He shook his head. "We can protect you. If something were to happen… If he—" killed you. He cut himself off, but I knew how that sentence ended. Theron took a deep breath and started again. "You're not facing that monster alone when you have me here, Sela."

"When you have us here." Alessi corrected, stepping forward next.

"If I didn't exist, you wouldn't be here." Rai added, his head low, but his tone resolute.

I swallowed, my eyes still locked with Theron's. I was about to argue in protest, but he spoke first. "I'm your friend, remember?" He inhaled then exhaled. "More than a friend." He placed his hand on my cheek, and he drew a line beneath my eye with his thumb. "Let me be there for you."

We stood in stalemate, and I was at a total loss as to what to say. I wanted him to be there. I wanted to know everything that statement entailed.

But right now… I couldn't.

I pulled away and took a step back. Theron loosened his grip. He dropped his arm in defeat.

"You're right." I took another step back, closer to the stairs. "But you are coming with me." I held up my wrist, showing off Theron's marks and Alessi's fox tail, both tangled together on my skin. "I have Rai's blood and both of you embedded in my skin. You'll all still be with me, even if it looks like I'm alone in that room. If this is a trap, then I don't want to show him how much ammo I brought." The corners of my lips climbed slowly. "That's the only way to beat him at his own game. So… please."

Rai nodded. Alessi did, too. Theron threaded his fingers through his platinum hair and pushed the strands back between his horns. He didn't meet my eyes.

But as I inched back towards the stairs, the clock overhead ticking away, he held his position. Maybe that was the only way he could let himself say yes to letting me go on without him.

I took that as his blessing, then I stepped into the spiral stairway towards the throne room. I climbed the steps to the tune of the ticking clock, knowing I didn't have any more time to waste. I started to ascend faster, then I started to run, not caring if my steps were too loud or might alert Jericho to my presence.

It was time to face the king.

The stairs led me to a large stone hallway, with intricate paintings and some of the most exquisitely crafted crown molding I'd ever seen. I couldn't fault Jericho on his attention to detail.

Stop losing focus. My anxiety and stress levels had reached critical levels, and I was looking and thinking about anything and everything but what I should have been. I knew I made the right choice by going on alone, but that didn't stop my heart from racing and my adrenaline from exploding through my entire body like fireworks.

I rounded a bend, and immediately caught sight of a golden-framed obsidian door with an intricate pattern of emerald accents that towered over the rest. It was at least as big as Jericho's ego, and I felt confident in my path as I shoved my way into a massive room.

On the far wall, a projection displayed a montage of my journey, from the Violet Sector to the hundred-armed monster, to my entanglements with Alessi in Yellow, to the Orange Sector, where Rai had removed my tracking marks in my sleep.

And opposite the screen was a throne built from bones, horns, blades, jewels… and angel wings.

Atop that seat, Jericho, his devilish royal highness, relaxed in casual comfort with Pumpkin happily rolled up in a ball on his lap.

The audacity of that cat never ceased to amaze me.

The clock ticked on the ceiling, eternally threatening.

"Five minutes to spare. You really took your time, Fraulein." He tilted his head to the side with an eerily innocent smile. "And you're still wearing your dress. Or what's left of it." Half his grin took on a more mischievous smirk. "It looks lovely on you, by the way. It also looks lovely when torn off of you." He broke eye contact to lift Pumpkin from his lap, then placed him over his shoulder like he was holding a baby. He continued to pet my cat, while the bastard purred and rubbed his face on Jericho's face.

"What difference does it make. I made it in the time you gave me. I won. Now give him back." I stood with my hands on my hips and irritation in every word. I didn't know which of these demon-eyed creatures I was more mad at right now.

"Did you?" His grin lit up his face. "Yet you appear to be way over there, and your kitten is way over here." He continued mocking me by skritching Pumpkin under his chin.

I started toward the throne, but the second I got within ten feet of Jericho, My whole body vanished and reappeared on the other side of him. I tried again, only for the same to happen, over and over.

"What the hell?"

"It seems there's one last turn in the maze you can't quite find, Sela Darling." He leaned back in his throne, crossed his legs, and continued petting my fucking cat. The clock ticked above, counting down to the three minute mark.

Frustrated, I tried to feel my way around the portals, looking for an opening, but each time I got too close, I was thrown to the other side of him with ten more feet between us .

I was furious. Jericho watched me with an air of patience, while the clock just kept running down.

Two minutes. I swiped at him and got transported.

One minute. I tried a running jump, as if the floor was the problem, and I landed, totally redirected, outside the door.

I stormed back in, and tried again and again and again to no avail.

With thirty seconds left, all I wanted to do was cry.

"This isn't fair." I shouted in pure frustration.

"Of course it isn't." Jericho chuckled, while Pumpkin climbed off his shoulder and onto the top of his throne. Pumpkin could come to me at any time, but he wasn't being any more reasonable right now. "Why would it be fair? What part of this world has left you to believe that this was going to be a place where you could win, and I would lose? I'm genuinely curious."

Twenty seconds.

"Because I fought so hard. I did everything you demanded of me. How can you justify taking all of that away from me now, at the very end, like the whole journey was pointless?"

Ten seconds.

"Because that's what always happens, isn't it?" Jericho stood from his seat. "You chase the carrot that you'll never catch, thinking you'll finally get your free pass into the kingdom that was never yours."

Zero.

He snapped his fingers, and I was suddenly facing the wall, his arms were wrapped around my shoulders, and I was secured with my back against his chest. He whispered in my ear. "You were never going to win in my Kingdom, Fraulein." He squeezed me tighter, while I heard the loud bang of a gong marking my failure. "I never expected a human to stand as an equal to devils." He nuzzled into my neck, and I was too horrified to move. He nipped at my ear, then added, "You're a queen, Sela. Never dull your shine to live in a world who doesn't respect or recognize your power." He placed a hand on my neck and lifted my chin to give himself better access to dot kisses down to my shoulder. "Never jump through hoops and run mazes for someone who doesn't notice your wit, your strength, and your intelligence." Pumpkin's soft fur brushed my legs as he weaved between my ankles. "The game was a test." He nudged my left cheek, turning my head to the right. I let him meet my lips with his. "To see how you faired in this world you knew nothing about, that you couldn't predict, and had no chance to truly survive." He gripped the back of my head and kissed me harder. "And when you should have died, time and again, you always managed to skirt by. But why was that?" I was breathless when he pulled away from my mouth.

"Because a series of lucky and unfortunate events?" I guessed in a sad attempt at finding humor in my devastation.

Jericho smiled at that. He threaded his fingers through my hair and smoothed it down behind my head. "Because my Minotaur thought you were someone special enough to save, without having spoken a single word to you. He chose you without even realizing it."

I shook my head. "Then it wasn't my own power. None of this was. I wouldn't have gotten into the maze at all without Theron. I wouldn't have survived the Centimane. I wasn't able to save myself at any point. So if this was a test, I failed that too." I couldn't even look at him anymore. Any pride I had left was buckling under the weight of my inadequacy.

"Don't be so short sighted." He moved his hand to my shoulders, where he kneaded my muscles gently with the strength in his palms. "Winning over my Little Nightmare is no small task. Not even Theron, prickly as he is, could look away from your vibrant and tenacious spirit. He knew a queen when he saw one, and he was ensnared by your determination and wit. Because unlike the countless people you've tried so hard to convince of your importance, the right person saw it immediately from only the slightest glimpse into your mind."

I swallowed thickly, not accepting a single word. "No." It was such a nice sentiment, but it was wrong. "If that was true, he wouldn't have left me. And even then, I leaned on Alessi. I was never good enough, even then."

Jericho fluttered a kiss against the side of my neck, first the right then the left. "Imagine being able to convince a spy and a traitor to stand by your side. Because the treacherous fox saw someone who had the drive and ambition to stand up to everything he struggled to hold onto. Not even an angel could miss the fact that you were an unstoppable force, and anyone who didn't see that didn't deserve to walk by your side." The way he looked at me, you would think I was something precious. "You've let so many inferior men thrive in the comfort of your shadow, that you've forgotten it was always you who stood in the face of the sun."

Pumpkin kept nudging at my ankles, purring and mewing. My heart melted just listening to him. Or maybe it was melting from the heat generated by my racing heartbeat.

"But despite all of that, I still lost." My voice broke on the last word, but Jericho only chuckled.

"Lost?" Jericho turned me around in his arms, so our whole bodies were pressed together, chest-to-chest and face-to-face. He held my cheeks between both of his hands, and he pressed one more kiss so gently against my forehead.

My eyes fluttered closed, leaning into the soothing touch. Then they shot back open wide when he braced me by the shoulder with one firm hand, and shoved his other into my chest.

Through bone, muscle, and blood, Jericho shattered my chest cavity and held my beating heart in a vice grip. I was still alive only because of the bonds that kept me alive, but I was speechless as blood filled my mouth and started dribbling down my chin.

"No, Sela." He whispered as he scraped his thumbnail along the surface of my left ventricle. He removed his hand from my chest with a hard jerk and a sickening pop, then he slipped his thumb between his lips. He lapped up my blood with a languid stroke of his tongue.

The king still held me as he dug into his own chest next. I was too stunned to do anything but watch as he collected the smallest fragment of his own heart under his fingernail, then he slipped it into my mouth.

I closed my lips around his finger on nothing but mechanical reaction. I closed my eyes, sucked, and swallowed. He withdrew once he was satisfied that I'd taken in that part of him .

My mouth was filled with nothing but the flavor of vanilla and iron as Jericho placed one last tender and lingering kiss upon my lips.

I should have been dead. Even with Rai's magic, I didn't know how I was still concious, my chest still aching from the violent intrusion. Yet, somehow, I was still on my feet. Under my own power, I was standing tall before the King of Devils, even if I was stunned to silence.

Heat spread around the crown of my head, intensifying to a searing burn.

With another snap of his fingers, a projection appeared on the wall behind him. One that showed my face as I stared up at him in wonder, horror, confusion, and fear. An ornate tattoo of vines and flowers rounded my forehead, and a single emerald rested at the center.

"The only thing you've lost is a sad life of being underappreciated and under loved." The projection showed the start of a horn on each side of my head. The bones grew and turned on themselves, twisting into the sharp coil of a ram's horns. Jericho placed a hand on each of my shoulders, and he held me at arm's length to admire his work. "And in its place, you've gained a power and reverence beyond compare."

I just stared ahead in shocked confusion, as I lost whatever was left of who I used to be.

As I was reborn, magnificently, as something so much stronger.

"Welcome to your new home, Sela, Queen of Devils. Welcome to a world where you have always belonged."