Chapter 16

Paige stumbled back into the cover of the trees, eyeing the creature that emerged from the gray-black smoke.

Standing at three times the height of the stone structure, the massive creature's beady black eyes scanned the area.

"Who calls to me?" his deep voice growled.

Paige stared in horror, refusing to emerge from her hiding spot. She grimaced at the hooved feet that rose into goat-like legs, a broad horse-like chest, topped with a flat face resembling an owl, and two curved horns poking from the top of his round head.

"Who calls to me?" he asked again.

Paige winced as she weighed her options. She had to confront the thing. With a glance at her sword, she tightened her grip on the hilt and stepped from behind a cotton-candy tree.

"I call to you," she said in a meek voice.

The creature's beady eyes snapped toward Paige, his head tilting as he studied her, staring down his almost-nonexistent nose.

"Who are you?"

Paige swallowed hard and lowered her chin. "Paige Turner, Shadow Harbor Librarian."

"What do you seek, Paige Turner?"

Paige's forehead crinkled, and she recalled the words on the plinth. "I seek to complete the test and return to the real forest."

"So be it," the creature said, waving a clawed hand in the air.

A shimmering sparkle filled the air in front of Paige, and the world began to disappear.

When her surroundings reformed, she found brown brick walls surrounding her. She spun in a circle, searching the new area.

"Wait!" Paige called out. "What am I supposed to do?"

Her shoulders slumped, and the sword scraped on the ground as her mind sought a solution. She approached one of the walls flanking her and stood on her tiptoes, trying to peer over it.

It proved an impossible task. She tried to hop but caught little more than a glimpse.

With a roll of her eyes, Paige dropped the sword and dug her fingertips into the grooves between the stones. She wedged her feet against the rough wall and fought her way up, then she wrapped her arms over the top when she reached it. With a final push, she scrambled up and stood on top of the stones.

Her jaw fell open at what she witnessed. Stone walls rambled across the landscape, forming a large labyrinth. Light glowed from the center.

"This must be the test," Paige surmised. "Make it through the maze."

She slid back down the wall and retrieved her sword. "Okay, you can do this, Paige. You have a good sense of direction."

After a glance back and forth, Paige selected a direction and started down the passage.

"Except that one time you got lost and ended up trapped in a werewolf's mansion."

She stared up at the sky, searching for something she could use to help navigate. A bright moon shone overhead.

"The moon is on my left. That should help, right?"

An opening in the stone wall on her right revealed another corridor.

"This is right. I need to move that way."

She ducked through the break and into the next passageway.

"So far, so good," she murmured as she found another opening leading farther into the maze.

She wound around corridors for another thirty minutes before reaching a dead end.

She stared ahead at the stone wall preventing her forward progress with a deep scowl. "You've got to be kidding."

With a sigh and slumped shoulders, she spun on her heel and sauntered back in the direction she'd come.

"Ridiculous," she said, turning the opposite way at the first fork.

Another few minutes of walking brought her to another dead end. Her head fell back between her shoulders before she began to retrace her steps again.

After a third dead end, she tossed the sword down and scrubbed her face with her hands. "Unbelievable. I'll never get through this."

Paige pressed her back against the wall and slid down to sit on the hard dirt. She drew her knees into her chest and buried her head.

After a few moments of pouting, she lifted her head and climbed to stand, brushing herself off. "No. No time for a pity party. I have to keep going."

She retrieved the sword from the ground and balanced it in her hoodie's kangaroo pocket before she scrambled up the wall again. She'd made it closer to the glowing center, but over half the journey still remained.

From her perch, she tried to scout a path. "Right, left, right, right, left, right…" She narrowed her eyes, squinting to see into the distance for another break in the wall. "No use. I'll have to climb up again after those directions."

She slid down the wall, repeating them to herself. She murmured the directions under her breath as she went right at the first opening, then left at the second. She flicked her gaze to the sky as she tried to recall where she was in her steps.

The directions flitted through her mind again as she froze, trying to determine which way to go next.

"Already did right, left, so now…" She swung her finger to the right. "Two rights, left, right."

She finished the set of directions she'd spied earlier, finding herself faced with a long passageway with no openings. After a climb of the wall, she found no gaps.

"Oh, great!" Paige said, flinging her hands in the air. "Another dead end. Are you kidding?"

She leapt from the wall and landed on her feet below, tumbling onto her hands to steady herself. "Ouch, dang it!"

She kicked the wall in frustration after collecting herself.

"Ouch!" a voice called.

Paige's heart skipped a beat, and she scanned the area. "Hello? Is someone there?"

"I ought not to answer you after you kicked me."

Paige wrinkled her nose at the statement. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you. Where are you?"

Eyes opened in the wall and studied her. "Here. You kicked me. Do you often go about kicking doors?"

Paige stumbled back a step, drawing her chin back and widening her eyes as she studied the face in the wall. "Uh, no. Not usually. I'm just frustrated."

"That does not give you the right to kick others." The eyes traveled up and down her length. "At your age, you should know that."

"Sorry. I didn't… Where I come from, doors don't talk. Or have feelings."

"Oh? And how do you know? Have you spoken with many of them?"

"Well, no, but–"

"Then you don't know. You probably ignore them completely. Walk past them without a word. Possibly even slam them."

The door squeezed its eyes closed in horror.

"U-uh," Paige stammered. "Look, I'm really sorry about the kick. I just– I need to find my way to the center of this labyrinth, and I'm stuck. And I really need to get back to my friend and get out of this place."

The door focused on her again. With a sigh, it responded, "Oh, all right, I suppose I shall accept your apology. But do be careful next time, will you?"

"Of course." Paige nodded. "So, umm, are there many of you doors in this place?"

"How should I know? I'm stuck here."

"Oh, right," Paige said, cocking her head. "Do you happen to lead closer to the center?"

"I don't know that either. Though it cannot hurt to try."

"If I don't go through you, I'm stuck. So, I guess I'll try it."

Paige reached for the doorknob when the mouth on the door opened wide with shock.

"Just a moment! Don't you dare!"

Paige leapt back, her jaw falling open. "What?"

"How dare you touch my knob!"

Paige's forehead wrinkled as she lowered her eyes, studying the ground. "How else would I open you?"

"Ask! How would you feel if someone wandered up to you, kicked you, and then grabbed your knob?"

"Well, that seems…" She flicked her gaze at the door. "Not nice. I'm sorry."

The face in the door seemed to give a nod. Paige winced and tried again.

"Would it be okay if I…" She closed her eyes for a moment before she uttered the next words, feeling ridiculous. "Turned your knob and opened you?"

The lips formed a pucker before the door answered, "I shouldn't after all this, but I suppose I shall let you. Go ahead."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it," Paige said.

She inched closer and, after a moment of staring at the door, reached for the knob, turned it, and pushed the door open.

She stepped through into the next corridor.

A throaty growl sounded to her right. Paige snapped her eyes in that direction, gasping at the sight.

A dark gray wolf, its eyes on her, bared its teeth, snarling.

"Oh, wrong way," Paige exclaimed as she attempted to retreat.

"I don't think so. Have fun with your new friend, door kicker!" the door shouted at her as it swung shut.

"No! Wait," Paige screamed, pounding against it. "Let me out!"

Another low growl called her attention back to the pressing matter of the wolf. Paige pressed her back against the wall, her eyes widening.

She pulled the sword from her pocket and held it in front of her. "Don't come any closer."

The wolf snarled again, stalking back and forth with drool dripping from its sharp fangs.

"I'm serious," Paige warned, thrashing the sword in the air. "I'll use this."

The wolf stared at her for a moment. "That door was right to trap you."

The sword's tip fell to the ground, and Paige's jaw fell almost as far, too. "You talk?"

"Well, of course I talk."

"Then why were you growling at me?"

"What did you expect? You burst through the door and scared me half to death. I'm stuck in the corner here with nowhere to go! I had to defend myself."

"Defend–" Paige fluttered her eyelashes as she tried to acclimate to the strange new circumstances. "All right, look, I don't mean anyone any harm. I'm just trying to get to the center of this stupid labyrinth so I can get home."

"You and me both, girl."

Paige cocked her head. "You, too?"

"Aye."

A slight smile crossed her features. "Maybe we can help each other."

The wolf's eyebrows wiggled. "That would be nice. I'd like to get out of here. I've been here for twenty years."

"TWENTY YEARS?" Paige shouted.

"Yep. Been stuck in this corridor for almost ten of them. That stupid door left me in here and didn't tell me it led to a dead end. And now it won't let me out."

"I won't have much luck either. As you can see, the door hates me too."

"Then I suppose we're both stuck."

"No way," Paige said, shoving the sword into her pocket again. She dug her fingers into the wall and braced her feet against the stones. "I can scale the wall."

"Lucky you. I can't. I keep slipping."

"It's fine. I'll pull you up once I'm up there," Paige said as she attempted to scramble up the wall.

Her feet slid a few times before she gained traction and pulled herself to the top.

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

Paige lowered herself to lie against the wall's top and reached her hand down. "Yes, grab my hand."

The wolf approached, eyeing Paige's outstretched arm. It stood on its hind legs and reached a front paw up. Paige latched onto it, wrapping both hands around it and tugging.

Her face reddened with effort as she pulled. "Climb!"

The wolf placed its back feet against the stone and clambered up the wall. Paige hauled it over the top, breathing hard from the work.

"There," she said as she gasped for air. "Made it."

The wolf scanned the remaining portion of the labyrinth before turning to Paige. "Yes, and I see a way through."

Paige's head lolled to the side as she rolled onto her back, and a smile crossed her lips. "Thank goodness. Now we can–"

The wolf turned its backside toward her and kicked.

Paige toppled off the wall's top and landed in a heap on the ground below. The sword flew from her pocket and clattered to the ground several feet away.

"Hey," Paige shouted as she pushed herself up with her hands.

"Sorry. It's nothing personal. But I've been in this maze for too long. I need to get out, and I can't take the chance that it's a race to the finish with you. Good luck."

With that, the animal leapt off the wall and disappeared from Paige's sight.

Paige grimaced as she climbed to her feet, dusting herself off and retrieving the sword. "You've got to be kidding me. I hate this place."

She stuck the sword in her pocket again and climbed the wall a second time.

"Stupid wolf," she murmured as her muscles protested her efforts. "Man, I really need to work out more."

With sweat dripping down her face, she pulled herself over the top, noted a path forward, and slid down into the next passage.

She grumbled to herself about the book's unfriendly characters as she traced her way through the rest of the labyrinth. The glow from the center grew brighter with every turn, becoming blinding as she made the last left and stared at it.

"Finally," she exclaimed as she withdrew her sword from her pocket and inched closer to the light.

The glare died down when she approached.

A smile crossed her face as she stared at the glow. "The bark of a Witchlock tree."

She eyed the pile of blue bark and took another step toward it. She extended her arm, her fingers trembling as they reached for the much-needed bark. Her fingertips touched the rough, blue husks when a shout interrupted her.

She snapped her head in its direction.

Dewey lay on a stone altar, ropes tying him down. He kicked his little feet and pounded his paws.

Above him, a large blade swung back and forth on a pendulum, inching closer and closer to slicing him in half.

"Paige! Help!"