33. Silas

The maze is filledwith the echoes of screams.

As soon as the transportation magic fades, we find ourselves inside a massive stone hallway, the top of which is left open to the dark, cloudy winter sky that lightly scatters swirling snowflakes from above. The hallway is so wide that if we all stood side by side with extended arms, we would barely bridge the length.

"This must have taken their minions days to build with magic," Everett mutters, moving to stand protectively behind Maven as we all take in our surroundings.

Vibrant red magic flares around my hands when we hear a scream around one of the nearby corners, but Maven shakes her head.

"Wait. That wasn"t from a shadow fiend."

Everett frowns, his glacial eyes sweeping over the empty maze hall we"re standing in. "How can you tell?"

"I can sense them. That was probably a rival quintet.

A rival quintet to finish the job for us,one of the voices in my head coos.

One to slit the pretty revenant"s throat.

"Shut the fuck up," I grit.

Maven is also analyzing our surroundings. "Fine, I will. Gods."

Damn it. "I wasn"t talking to you, it was?—"

I"m interrupted when an incomplete group of matched legacies round the corner and charge toward us. Some of them are bleeding heavily, but their keeper refuses to back down even after she sees who they"re up against.

Soon, we"re locked in combat—only this time, Maven"s personal training has paid off because our quintet works together far more smoothly.

We"ve knocked out a siren, and things are going well until the remaining two get too close to Maven. As soon as they do, Crypt"s markings light up, and suddenly, the rival legacies turn on each other, brandishing fangs and magic. The rest of us watch in surprise as they tear into each other, and soon enough, they"re both dead.

Maven tips her head, looking far more curious than alarmed. "What was that?"

"Mania," Crypt shrugs. "It"s useless against shadow fiends or monsters and does little against powerful legacies, but it"s quite fun whenever weaker legacies are in question."

"I can see that." Then she turns her face to the sky, shielding her eyes from the falling snow. "If you can fly in Limbo, can you get above the maze to look for a way out?"

The incubus tries Maven"s idea but returns a moment later, explaining that they have magic wards in Limbo to keep all incubi within the maze. He"s barely had time to report back before a fucking wendigo rounds the corner, its howl splitting the air when it sees us.

I"ve only seen wendigos in pictures. For a moment, I gawk at how intimidating they are in real life. This malevolent, insatiable monster has a huge, skeletal wolf body, bony human-like arms and legs, and a ram"s skull for a head with the horns twisted at odd angles. Its eyes glow green as it launches toward us, snarling.

Turn and run like the coward you are, a voice in my head whispers.

No, fight! Cranes do not run, my father"s voice snarls. Fight and die. Do not shame our family even more than you already?—

"I said shut up," I snarl, pricking my finger to draw from the magic in my blood.

Everett throws up an ice shield while I send a wave of malicious magic toward our fiendish foe. It howls in pain but leaps over the thick ice shield, whirling to bare its sharp teeth. Bloodied saliva drips steadily from its hideous snout.

As Everett and I continue to fend off the wendigo, Maven shouts a warning that more shadow fiends are coming. We barely have a moment to process that before a group of vile-smelling, moldering Undead are suddenly upon us, launching themselves with gaping jaws and jagged teeth. Pain flares in my shoulder as one of the fiends digs its broken, rotting teeth into my shoulder.

Before I can even cry out, Maven beheads it with her dagger.

She moves with blinding speed, and as Everett manages to trap the wendigo in an impressively strong cage made of ice, Baelfire and I gawk as we watch Maven in her element. With perfected agility, she slashes, kicks, snaps necks, and leaves the ground littered with the remains of our Undead enemies.

Crypt is enjoying himself, too. He pulls a godsdamned sword out of Limbo and uses it to cut through several of the Undead horde.

When they"re all dead on the ground, with nothing remaining but twitching limbs and severed body parts, Baelfire grimaces. "Those things are fucking nasty."

I glance at Maven with an inkling of suspicion. "You killed those all easily."

"It was fun."

Still…

"That time when we all sparred you at once. You weren"t even giving it a real shot, were you? You were taking it easy on us."

She shrugs almost sheepishly. "Sue me. It was just fucking adorable that you all wanted to fight me at once."

Baelfire lights up, turning to Maven. "Hey, if you killed a lot of them, does that mean you can break me out of this collar so I won"t be a fucking deadweight?"

"Unfortunately, no," she sighs, kicking aside a twitching leg. "I can only wield life forces. The Undead have already died once, and they"re only kept alive by necromancy, so they"re useless to me. Aside from them being fun to take out," she adds.

"Agreed," Crypt grins.

"Where did you get that thing?" Everett frowns at the gleaming sword in the incubus"s hands as he seals the wendigo"s cage. The creature is trapped in a solid block of ice, still howling and clawing to get out.

"This? I"ve always got it with me. It"s enchanted to be both a sword and a lighter, whichever I need more."

We follow Maven"s lead further into the maze. She pauses occasionally to determine whether she senses shadow fiends before proceeding down each new path. Screams still resound throughout the sprawling maze, and various roars and inhuman shrieks join the chorus now and then.

It"s positively spine-tingling, which is probably why my morbid little blood blossom is smiling to herself as we walk.

Baelfire huffs. "Damn. Where did you get a weapon like that, Stalker Boy?"

"I stole it from Melvolin when I was eight."

Everett snorts. "Melvolin Hearst was an asshole to all of the faculty whenever he was around, including me, so knowing that almost makes me like you."

Crypt gags. "Never say that to me again, Frost."

The screams of legacies punctuate the air nearby, and we all step into formation around Maven as another group of legacies rushes toward us. No—I realize it"s several quintets, and they"re not running toward us but away from something else. They pass by, shouting and darting in different directions to scatter away from whatever horror is slowly approaching.

We"re all confused, but then a strangely lyrical, otherworldly screech fills the air. Maven tenses, her eyes widening slightly.

"A harbinger," she breathes. "Fuck."

I frown. "A what?"

She grabs Crypt"s and Everett"s hands, turning to lead us in the opposite direction of the unfamiliar shadow fiend. She mutters something under her breath that I don"t catch—but it must piss Baelfire off because he grabs her arm to stop her with a growl.

"Hell, no. You are not going after that motherfucker alone."

"Try and stop me," she snaps back.

Let her go.

This is how we"ll get rid of her,another voice in my head agrees.

Death to the revenant.

I shake my head hard to clear the aggravating echoes. "Why the hell would you want to fight it alone? What is a harbinger?"

In all our studies of monsters and fiends, I"ve never heard of it, and clearly, neither have the others. But the way Maven"s gaze darkens as she looks behind me, toying with her adamantine dagger, makes it clear she"s come across this kind of fiend before.

"Harbingers are incredibly rare because Amadeus drove them to near extinction. He enjoyed using them in his arena because there was no winning for anyone who fought this creature. Either it kills you, or you die when you kill it." She looks at us seriously. "Anyone who hears a harbinger"s song and slays it immediately dies with it. Which means if it attacks any of you and you kill it in self-defense, you"ll be dead. I"ll take care of it."

What she means sinks in immediately, and I snarl. "Absolutely not. You"re not going to fucking sacrifice yourself to take down that thing."

"It"s hardly a sacrifice since I"ll come back," she rolls her eyes. "I"m literally the only person in this maze who can destroy it and make it out alive."

"Just let someone else kill it so it thins out our potential enemies," I growl, grabbing her hand to pull her away.

Maven snatches her hand back, shaking her head as she glares at me. "What if Kenzie"s quintet runs into that thing? They don"t know how it works. They would die trying to take it down."

She has that same determined gleam in her eyes that she did when she told us about her promise to free the humans in the Nether. Godsdamn it, why must my keeper be so unfailingly selfless when all I want is to keep her out of harm"s way?

"Too bad for them, then," Crypt drawls. "It"s not worth having to watch you die again, so let"s get on with it, shall we?"

When he, too, makes a move to grasp our keeper"s arm, she moves so fast that we"re all left blinking in shock when she brutally twists Crypt"s arm behind his back and pins him face-first against one of the massive concrete walls with her uncanny revenant strength.

"You all really need to stop trying to fucking manhandle me," she warns darkly. "It"s getting on my nerves."

Crypt exhales roughly, resting his forehead against the concrete. "Now isn"t an ideal time for you to give me a boner, love."

"Right, because that was obviously her intention just now, you fucking deviant," Everett huffs, repeatedly adjusting the pocket zippers on his uniform. The frost coating his hands has crawled up past his elbows, and I"m fairly certain most of the snow coming down now is his fault. "Oakley, no one needs to kill that thing. Let"s just focus on getting the hell out of here."

She grits her teeth before releasing Crypt and adjusting her gloves.

"Fine. I"ll leave it be. Let"s go this way," she nods down another pathway in the maze.

We obediently move down that pathway as she walks behind us, all of us on high alert as we wait to encounter even more threats. The screams and wailing have reached a fever pitch, echoing around the maze—but abruptly, I realize I don"t hear Maven"s footsteps behind me anymore. I halt, closing my eyes.

"Gods-fucking damn it," I curse.

Maven adjusted her gloves. That"s her tell.

My blood blossom was fucking lying.

Yes, she"s a liar. Let her die,a voice in my head urges.

Another giggles. No more keeper.

Sure enough, when I turn to glare over my shoulder, our keeper is nowhere to be seen. Baelfire notices, too, and halts, ignoring how Everett swears when he walks smack into the back of the hulking dragon shifter.

"Wait, what the fuck? Where"s Maven?" Bael demands.

"She went to take down the godsdamned harbinger," I seethe, turning to run back in the direction we just came from.

Moments later, Baelfire, Crypt, Everett, and I come to a screeching stop and shout in alarm when we see Maven race up the arm of a massive, ghostly white, disgustingly spider-like creature. She uses her momentum to leap into the air, and a moment later, the harbinger"s fanged mouth closes around her.

At once, the voices in my head burst into applause and cheers of approval. I cry out at the deafening commotion, covering my ringing ears and staggering.

It"s difficult to perceive much outside of my damned curse. Still, I see Everett drop to his knees, ice spreading everywhere he touches the ground. He chokes out a prayer to Arati, goddess of battles, that Maven will still somehow win. Baelfire roars, sounding like his inner dragon as he claws at his collar and races forward.

Crypt vanishes and reappears a second later on the top of the massive, terrifying shadow fiend. His face is a mask of fury as he lifts his sword, ready to drive it through the creature"s skull in violent vengeance?—

But just as he does, it shrieks horrifically, and Maven"s blade pierces it from the inside out, slashing a gaping hole across its bulbous stomach.

The harbinger screeches one more time before slumping to the ground, its legs twitching and blackening as foam fills its fanged mouth. Baelfire gasps and catches Maven just in time as she falls out of the belly of the terrifying monster, its dark innards gushing around her.

"Maven!" I shout, hurrying to her side.

Her skin is red and steaming from stomach acid, her arms and legs are cut up, and I watch in horror as her eyes white out precisely at the same time the harbinger goes still. She goes slack in Baelfire"s arms. He chokes, muscles in his neck bulging while his eyes shift to those of a dragon"s. Crypt rolls away from the dead creature, dropping to his knees beside Maven.

"She"ll come back. Her deaths don"t stick," he rasps, but the frantic terror on the Nightmare Prince"s face tells me his thoughts are spiraling in the same direction mine are.

What if this is an unknown way in which revenants can be killed permanently? What if she doesn"t wake up? What if…gods above, what if I just lost my keeper?

The voices in my head cheer harder. The ringing in my ears increases until I grip the sides of my head, gritting my teeth against the darkness creeping at the edges of my vision. The fact that I can"t even fucking think straight in a moment like this curdles my gut.

But then I see that Maven"s skin is healing. Any sign of damage disappears, and she finally jolts awake, catching her breath as she frowns up at us.

"Did someone just scream? What"s going on?"

Baelfire"s head drops forward with relief. "Oh my fucking gods. Maven. You can"t do that to me again, baby. Please don"t ever fucking do that."

"So dramatic," she grumbles. "I"m clearly fine, so let"s…"

Her gaze latches onto Crypt"s sword, barely protruding from the harbinger"s head since he didn"t have time to properly stab it, and her face darkens with wrath. She"s on her feet in a split second, gripping Crypt by the front of his leather jacket. Her voice is deadly.

"What the fuck were you thinking? If I hadn"t gutted it in time, it would have killed you!"

"It ate you," he snaps back, parts of his hair drifting aimlessly as his anger seeps into the mortal world. I"ve never seen Crypt express much emotion over the years, aside from unpredictable anger and taunting—but now he looks both livid and tormented. "How the fucking hell could you think I would just stand by, waiting on nothing but a godsdamned prayer for you to emerge? I told you not to make me watch you fucking die again!"

"And I told you, death is part of my nature," she seethes, more upset than I"ve ever seen her. "I"m the fucking scourge, so I can walk it off, but I swear, the next time you put yourself in danger for no fucking reason when I explicitly told you?—"

A laugh rings out over us, and we all stiffen. "My, my. Trouble in paradise, whoreson?"

Somnus DeLune strides into this portion of the maze with Engela Zuma and two dozen powerful-looking hired legacies at their side. His lips turn up cruelly when he sees the dead harbinger, and then he looks meaningfully back at Maven, and I tense.

He knows, a voice in my head taunts. He was watching. They were all watching.

Here comes her reckoning. Run and save yourself.

My eye twitches as Somnus sneers at Maven, who releases Crypt with a clenched jaw.

"So. The prophesied telum truly has left the Nether. Good old Amadeus sent a revenant after us, did he? Ridiculous. How he could ever think you could be a match for us is beyond me," the immortal scoffs, approaching painfully slowly. "Though I must say, it is poetically fitting that this worthless bastard should wind up with a homely bitch from hell."

We"re all tensed, but none of us move as the experienced hirelings surround us, standing at the ready. Engela Zuma makes a motion with her hand, and all the exits are suddenly blocked off.

They have the telum trapped.

But Maven doesn"t look nervous. In fact, she"s glaring back at Somnus so murderously that some of the hired legacies standing behind him start to look nervous.

"Apologize," she says in a flat voice.

He scoffs. "As if I would ever apologize to a reven?—"

"Not to me. To Crypt."

Crypt wipes some of the harbinger"s black blood off his face. "Darling, I don"t want his apology. I want his head rolling on the ground."

"You"ll get both."

Somnus"s nostrils flare with rage, and he motions at his hirelings and Engela. "Enough of this. Kill them all, but I"ll be the one to end this arrogant little cunt."

Things happen all at once after that. While Everett launches spikes of ice at the nearest hirelings and I prepare a powerful spell to hopefully wind Engela, Crypt launches toward his father. But Maven…reaches up and grabs onto Baelfire"s collar.

Right. Since she killed the harbinger, her magic now has fuel.

The collar crumbles in a flare of smoke-like black tendrils, and Baelfire darts into the midst of the hirelings just before he shifts for the first time in days. Blinding royal blue fire explodes around him, and the rival legacies shout in alarm. Some of them summon shields of fire or magic or manage to leap out of the way, but others aren"t so lucky. Others begin hurling countless deadly attacks at the massive beast, but his scales take most of the brunt as he roars and snaps at our foes.

I deflect a deadly hex from one of the hired casters and prick another of my fingers to send a devastating attack toward Engela. A solid slab of stone shoots up from the ground, shielding her from my magic, but it rebounds and hits another one of their hired hands.

Where is your precious little keeper, little Crane?a voice in my head mocks.

I do a double-take. Damn it. Where is Maven? This fight has dissolved into deadly chaos, and I startle when I see Crypt unconscious on the ground, his own sword impaled through his right shoulder as a severe injury to his head heals slowly.

When did that happen?

Another attack spell careens toward me, but I counter it in time. Flashes of deadly light and smoke from Baelfire"s dragon fill this section of the maze. Meanwhile, Everett is fighting off a trio of vicious wolf shifters, bright flares of his white magic creating a haunting glow to the smoke filling the air.

These hired legacies are powerful and have more experience than we do. I roll out of the way of a fire elemental"s attack before throwing out enough magical attacks to give myself cover as I strain to see where Maven could be.

From the corner of my eye, I finally see Maven reappear—hanging onto fucking Somnus DeLune"s back as she wrestles him into a headlock. With a start, I realize that he"s covered in thousands of tiny, bleeding piercings that look extremely painful. She must have used her bronzeblend spell already, but…how is she surviving when he took her in and out of Limbo?

"Get off!" the immortal roars, slamming his head back into Maven"s jaw.

I hear a crack, but she just grunts in pain and tightens her hold.

I can sense the angry surge of his incubus powers all the way from where I"m standing. Several hirelings fighting closer to him drop to the ground in a deep sleep as they"re affected—but a flare of Maven"s dark magic shatters through his power. She twists hard to one side, using her momentum to slam the immortal into the ground.

Somnus cries out. He pulls an obsidian dagger from his waist and tries to jam it back into her side, but she twists out of the way, grapples his hand, and uses it to plunge the blade into his back instead.

Somnus howls. "You fucking cunt! Zuma! Help me!"

Baelfire"s dragon roars in pain, the sound deafening, and I look up just in time to see Engela drive a thick spike of rock up through the beast"s stomach. Alarm courses through me—shifters are hardy but not invincible. That could be fatal if he doesn"t heal quickly. I send another blast of magic toward Engela to drive her away from my quintet member.

She again blocks it with stone. But then, as if in slow motion, I see her look over at where Maven now has Somnus flat on his back, screaming in pain as her magic courses through him, dark shadows writhing around both of them.

"Zuma! Now!" he screeches. He manages to finally drive his obsidian dagger into Maven"s thigh. She barely reacts, as if she"s entranced by her dark magic, eager for his death.

The immortal earth elemental has no expression. She waves her hand, and one of the other pathways of the maze opens up again—and then Engela Zuma simply walks out of the fight unscathed without a single look over her shoulder at her dying quintet member.

I don"t have time to linger on how strange that is. Instead, I race toward Baelfire, who has shifted back into his human form and is wrestling with another shifter despite the gaping wound still trying to mend itself on his stomach.

As I run to him, a sharp cry from Somnus draws my attention. I dodge another magic attack and see Maven carving the immortal up with her adamantine blade. Neither of his arms seems to work.

One moment, he"s cursing her out and promising her an agonizingly slow death—but then she pulls something out of her pocket. I realize it"s the totem Crypt left her, and she sets it on Somnus"s chest.

And when Somnus sees that, his threats turn to pleas for his life. He begs for mercy, screaming and thrashing. His power lashes out again, and the caster launching another attack at me drops into a dead sleep.

But Maven"s dark magic once again deflects his attempt to stop her. I watch her whisper something to the immortal right before she drives her adamantine dagger through his heart—and, simultaneously, through the totem.

He goes still immediately.

Gods above. Somnus DeLune is dead.

A small, practical part of me was dubious about Maven"s knowledge and capability of bringing down the untouchable, centuries-old monsters who have been tyrannizing legacies, but now…

My awe is cut short. Everett cries out, and I whirl to see that he"s pinned by the only wolf shifter remaining. It"s clawed up his entire chest and is biting one of his arms, trying to rip it off. He"s covered in blood as he blasts the animal away with ice using his other arm, but then he goes slack.

Damn it. Damn it.

They"re all injured. Which one do I try to heal first? Who needs it the most? My head is pounding, and the ringing in my ears isn"t going away.

Let them die.

They were going to betray you anyway.

Their blood will free you, little Crane.

"Silas!"

Maven"s voice barely cuts through the encroaching madness, and when I look at her through the smoke and snow, the ringing in my ears softens ever so slightly. For a moment, I"m desperate to make out what she"s shouting at me to do. She"s motioning toward Everett, then toward Baelfire, and then?—

An elemental hireling tackles her and bursts into flames.

My keeper's agonized scream pierces through everything in my head, shattering through my curse. My world is nothing but sharp, cold hysteria as I race toward her, throwing out spells to kill the elemental and extinguish the raging fire. Somewhere in the background, I can hear Baelfire roaring as a dragon again, and I know the fight is raging on, even if Crypt and Everett are still down. I have no idea whether we"re winning or losing right now.

But I don"t care. Because when my magic douses the fire, and I drop to my knees beside Maven, she"s burnt almost beyond recognition.

She"s not breathing.

She"s…going to die.

And if she dies this way, I"m going to lose her for good.

Without thinking, I begin chanting a healing incantation, drawing from the blood on my shoulder where the Undead bit me earlier. Red light glows around me, but nothing happens to Maven"s motionless, smoking body.

Let her go, a voice in my head whispers.

You"re useless to her anyway,my father"s voice whispers.

She"s dying, and your blood magic can"t heal her. Useless boy.

My hands tremble, and I can"t breathe as I crouch over her, my tears splashing and sizzling against her charred skin. For once, the voices are right. If my magic can"t save her…then what is the point of it? Was I always meant to fail my keeper this way?

No. I refuse to lose her. If my blood magic can"t help Maven, then it needs to change.

Ineed to change.

My heart thunders as my entire world narrows in on this moment. In the Garnet Wizard"s library, there were many books forbidden to the rest of the world. But under his tutelage, no magical knowledge was off-limits to me. He was proud of my unparalleled gift for remembering countless spells, charms, hexes, incantations…

And amid those ancient tomes, I found spell books written in the language of the Nether, outlining the path to wielding death magic—the initiation, the sacrifice, the price.

I memorized those spells, too.

Which is why, when the blood magic fades around my fingertips, I squeeze my eyes shut and begin uttering the forbidden words. They taste acrid on my tongue, and a cold, greedy, malicious energy sweeps through me. It clings onto my existing magic, twisting it and reshaping everything I"ve ever learned. Everything I"ve ever been.

It feels as if I"m being consumed alive.

But this time, when I chant the words of a healing ritual, dark magic surges through the air and wraps around Maven. It seeps into her body, and her skin begins to heal. Her chest rises and falls with new breath.

She"ll survive. Thank the fucking gods.

But the moment I finish uttering the powerful words, I collapse beside her. The world blurs around me as the voices in my head whisper nothing but truths for once.

You"ve lost it.

Only a fraction of those who attempt to take up dark magic survive the transition.

Was she really worth losing yourself, you useless boy?

"Yes," I whisper, closing my eyes and letting the madness have me.

If I survive this, I"ll be a necromancer.

If I die, I die saving my blood blossom.

Either way, I regret nothing.