chapter eighteen

Ceyden signed his name on the property document, sealing the final arrangements for the Aynna's family housing. It felt ridiculous to hand out charity to a mooching family when he couldn't even have Theabelle in his arms, but on the chance she found her way out of the maze...

I need her to see that I upheld my end of the deal.

He folded up the document and placed it in an envelope before sealing it tight with his signet ring. The cottage he picked out for them was nothing rich. Just a small four-bedroom home with a modest kitchen, parlor, and tearoom. It was one of the unused properties on his father's land, so it was easy enough to sign over. He'd still need to send occasional funds over to ensure they were being provided for, but that wouldn't be too challenging, either. He just hoped it was all going to be worth it...

And that was what my magic claimed it to be.

He blinked his power to life, letting the magic simmer through his veins as his eyes illuminated a warm shade of orange. He tried to focus on Thea's location, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to get his magic to bind to her; but he could tell his magic was trying... If he asked his gift to locate something that didn't exist, like a unicorn, or someone who had perished, then it wouldn't activate at all. Thea was lost within the labyrinth walls, but she was still alive.

Come back to me, Thea. I'll be waiting.

A loud crash echoed in the next room over, causing Ceyden's magic to retreat back into his veins. He jumped from the sound, then rushed over to find that it had come from his father's study. The door was wide open, so he didn't bother knocking, stepping over smashed pieces of furniture, papers, and shredded books. The study looked like it had been ransacked by a bear, and standing in the center was his father, tearing his desk apart by the nails.

"Where is it!? It was here!" Father barked as he kicked a loose piece of wood free from the desk, searching through every possible cavern in the furniture he could find.

"Father!" Ceyden rushed to his side, stopping him before he could shred his hand on a splinter-riddled piece of wood. "What's gotten into you? What are you looking for?"

"A piece of my work!" Father yanked his hand back, his eyes wild with his magic flicking haphazardly. "It's been missing since yesterday and it still hasn't turned up, but I had it hidden in my study in a place no one should have been able to find!"

He turned to start rummaging through his shelves, knocking off anything that he had left behind with his first sweep.

Something that no one should have been able to find?

"What... what did this item look like?" Ceyden asked, his muscles tensing as he decided he likely already knew the answer.

"What's it matter? The blasted thing is missing and if I don't find it, then I—" He froze, his lips still parted mid-thought as he adjusted his focus onto Ceyden with a slow narrow of his pupils. "Why do you ask, Ceyden? Do you know something about this?"

Ceyden swallowed. "I-I'm not sure. I just wondered if perhaps my gift could—"

"If your gift could help find it?" Father took a step closer, kicking aside a broken shelf and something else that sounded shattered. "Or if your gift already found it."

His rose.

"I..."

"Where is it, Ceyden!?" Father snatched Ceyden by the shoulders, digging his nails into his skin and giving him a rough shake. "Where is my rose!?"

"Father!" Ceyden tried to pull away from him, but his grip was like iron. Ceyden should have known better than to come near Father at a time like this. If that rose truly was the key, Father would do anything to protect it and keep his precious labyrinth under its lock.

Which means it might get Thea out after all.

"Tell me!" Father pushed him back, causing Ceyden to stumble over a shuffled pile of books. "Where is my rose!?"

"R-rose?" Ceyden gasped, partially from nearly stumbling to the ground and partially because Father had just confirmed what he hoped to be true.

"Don't play dumb with me, boy," Father hissed. "You're the only one who could have located it. My puzzle locks are foolproof unless someone with divine magic can use their powers to look for a way inside. The servants couldn't have unlocked the rose, so it had to be you . Where is it!?"

Ceyden clenched his jaw, looking for a way out that wasn't available to him. What would Father do if he found out he gave it to a labyrinth prisoner? "I... I don't know. My magic can't locate it anymore. I don't have it."

"You don't have it?" Father repeated, his skin turning red as he processed what that could mean. "You gave it to someone... That girl, the one who used to work here... Fairmyth, Ceyden! You didn't?"

Ceyden stayed silent, but that was all his father needed to confirm his guilt. The rage that followed was unlike any Ceyden had ever seen. If he had been any closer, it might have even manifested into a curse, but he backed up against the wall as far as he could until the heat radiating from Father finally dwindled.

"You foolish, insignificant, worthless excuse for a divine one!" Father cursed as he flipped over his desk, smashing it even further into pieces. "Do you have any idea what you have done? What this could cost me!?"

"Father, please. Calm yourself." Ceyden raised his hands cautiously. "It's not like it's in the hands of a murderer. I learned later that Theabelle was framed for her crimes, she's not—"

"I don't care if she's a bloody saint!" Father snapped. " No one leaves the labyrinth. That's what makes it so powerful. If even one little girl slips through the cracks, then the king will lose all faith in me and my maze!"

"Come now, Father. That seems a bit—"

"Silence!" Father glared at Ceyden, cutting him off with a piercing flash of his eyes. "You've said enough. I should have you sent into the labyrinth after her for what you've done."

Ceyden flinched. He wouldn't actually do that, would he? He was his son.

"I should have destroyed that blasted flower when I had the chance... keeping it was only asking for something like this to happen, but that blasted divine one made me fear destroying it would lash back at me." Father snatched a piece of blank parchment from the clutter on the ground, then kicked through the desk rubble until he found his quill and a spilled pot of ink. "Now I'll just have to destroy it in a less convenient way."

Destroy the rose?

"How?" Ceyden asked. "The rose is in the depths of the labyrinth now."

"By sending in someone after it, of course," Father sneered as he placed his parchment against the wall and started scratching out a note with his quill. "Innocent or guilty, that girl cannot be permitted to escape my prison. I don't care what it takes. I'll send a dozen men into the maze if it means it will keep that girl from escaping."

"Father!"

"Quiet," Father snapped. "Or you'll be the one I send in after her. If you wish to remain in my house, then you shall never speak of the rose or what you believe it can do to anyone ever again. "

But Thea... she's supposed to come back to me.

"What... What are you going to do if she does manage to escape?" Ceyden asked, his stomach knotting as he watched his father finish writing his letter and fold it up under his arm.

"If she escapes?" Father repeated, his eyes still glowing with a wicked gleam of his magic. "Then I'll find her before Zion ever finds out anyone escaped, and I'll wring her neck myself."