chapter twenty-eight

"A-are you criminals?" Thea asked, her mind hunting for her quickest escape route as she tried to shift back from their approaching weapons. "How did you get weapons into the labyrinth?"

" Criminal is a broad term." One of the men with a scraggly beard chuckled. "We've all caused a ruckus here or there, but today, we're more of a delivery service, and you have the package we're in need of."

Package?

"I don't have anything," Thea said. Her eyes darted down the closest tunnel; it was illuminated so strongly, that it was nearly beaming. Was the labyrinth trying to guide her away? "I was stripped of all belongings before entering the labyrinth, like every prisoner."

Or like every prisoner is supposed to be. This didn't make any sense. How did a group of armed men get into the labyrinth, unless they wandered in by themselves? Didn't they know it was inescapable ?

"Don't play dumb with us, missy," the men at the front scoffed. "Your pretty face may have convinced the lord's son to give you a rose, but it won't convince us to let you keep it."

The rose?

"You've come for Lord Malik's flower..." Thea pieced together. Her hand instinctually flexed around the invisible stem, briefly forgetting that the beast had swiped it from her earlier. Did that mean these men were sent by Lord Malik? Did Ceyden tell him that he gave it to me?

"That's right." The man at the front of the group pulled out a dagger alongside his sword, his crooked teeth flashing in the blade's reflection. "Why don't you make this easy and hand it over so things don't have to get messy?"

Thea's stomach twisted. She didn't have it, but they didn't seem too keen on hearing her out. She ran, but only made it a few steps before one of the men grabbed at her arm.

"Hey!" He tugged on her sleeve, tearing at the fabric as Thea pulled free.

She darted down the illuminated tunnel, taking every turn she could to try to split herself away from her new hunters. She silently begged the labyrinth to guide her, not sure if it could even grant her request. The men's feet echoed in hot pursuit behind her, the stomp of their boots hammering into Thea's skull with each puff of her breath.

There wasn't much time to make decisions on pathways to take. If one was obviously brighter, she would choose that one, but in some cases, it was hard to tell at just a glance. She felt like she was running in circles while her breath was running out. A stitch burned in her side, but she persisted forward.

The men were still too close.

She rounded another corner, only realizing a second too late that the one beside it was the brighter one. She hoped it wouldn't matter, but only a few feet later, she nearly collided with a stone wall.

Dead end.

She tried to turn around, hoping there was still time to choose a different path, but the men were already blocking off her escape.

"Grab her!" one of the men shouted.

Thea's heart raced. She tried to push past the two incoming men before they could take hold of her, but she was outnumbered and outmatched. The two bigger men seized her by the arms while the others blocked the path. She kicked and screamed, unsure who she was calling out to in the empty tunnels, but also unwilling to go down quietly.

"Let me go!" Thea squirmed .

"Not until you give us the rose!" The leader of the group pressed his dagger against her throat, silencing her screaming with a single cool touch of the blade. "Where is it!?"

"I don't have it," Thea said, trying to force calm into her voice that she didn't feel. "I have nothing to give you."

"Don't lie!" The man slashed the blade, striking Thea on the cheek. She squealed, her skin stinging as warm blood oozed from the fresh cut that was only inches away from her eye. "We know the Ashoran brat gave it to you! Where did you hide it?"

The men pressed her wrists against the wall to keep her from thrashing. The cool stone scraped against her skin, leaving her stiff with the fear coursing in her veins.

"I didn't hide it, it's—" Thea gasped as the man slapped her face, spiking another round of pain in her fresh cut and easily bruising her lip.

Would he even let her speak?

"Listen here, little miss," the man's voice darkened, his eyes shadowed in the cave's low light as he leaned in close, "I don't like repeating myself. We all know that flower is the ticket out of here, and I, for one, don't want to stick around in this dirt hole until the beast comes wandering. Tell me where it is with your next breath..." He pressed his palm against the back of her hand, forcing her fingers to spread out against the coarse stone. He hovered his dagger above Thea's pointer finger, mimicking a sawing action with the blade. "Or I'll start cutting off a finger for every lie you tell."

Thea's blood went cold. She looked into the man's eyes, searching for the bluff she couldn't find. He meant it, he was willing to torture her until he found where the rose was hiding.

Because they think it's their only way out...

Thoughts squirmed through her mind like a thousand crawly maggots. They knew about the rose. Not only that, but whoever had sent them knew enough about the rose to keep it out of Thea's hands. Was Lord Malik really that desperate to keep Thea from escaping? Or someone else from escaping...

"Tick-tock," he said with a smile full of gritted teeth. He pressed the edge of the blade just close enough to Thea's skin that she could feel the chill of the metal.

"I-it's with the beast!" she cried, wincing back as much as she could from the dagger's edge. "He took it from me when I arrived! I meant it when I told you I don't have it."

The man looked back at the shorter crook behind him, then at the other two who were pinning Thea. "Don't pretend I didn't warn you about lying," he tsked as he pulled the blade back, preparing enough force to chop through bone.

"Wait! I'm not lying!" Thea cried.

"Yeah, right!" scoffed the man holding Thea's right hand steady. "If the beast took the rose, why would you still be kicking? Do you really expect us to believe that you came face to face with that monster and survived?"

The blade slashed toward Thea's hand, and she shut her eyes so she couldn't watch it happen. She prepared for the shock to overwhelm her body, but it never came. At least, not the shock of losing a finger. A familiar voice prickled every hair on her body.

"She did," the beast said in a voice so low, the growl was almost untranslatable. He was holding the leader's wrist, his claws digging into his skin without any resistance. "But you won't be so lucky."