Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Roxy

Of course the stupid maze would ruin what was a sweet, tender moment between myself and newly human Nathaniel.

I had to give it to the witches, though, a labyrinth guardian with a sword and armor was certainly unexpected.

The last thing I anticipated in the maze was to encounter another person. Though, to be fair, I couldn't say if he was actually, you know, a person.

For all I knew, he was some sort of ghost or apparition. He might not actually exist, even if he was corporeal.

It could just be a really good spell.

So I followed Nathaniel's advice and ran far enough to give me a second to think, to try to sort through this challenge.

I mean, what did the witches want from me here?

This didn't feel like a challenge to me personally. Like with the tempting apartment, the vines, and the blocks. Things that were made just for me, that would be different with each witch who came into the maze.

But maybe if you got through all of your personalized challenges, then the ones that had to do with basic elemental magic, and the healing spell, the guardian was the last basic challenge.

To do what?

Keep us from the cure?

Which must have meant we were getting close.

I couldn't even be excited about that, though, as I suddenly started to hear the clang of swords as, it seemed, Nathaniel and the guardian began to actually fight.

If he was simply guarding the cure, then killing him might be the answer.

But that just… felt wrong.

By nature, these witches seemed to be on the side of, well, good.

I mean, for a lot of us, we existed in a middle ground. Like my little hexes. And the ones Sora, the other witch I knew, did.

Mostly harmless hexes, but not exactly white magic either.

But these witches spent their lives cursing vampires because they represented darkness. Why would those same witches demand we do something as dark as killing the guardian? Even if he didn't truly exist?

I heard the grunts from Nathaniel as he fought the guardian. It seemed like he was holding his own for the moment.

I tamped down my guilt and kept running forward, sure there had to be some sort of answer ahead of me.

The hedges remained the same for a frustrating long time as the sounds of the fight grew more distant.

"It's a test," I reminded myself, forcing myself to slow, then take a slow, deep breath, fighting down my impatience as I closed my eyes, envisioning a break in the hedges, then some white light since I couldn't draw up an image of what the cure might be like.

When I opened my eyes, I felt calm and confident as I began walking again.

It was almost comically quick how fast the hedges led to a large circular break in the maze, looking like it might be the actual center of the labyrinth itself.

There was a glass table set in the middle of the circle, almost disappearing into the space, making the two items sitting on top of the table seem as if they were floating.

I knew the cure immediately.

It was situated in a large spell jar, the fluid inside taking on a purple hue, likely from some of the flowers or herbs that were within.

Sitting beside it, though, was something much less aesthetic and a lot more creepy.

Nestled within a glass dome… was a heart. An actual human heart.

The… heart of the labyrinth?

I didn't know.

But I knew I was running out of time.

I rushed forward, grabbing the cure in one hand, and the glass dome in the other, then rushing backward into the maze, listening and following the sounds of clashing swords, and Nathaniel's increasingly desperate-sounding grunts.

My heart seized in my chest as I kept going, worried I might not reach him in time.

What would happen if the guardian won? If he thrust the sword into Nathaniel's newly human body?

No.

I wasn't going to think things like that.

With my luck, that would make it manifest.

For good measure, I imagined Nathaniel having renewed vigor, charging and dodging and standing his ground as I finally rushed around the last corner in the labyrinth to find them a few yards from where I'd left them.

Nathaniel was looking rough. Sweat was pouring down his temples and darkening the material of his shirt.

His pale face was flushed, his breath rushing out frantically with his exertion as he charged forward, then rushed backward when the stronger, more experienced guardian came at him harder.

"Nathaniel, here," I said, rushing forward to move between him and the guardian, knowing to my core that the magic in this maze would not let him kill me. "Take this," I demanded, shoving his cure at him.

The sword stayed in his hand as he reached for it reverently with his free hand.

As I expected, the guardian froze mid-strike as he looked at me.

His gaze moved over me, stopping when he saw the glass dome that I was holding against my own chest.

Seeing it, his arm fell, the sword clattering to the ground at his side as raw longing filled his eyes.

"Do you want this?" I asked, holding out the dome toward him. "Take it," I said, stepping closer.

His gaze lifted to me, sadness filling his brown eyes. But, it seemed, he could not speak.

"Is this your heart?" I asked, watching him. "Do you need it to be free?" I asked.

At that, his gaze cut to mine, pleading.

"Then take it," I insisted again, pushing it toward him. But the motion seemed to repel him back.

"Roxy, I think it's spelled," Nathaniel said, moving in at my side. "If he could just take it, he would have already."

"Right, yeah. Okay. Here," I said, passing it into Nathaniel's hand so I could lift the lid. But it wouldn't open.

"An unlocking spell?" Nathaniel suggested.

As someone who routinely forgot their keys, that was a skill I was particularly adept at.

"It didn't work," I grumbled as the glass dome stayed stubbornly stuck to the base.

"Maybe it's not just locked," Nathaniel said. "Could it be more symbolic than that? Something about the heart of the labyrinth? The thing keeping it alive?" he suggested.

"I don't know of any spells like that," I admitted as the guardian just looked on, watching his heart with the kind of longing that made my own heart break for him.

"It's probably meant to dissolve the other magic here. Logically, there is only one cure. So once the cure is obtained, you have to… undo all of this. Something about… giving the heart of the labyrinth back to its rightful owner?"

Okay. Alright.

I could do this.

Making up spells wasn't exactly my strongest skill. But this labyrinth has shown me how much more capable I was than I previously believed. If I got this far, I had to have the ability to finish it once and for all.

With victory won, I demand

Release the chains, unbind this land.

To the guardian, true, the heart return.

Let ancient magics cease and burn.

By my right and will, the path made clear.

The labyrinth fades, its end is near.

I'll admit, I was pretty proud of the spell. But to be fair, it took me a solid hour to come up with it, repeating it back in pieces to Nathaniel, so he could remember the former lines for me as I worked out the new ones.

But when it was finally done, and I had it memorized, I took back the heart and the cure, then stood away from the other two men, both of whom had their fate in my hands, took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and chanted the spell with as much conviction as I could muster.

I swear I could feel the magic even as I spoke, an electrical current in the air that sizzled across my skin and made my hair stand on end.

When I was done, and my eyes opened, the hedges had been lit up once again, but this fire was oddly cold as it burned the maze to ashes, leaving all three of us standing in a field surrounded by dense woods.

"You did it," Nathaniel said, looking at me with so much wonder that my heart squeezed in my chest.

"Here," I said, turning to the guardian whose heart was now lying limply on the base in my hand, the glass dome gone.

He sucked in a deep breath, reaching for it with both hands.

"Thank you," he murmured, tears filling his eyes as he lifted his armor to press the heart back into his chest.

There was a brief moment of pure bliss in his eyes. Before he, too, turned to ash.

"No!" I cried, rushing forward.

But it was no use.

He was gone.

When the wind kicked up, there was nothing left of him at all.

"I didn't mean to kill him," I said, dropping to my knees where he had stood just a moment before.

"You didn't kill him," Nathaniel said, coming in at my side, his hand pressing between my shoulder blades. "I think he was trapped there," he told me, his hand sliding up and down my spine. "His heart was a sacrifice made to keep the labyrinth alive. For who knows how long. You didn't kill him; you released him."

"I wish that difference made me feel better," I said, turning to press my forehead into his shoulder.

"You gave him what he wanted most," Nathaniel assured me, his arms going around me, holding onto me tight. "You gave him his freedom."

That was true.

I couldn't imagine the guardian had wanted to be trapped in that labyrinth for all of eternity. With no one to keep him company. With nothing to do but come to blows with those he did occasionally come across. That was no life.

My mind flashed back to the longing in his eyes when he'd seen his heart again.

To the pleading there had been when I'd wanted to give it to him.

Nathaniel was right. Giving him back his heart had been mercy. It had been what he wanted, what his soul needed to know peace once again.

Death wasn't a curse.

It wasn't the end.

I knew far too many ghosts to think that life ended with our final human breaths.

I mean, even vampires were proof that this wasn't the end. Though, I was pretty sure I'd rather be a ghost than someone who had to exist on blood.

"Yeah," I agreed finally.

"You did it," Nathaniel said, his hands releasing me, and it took all the strength I had left in me not to whimper about that. His hands went instead to my face, cradling it in them as his lovely blue eyes bore into me. "You did it," he said, hands pressing a little more firmly into my skin. "You must be so proud of yourself," he added. Then, because my heart wasn't feeling all warm and squishy enough already, he had to add, "I'm so proud of you."

Tears sprang to my eyes, surprising me more than him as his thumbs moved out to catch them as they slid down my cheeks.

"I knew you were so much more powerful than you even realized," he went on. "You were amazing."

Some cynical part of me tried to whisper that he was only saying that because I got him what he wanted so badly.

The other, wiser part, though, screamed that he had what he wanted, and there was no reason for him to be praising me now unless he really meant it, really wanted me to hear him say it.

"Not bad for someone whose sloth and gluttony got the best of her, huh?" I asked, blinking away the rest of the tears.

"Not bad at all," he agreed, his hand shifting down on my face so that when his thumb stroked again, it wasn't across my cheek but teasing the edge of my lower lip.

Suddenly, all of the exhaustion, frustration, fear, and relief slipped away. Leaving nothing but the surge of desire as it shot through my system.

My pulse quickened, my heart a battering ram against the confines of my ribcage. Need pooled in my core, becoming a firm pressure in my lower stomach that demanded to be noticed with each passing second.

My breath got quick and shallow, my eyelids heavy.

I knew by the way blue flames sparked in Nathaniel's eyes that he saw the change in me.

Testing my reaction, his thumb swiped again, this time over the swell of my lower lip.

They parted in invitation.

And finally, without the magic of the labyrinth playing with us, the interest we'd both been feeling since almost the beginning took root, spread.

Without the worries of magical manipulation, there was no restraint in either of us as Nathaniel's lips crashed down on mine, swallowing my moan.

His hands slipped backward, one hand gripping the back of my neck, the other sliding up into my hair, sending shivers down my spine as his lips deepened the kiss.

My own hands were greedy, slipping up his sides, then tracing up his back, moving across his strong shoulders, teasing into his soft hair, then moving down again.

It wasn't long before my hands grew impatient, grabbing the material of his suit jacket and sliding it off of his shoulders, leaving his upper half bare to me as his tongue traced the seam of my lips, then slid inside to claim mine as my lips fell open, inviting him in.

His skin was on fire as my fingers traced over him, my touch making his muscles contract, and little goosebumps rise up.

Losing his fight with his own patience, Nathaniel's hands slid down my spine to sink into my ass, using it to pull me more firmly against him.

His hardness pressed against me, drawing another moan out of me.

Nathaniel's teeth bit down on my lower lip, the pain/pleasure mixture had my hands moving between us, impatiently working at his button and zipper as his own hands slipped under my shirt.

They moved up my sides, then across my stomach to slip up and cover my bare breasts. Since the one article of clothing his servants hadn't provided me with was a bra.

I'd been annoyed at that fact when we'd been literally running through the maze.

Now, though?

It was the best decision they ever made as his hands cupped me, as his fingers teased my nipples into pointed buds.

Circling, swiping, rolling, pinching.

A whimper escaped me as my hand cupped him through the material of his pants, making a shiver rack his system, encouraging me do a swipe across him with my thumb. Once, twice.

The growl I'd really begun to like grew, vibrating through him and into me as his lips finally ripped from mine.

Gaze on me, his hands slid down, grabbing the hem of my shirt, and drawing it up.

The mix of my heated desire and the chill in the air had a shiver moving through me as he tossed my shirt onto the ground beside his jacket.

Nathaniel reached for me again, drawing me against his body, making a gasp escape me as our skin met.

His lips moved up my jaw, over the shell of my ear, and into my neck as my hands grabbed at the waistband of his pants and underwear, drawing the material down over his hips, then releasing it to fall at his feet.

Finishing the task, Nathaniel kicked out of his shoes and stepped out of the rest of his clothes, leaving him bare under the night sky.

Wanting to even things up, his own hands grabbed my pants and panties, dragging them down, but lowering with them as I toed out of my shoes.

He was on his knees before me, helping me out of my pants and panties.

When he finished and glanced up at me, the hunger in his eyes was unmistakable.

He leaned in, pressing a kiss just inside my knee, then making his way upward as my thighs parted enough for him to finish his path up my thigh, then sealing his lips over me.

His tongue teased up my cleft, then circled my clit as my hands slapped down on the back of his head and shoulders, keeping myself upright as he drove my pleasure upward.

My moans were filling the night air as Nathaniel drove me right to the edge, then sent me flying over, leaving me crashing into the climax.

Nathaniel worked me through it before reaching up for my hips, pulling me until I was kneeling down on the ground next to him.

"I've lived over three hundred years," he murmured, pressing kisses up my shoulder. "Never wanted anyone as much as I want you."

My belly flip-flopped at his words, but I didn't get a chance to fully absorb him before his lips and hands were on me again.

Tracing, touching, teasing, making my need build once again until it was an ache that refused to be ignored.

My own hands moved over him then too, tracing down his back, sinking into his ass, then moving forward to close my hand around his hard length. I stroked him to the base, making Nathaniel's lips pull from my mouth. His forehead pressed into mine as he let out a small groan of pleasure.

He let me work him for a moment before he was reaching behind me, spreading out his jacket on the ground, then lowering me down.

His body came over mine, melting into me.

My legs wrapped around his lower back and his hips slipped between.

My hips rocked against his length, feeling him stoke the desire burning through me.

"Nathaniel, please," I begged as my hands went around his back.

On that little growl I loved so much, he shifted back, then surged inside me.

My moan filled the night air, mingling with Nathaniel's quiet groan of pleasure.

He pushed up, looking down at me as he started to move inside of me.

Slow at first.

Then harder and faster as our need amplified, overtook us completely.

I rocked with him until the pressure came to a catalyst before the pleasure surged through me.

Nathaniel groaned, his forehead pressing to mine as he kept moving through it, dragging it out.

Then, suddenly, he was rolling under me, rocking his hips up into me as I came down from the climax, somehow making me climb once again within moments.

On a moan, I sat up, looking down at him as he watched me with those hungry blue eyes.

I started to ride him right there in the empty field with nothing but the moon to see us.

Nathaniel's hands moved from my hips and up my body, cupping my breasts, teasing my nipples into tighter points, then sliding back down.

One hand rested on my hip.

The other went in by the crease of my thigh, so his finger could move out to run feather-light touches over my clit as I rode him harder and faster, my moans coming out with reckless abandon as I got closer and closer.

"That's it," Nathaniel murmured as my walls tightened around him.

He kept thrusting even as my legs started to shake too much to continue riding him.

The orgasm that crashed through me was full of sparks and mindless pleasure.

Nathaniel groaned, coming with me, his fingers digging into my hip.

I collapsed forward after, resting my head in the crook of his neck as we both fought for breath.

His arms went around me, tightening for a long time, then running soft caresses up and down my spine as some calm finally spread through us.

"Nothing," Nathaniel said, pressing a kiss to the top of my head, "has ever felt that good."

My answer was some sort of murmuring agreement, my mind and mouth not really capable of forming thoughts, let alone words.

"You made me feel alive," he added.

To that, a smile tugged at my lips as I sat back to look down at him.

"You are alive," I reminded him, glancing over at the potion bottle he'd left on the ground a few feet away.

"True," he agreed, his fingers moving lazily up and down my bare thighs.

"So, what now?" I asked, glancing at the darkness around us.

"Whatever we want," he said.

I want to say my heart didn't squeeze at the word ‘ we ' but it totally did. Even if I had no idea if he meant it that way.

"We should probably be dressed for it, though," I said, sliding off of him.

"Unfortunately," he agreed as I gathered, then slid into my clothes.

When I turned back around, I found Nathaniel dressed in his pants, but holding his jacket.

"What?" I asked as he stared at me, a strange look in his eye.

"Did you know you shoot off little sparks when you climax?" he asked.

"What? No, I don't," I said, shaking my head. Even if I did remember thinking about sparks as the pleasure coursed through me.

"You do," he said, coming closer to show me a small burn mark on his chest. "One of them landed on me," he added, seeming pleased by that.

"That's… something new," I insisted. "Maybe my powers have gotten stronger from the labyrinth."

"Sure," he said, shooting me a cocky smirk. "That must be it."

With that, Nathaniel made the call for his ride, and we walked back toward the dirt road where we'd been dropped off.

Suddenly, I missed the way he held my hand endlessly through the maze.

That is until the car's headlights were coming up the road. And Nathaniel leaned over to press a kiss to my temple as his hand went to my lower back.

I might just have liked that a little bit more.

As we climbed into the car, and Nathaniel reached to pull me in close at his side, the cure sitting carelessly in the floor well next to his feet, I couldn't help but wonder what it was that we both wanted.

And if we were going to do it together…