What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(85)
I cast my eyes from one side of the path to the other, frantically searching for anything I could use to my advantage.
There was nothing but hedges and thorns.
His roar rang through the air as I ran, swerving around a bend to the right and hurrying. I knew the moment he got himself off the ice I’d created. His heavy hoof steps echoed through my bones as they thudded against the ground. The entire pathway shook as he came closer, leaving me scrambling to decide which way to go.
My breaths rattled as they escaped me, the air in front of my face turning white with the warmth of it in the cold air. I couldn’t blink as my legs trembled beneath me. It wasn’t exhaustion that made them weak, but the strong press of fear that darted down my spine.
I glanced over at the hedge beside me, grimacing in frustration as I did the only thing I could. I grasped one of the lower branches, wedging my body into the hedge itself.
The thorns and branches cut my skin, and blood leaked down my arms and my face as the branches seemed to sway toward me. They wanted more, desired my blood as if it was the nourishment that kept them alive. I forced myself to climb, to put one foot on a branch and push myself up. Using those swaying branches to my advantage, I got higher and higher until I could see over the top. I pulled myself free, draping my body along the top of the hedge that was so neatly trimmed into a straight line.
I kept as low as I could as I rose up just enough to see—keeping myself hidden and silent as I looked through the Labyrinth and tried to make sense of the maze. Searching for the center, I grimaced when I found it in the distance.
I hadn’t even run through a tiny portion of the maze. Too many turns remained for me to keep track once I lost the bearings of the view. I couldn’t walk along the top of the Labyrinth without the Minotaur cutting it down.
I turned, my eyes flashing toward Caldris where he knelt in the dirt. I felt the weight of his eyes upon me, the distant echo of the bond trying to settle me through my panic. His calm spiraled up the thread, striking into my chest and forcing me to slow my breathing and think.
I flattened myself against the top of the hedge once more as the Minotaur emerged beside me. Covering my mouth with my hand to silence my panting breaths, I peered over the edge as he stomped through the path.
His pace slowed, as if he could sense me. He looked from side to side, waiting for me to reveal myself in the path.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,“ he said, his deep voice reaching the top of the hedge.
He stopped suddenly, his snout flaring as he turned to the hedge where I lay. He took a step closer, breathing deeply and smelling me.
“It will only hurt for a second, sweet blood.” His fur-covered hand reached out, touching the hedge. His hand came away stained with blood, my blood, I realized in horror.
He raised that hand to his mouth, his long tongue darting out to lick a path up his hand and take my blood into his mouth. He shuddered; his eyes glowing golden as I hurried to act in desperation. If his reaction was anything like Caldris’s had been…
His eyes rose to the top of the hedge, seeking the owner of the blood as I leapt from the top. I screamed as I twisted my body in the air, letting instinct guide me as I settled my legs around the back of his neck and squeezed his throat. I tucked myself into his head tightly as he reached for me, claws scraping against my legs and my back. One of my hands wrapped around his horn, holding on for my life. The moment he threw me to the ground would be the moment I died.
I reached around to his face, grasping the ring that protruded from the nostrils of his snout in both my hands. He roared as I pulled, burying my face into the back of his head as I screamed with the effort of trying to tear it through his flesh.
My back tore beneath his claws, a deep wound setting my skin on fire. Healing was almost instant, though. My body worked to fix the damage he caused as quickly as he could cause it.
“Estrella!” Caldris roared, the anguish of his voice striking me in the chest as he undoubtedly felt my pain.
I screamed again as I settled into our bond, channeling what remained of my mate’s strength as I pulled. It filled me, the muscles in my forearms hardening as if they’d become his.
The piercing came free suddenly, the gush of blood following to cover my hands and the Minotaur’s chest as he yelped. I twisted my grip on the piercing as he fought to get me off him, maneuvering the sharp part of it toward his face.
I jabbed it into the fleshy part of his eye as he howled, tossing his head back in an attempt to dislodge me. Holding steady, I did it again until blood trickled down from his ruined eyeball.
The beast raised his hands to his ruined eye, pressing them against his flesh as he finally bucked me off. I fell with a thump. My breath left me for a moment as pain shot through my torso. I writhed on the ground, pressing a hand to my chest as he spun and searched for me with his remaining eye.
I gasped as air finally returned, filling me with an ache as well as relief.
The Minotaur’s hoof touched my foot, making me jolt back as he lunged for me on the ground. I wasn’t fast enough to get away—only to avoid him landing on me. His weight slammed down on the ground beside me and narrowly missed me. With his blind eye facing me, he was quick to rummage around as he turned. He found me, and his hands made quick work of groping along my flesh until he found my throat.
I tried to breathe through his grip, getting no air as he squeezed with all his might. His remaining eye glared at me, the gold shimmering as I gasped for breath.