What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(86)

My ears rang. I sank into the bond, the thread glowing and fading with golden light in time with my struggle. Caldris roared down it, his silent fury radiating toward me. My exhaustion made my limbs sluggish.

I was so tired.

Don’t you fucking dare.

The voice came from nowhere and everywhere at once, surrounding me in a quiet, steely embrace that smelled of winter nights and evenings by the hearth. He was the shadows beneath the moon on the coldest of nights, and the comforting embrace of a lover after sunset.

Get up, my star. Get. Up.

My arms slid along the ground beneath me, fumbling for purchase, for any remaining strength. Darkness flickered at the edges of my vision as the Minotaur leaned in, coming close enough for me to reach. His tongue snaked out of his mouth, dragging over the blood on my cheek.

“I’m going to savor you, sweet blood. Been a long time since I had one of—”

I thrust forward with the sharp edge of his nose ring, stabbing him in the other eye. Where before I’d settled for multiple, shallow wounds, I thrust hard and deep, twisting the piercing in his eye and lodging it deep. Blood dripped down onto me, staining me with the stench of dark magic.

I pushed through, yanking the piercing back and taking what remained of his eye with it. I gagged as he finally released my throat. Breath returned to my lungs suddenly, flooding my sight with the return of light. He screamed, a high-pitched bleat which echoed up the path in the Labyrinth as that mighty jowl opened wide, preparing to swallow me whole.

I pressed two hands against his chest, holding him back as he snapped at me, and his rotten breath wafted across my face. Maneuvering my leg between his, I raised it sharply into his groin and reveled in the pained hiss that left his snout.

“Get. Off. Me!” I yelled, shoving him back.

It took every bit of force remaining in my body to roll him over to his back, to free myself and hurry to my feet despite how battered my body felt. His hoof connected with my face as I scrambled. My nose cracked beneath the force of the blow, and my blood poured upon the ground at my feet.

I thrust a hand into it, grabbing a ball of mud and forcing Caldris’s magic into it. The mud shifted to ice, a jagged, solid ball. I raised it in my arms and threw myself atop his body. I brought the sharp end down on his face, plunging it into his snout as his fist struck my face.

I saw stars, my vision swimming as I reared back and swayed. He got to his feet as I fought for my balance, reaching blindly for the axe he’d dropped at some point in our scuffle.

I shook off my dizziness, racing forward to meet him as he stumbled around to find it. I cracked my elbow across his face, knocking him to the side, then wrapped my hands around the hilt of the axe.

My body dragged forward with the weight of it, sagging with the effort as I tried to summon anything from that well of cold within me. It didn’t answer, remaining silent as if I didn’t need the help. Tears stung my eyes as I glanced over my shoulder, using both arms to drag the axe closer to where the Minotaur stumbled toward me. His nose twitched, the hole I’d made pumping fresh blood as he scented me.

I paused in front of him, watching as his body stilled, as if he knew exactly what was coming.

“Don’t worry,” I murmured, kicking out and wrapping one of my legs around the back of his knee.

I pulled it toward me, shifting his weight beneath him. He fell to his knees, and I cracked my foot against his face until he fell backward. Dragging his axe the final distance, I paused beside his head as his chest drew in a final breath.

“It will only hurt for a moment,” I wheezed.

I raised the axe over my head with a scream—swinging it down as every muscle in my body throbbed.

It cut through his flesh and the bones in his neck in one clean line, imbedding into the mud beneath his body until I pulled it free and pressed it into the dirt to lean against. I fell to my knees beside his body, exhaustion stealing over me.

Grasping his head by the horn, I dragged the heavy thing back toward the entrance to the maze. It bumped along the surface of the ground, my arms too tired to lift it as it left a dark trail of blood. The roots from the hedges reached out, slithering into the pool beneath his body and what I left in my wake. They consumed the blood, drinking it down as if it was water within the ground.

I stumbled as I walked, my wounds healing over but the tiredness taking everything from me.

All magic had a price.

I emerged from the Labyrinth to silence. My eyes were fixed on Mab’s face as I dropped the Minotaur head between us. “The next time you think to pit one of your pets against me for a game, do it knowing it will not be me who dies.”

The Fae observers cheered, celebrating the bloodshed as if it was the greatest entertainment they could have asked for.

“You didn’t use your magic,” Mab said, lifting a brow as if she cared very little for the creature she’d used to kill her enemies when they displeased her.

“I didn’t need it,” I said with a grimace as Mab’s guard allowed Caldris to get to his feet.

He stepped up beside me, his eyes searching the side of my face. I refused to look at him, refused to acknowledge what he would see there.

I hated thinking of what I was becoming. Of what Mab was forcing me to do to survive.

“You made a deal. Allow us to complete our mate bond.”

Mab studied me, her lips twisting into a smirk. “In time,” she said, the trickery of a Faerie deal hanging between us. While she would need to allow it eventually, we would all live long lives naturally. She had all the time in the world before she had to do it, because I’d made a fool’s mistake and not been specific enough.