“Most people don’t, but that’s not why you’re offering me this. This makes things easier for you. You don’t want to love me and lose your immortality.”
His mouth parted and closed and parted again, and for a brief moment before he spoke he looked entirely lost. “It’s not that I don’t want to love you, Tella. I can’t love you.” His voice was flat and empty and utterly sincere. It didn’t just sound as if he was saying this because he was an immortal, but because he truly believed that he was incapable of the feeling. If that was true, if he really thought himself heartless, then maybe he hadn’t actually been tempted to love her. Maybe he just wanted to possess her. I want to keep you.
“You’re not thinking this through.” Legend reached for her hand.
A week ago, her heart would have soared because he wanted to touch her. But she forced herself to take another step back. She wasn’t tempted by immortality, but she was tempted by him. She couldn’t touch him again if she was going to do this. “I don’t need to think about it. Sometimes you just know. And I know that I can’t imagine spending an eternity with someone who will never love me.”
She turned to leave.
“Tella, wait—”
She pressed forward. She didn’t even let herself look back. The archway she’d walked through to meet him was gone. A flowering wall had taken its place. The velvety petals felt real against her skin. But she knew it was just an illusion. Almost as soon as she touched them, Legend parted the flowers and hedgy branches to let her through.
The leafy passageway before her was dimmer than she remembered. The fireflies had gone, and a chill had crept into their place. Bumps crawled over the back of her neck. The chill should have felt good after her heated conversation, but the wind sweeping through was fetid and wrong, a dream gone awry.
When she strained to hear, there was no more distant party laughter; any footsteps she picked up were harsh, fleeting.
Something was wrong.
“Tella—” Legend grabbed her hand, appearing by her side.
“Please, just let me go.”
“This isn’t about us—” He cut off. His grip on her tightened. He winced, face paling as the glow around him faded.
“What’s wrong?” Tella asked.
More frantic footsteps echoed in the distance, followed by a series of muffled cries. Leaves poured off the walls of the maze, decaying as they fell to the ground.
“Get out of here,” Legend said. “Go to the tower and lock yourself in your room.”
“I’m not locking myself in a tower!”
“Then run away. If you ever do anything for me, do this—I think the Fates are here.”
Then his lips were on hers. Severe. Quick. Hot. And gone far too soon.
Tella stumbled forward as he let her go. The maze around them was just a series of skeletal branches and rotting leaves. Tella could see right through them.
“Are the Fates doing this?”
“Tella, just go!” Legend roared.
The foul scent in the air grew stronger and sweeter, thick and charnel-sweet, like death, as two shadowy figures appeared on the other side of the hedge.
The blood in Tella’s veins froze.
The pale woman wore a jeweled eye patch, and the man had a great gash slicing along his throat as if his head had been severed and put back on his neck. The Murdered King and the Undead Queen.
Her knees buckled and her throat went dry.
Tella grabbed for Legend’s hand, to get him to flee with her. But a fresh hedge sprung up between them, cutting her off.
“No!” She banged her fists against the hedge’s spindly, prickly, and entirely leafless branches. It was weaker than his earlier illusions, but it was enough to form a barrier between them.
“Prince Dante,” the Murdered King said slowly. “I wonder if history will call you Dante the Dead or just forget you altogether after tonight.”
“Tragic,” cooed the Undead Queen. “Your face would have looked marvelous on a coin.”
Before Tella could catch another word, the prickly hedge before her moved. It pressed against her chest, forcing her to stumble back. Faster and faster it shoved against her, herding her farther away from Legend and the Fates.
That bastard! Legend was using his magic to push her away and she was powerless to stop him—or the Fates who’d come for him.
She wanted to turn around, to battle against the wall at her back, and return to Legend.