Shadowborn Royals - G. Bailey Page 0,18

find myself panicking when they don’t work. It’s not like I didn’t know, but now that I really know, I’m starting to worry about how the hell we’re going to get out of here.

“This way,” Scott says, leading me into a wider pathway.

I glance over my shoulder, and at the bottom of the path we just escaped the plants spit out acid that disintegrates a couple of inmates. Their entire bodies dissolve into thin air, yet the plants suck at the venom residue as if they’re still there. A shudder wracks through me and I grip Scott’s hand tighter.

Okay, so the vines are poisonous, and the plants dissolve human bodies.

Got it.

The wolves howling in the near distance stops me in my tracks. Something blocks out the sunlight above, and when I hold my hand to my forehead and look up, I see a wolf running along the tip of the hedges. It leaps over them and then down toward us, blocking our path.

I nock the arrow and pierce its chest just as it lunges forward, but the wolf continues running.

Scott stands in front of me and punches the wolf with his bare fist.

I grin at the sight of it falling to the earth and shaking itself before retreating through another wall.

The female cries from the other side twist my stomach and I realise that Tyler and his wolves aren’t interested in winning the Trial. They’re interested only in the killing, otherwise they’d run through the walls straight to the prize.

Before I can suggest hunting them down, the ground shakes again and this time sand blows overhead. I lift my scarf and cover what I can of my face without obstructing my vision. The sand sweeps around us like a wave for five whole minutes. It takes another fifteen for the sandstorm to return, which it continues to do so at quarterly intervals. As if the Blood Trials didn’t suck enough.

Scott holds my hand the entire way through the maze. More dead ends await us, each one containing a creature that will kill us if we don’t kill it or escape it first. It’s like Eva’s created this huge sandbox to keep all her twisted creations in. As I fight off the other inmates and try to find a way out of the maze, I imagine how entertaining it would be to watch Eva trapped in her own little sandbox. I’d pay good money to see how she fared. This thought alone is enough to keep my momentum as I hurry through the maze. A blue light shooting into the sky grabs our attention as we reach a hedge with three paths.

“One of them is lost,” Scott says, glancing at his pin. Neither his nor mine is glowing, which means whoever has gotten lost isn’t close by. “We should continue and look for them on the way. It had better not be my brother or he’ll get a hard kick to the nuts.”

Footsteps slam behind me, I spin around to see Axel breathing heavily. “What… what was that, brother?”

In spite of his torn shirt, bloodied fists, and dirt-covered face, Axel looks to be in one piece. Relief fills me and I pounce into his arms, pressing my lips to his. He snakes his hand around my waist and pulls me closer.

“Hate to cut in,” Scott says, a tinge of annoyance in his tone, “but we’ve got the Blood Trials to survive.”

I pull back from Axel and smile sheepishly at Scott. “Sorry.” Then turning back to Axel, “Where’s Memphis?”

He juts his chin toward the sapphire light in the sky. “Dumbass got lost. Well, he found a tomb, then he got lost trying to find me. What a fucking idiot.”

“Do you know the way to the tomb? Is that where we’ve to go to get out of this cesspit?” Scott asks firmly.

Axel snorts and shakes his head. “Yeah, it’s where we have to go, bro, if the orbs are anything to go by. Thought you professors were smart? Anyway, I saw a kid grab one, then they were out. Easy as that.” He points at the left path ahead of us. “I reckon Memphis went back to the temple which is thataway.”

In reply, Scott punches him lightly on the shoulder and I can’t help but grin as I follow them. Unfortunately, another sandstorm sweeps over us the moment we step into the next pathway. By the time it passes, we’re surrounded by other inmates who, for the first time since I entered the