or clock, steadily gaining speed as I pushed farther into the night.
I knew these gardens like the back of my hand, and I’d decided on one particular route. But when I turned a corner and peered around a thick hedge, I saw the first guard pacing about.
Deciding on a different path, I crept the opposite direction and had almost made it to a side gate when another guard stepped into the light. His eyes scanned the garden, almost landing on me if I hadn’t ducked behind another bush to stay out of sight.
Breath held, I willed my body to calm down, for my mind to stop racing until I couldn’t think. Every pulse of blood through my body ached, and my mouth had gone dry with fear.
The night was too silent. Too still. And I was blocked in on every side, except one.
The hedge maze stood proudly in the center of the garden, its winding paths dark. It would be easy to get lost inside it or cornered if you didn’t know what direction to turn and which not to take. But I knew it well. Had played in it my entire life. I knew exactly how to escape its mysteries to find the exit on the opposite side.
I exhaled and allowed the tension to flow out of me, the sickening fear. Forcing my shoulders to relax and begging my head to stop pounding, I glanced around to ensure I had a clear path. There were no guards as far as I could see which meant it was now or never.
My feet were silent over the ground as I ducked and ran, my hair sliding over a shoulder to hide my face, the skirt of my maid’s uniform flapping at my thighs.
I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until I made it into the maze and released it with a shudder.
Leaning against a hedge, I willed my heart to slow down before I breathed in the strong scent of roses. They bloomed in multiple colors, climbing the hedges to the very top. During the day, they were a thing of beauty, sweet and innocent, some white while others were the dark color of blood.
My mother had been the person to design the maze, and she’d been the one who taught me its secrets.
I was utterly alone, hidden in deep shadow and cautious not to drag a shoulder across a hedge to catch my skin on thorns.
Stars twinkled above my head, their light not enough to illuminate my path. The moon was noticeably absent in the quiet stillness of the night. But I kept moving ahead, turning right, then left, careful not to get confused or lost as I wove deeper into the maze.
Freedom was so close I could taste it, my thoughts drifting back to the hours I’d spent traversing these narrow paths as a child. A few more turns and I’d find the exit, a stretch of woods spreading out just beyond it.
Leaves crunched underfoot, the sound of them so loud against the dark silence. I turned three more corners and felt relief to know one more and I’d be gone, out of sight, no longer a toy for a man who consumed me at every hour.
I would be gone.
The thought hurt as much as it soothed me.
Reminding myself that I’d lived without Callan before, I kept inching forward, the back of a finger brushing the hedge, a thorn stabbing my skin.
Blood pricked at the wound, and I brought my finger to my mouth just as I edged around the last corner.
The exit stood dark against the landscape beyond it, an iron arch keeping the hedge separate. Roses climbed the sides, their scent infecting me as I rushed forward to finally run through and be done with Callan.
But just as I got close, a large shadow moved across the opening, a body rounding the corner from the opposite side.
My feet stopped in place, my stomach dropping into them as recognition stole my thoughts.
Callan’s shoulders spanned the width of the arch, filling it, consuming it, stealing the air that I breathed as his eyes lifted to lock with mine.
There was no humor in them. No kindness. No warmth. Just a cold so chilling that it felt like my blood had turned to ice.
Dressed in a black button up shirt and black pants, he was utter darkness from head to toe, except for the white rose he held in front of him, the delicate blossom spinning left and right between