“We need to move,” I said, keeping my voice low.

  “We’ll be seen!”

  “Just go, and do it quick.”

  Kady peered across the windowpane, trying to get a good look inside. Warm, golden light bathed the side of her face and caught on her already gold hair to make it look like she was radiating light all on her own. After a moment of pause, Kady took a deep breath and zipped across the window, and in a flash, she was done.

  She’d even made it look easy.

  From the darkness across the way, Kady gestured for me to hurry across as well. I reached the window and peered inside. There was a woman in the room, short and lithe, with pale skin and hair the color of fire. She had been wearing a long, green gown a moment ago, but now she was in white undergarments and her corset, fluttering around the room removing her jewelry.

  I had to time my movements carefully, and wait for her to move toward the vanity set at the far end of her bedroom.

  “Wait for it,” I told myself, as I watched this girl remove her bracelets and her earrings. “Wait for it…”

  Now.

  I took a quick step the way Kady had a moment ago, but my footing wasn’t nearly as sure as hers; vertigo had made sure of that. My left foot just went, the world started to tip, and I panicked. Instinct drove me to leap, and Kady was able to grab my arm and pull me to safety, only narrowly avoiding a fall of her own. But I’d made a noise, and while I hadn’t caught the attention of the guard we’d left behind, my eyes were now locked with the woman in the bedroom.

  She stared at me, wide-eyed, her chest heaving in the corset she was wearing. I wasn’t sure what she was about to do. The window was shut. There was no way I was going to get in, and I knew that she knew because I watched her eyes move to the clasp at the base of the window. What she did next was entirely up to her, so I tried the only thing I could.

  I put my finger to my lips and blew a soundless “shhh”.

  The woman in the bedroom cocked an eyebrow. Slowly, she backed up, one of her hands moving to what I thought was the door handle nearby. Instead, she reached for the brush on her vanity set, turned around, and started brushing her fiery, orange hair. My heart settled, but only after I’d moved clearly away from the window and was safe on the other side.

  “Did that seriously work?” Kady asked.

  “It did. I think,” I said, breathing quickly. “Who was that?”

  “A bitch named Esme. It’s a good thing you aren’t coming back, otherwise you’d owe her for that.”

  Kady started moving again, carefully skirting across the building’s quiet, darkened façade. Eventually, we reached the side of the building where we were able to use an arbor to climb down to ground level. Sticking our backs to the walls, we made it to the front of Emerald Hall, where it was a simple case of moving behind hedges and statues—that I sincerely hoped weren’t other people—until we made it to the front door.

  There were guards posted outside. I could see them from time to time, moving down the paths and walkways of the building’s main courtyard. Nobody noticed us as we moved silently through the night. I figured it was dark enough that unless they happened to look directly at us, we’d go mostly unnoticed; and we did, all the way to the front porch, where a single guard stood.

  “Dammit,” Kady hissed. “There’s a guard out there.”

  “I feel like you should’ve expected that,” I said.

  “I did, but I was hoping we had caught a change of the guard.”

  “That was probably going to be a long shot, and you know it. Now what?”

  “We want to help your friend Rell, right?”

  “We do.”

  “So, we have to go through that guard.”

  “Wait, through?”

  Kady nodded. “That front door will open for me, and as soon as it does, he’ll notice. I’m going to distract him, so you’ll have a couple of seconds to get inside and get Rell out of his cage.”

  “Wait, wait, wait; just what are you going to do?”

  She grinned at me. “I’m going to take a page out of Avery’s book of badassery.”

  I tried to grab hold of her arm, but she was too quick—too slippery. She was out and moving in an instant, dashing away from the cover we’d enjoyed like a bullet. I watched her leap into the air and stick her foot out like she knew martial arts. When it connected with the side of the guard’s head and sent him staggering, I almost couldn’t believe it.

  The guard fell back a few feet, turned to look at her, and was about to yell and reach for his sword but she was already on him again. One swift kick to his hand knocked it away from the pommel of his sword. She then spun around quickly and jabbed her pointed fingers into his throat, one of the only parts of him that wasn’t covered in armor.

  The impact made the guard start hacking and coughing. He grabbed his throat and doubled over. Kady then rushed toward the front door, and it opened for her on its own. That was when she looked over at me. “Uh, go?” she asked, like I was wasting her time.

  “R-right,” I said, and I moved quickly, away from the hedges I’d been hiding behind and toward the building’s front door.

  I didn’t stop when I reached it, instead zipping around the corner and catapulting myself into the foyer I had seen only once before. It was pretty breathtaking, even in the dark. Moonlight filtered through the skylight above the hovering chandelier to make each individual bit of crystal glint and sparkle like they were made of light. It was like watching millions of stars be born and snuffed out in front of my eyes.

  “A little help?” came Rell’s actual voice, snapping me out of the trance.

  The first surprise was that he wasn’t stuck in an actual cage. The second was that he was sitting on a luxuriant velvet cushion, surrounded by fruits of all shapes, sizes and colors. My mad dash toward him slowed as I approached. He looked more like a dragon than ever before; a dragon sitting atop its hoard of treasures.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked.

  Rell picked up the leather chord keeping one of his little, scaly red paws strapped to the podium. “I need help.”

  “You said they were keeping you locked up in a cage, but look like you’ve got it pretty good here.”

  “It’s an emotional cage. I’m very distressed, can’t you see it in my eyes?”

  “They stuffed me in a cold, dank cellar, told me I’d be washing dishes for a year, and I haven’t eaten since I got here. What part of your life here is causing any kind of distress?”

  Rell paused, his golden eyes softening. “The Fae have been very mean to me as they walk by. I’m a joke to them. They call me a sprite… it’s very hurtful.”

  I rolled my eyes and undid the metal clasp keeping the leather strap wrapped around his leg. It was a simple task, there really was nothing to it much to my surprise. After a moment, Rell was free. “And why couldn’t you have done this yourself?” I asked.

  “They put a binding spell on me,” he said, “I physically couldn’t undo the clasp myself. Pretty standard spring Fae magic, to be honest. I’m surprised you haven’t been hit with one to stop you escaping.”

  “Whatever, I’m absolutely done with this place,” I said, and I picked Rell up while he grabbed an odd-looking banana.

  “For the road?” he asked, looking up at me with a smile.

  “Psst,” Kady whispered from the front door. “What’s the hold up?”

  “I’m seriously considering leaving him here,” I said as I walked toward her.

  “Whatever you do, do it fast. The guard commander will know one of his men is down in a manner of seconds.”

  Nodding, I rushed toward the door with Rell in my arms. Together, the three of us made tracks away from the building, but we didn’t head for the front gate. We went around it again, back the way we had come, only instead of going toward the backyard, Kady shot away from the building once we reached its side and dashed toward an opening in the hedges I hadn’t noticed the first time we’d come around here.

  I had to speed up to catch up to her, only barely catching the words on the sign near the entrance.

  It read: Emerald Maze.

  Chapter 18

  Kady wasn’t slowing down, and I was starting to lose her in the maze. The hedges around me were perfectly manicured blocks of green leaves and thick brambles, so tightly packed that they looked like solid slabs of dark green. The only way through them was the narrow, gravelly path, wide enough for two people to walk through side by side. There were no torches to guide my way here, only Kady, and the light from the half-moon hanging above.

  “Slow down!” I called out, my voice shooting out into the night like a flare for everyone to hear.

  Kady stopped up ahead. “Don’t tell me you’re that unfit,” she yelled.

  “I am not unfit.”

  “Liar! Now, hurry up!”

  With little more than that, she jolted to the right, disappearing down a junction I couldn’t yet see. She knew the way through the maze, and that was awesome for her, but I didn’t have a clue where I was going. She was the clue, and if I lost her, I was well and truly screwed.

  “Great,” I said, catching my breath before continuing on my run through the maze. “This is just like every time we’ve ever gone out drinking. She disappears, then somehow winds up in my bed, and I end up on my back on the floor, regretting my decisions.”

  “She’s right, you know,” Rell said.

  “About what?”

  “You are unfit.”

  “Seriously? I don’t need that right now.”

  “Maybe if you spent less time passed out drunk, and more time—”

  “—geez, what are you, my guidance counselor?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with providing wisdom to the unwise.”

  “You’re calling me unwise, now?”

  “Well, you’re zero for two on escape attempts right now, but you’re trying for a third. As much as I appreciate you breaking me out, I don’t think we’re going to make it out of here tonight.”

  “Don’t dare, don’t win.”

  “Is that a human expression?” Rell groaned. “Humans are so dull. Don’t dare, don’t win? No, risks are for stupid people.”

  “You risked your life by saving mine.”

  “Incorrect. I enacted a sacred, ancient Fae rite to get myself out of a bind. You had saved my life, so I repaid the favor. It wasn’t a risk, it was a calculated transaction.”

  “I swear if there’s a dumpster on the other side of that portal, you’re going in it.”

  “Please don’t,” Rell said, lowering his head.

  I kept running down the maze path, taking the right turn Kady had shot through a moment ago. I had hoped to find her waiting for me, but she wasn’t. The path forked up ahead, left and right, but there was nothing to tell me which way Kady had gone—except for her scent. It lingered in the air, the fragrant aroma of spring itself she insisted was all natural.

  I believed her, now.

  I mean, look at where I was.

  Her scent took me down the left fork in the road. It was hard to keep hold of it in the air with the hedges pressing around me, like they were vying for competition with her, but I was confident enough that I was behind her at least. That was when I caught a glimpse of something down an open path I hadn’t taken.

  My heart surged, beating so hard I could feel it pulsing against the sides of my skull. I stopped, because I couldn’t help it. I thought I had seen someone down there, someone not Kady.

  “Why are we stopping?” Rell asked.

  “Didn’t you see that?” I asked.

  “No, I didn’t. Keep moving, or we’ll lose her.”

  I turned, slowly, and looked at the mouth of the alley I hadn’t taken; the alley where I’d seen someone. It had been barely more than a flash of shadow, it could just as well have been a trick of the light, but it could also have been someone else, watching me from the darkness.

  Deciding that I’d hesitated enough, I quickly moved toward the edge of the hedge-corridor and peered around it. The path was dark, and quiet, but also empty. Whoever had been there, all clad in black a second ago, wasn’t there anymore—assuming there had been someone there at all. I shook my head.

  “I’m seeing things,” I said. “That butterfly must’ve done something to me.”

  “I’ll say,” Rell said, “You almost turned into—” he shut up, abruptly.

  “Into what?”

  “Forget I said anything. Come on, Kady is getting away.”

  Turning around, I got moving again, keeping light on my feet as I tried to get my bearings. The only problem was, Kady’s scent had all but vanished, and in a few moments I realized, I was lost. The maze had swallowed my lifeline, had pulled it into its own hedges and was keeping it away from me. I tried sniffing the air deeply, to get a whiff of her, but it was no use.

  “See?” Rell said, “I told you not to stop.”

  “Quiet!” I hissed.

  “You can snap at me all you want, but you’re not going to find her trail again. The maze won’t let you.”

  I rolled my eyes. “The maze can’t think.”

  A gust of wind whooshed down the alley I was in, rustling the leaves and the branches on the hedges around me. I thought I heard a groan, maybe a whisper, as the wind moved past my ears. Whatever it was, it had been enough to root me to the spot, and it had happened as if in response to my challenge.

  “Woah,” I said.

  “Yeah, exactly,” Rell said.

  The wind continued rustling around me, kicking up the leaves that were scattered on the gravelly ground. I felt it touch my face, pull at strands of my hair, and work its way around each inch of exposed skin like it was sniffing me. It was as if it had moved past me, then come back to get a better look at me.

  And I thought I could hear it.

  “Hello?” I asked.

  “Who are you talking to?” Rell said. “And why aren’t we moving?”

  “Quiet. Who’s there?”

  She was human, someone whispered. But she has been touched, and now she is not.

  “Touched?”

  “There’s no one there,” Rell put in.

  “Just be quiet for a moment,” I paused. “What do you mean, touched?”

  The change was stopped, he took it into himself, but Arcadia remains in her.

  She searches for her friend, came another voice that sounded like it was talking to the first. Do we wish to help?

  No. She can find her way. The flower inside of her will bloom.

  And if it does not?

  She will die.

  The wind whooshed away, leaving my hair to fall limply by my shoulders and the leaves to float gracefully down to the ground. By the look on Rell’s reptilian face, he hadn’t heard any of what had just been said. He was staring at me like I was insane, and maybe I was insane, but I hadn’t liked that last part.

  The she will die part.

  Spinning around on the spot, I searched frantically for any sign of Kady. Forget what that whispering bush had said; she was my way out of here. “Kady!” I yelled, trying to make my voice rise above the hedges.

  “Could you not do that?” Rell snapped. “Or do we want to alert the entire house?”

  “We need to find her. How are we gonna get out of here without her?”

  “Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you stopped running!”

  “Look you overgrown iguana, that’s not even a little bit helpful.”

  Rell stuck his forked, lizard-like tongue out at me. “Monkey.”

  “Iguana.”

  “Monkey!”

  “Iguana!”

  “By all the fates, could you both cut that shit out?” came Kady’s voice. She was standing near an opening behind me. I wasn’t sure how she’d somehow managed to circle around us, but then again, I’d lost all my bearings, and I wasn’t sure which way was up or down anymore.

  “Where the hell did you go?!” I asked, almost shrieked. “We’ve been looking for you.”

  “I went to open the path,” she gestured for us to follow her. “Come on, it’s this way.”

  My heart settled once again, and I started moving with Rell in my arms, following my old roommate as she made her way through the maze. The only problem was, the deeper I went, the more it felt like the hedges were talking about me. Not to me, but about me. It was like being in high school all over again.

  They said I should turn back.

  They said my place was here, with them, in Arcadia.

  They said I had a debt to repay.

  “A debt? To who?” I said as I moved swiftly down the deep, green aisles.

  “Would you stop talking to yourself?” Rell asked, “And focus on running.”

  “But the maze is talking to me.”

  “You’re more likely going insane, and you can hardly hold your speed as it is. Conserve oxygen, human, or we’re both dead.”

  “Wait, no… who do I owe a debt to?”

  Rell paused. “Are you talking about the Viscount?”

  “I don’t know, am I?”

  “Well… I suppose he saved your life, but how could you know about that? You told me you don’t remember what happened after the butterfly.”

  “The walls just told me.” My pace slowed when I noticed Kady about to hit a dead end. “They also told me to turn back…”

  “I don’t know if you should be trusting those voices. Arcadia doesn’t want you to leave—she thinks you belong to her.”

  “No…” I stared up ahead, my pace slowing with each passing second. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  “What are you doing? Don’t slow down! We’re almost there!”

  Kady waved her hand in front of the deep, dark hedge, gesturing with the shape of her arm and fingers in a way that only she could possibly have understood. A soft, blue light began to bloom from behind the hedge, breaking through the brambles and thorns in shifting, little shafts that shone tiny spotlights all around.

  In a moment, Kady was bathed in light, and casting a long shadow across the gravelly ground. I took a couple of tentative steps toward her, not totally sure where the hesitation was coming from. The thick hedge in front of her was starting to open, the light coming through much more intensely as the seconds passed, sending soft, electric waves rippling across my skin.