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With the force of its attempt to skewer me, it slams into the dead end, and the maze wall trembles with the impact.
Quickly shaking it off, the creature turns and heads straight for me once more, its large horns bent down and aimed right for me.
But I’ve already turned and started running, pushing my legs to move quicker and out of the passageway with hopes of finding somewhere I can avoid it.
All too soon, the creature catches up to me. I turn and jump once more, this time slamming the blade down onto its back and pushing it as far as I can into the creature.
Before I get the chance to remove the blade, the creature dips its head and uses its body to slam me into the wall beside it, trapping me.
I hear a crack and wince as a familiar sharp pain spreads across my chest. Pushing down the pain for now, I twist the blade, and the creature bellows out in pain, slightly pulling back from the wall and giving me enough room to free myself.
A sharp burn slices across my side as I begin to move, forcing me to pause. Glancing down, I spot one of its horns bent and angled right at my side. There’s not enough room to pass it without touching it, as the other way is blocked by the curved position of the creature’s huge body.
With no other way out, I grit through the pain and slowly move around the creature to the front of it.
Grabbing hold of my side, I try to put pressure on the wound as the creature continues to slam up against the wall, trying to free the blade from its back.
With it distracted for a moment, I take a step back, and when it doesn’t seem to notice, I get moving as fast as I can toward the flames with hope that the rest of the group will be near them too.
I leave a trail of blood behind me and attempt to push myself to go in multiple directions to throw the creature off, should it catch up to me.
It takes longer than I hoped, moving slower around each passageway, but I eventually find the flames once more, with the injured group all huddled around it.
Relief fills me as I make a start toward them. I’m halfway there when the flames slide open like a curtain, revealing a small path through the passageway and hopefully farther away from the creature.
Fighting the creature must have been part of the last obstacle enabling us to move forward.
“Go. I’ll follow you,” I shout over to them. There is no point in them waiting for me. I will be with them soon enough.
Enver gives me a worried look but must see my determined, stubborn gaze and nods before moving them all through the path.
Oryn follows him last before turning to me with a hand reached out. But in the blink of an eye, the flames quickly grow, making him snap his hand back just as they close once more, blocking me out.
My stomach drops as a loud shriek sounds out from behind me once more, and I know I do not have long before the creature finds me once again.
My choices are limited. I can either go through the flames and burn or turn back and die by the creature.
I clench my fists, wanting to scream to the heavens. This cannot be it. This cannot be my end. Not after everything. Not with everything I have to do and all who count on me.
I reach down inside me for any of my powers, anything I can drag up to help aid me. But I find none. Not a sliver of warmth or tendril of cool darkness.
But I can’t give up. I won’t. I keep searching. Looking deeper and deeper, until…
There.
Something flickers to life inside me, a small ember of energy and a fragment of something that doesn’t feel like it is mine but at the same time feels familiar.
I pull on it, dragging it upward. Up and up until I feel it at the surface. Opening my eyes, I reach out and push every shred of energy I have toward the fire.
I feel it as it rushes through me. But instead of dark shadows of smoke forming in front of me, a small vortex of wind picksup, growing bigger and bigger, creating a whirlwind that swirls and slams into the flames, snuffing them out before swallowing it whole.
Releasing a harsh breath, I drop my hand and, with it, the whirlwind slowly disappears.
Taking a moment to gather my strength, I drag my body forward, wincing at the pain in my side and stomach before moving.
I head through the path where the fire once was, glancing over my shoulder to make sure the creature has not made it to me and quicken my pace when I don’t see it.
I keep going, even when my body wants to give up, when my injuries throb and cry out for a break. I push myself, holding on to that sliver of hope that I will somehow make it and my plan will go ahead. Even when I know Enver and his group have had plenty of time to beat me. I keep going, knowing hope is all I have now.
