Page 150 of The Amber Sunburst

“All Auxiliaries have chosen their weapons. Prepare, now, to enter the Labyrinth.

“If incapacitated, whether by your fellow Auxiliaries or the map itself, you are eliminated. As for the Minotaur, that responsibility falls to you. On your rings is an image of the Auxiliary for whom you will be the Minotaur. You are responsible for tracking them down and taking them out while watching out for whoever has you.

“If you eliminate your target, you will inherit theirs. Once twenty-seven participants are eliminated, all weapons will be altered to non-lethal, and those who have incapacitated the most targets will have an advantage.

“Your victims are not limited to your target. Feel free to knock out anyone you please.”

He pulls the screen up on his ring. Every function has been taken offline except one: an image of his target, a boy a few years older than him.

How poetic. After all this time pretending to be teammates, the Guardians have finally made it clear who the enemy really is.

Each other.

The table in front of him sinks into the floor and the wall behind it flickers away.

“May the Forms grant you wisdom in Justice. Start in ten, nine, eight—” the voice says as he takes stock of his surroundings. He sees just what Ophelia’s diagram described—Auxiliaries appearing out of hidden doorways from each of their individual compartments. They’re in a circle, Kallias almost directly next to him, with Zeno, Eudoxia, and Lazarus on the other side.

“—seven, six, five⁠—”

He can see the pathway that he and Kallias are meant to start on to the right and sends a prayer to God that Ophelia’s plan will work.

“—four, three, two⁠—”

He takes a deep breath and holds his sword in a ready position.

“One.”

Bang.

Something flies past him, and when it finds its target, everyone in the maze stills in shock. The boy next to him, the one who just smirked at him in line, is crumpled on the floor, face-down.

Alexander breaks the stillness. He might not like the kid, but he’s not going to leave him on the floor. He yanks and pulls, but the boy doesn’t move. Not even when a frenzy breaks out behind them.

“You have to get up,” Alexander says.

No response.

He thought the guns would have blanks, but maybe they have a stun function instead?

He sighs and turns the boy over, ready to shake him until he wakes up, but…

But he doesn’t look like the boy anymore. He was shot in the eye, Alexander can see now. Blood paints his face and the ground and Alexander’s hands.

Because this boy isn’t stunned.

“He’s dead,” Kallias whispers next to him, shaking his arm like he’s been trying to get his attention for a while. “We have to go. We don’t have time.”

“Someone killed him,” he starts, slowly. His brain hasn’t quite caught up. “I thought there was no killing. They always say that you might die but no one has yet and I thought that meant no killing.”

“I know. I know,” Kallias placates, grabbing his hand and tugging him away from the boy’s body.

“He’s dead!” Alexander yells, pulling away to fall back to the boy. The dead boy. The last time he saw someone like this, it was his father. But he died in his sleep, not… not like this.

“And what can you do for him now?” Kallias chastises. “If we stay here, we’re going to end up just like him.”

“But—”

“Alexander, please. We have to go.”