Page 70 of A Fable of Riddles and Redemption

He shrugged in reply. “Close enough.”

“Herrick…”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. You may look similar, but you are far superior to her.”

“Better,” Zorina said as a bolt of power flew toward her. She dodged it, but it was a timely reminder that she needed to focus on the battle at hand instead of on his words.

Herrick moved toward her in defense, but a magical barrier prevented him from coming closer.

Zorina sucked in a breath at the realization that this was a battle she’d have to fight alone. She already felt exhausted and worn from everything else she’d experienced—plus having some of her power and vitality drained, and her new worries about Caliban. Could she muster up enough magic to fight back?

As she faced her dark double, dread washed over her. Seeing her own face with glowing dark pink eyes and gray skin was disconcerting at best. But seeing black magic glowing in a hand that looked so much like hers? Infinitely worse.

The sight brought back every memory of her own mistakes, of how she had nearly killed another woman with her magic. While she hadn’t known her spell would do what it did, and her unintended victim had forgiven her, Zorina still carried the guilt of it.

She had not forgiven herself.

Even now, she wasn’t fully convinced she deserved forgiveness. But she would do everything she could to prove she deserved another chance, to deserve the forgiveness so magnanimously given her—even if it was only to herself. Now that she had learned to forgive Caliban, perhaps she could learn to forgive herself, too. Perhaps she could let go and move forward with the kind of life she had previously believed she had not deserved.

Shaking her head to dismiss the weighty concerns, Zorina shielded herself from the black and pink magic streaming toward her. It was strong—perhaps too strong. She ducked and weaved around each attack, wracking her brain on how best to fight back.

Her attention caught on the blades strapped to her double’s bodice. While she had learned a bit of knifework in younger years, magic had been her priority, and she only remembered the rudimentary skills.

Maybe it will be enough.

While Zorina could not get close enough to yank the knives away, she could fabricate her own blades with magic. Pulling from what little remained of her magical reserves, she shaped five dark pink throwing knives in her palm. Then, with a deep breath and careful aim, she let her magic carry them rapidly toward her target.

Each knife dug deep into the shadow version of her, plunging into its torso. A horrific scream escaped the replica before it collapsed to the ground and oozed into a black puddle.

Zorina cringed at the sight. Caliban may no longer be a threat, but they weren’t out of his labyrinth yet. How many more monsters would they have to face?

“How will we navigate our way out of here?” she asked aloud as Anala climbed up her skirts and perched on her back.

Herrick, maddening man, grinned at her question. “If we choose the right-most door each time, we’ll eventually reach the end. Or the left-most one would work too, but I’m naturally inclined to choose the right one.”

She gaped at him. Could it truly be so simple? After getting as hopelessly lost the first time she’d been here, she now felt like an idiot for not considering that. “Oh,” she said sheepishly. “In that case, let’s go right.”

For his part, he did not insult her logic or intelligence—as she likely would have done to him when they’d first met—and merely nodded. “Right it is.”

The first two mirrors next to the maze’s entrance were not doorways, but the third one to the right was.

Unfortunately, it led to a monster neither of them had ever seen before: a giant scorpion with a dangerously sharp stinger dangling over its back. Two massive pincers clacked together with an ominous sound as the creature scuttled slowly toward them.

Panic flared in Zorina’s chest. Of all the possible things they could face in this labyrinth, a giant scorpion very well may be the worst. The only monster she could think of that would be more abysmal was a giant spider.

Oh, please don’t let there be one of those in here, she begged.

Herrick held up his sword and shield before moving in front of her. The scorpion snapped its pincers as it reached for them, but Herrick managed to chop one of them off. Howling in pain, the monster tried to grab them with its remaining claw, which Herrick quickly removed with a hard swipe of his sword.

All that was left of its defenses was the sharp stinger—which seemed by far the deadliest part of the creature.

When the stinger lowered toward them, Herrick thrust his sword upward and cut the venomous appendage down. Grabbing Zorina, he yanked them out of the way of the falling stinger just in time. Anala chirped her annoyance from Zorina’s back, but otherwise stayed in place.

Then, using the scorpion’s own venom against itself, Herrick stabbed the stinger into its softer underbelly. The monster writhed in agony before it finally collapsed.

“Let’s move on,” Herrick said, supporting her while her magic tried to recuperate after the previous battles. “Though I think the crushing ceiling room is next, so we’ll have to rush through it.”

“Assuming it’s active again,” Zorina added. “It may not be.”