Page 28 of Divine Violence
“Maybe she ran off of the island?” But even as I said that, I knew that wouldn’t be true. The way she behaved with us, the way she stabbed Kairos, her hatred toward us, this wasn’t a girl that would back down. “What if this is an ambush?”
“Look.” Dominic stopped just before the entrance to the maze. “If you don’t want to come with us, fine. We’re going to do this on our own.” I knew what he was saying. I understood the meaning behind those words even though he didn’t say it out loud.
It was them or her. He wanted me to choose. If I stayed out of it, I could lose my best friends, the only two people who knew who I really was.
“Fine,” I gritted out. “But we will hear her out first.”
Dominic’s pulled his lips into a smile filled with anything but happiness. “Whatever, Alex. You and I both know how this is going to end, and it won’t be pretty.”
“Dominic!” I yelled out as he ran toward the entrance, disappearing into the darkness of the maze, looking for our Maiden.
Or well, the girl that was supposed to be our Maiden. I doubted that any of them would ever try to do this again, but they had nothing to lose. Dominic was already on the road to hell, Kairos detached himself from us, and that left only me, standing on the side, observing, as if these two idiots didn’t know how much I needed this.
This notion of family, of belonging.
But Dominic was right. I couldn’t just stand on the side and do nothing. I couldn’t watch them destroy everything we worked for, no matter how angry they were.
Everyone had a reason for the way they were, and there was more to Echo’s story than she was telling us. There was more to all our stories, but those secrets were better left buried deep beneath. I just hoped they would never see the light of day.
Eerie music enveloped me into its dark embrace as soon as I stepped into the maze, with Dominic and Kairos nowhere in sight.
“Guys!” I yelled out, the sound of my voice echoing around us.
“Move your fucking ass, Alex.” Dominic’s voice came somewhere from the front, and I hurried to catch up with them.
I could barely see my own feet here, not to mention anything else, but as I came closer to them, I could see the two silhouettes walking in front of me.
“I thought you illuminated this fucking place, Kai,” Dominic complained.
“I did.”
“Then unless I’m losing my sight, I would like to know where the fuck are all those lights.”
“My guess is as good as yours, Dom,” Kairos said. “But if I really had to guess, I think that our little Maiden had something to do with it.”
The only light cascading down on us through the leaves of the maze that covered the top part was the moonlight, but it wasn’t enough.
“I don’t like this,” I said. “I don’t like this at all.”
“Why?” Dominic asked as he turned toward me. “Afraid of a little dark?”
“No, you ass. I don’t like it because we can’t see shit in front of us. I don’t know if you remember, but she pretty much threatened to kill us back in the house.”
Dominic opened his mouth to say something, but Kairos interrupted him.
“She won’t do shit. This is a game for her, and just like us, she wants to play it until the very end.”
“Then why do I feel like we’re being—” I never managed to finish my sentence. The music suddenly cut off, the silence descending on us, feeding into paranoia, rocking through my body. I came closer to the two of them, trying to figure out where we were.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” a melodic feminine voice cut through the air, making the hair at the nape of my neck stand up straight. “I hope everyone is having an amazing night. I’m sure that it will become even better.”
“What the fuck is she doing?” Kairos hissed, moving forward as if he truly knew where he was going.
“There was this song, my mother used to sing to me when I was a little kid.” She laughed into the mic. We hurried after Kairos who moved faster than I would’ve thought possible with his wound.
She missed all the important parts in his leg, but I knew him. It hurt like hell, yet he would never show it to us.
“I want you all to sing it out loud with me!”
