Once again, I’d ingested the instructions and chanted them back to myself repeatedly: Six hours. Navigate the maze. Reach the Echo
Altar at the center. Strike the correct sequence. Escape.
Safe to say, this new weight pressed on my lungs like a vice.
The walls were etched with strange markings-curves and slashes, dots and crescents, spirals that pulsed faintly as if they had been carved with living flame.
At first glance, the symbols looked like abstract art, something one might dismiss as decoration.
But they were crucial to the challenge-they held the sequence that would release us from the maze.
“Hell of a place,” Roxy muttered, cracking her knuckles like she was preparing to punch her way through the walls of stone.
Her reflection gleamed faintly in the polished wall. “Bet I could smash through three turns in and shave hours off our time.”
Oh gods, she was actually considering it?
I bit back a sigh. “Or trigger every trap in the maze and bury us all alive.”
She shot me a sharp look. I returned it with an arched brow.
We’d had such a nice time after the last trial. I really hoped we wouldn’t so quickly revert to our initial dynamic.
Judy rolled her eyes. “How about we try brains before brawn, yeah?”
Finn had already stepped closer to the wall, fingers hovering just shy of the symbols.
His eyes narrowed in concentration. “These aren’t random.” His voice was low, reverent almost. “They’re notation.”
I blinked at him. “Like…musical notation?”
He nodded, his lips twitching at the corners in a show of rare excitement. “Ancient wolf tribe music. My grandfather taught me to recognize fragments. I’ve only ever seen scraps in books-but this is an entire lexicon.”
I leaned closer, my pulse quickening as I recognized some of the markings. He was right. The arrangement wasn’t arbitrary; the lines repeated in measured intervals, dots clustered like staccato notes.
It was rhythm-a language of sound carved into stone.
I knew the books Finn referred to; the Lockwood library had been full of them, and I’d had plenty of alone time to peruse through a bunch.
My mind immediately began to work, patterns sparking like tinder catching flame. “If the walls are notation…then the Altar’s passcode must be a composition.”
Finn shifted to the other side of the maze, squinting at little raised grooves, almost like buttons, with markings that matched the notes on our side.
He pressed one, and a resonant ding rang through the air.
He leaned back, nodding to himself. “You’re right, Sera. Each corresponding note should lead us through the maze, and the culmination should be the final sequence.”
I smiled, cracking my neck. “Right then. Let’s get to work.”
We quickly divided roles.
Finn and I became the codebreaking duo, our eyes fixed on the walls, trading rapid theories and testing patterns against memory.
He pointed out symbols I didn’t recognize, explaining their meaning, their tempo. In return, I aligned them into sequences, measuring beats with my fingertips against my thigh.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the passages, Judy was on guard duty, scanning for threats from other teams, while Talia, acting as operator, pressed symbols as I called them out.
Each one responded with a tone-sometimes warm and resonant, sometimes shrill enough to make us wince.
We worked like that in harmony, a rhythm of our own making-until, of course, we were interrupted.
Behind us, Roxy groaned audibly. “So what, we crawl through the maze as the two of you hum little songs until something clicks? This is a waste of time.”
“Feel free to wander off again, Roxy,” I said flatly, not looking back. “I wonder what trap or peril we’ll have to pull you out of this time.”
That shut her up. Though I felt her glare boring into the back of my head.
“Again.” I said to Talia, gesturing toward a spiral etched low on the wall.
She obeyed, striking it with two fingers. A deep hum filled the corridor, vibrating up through my boots.
“Yes,” Finn breathed. “That’s the tonic note. We’ve completed the foundation.”
I smiled. We were making progress.
The new path forked into three tunnels, each one lined with a different set of glowing etchings. I was still studying the nearest wall, tracing a sequence with my fingertip, when Roxy lost patience. Again.
“This is pointless,” she snapped. “We’ll be here all damn day if we continue like this.”
She planted a hand on one wall and shoved hard, as if sheer force could make the stone reveal its secrets.
“Roxy, wait-!” I started, but I was too late.
The symbols beneath her palm flared blood-red. A grinding roar tore through the corridor, followed by a hiss that raised every hair on my neck.
From the ceiling above, dozens of thin slits snapped open. A volley of needle-like darts whistled downward.
“Down!” I shouted.
We threw ourselves flat against the ground. One dart sliced through the air so close to my car that the wind burned.
Another nicked Roxy’s arm, tearing fabric but-thank the gods-not flesh. The stone floor rattled as the barrage clattered around us, embedding into walls with vicious cracks.
The assault ended just as suddenly as it had begun. Silence fell, save for everyone’s harsh breathing.
“Everyone okay?” I panted.
Roxy scrambled up, her face pale, her bravado shaken. “I-“
“Don’t,” I hissed.
I rose slowly, wincing at the ache in my ribs from the harsh landing. I brushed dust from my jacket and fixed her with a level stare.”
We’re not going through this all over again, Roxy. This isn’t just you stuck in a swamp. You almost got us killed because you couldn’t stand to wait thirty seconds!”
Roxy’s mouth snapped shut. Her eyes lowered like they’d done in Jessica’s presence.
I exhaled, forcing some calm into my tone. “From now on, you touch nothing unless I tell you. Nothing. You want to help? Fine-then join
Judy and keep watch. Save all that brute force for if we run into another team.”
Roxy swallowed hard, flexing her grazed arm. “You’re right,” she muttered. “I’m sorry.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
She stepped back and took the rear, her eyes darting around for danger.
I exhaled, turning back to the rest of my ruffled team. “Everyone okay?”
Though a little worse for wear, they all nodded simultaneously.
“Good.” I nodded to Finn. “Let’s get back to it.”
We fell back into harmony, and minutes blurred as the maze shifted around us.
Corridors collapsed, new paths opened, and slowly but surely, we made our way deeper and deeper into the heart of the maze.
Then it happened.
Judy and Talia had gone ahead a few feet to test a series of symbols when the ground trembled beneath us.
With a deafening grind, the passage they were in began to narrow-two massive slabs sliding inward like jaws closing.
Fear lodged in my throat. Shit! Had I called out the wrong sequence? Was this a result of another team’s actions?
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