We both start running as fast as we can in the direction of the end of the corridor, but the tremors shooting through the ground make it difficult to keep our balance. Somehow, we make it to the end of the hedge hallway without falling, and as soon as we turn around the next corner, the path behind us blocks itself off the same way it did earlier. The path forks in two different directions, and I know it’s important we choose the right way to go. I glance over at Mads, hoping she’ll have some wisdom for me.
“When in doubt, always go right,” Mads breathlessly says as the ground begins to shake even harder. Is this earthquake going to follow us the whole time we’re in here?
Before I can respond to her, I look down and see the ground buckling. The dirt and stone under our feet is beginning to break apart, a long crack bursting through it from the force of the earthquake. Red fire burns through the crack, giving off a wave of heat that feels like it damn near singes my eyebrows. I let out a scream as the floor literally begins to shake from under our feet, the ground collapsing in on itself. I barely manage to grab hold of Mads’ hand in mine before we fall, crunching it in a death grip, but we hurtle into the fissure and slam into some rock, knocking her hand loose. The wind is knocked out of me in a whoosh, and I struggle to get my breath back as pain radiates through my upper body. My ribs are on fire, and I realise with a sinking feeling that I probably fractured one, and my shoulder, which took the brunt of the impact, is a ball of pain. I groan, wheezing, clamping my eyes shut against the pain.
“KARMA! HELP!”
Mads’ scream shakes me out of my daze, making my eyes snap open in fear. I tell myself to get up and painfully drag myself to my feet, my body sending jolts of agony through me every time I move. We’re at the bottom of a large crevasse, the only light coming from the crack that formed with the earthquake. I’m standing on a jagged rock ledge, and my heart drops when I see Mads hanging over the edge not far from where I am. She’s struggling to hold onto the ledge, her feet dangling in space, and I scramble to get to her, my pain momentarily forgotten.
Right below her is what I can only describe as how hell must look like.
Fire and molten lava bubble out of a pit below us, sending up acrid sulfur fumes and radiating heat. There are creatures tripping over each other in a desperate attempt to escape the fire; their skin is blackened and charred, and their eyes glow like embers in a campfire. Their inhuman screams fill my ears, and for a moment I stand there paralysed.
“Karma, please! I can’t hold on!” Mads’ desperate cry is the only thing that can pull my attention away from the inferno below us, and I scramble to take hold of her arms and pull her back up. The strain in my ribs and shoulder is nearly unbearable, and the pain is so much that I feel tears start to stream out of my eyes as I haul my best friend back onto the rocky platform. With one last, desperate lurch, we both collapse onto the jagged surface, gasping for the little air that is down here. The heat makes the air thick and sulfurous, and it feels nearly impossible to catch my breath - like working out in a sauna.
What is this place? I wonder as I stare weakly up at the crack in the maze floor. Did Xur create this nightmare just for me?
But there’s no sense in even asking the question. Of course he did.
After what feels like an eternity of gasping for breath and trying to ease the pain in my torso, I slowly sit up, wincing at the pain that shoots through my side. Mads has already gotten to her feet, and she looks a mess: her blonde hair is matted and tangled, dirtied with smoke and dust, while the knees of her pants have been ripped open. Other than a couple surface cuts and bruises, though, she doesn’t appear to be injured, and I thank the gods that I was able to stop her from falling into the fire.
She slowly approaches me, and I see that she’s trembling from fear and adrenaline as I grit my teeth and clamp a hand over my side. I let out a hiss as I struggle to get my feet underneath me again, and her eyes go wide. “Karma!” she cries, reaching out for me. “Are you okay?”
Gratefully, I take the hand she offers, and manage to crawl back to my feet. “No,” I reply. “I landed wrong. I think I broke a rib, maybe. And my shoulder…”
“Shit,” she mutters, running a hand through her hair. “What do we do?” She glances back up at the fissure with barely-disguised panic on her face. “Karma, I don’t want to die!”
“I know,” I say, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I don’t want to die, either. I’m going to get us out of this. I promise. Do you trust me?” She swallows, staring back at me for a long moment before nodding. Satisfied, I turn away, keeping her hand in mine as I lead her over to the steep wall. It’s dotted with cracks, ledges, and textured sections that we might be able to use as handholds if we’re lucky. Climbing seems like it’s going to be our best bet for getting out of here. I’m no athlete, and I’m sure as hell no rock climber, but it’s either this or face the fire creatures that are struggling to get out of the lava, and I know which one I would rather deal with.
I pull my daggers out and hand one to Mads. She stares at it like it’s a bomb, looking back at me with trepidation in her eyes.
“We need to climb up and get out,” I tell her, watching as she puts a hand to her temple. I notice a trickle of blood running down her face - a scalp wound, maybe. Dust and ash cover her skin, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look as small or afraid as she does now.
I become aware of the ground starting to rumble again, and adrenaline rushes through me. It’s possible this fissure isn’t stable. Whatever we do, we need to do it now.
High above us, I can make out the sound of cheering, and realise that the spectators must be watching this all unfolding somehow. They’re cheering for blood, and the higher gods promised it to them; if we die, we’re giving them exactly what they want. My family would never be the same, and Xur would never face justice for what he’s done. The justice twins would be executed, and Storm would probably try to kill the higher gods only to be overwhelmed by their superior numbers. Either way, everyone would cheer more.
I don’t want to die. I want to see the looks on the higher gods’ faces when we escape from here and win this game.
First, though, there’s Mads to deal with: she looks like she’s barely keeping it together. “I-I can’t climb. I’m terrible at it,” she pleads with me, looking around desperately for another way out of this. “You know me, Karma! I could barely get up the rock wall in gym class? How am I supposed to climb that? No - no way. It’s impossible. I can’t-”
“Look at me,” I say, interrupting her just as she’s really starting to freak out. I feel like a mother trying to coax her daughter off the diving board for the first time - I never thought I’d end up being the responsible one out of the two of us. “There’s no other way out of here, Mads. If you don’t climb, you’ll either get a heat stroke or fall into that pit.” I nod over my shoulder in the direction of the ledge. “Either way, you’ll die, and the higher gods will win this.” There’s a pause, and I add, “And they will kill Peyton.” Part of me feels guilty for twisting the knife like that, but now isn’t the time for half-measures. Mads’ eyes go wide, but she remains silent, and I seize on my chance. “Everyone we love will die if we don’t make it out of here, Mads,” I tell her. “Do you love my brother?”
A moment of silence passes, and I could almost swear I see her blushing under the layer of ash and dust. “Yes,” she replies quietly, although she is still freaking the feck out. “Yes, I think I do.”
“Then get your pretty ass climbing this wall so you don’t break his heart, as the fecker clearly loves you. I want my future sister-in-law to be alive and fighting for her life,” I tell her, my face set with determination.
Mads nods reluctantly. “Okay,” she says. “All right.”
Satisfied, I turn and run a hand along the wall. The stone surface doesn’t feel all that tough - that’s probably why it collapsed in the first place. Peyton said that the daggers were enchanted to hit anything I aim at, so in theory, they should go into the rock if that’s what I aim for, right? The logic is tenuous, I know, but it’s the best chance we friggin’ have at this point.
I wait for Madison to come stand beside me. Sticking my tongue out, I line up my strike and then hit the wall with the blade of my dagger. Relief washes over me as, just as I was expecting, it pierces through the rock surface with relative ease. I turn back to Mads, nodding at the knife. “Just slam the dagger into the wall and use it to pull yourself up. Be careful, though - not all these rocks will be stable,” I warn her. Not that I have a feckin’ clue in hell what I’m talking about. I’m just calmer than she is, so I’m doing my best to make it sound like I know what I’m doing. “I’m going to be right behind you, okay?” I say, peering into her frightened eyes.
“You’re going to be right behind me,” Mads tells herself on repeat, like saying it over and over again will make her braver. I smile at her, pulling the dagger out of the wall as I watch her size up the task ahead of her. At least if she goes first, there’s a chance I’ll be able to catch her if she falls. I try to block out the sounds of the creatures below as I look up at the dark clouds in the sky high above us. They remind me of Storm, and part of me wonders if he was the one to summon them. Either way, Storm and the justice twins are what I need to be fighting for, what I need to live for - otherwise it will all be for nothing.
I support Mads lower back with my hand as she plunges her knife into the wall and begins to haul herself up. She’s athletic, and she manages to keep her balance as she continues to crawl up the stone surface like a spider. It seems to be coming easier now, and I watch as she uses a large outcropping of rock to push herself up even higher.
After she has gone up a bit further, I brace myself before slamming my dagger into the soft wall and beginning my ascent. I have to brace my feet against the rock as I move, warning myself not to look down as I move higher and higher.
We both keep climbing, but it gets harder and harder with every step, the steeper the face becomes. I can feel sweat trickling down my face and the back of my neck, stinging the cuts on my skin as I force myself to continue. My shoulder is crying out in pain, and my muscles are shaking with exhaustion, but I focus on putting one foot in front of the other and continue to move.
Eventually we approach the top, and I can feel the cool air of the outside world on my face… but that’s when I hear the noise. I make the mistake of looking down, and see with horror that some of the creatures from the fire have made it out of the pit. They are scrambling up the rock face with frightening speed, their shrieks and hisses grating on my ears and echoing throughout the cavern.
“Shite, we need to move! Now!” I scream at Mads, and she looks back at me, following my gaze. Her eyes widen in fear, and she starts to quickly climb up the rock. I do the same, not looking where I’m going or what I’m doing, just desperate to get away from the creatures. I look up for a second, seeing Mads pulling herself over the top of the rock. I’m inches away from the top when a hand grabs my ankle, and I scream as the hand burns me. I keep screaming as I try to kick it off, but the creature doesn’t let me go. Green lightning flickers on my hands, and I shove my one hand into its face, blasting it with the lightning. The creature wails, crying out and letting go to fall into the fire. Mads grabs my other arm, pulling me up as more creatures keep climbing up. I pull my dagger out of the rock and run to the maze wall. I slam my dagger into the wall as Mads comes to my side. I take her dagger and slam it higher on the wall.
“We can climb this and then run to the middle. We don’t have any other choice,” I shout to her over the sounds of the screaming crowds, who seem to have picked up their cheers now they have seen we are alive.
“Good idea,” she breathlessly says. My bestie looks exhausted, but I’m not letting her die now. We are so close to winning this.
“Go!” I shout, spinning around as one of the creatures climbs out of the ground. I try to make my power come back, but nothing happens as I stare at the creature inching its way towards me. Its skin burns, and lava drops onto the ground as it keeps walking towards me.
“Karma, climb!” Mads shouts, and I reluctantly take my eyes off the creature to grab the daggers and pull myself up. Mads grabs my arm as the creature gets to me. I hold onto Mads’s hand tightly as I pull the dagger out and turn, slamming the dagger into the head of the creature. It wails as it begins to fall backwards, all of its body shaking harshly as Mads helps me get onto the wall. I stand up, pushing past the pain in my ribs and ankle as we look around. All of the ground of the maze has fallen in, making it very dangerous if we fall off any part of this wall. I see the glowing gold centre of the maze not far from us. I also see the creatures climbing out of all the holes in the ground.
“Run, run, and feckin’ run, Mads!” I scream at her, and she does, quick as her arse can take her down the maze. I stay as close as I can all the way to the centre of the maze, where the gold band is floating in the middle of the air. The ground below it is gone, nothing but fire lays underneath it. It’s impossible for us to reach it, not without risking falling.
“I’m going to go to that side, and you stay here. We need to lie down on the wall and reach for it at the same time. Be careful not to fall,” I tell her, looking around and seeing creatures climbing the walls, burning them as they go.
“I love you, you know that?” she says, and I can only give her a shaky nod before turning and running around the wall. I look around at the stadium full of people screaming our names, screaming for us to fall in or worse. I can’t see my family, but I can see the higher gods. They sit in their chairs, seeming nothing more than impressed with how this has all turned out. They think this is the end, I can see it. I lie down on the wall, slowly inching my hands out to reach for the band. Mads does the same, but our fingers never quite touch the edge. I struggle closer, so much that I’m scared I’m going to fall.
