Tombstone Wizard by Kat Simons

Author:Kat Simons
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: T&D Publishing

Chapter

Four

Charles almost dropped the ax, very nearly dropped to his knees, as defeat washed over him.

The obelisk again. The center of the labyrinth.

The opposite of direction he’d meant to go.

He wasn’t near the entrance. He wasn’t almost out. He was right back at the very center of the maze. Looking at the black marble of the grown and expanded obelisk that had marked Vincent’s “grave” in the cemetery.

He’d failed.

Somehow, the magical string he’d left himself to escape the labyrinth had led him in the wrong direction. Or maybe Vincent had somehow found and altered the string so that it led Charles back here.

Either way, he was no longer heading out of the maze. He was right back at the very heart of it. Staring in the torch light. Overwhelmed by the stench of smoke from the torch’s fire as well as the stink of his own failure.

While Vincent stood next to the obelisk. Laughing.

The tone and depth of the noise coming from the beast wasn’t Vincent’s. Too deep and guttural. The minotaur’s voice. But Vincent’s mocking. Vincent’s triumph.

“You think you can beat me, boy?” Vincent asked. “I’ve had years to prepare for this. You don’t think I’d know the one thing that could stop me. And how to counter it?”

Charles didn’t answer. What could he say? No, he hadn’t thought Vincent would know how to get out of this labyrinth. Not like this. By leading Charles back to the center again. He’d expected a fight. Excepted Vincent to hunt him through the maze. Expected Vincent to try and stop him.

But he hadn’t expected they’d both end up right back at the center, in front of Vincent’s tombstone.

For the first time since finding the magical string he’d implanted in the labyrinth walls, Charles dropped that line he’d thought was leading him toward the entrance. Pointless now. The spell pulsed with eagerness, with a sense that he had “arrived” at his destination.

He’d arrived at the end alright. Just not the end he’d been aiming for.

He let out a long breath as failure swamped him. He had no backup plan, no alternate course. There was no way to find a path through the maze without that string to lead him. He could dive back into the blackness, attempt to find a way out without the string. But he would fail. Or more likely just be killed by the minotaur before he got anywhere near the entrance. Hell, Vincent could leave him to wander around the maze until he starved to death if he really wanted to torture Charles.

And once Charles died, the prison of the labyrinth would crumble and release Vincent and the minotaur onto the world again.

“Don’t you know, boy,” Vincent said, “The minotaur has to be killed before you can escape the labyrinth. You can’t skip that step and get out.”

“That’s not the prison I called,” Charles murmured, pointlessly. They both knew the minotaur couldn’t actually be killed. The magic Charles had worked here wasn’t supposed to be contingent on killing the beast.

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