Of Monsters and Mazes: (A Dark Romance Labyrinth Retelling) (Vicious Wonders) by Leann Belle

Author:Leann Belle [Belle, Leann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

The reflection of light off the yellow walls and the near metallic gold flooring of this new sector had me squinting. The mirror like surfaces were difficult to navigate, and my eyes hurt just trying to discern where one wall ended and the next began. We rounded a bend, only to come upon a two way fork in the distance. Alessi had stopped sniffing his way through the corridors once we switched sectors, and I didn’t know if he knew where he was going any more than I did. We both approached the split with a sense of caution.

The deviation in the road was more of a spacious room in the form of a ten-by-ten chamber that offered a path to the left and a path to the right. We both made it about five steps into the clearing, when three walls shot up from the floor, closing every exit. I jumped at the suddenness of it all, and Alessi was quick to comfort me with a hand on my shoulder.

“What’s happening now?” I asked in hopes of guidance.

“You’ll see.” He tipped his chin towards a far wall.

Words slowly started to appear across the surface, one at a time, like they were being slowly burned into the gold.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.

I followed the inscription as it continued wrapping around us, trying to figure out what the cryptic message might mean. The poem was familiar from my school days, but I knew the meaning would be far different here than it was in the classroom.

Sorry I could not travel both

I’d made a full rotation by the time the last phrase etched itself before us

I was but one traveler, long I stood, I looked down one as far as I could

“What do you think it means?” I barely got the words out before a loud ring, like the banging of a gong, reverberated through the chamber. A visible outline appeared in the wall in front of us, then a panel slid away, opening a small cubby in the wall.

Inside was a box. Two arrows burned themselves down the golden partition, each pointing at one side of the opening, making it pretty clear what I was supposed to do next.

I looked to Alessi, and he nodded subtly. With a deep breath, I approached the golden cubby, reached in, and removed what resembled a small treasure chest. With a very careful and nervous hand, I unlatched a gold closure, and I opened the lid. Inside there were two divided sets of objects. One compartment held a pair of syringes. The other had a clear pill bottle with two large pills.

I scrunched my nose at the options, not terribly excited about the potential uses of either one of them.

“Always an exciting new experience in this sector.” Alessi muttered under his breath, more with aggravation than excitement. Having someone who had been here before sounded like an advantage, but that statement had me questioning whether I should be more or less nervous than I already was.

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