Page 11 of This Divine Revelry

‘Alright,’ I agree. ‘I can get you out of the palace to your ships instead –’

And then …

The prince of Athens will return and brag about what happened here.

Or the guards or the servants or the king himself will notice Asterion is dead. That there are no fresh Athenian bones within the labyrinth. There is no escaping this, no quietly slipping away with my father unaware of the escape. He will know Asterion is dead, that the Athenians killed him … and that someone of his blood let them out.

I will be the first place he looks for his vengeance.

I burst through the door as the realization hits. Theseus is beside me and I whirl on him.

‘I need to come with you. I need to … We need to …’

He reaches for me, placing a firm, reassuring hand upon my shoulder. ‘You’re not the only one who’s been planning for this, Ariadne.’ His voice is a low rumble, meant for me alone even with the other Athenians spilling into this stairway. ‘Isn’t it high time we work together? We have naval ships in the docks – far swifter than any merchant vessels.’

I nod – good, that’s good. He lets go and I feel the absence of that weight.

‘I can get us through the palace,’ I say, pieces falling into place. ‘There might be guards –’

‘I can get us past those,’ he says – that confidence again, that slick assurance.

‘The city will be trickier. I don’t know it well.’

‘We’ve survived one labyrinth; we can manage another.’

‘And the docks will be guarded.’

‘Again,’ he smiles, ‘I can handle that.’

‘Then let’s go.’ I step to move away but he catches at my hand.

‘There is, of course, only one problem. Your father will bring his fleet if he believes I’ve not only killed his monster but kidnapped his daughter –’

I meet his gaze. There is a clear solution to that – one he knows just as well as I do. ‘Marry me, then.’

He quirks a brow, as though his surprise is not at the suggestion itself but that I would be so brazen. ‘Marry you?’

My heart pounds – we are wasting so much time. And I do not know this boy, do not know any of them. There is no time to calculate worst-case scenarios or to weigh up the odds, only a desperate gamble based on what I do know: my father. I cannot stay here.

‘My father won’t tolerate this,’ I say. ‘Your escape will ignite another war. But if we marry, we can form an alliance and put all this to rest.’

I doubt that, of course. But Theseus doesn’t know that. Besides, if I stay and somehow evade suspicion then my father will soon arrange my marriage anyway. So why not this one?

If one king is after my blood, what better protection than the royal family of another kingdom?

There is even a slim chance my father might cling to the shreds of his dignity and claim he agreed to this union. This could solve everything.

Theseus hums, tilting his head as he considers, and the candlelight catches on the harsh line of his jaw. ‘And say I have no interest in putting this to rest?’

‘Your people would,’ I push. ‘Eighteen years of tyranny and you’d be the hero who ended it.’

‘The hero?’ He brings the hand he holds closer, breathing into it as he speaks – warm and hot and a brush away from his lips. ‘That’s how the tales end, is it not? The lovestruck princess, betraying her family for the prince. He slays the monster and whisks the princess away to happiness. You wish us to become the stuff of legends.’

I wish for us to go. I don’t care how they tell this tale – only that we survive to share it.

‘Spin whichever story you wish. Just get me away from here.’

With none of the haste I am pleading for, he smiles.