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She led them through the tunnels, following the pulse like it was a beacon. Thump-thump, thump-thump. It grew stronger or weaker depending on where she went. They passed through junctions where multiple tunnels branched off, and each time Ria paused to listen to the beating rhythm. Soon, the tunnels narrowed and the emergency lighting gave out entirely. Ria summoned a dim glow from her palm, just enough to see by.

Ria held up a fist and the group stopped. The pulse was stronger than ever, which meant Korinnae was close by. Up ahead, the tunnel widened into a large chamber. Voices echoed, at least four of them. She held up four fingers to the others, indicating how many there were in the chamber.

Ready? She mouthed at the group.

They all nodded.

Three, two, one… “Now!” she hissed.

They hit the chamber fast. Asterion went through the entrance like a battering ram, catching the first figure with a shoulder charge that sent it crashing into the far wall before taking down a second. Hektor came in behind him, fire bursting from his mouth, lighting up the chamber. He directed his blast at two more cowering on the ground. Their cloaks absorbed the flames, but the force of the blast knocked them off their feet. Maldenis’s tail lashed out and wrapped around the legs of a harpy trying to take flight, yanking her down before she cleared the ceiling.

“Go!” Maldenis shouted over his shoulder. “Find her! We’ll handle this!”

Ria didn’t need to be told twice. She pulled the triplets with her toward the far end of the chamber, following where the bond led her. Behind them, she could hear Asterion’s roar and the crack of bodies hitting stone, Hektor’s fire lighting up the tunnel walls in bursts of orange. The last flash illuminated a small figure in the corner.

Ria’s heart stopped. “Korinnae!”

The calf was on the ground near the passage entrance, unmoving as her feet and hands were bound together.

“Ria!” she called out.

Ria bolted toward her. She was ten feet away when the air behind Korinnae tore open. “What the⁠—”

“It’s a portal!” Liora shouted

The portal rippled with magic, but Ria didn’t recognize its signature. A hooded figure appeared in the middle, reached out, then grabbed Korinnae and pulled her through. The opening then began to shrink.

“No!” As Ria sprinted forward, she heard the sound of hooves pounding on stone thundered behind her.

“Korinnae!”

Asterion. He must have seen it too.

Ria gave a final push and leapt through, the magic scratching at her skin. She stumbled, but caught herself before falling flat on her face. Asterion crashed behind her a half-second later just as the rift snapped shut.

“Where…where are we?” Asterion said as he got to his feet.

She spun around slowly, squinting until her eyes adjusted to the dim light. They were standing in a stone corridor, wide enough for Asterion to stand at full height, with walls that stretched upward into darkness. Torches lined the walls at even intervals, burning with a pale blue flame. Ahead of them, the corridor branched into two paths, one turning left and the other, to the right.

Ria took a deep breath. The air here was cold and ancient.

“What is this place?” Asterion asked, his brows furrowing.

Then it clicked. “You don’t recognize it?” she asked. “It’s a labyrinth.”

Chapter 15

Asterion

Being a minotaur, of course Asterion knew what a labyrinth was. He’d heard the stories, passed down from generation to generation. His grandmother told him about the first minotaur and the prison built to contain him. As a boy, he’d thought they were just stories, created to scare naughty calves into obedience. Standing in one now, he understood why his ancestors had feared them. The labyrinth stretched ahead of them in identical corridors of ancient stone, lit by pale blue torches that burned without warmth. Every direction was the same.

“Can you still feel her?” he asked.

Ria had her hand pressed to the tattoo, her expression tight with concentration. “She’s deeper inside for sure. We need to walk in and I’ll have to wait and see where the pulse is stronger to figure out which direction to go.”

“Alright, let’s move.”

They moved through the labyrinth together, Ria leading and Asterion behind her. Every instinct he had told him to put himself between her and whatever waited at the center. But she was the compass, so he followed, and trusted her to lead.