Fate Undone (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 5) (32 page)

Towering walls rose on all sides of them. There was no exit. They were at the edge of the labyrinth, but the wall was so high they couldn’t scale it without wings. Bright green vines climbed the stone, dripping flowers and perfume. His mind immediately felt slightly fogged, as if the waters of the river Lethe were already working upon him.

Sylvi gasped. He grabbed her and pulled her to him, hugging until she squirmed.

“What the hell did you just do? I tried to save you.” He shook his head, his mind already suffering the clouding effects of the labyrinth.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

“You ass!” Sylvi hit Logan and pushed her way out of his arms. “You think that I would let you come in here alone after you sacrificed yourself for me? That I could walk away and enjoy life on the outside knowing that you’re suffering in here? We stand a better chance getting out of here together than alone, and I wasn’t about to leave you.”
 

She lunged into his arms and closed her eyes, desperately trying to aetherwalk them away. Nothing happened. She’d expected it, but it still made a sickening chill run through her. She clung to him harder.

“Fates, Sylvi, I don’t deserve you. I wish I’d never pushed you away all those years ago. It was a mistake.”

She could see that he truly meant it. He’d apologized before, but never admitted wrongdoing. And after the sacrifice he’d just tried to make, it was clear that he wanted her more than anything. If they could get out of here, he’d never push her away again.

“We’ve wasted so much time,” she said. Her throat threatened to close. “Eight hundred years.”

“We have to fight this,” he said. “There’s got to be an escape.”

Her mind already felt a bit foggy. Cold fear shivered over her skin. “It will have to be close to the exterior of the labyrinth. The more we move through the maze, the faster our memories will go.”

“I’ll try to shift into a falcon and scout the area.”
 

Sylvi nodded and sucked air into her failing lungs, trying to calm herself.

Concentration flashed across his features, but he didn’t change. “Nothing.”

No!
There had to be a way out. It couldn’t end like this.

The heart of the Retaliator. She pulled it from her pocket, grateful that Yggdrasil hadn’t known she had it. Its heavy weight in her hand was a physical manifestation of her hope. She looked at Logan. “If this breaks the wall, we run for it and capture an overseer and force him to take us through the portal. Then I’ll aetherwalk us away.”

He grabbed her hand. “Be sure to direct it away from us so we don’t lose our memories faster. My mind already feels strange.”

She nodded, then attempted to enter the aether so that she could move away from him quickly to deploy the device. The aether was blocked to her. The labyrinth was neutralizing some—or all—of her powers.

She swallowed hard and walked several feet away from him and faced the long corridor. Fat green vines snaked along the ground and clung to the stone walls that rose more than a hundred feet in the air. She forced all her magic toward the wall a dozen yards away from them. The heart vibrated in her hands and the wind shrieked forward.

The external wall began to crumble. Elation soared in her chest and she strained to force more power toward the destruction. Stones tumbled and crashed to the ground. Just as she thought that they would be able to climb over the rubble, the fat vines that snaked along the ground surged up, hauling the stones back into place. They tumbled over each other, rising toward the sky with enormous boulders entwined in their green arms.

The eerie sight was over in seconds. The wall was rebuilt.

Her arms fell to her sides. The wind died.

A harsh sob broke from her chest.

Logan gripped her upper arms and ordered, “Climb the walls.”

She sucked in a shuddering breath and grasped at the confidence in his voice like a lifeline. They turned toward the walls and gripped the fat green vines that snaked their way up the stone. They looked sturdy, but as soon as either of them put any weight on the vines, they broke, water spilling from inside their twisted stalks.

Sylvi stumbled back.

“Shit. Oh shit.” Air heaved in and out of her lungs but she couldn’t get enough. She was going to pass out right here. This was the end of her life. Gone were her friends and gone would be Logan. It was all over in such a torturous way.
 

There was truly no way out.

Logan gripped her upper arms and leaned his head down to hers. “Breathe, Sylvi. Breathe. We will find a way out of here.”

Sylvi gulped air, trying to calm herself as she racked her brain. There was a way out. There had to be. If only she could get some quiet to think, away from the miserable rushing river that flowed nearby.
 

The river Lethe. The plants that padded the ground beneath their feet and climbed the walls around them were so rich and thick that they must have an uninterrupted supply of the water. The air was humid despite the fact that the labyrinth had been built in the desert. They were sucking the river Lethe into their lungs, speeding their memory loss. If only the portal to Hades never existed.

That was it. “We have to escape through the portal to Hades.”

“What?”

“It’s the only way. There are no exits and any magic that could help us escape has been neutralized by the labyrinth. The portal is the only way out.”
 

“We’ll never make it through the labyrinth before we lose our memories.” His voice and gaze were grim. “My mind is already foggy.”

Fear pierced her heart with little claws. Her head felt a little off too. A cold shiver ran up her arms. “It can’t happen so quickly. You remember things.” He had to. She couldn’t accept that they might not make it. “Where did we meet?”

“We met at…” Horror flashed in his eyes. “In Asgard. I know it was in Asgard. But…”

“The Great Hall,” she said. Fear shivered through her. She remembered it, though only vaguely. There were blank spots in her memory, but she was certain she’d once remembered every instant of that night. She’d played it over in her head so much that she should have been able to see it like it had happened a moment ago.

Yet it was disappearing. Logan forgot more quickly than she did, so he’d already lost it. She’d picked the memory almost randomly, but the fact that he’d actually forgotten it terrified her.
 

She wished desperately that she would lose her memory at the same speed he would. To watch his memory of her disappear would crush her. To watch the light dim from his eyes would tear out her heart.

Did it even matter that they’d finally found their way to each other? That she’d accepted it was possible?

Yes.
Even if she only had him for a few hours.
 

He pulled her into his arms roughly, squeezing the breath from her.

The chill on her skin wouldn’t go away. They were trapped and the clock was ticking. He was right. There was no way they would make it to the portal before they lost their memories. The distance was too great and the labyrinth was neutralizing their magic.
 

She needed more power—a way to fuel her magic. If she could enter the aether, they could move so much faster. Maybe fast enough to make it out with some of their memory intact.

She pulled back from his arms. “Kiss me.”

His eyes heated with longing and he pressed a quick, hard kiss to her lips, then pulled away and said, “We don’t have time.”

She wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and said, “I think we have to make time. If we can give my magic more power, maybe I can use it to enter the aether and we’ll be able to make it to the portal before we lose our memories. Time won’t go faster, moving fast won’t make us lose our minds any quicker.”

Not only that, but she wanted him. She wanted him forever, but if she could only have one last time, she’d grab for it with both hands. It could be their last moment together that meant anything. Once they couldn’t remember each other, there would be no point. For all intents and purposes, they wouldn’t exist.
 

She wanted nothing more than to bury her fear in him, to tear off his clothes and make love with him until she forgot the threat that loomed all around them, seeping into their minds. She wanted to remember what it was like to be with him. An echo of everything that they’d had and everything that was soon to be lost pounded through her mind.

“I know it will be hard to forget the threat that surrounds us,” she said. “But we have to try. We need the advantage my magic could bring us.”

“I can do more than try,” he said, his voice husky.

He kissed her hard, devouring. She grasped his shoulders and threw herself into the kiss with a desperation that scared her. The urgency of his mouth and hands made her head spin. It was as if a switch had flicked on and the danger was pushed to the background.

“Quickly,” she said against his mouth. She didn’t want to rush this, but they had no choice.

Her heart ached as she fumbled with the zipper of her jeans. She couldn’t get them undone. Her breath sobbed out of her, desperation creeping in to suffocate her.

Logan cupped her cheeks and raised her face to his. “Shh. It’s okay.”

“It’s not!”

He pressed a tender kiss to her lips, wiping her tears away with his thumbs. “It will be okay. I love you, Sylvi. We’ll make it out of this.”

Her heart stuttered. He’d never said those words to her. Hope and joy and fear fought in her chest and she kissed him back, dying to taste him.
 

“I love you,” she said against his lips. “I love you, I love you.”

His mouth was so hot and desperate against hers that she felt his need. It rose up within her, twining with her own, and swept her away on a sea of emotion.
 

Logan’s big hands expertly drew her zipper down. She toed off her boots and he tugged off her jeans and underwear. When she felt his big hand at her sex, she gasped.

“You mean everything to me,” he said, his eyes hot on hers. “I don’t have protection, but I can pull out. Is that all right?”

She could see the raw desire in his eyes. It was still a risk, but it was worth it. She wanted to be like that with him. She nodded.

He crushed his mouth to hers as he pushed two fingers inside of her and circled his thumb on her clitoris. Despite her fear of the future, her need for him made the intrusion feel divine.

Her mind clouded from the pleasure as thrust his fingers in time with his circling thumb. She fumbled with his fly, dragging his pants down to free his erection. She gripped it, stroking up and down, marveling at the feel of it beneath her palm. Hard and strong. Like him.

“I’m ready,” she said.

He kissed her and gently removed his hand, then gripped her hips and hoisted her up until her back pressed against the wall and she could wrap her legs around his waist. She reached for his cock and helped guide him into her, gasping at the first hard press of his flesh against hers.

Tears pricked her eyes at the knowledge that this could be the last time. His mouth captured hers as he thrust to the hilt. She moaned. The pleasure that streaked through him rushed through her as well, driving her higher and faster toward a peak she’d never ascended.

She
felt
his love. Not just his passion or his need, but his love. It made the magic well inside her, more powerful than ever before. She stored it away, hoarding it so that she could use it later when they needed it.

The feel of him moving inside of her, hot and hard and oh so good, dragged her back to the present. His thrusts picked up speed, making her dizzy with pleasure. It coiled tight within her.

“Sylvi.” His voice was gravel at her ear. He was close.

Soon, he lost his graceful rhythm. He pulled out of her and came, jets of hot white fluid spilling between them. The magic roared within her and she forced it into her staff, which was still in the aether.

His shudders ceased. With the magic faded, her need roared to life.

“I’ve got you,” he said, and dropped a hand between their bodies. The feel of his fingers on her clit shot lightning pleasure through her. In seconds, she was coming, shaking and gasping in his arms. Their surroundings faded to nothing, until he was the only thing in her world.

When she surfaced, he was holding her tight to him. She pushed against his chest and he let her down.
 

He leaned down and kissed her, then met her gaze and said, “I meant what I said.”

He was talking about his love. It made her heart clutch with the impossibility of it all. “So did I.”

“Did it work?” he asked as he handed her pants to her.

“I think so.” She tugged on her shoes. “I stored the power in my staff. Let me see if I can enter the aether.”

She drew her staff and focused on the energy of the aether. She could already feel that she could step inside. “It worked. We’ll be faster than the builder of the labyrinth ever thought possible.” A terrible thought struck her. “But I don’t know how to find the portal. Even if we are fast, we need to know how to navigate.”