The Maze (The Coven, Book 2) Read online

  Karen stayed close beside her as they progressed through the woods. More brambles, branches, and vines caught at Avery, but she burned them away as she went.

  “Sandra!” they called into the thick forest. “Sandra!”

  When a breeze rattled the trees and branches, the creaking of the limbs and the rustle of the leaves set Avery’s teeth on edge.

  “I’m sure she’s fine,” Karen whispered when the breeze died away and the woods became hushed once more.

  A crack to her left drew Avery’s attention. Confident they were no longer alone, Avery’s senses ran on high alert as she scanned the forest for some sign of Sandra, but she didn’t think it was her cousin out there. Sandra would have made her presence known by now.

  When another loud crack echoed through the forest, Karen let out a startled cry. Avery’s nails dug into her palms as she braced herself for whatever was stalking them through the trees. Then, a guttural growl erupted from the bushes in front of them; a pair of golden eyes blazed out from the shadows before disappearing.

  The werewolves were back.

  A loud noise came from behind her, and Avery spun to face it. She never saw the one charging her from the side until a violent blow sent her flying into a cluster of thick brambles. Avery bit back a cry as thorns ripped into her clothes and skin. She tried to lurch to her feet, but before she could free herself from the thorns, the creature landed on her back and snapped at her with the ferocity of a rabid wolverine.

  Hot and damp, its breath billowed against her nape as it clawed her back. It was going to kill her; her flesh would be the next stench issuing from this monstrosity.

  Then, as quickly as it appeared, it vanished.

  Avery froze when she realized the creature wasn’t on top of her anymore. Her body slumped and she lay panting before peeling herself out of the thorns and carefully pulling them from the clothes and skin they’d hooked into. She winced and hissed in a breath as they tore away more chunks of her flesh and fresh blood spilled free.

  After successfully freeing herself from the bushes, she braced herself for another attack, but the forest remained silent and empty.

  Completely empty.

  Karen was gone.

  Avery spun in a circle as she searched the woods for her friend. “Karen! Karen!”

  She returned to the spot where she’d last seen Karen, but her friend didn’t miraculously reappear, and she saw no sign of where she’d gone. Avery’s mind spun as guilt and dismay pummeled her. Karen and Sandra were gone, and it was all her fault. They wouldn’t be in this maze if it weren’t for Regan’s obsession with her.

  She bit on her bottom lip, and the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth, but she deserved the pain. She stared at the ground as she fought the urge to sit down and sob out her sorrow, but she couldn’t. Sandra and Karen were still out there; she had to believe they were still alive or she’d completely break down. And she could not lose control when she had to find them.

  She’d send up her flare and return to the clearing to rejoin the others. Together they would find Sandra and Karen.

  With that plan firmly in mind, Avery felt a little more in control of the tears burning her eyes and the scream threatening to erupt from her. Lifting her palm, Avery formed a ball of fire in it, and sent it into the sky like a rocket. It exploded in a shower of blue sparks that lit the sky before raining over the trees.

  Straightening her shoulders, Avery lifted her chin as she strode purposely back through the forest. She would not lose to Regan, and she would not lose her friends. As she followed her burnt trail toward the clearing, her rage grew with every step. When she saw Regan again, she would destroy him.

  Avery rounded a corner and stepped into the clearing. A flash of gold caught her attention, and she cried out when she recognized Sandra lying on the ground. Heedless of anything around her, she raced forward.

  CHAPTER 26

  When Avery fell to her knees beside Sandra, her mind reeled with excitement and confusion as she grasped her cousin’s shoulder.

  Why is she lying on the ground?

  The answer didn’t matter. It only mattered that Sandra was here.

  As Sandra slowly rolled toward her, details registered in Avery’s mind in rapid-fire succession, but none of them sank in. Beneath her hand, Sandra’s shoulder was colder than it should be, not deathly cold, but her temperature and the stiffness in her body made no sense to Avery. Sandra shouldn’t be so stiff; no human was ever that stiff. Only dolls were this stiff, but then, with her beauty, Sandra could almost be a perfect, porcelain doll.

  Streaks of red highlighted Sandra’s hair, but Avery didn’t recall ever noticing those streaks before. Sandra’s hair had always been the purest gold she’d ever seen. The coppery smell assailing her was not a part of Sandra’s rose scent.

  Avery’s baffled mind didn’t think to tell her to stop turning Sandra over as it was still trying to assimilate everything it was seeing and feeling. Her hand, of its own volition, turned Sandra over before her brain could scream at her to stop.

  Then it was too late, and she was gazing at Sandra, except this was no longer Sandra.

  Someone had shattered the porcelain doll as Sandra’s once beautiful face was ruined. Claw marks had torn open the right side of her face to reveal some of her tongue, shattered teeth, and white cheekbone. One emerald eye stared accusingly up at her; the other was gone.

  “No, no, no, no, no, no,” she whimpered without comprehending the word was coming from her.

  When she scuttled backward away from Sandra’s ruined body, her hand brushed against something warm and substantial. She spun to face whatever it was, and vomit rose in her throat when she found herself staring at Karen’s body while strangled, inarticulate sounds tumbled from her mouth. Karen’s intestines spilled onto the ground in a gross tangle of flesh and blood. Her once lively, hazel eyes were now opaque and condemning as she stared at Avery.

  Avery lurched to her feet and reeled backward. When her heel caught on something, she tripped and fell on her ass. Her gaze landed on what she’d tripped over, and her heart shredded when she spotted the chestnut hair.

  “Please,” she moaned. “Please, no.”

  She grasped Reid’s shoulder and rolled him over. His head lulled lifelessly to the side before his cloudy, unseeing eyes settled on her. A hitching sob tore from her as she saw hatred shining from the silvery depths of his eyes.

  “Reid,” she breathed. “Reid, please don’t leave me. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault!”

  She slid her arms under his cooling body and clasped his lifeless head to her chest. Sobbing, she clung to him as she uttered worthless apologies. Her hands ran frantically over him as she tried to put some life back into his brutalized body, but he only grew colder. When her hands ran over his back, thick blood coated her palms, and her fingers traced the edge of a jagged hole. She dimly realized she could feel his ribs against her fingers.

  “I can bring them back.”

  Avery lifted her head, but she couldn’t see anything through her tears. She blinked them from her eyes as she searched for the source of the melodious voice. Silhouetted beneath the glow of the full moon rising into the sky, she spotted Regan across the clearing. He leaned against a tree with his arms over his chest and one foot lifted and propped against the tree. His casual posture and indifferent air caused her jaw to clench as fury shook her.

  Then, his words sank in and some of her rage abated.

  “I can bring them all back,” he whispered.

  When he held out an elegant hand, a blue flame, the color of his eyes, blazed to life over his palm. The fire lit the clearing and Avery released a strangled cry when she took in the mangled bodies surrounding her. All her friends were there, and all of them were staring at her with accusation in their lifeless eyes. This was her fault; they were here because Regan wanted her, and even in death, they knew the truth of that.

  How could she live without her friends? How could she survive wi
thout their love, strength, and warmth? How could she live while knowing they all died because of her?

  “All of them?” she croaked.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “I can breathe life back into them and return them to the way they were.”

  Her fingers convulsed on Reid as her tears falling on his cheeks mixed with the smears of blood marring his beautiful face. “I can’t live without them.”

  “I can fix this, Avery. Please, allow me take away your pain.”

  A hitching sob ripped out of her, and she glanced at the hostile eyes of her friends. “How?”

  “All you have to do is join me, and I’ll make it all better.”

  He smiled as he lowered his leg and stepped away from the tree. An aura of evil surrounded him, she knew what he was, but she couldn’t let them die if she could fix it. She kissed Reid’s cheek and lowered his head to the ground.

  “I’ll fix this,” she promised.

  When she first tried to rise, her knees gave out, and she hit the ground on her hands and knees. Her fingers curled into the dirt, and it took everything she had not to give in to her compulsion to curl into a ball and start sobbing. But if she gave in now, she would never stop crying, and her tears wouldn’t do any of them any good. Besides, she could change this by exchanging her life for theirs. One life for seven was a good deal.

  Pushing herself up again, she braced her feet apart when her knees threatened to buckle once more. She was giving into Regan; he’d caused all this. They were dead because of him, and now he would win.

  “You promise to bring them back to life?” she asked.

  “I give you my word, Avery.”

  “You’ll make them exactly as they were?”

  “Of course.”

  His grin reminded her of the Cheshire cat, and she resisted her impulse to launch at him and claw it off his face. She would give anything to destroy his perfect, masculine beauty if only a little.

  Instead, she strode toward him with her chin lifted and her hands fisted. Her eyes landed on Karen as she passed, and Avery recalled the proud, lively girl she’d been. For years, Avery, Tina, Lila, and Karen did and shared everything together. They were each other’s confidants, saviors, and defenders. Karen brought understanding and compassion to their tiny group, and Avery had never pictured her life without Karen in it.

  And now there was a gaping hole in her heart where Karen had been.

  Karen’s glazed eyes stared back at her, and for a second, Avery thought she saw a spark of life in them. She shook her head to clear it of the image before looking at Karen again. Death still glazed Karen’s eyes, but instead of accusation, she saw a love that even Regan couldn’t destroy—unless she joined him.

  Avery froze as she searched for another spark of life; there was none. But of course there was none, Karen was dead. She would never know the joy of life again unless Avery did something to change it. Tearing her eyes away from Karen, she scanned the bodies surrounding her, but she didn’t see any sign of life from them either.

  Would they want her to do this?

  She did not doubt the answer to that question; it was a big old no. Would they sacrifice themselves for her?

  Yes. She had no doubt about that.

  She was certain anyone here—okay, maybe not Talia, but Talia was here because of her and her responsibility—would go to Regan if it meant saving her life and the lives of the others.

  But would they be happy to be alive again if it meant she’d joined Regan and that he would be one step closer to taking them all down?

  No.

  And Reid… he’d be devastated by what she’d done. He’d have his life back, but he would have to watch as she was twisted into someone else—someone who would forget about the love she’d possessed for him and her friends because all that love would be turned to hate.

  She’d become someone who worked with Regan to spread evil. Regan would use her power to terrorize the coven, her family, and friends before focusing on the world where he would unleash his evil and brutality on unsuspecting people once more.

  She’d witnessed the cruelty he was capable of and the death he’d rained down over the millennia he’d freely walked Earth before. She didn’t want to imagine the destruction he’d unleash with her vast power to help him.

  “Come, Avery,” he coaxed.

  His mind reached out to hers as he tried to exert his control over her. Avery felt the allure of his dark power as it whispered to her; she would possess more power if she went to him, but when she lowered her head and her eyes fell on Reid, Avery knew what she had to do.

  “Forgive me for this,” she pleaded.

  “You don’t have to worry about forgiveness,” he promised. “I’m going to make it all better.”

  She lifted her head and stared at him through the sheen of tears in her eyes. He blurred before coming into better focus. “No.”

  With his mind still entangled in hers, she felt his bewilderment over her refusal.

  “What?” he hissed.

  She took a shaky breath before straightening her shoulders with a determination she didn’t feel. “No,” she repeated, and his mind retreated from hers. “One life for seven is not much of a sacrifice, and I would make it, but seven lives for the possible millions you would ruin. I… I can’t. I won’t…”

  Avery resisted the sobs trying to tear from her chest. She didn’t know those millions, didn’t love them, and it would be so easy to say screw them, but she couldn’t. Even if she didn’t know them, they were people and they were innocents who would be able to defend themselves even less against Regan than what remained of the coven.

  Please let me be making the right choice. Forgive me if I’m wrong. Forgive me.

  “You will be sentencing your friends to death,” Regan growled. “Can you live with that?”

  No, she couldn’t, but she would have to as she couldn’t waver from her decision. “I have no choice.”

  “But you do have a choice and you will have to live with the consequences of it for the rest of your life.” Regan’s eyes blazed like blue lanterns as he revealed more emotion than she’d ever seen from him before. “Can you live with knowing that their parents will never get their children back because you chose to let them die?”

  A knife seemed to plunge into her heart as her knees knocked together and she nearly collapsed again. She would have to tell the coven families what she’d done; she could not make this choice and not expect to live with the consequences of it. She had no idea what she’d tell Talia and Karen’s families, but that was a problem for a different day.

  “I have no choice,” she said again. “My decision will make it so I never forget one smile, laugh, or moment I shared with them. Joining you would make me forget all of that and would put countless others in danger. I won’t do it. That’s a fate worse than death.”

  “I won’t give you a second chance.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re really willing to sacrifice their lives?”

  “Their lives as they know them will be lost either way. They would rather remain dead than lose the battle to you, and I’m going to do what I know they would want me to do. I will live with the consequences of it.”

  “Yes, you will.”

  A flash of blinding light erupted across the clearing, and Regan vanished.

  CHAPTER 27

  Come back! The scream lodged in her throat as she clamped her teeth together to keep from issuing it.

  Staring at the bodies, she tried to will them back to life as she waited for one of them to wake. They had to come back; this had to be the nightmare she wasn’t aware of having, but they all remained immobile.

  She gripped her crystal so tightly that the edges of it biting into her wounded palms drew fresh blood. The breeze rustling the leaves overhead and the lub dub of her heart were the only sounds in the clearing. Ice encased her body as the seconds stretched into minutes, yet no one so much as inhaled a breath or twitched a finger.


  A mistake. I made a mistake. I was wrong. They really are dead, and only Regan could have brought them back. I just sentenced my friends to death.

  Her legs gave out, and she slid limply to the ground. Wrenching sobs ripped from her as she knelt on the cold earth. She would continue to breathe and function, but life would never again be worth living. Reid was gone, Karen was gone, half of the coven was gone, and it was her fault.

  She should have traded her life for theirs. Maybe the coven would have figured out a way to stop them before he caused too much damage. It had never been done before, but maybe, just maybe…

  Or maybe she would have been the one who destroyed them all before turning her powerful wrath on the world. No matter how much she didn’t want to consider the possibility she could do such a thing, she and Regan could have leveled the entire coven and all their families. And the worst was she would have done it without any regret for the beautiful lives she destroyed.

  No matter how much sorrow her decision caused, no matter how much she would hate herself for the rest of her life because of it, she made the right choice.

  “I’m sorry,” she sobbed as she clutched her hands together and pressed them against her chest. “Please forgive me!”

  She bent low as a wail of anguish tore from her.

  Gone.

  They were all gone.

  She would never again feel the strength and warmth of Reid’s arms or experience Karen’s unwavering loyalty. She’d never again see Mario’s smile or hear Eric’s laugh. Sandra’s confidence was gone, and Isla’s golden gaze was forever darkened.

  Her sobs racked her so badly she could barely breathe as her heart shattered in her chest and she leaned forward until her forehead rested on the ground.