Book 16: The Maze

Lexa

Night falls on the Glade on the day of the second Trial, but the city is more alive than I’ve ever seen it. Kaleb walks steadily a few feet behind me, giving room for the pack to move out of their homes to watch me pass. It’s a procession, something sacred, I realize, as we walk further from the main gate that leads into the fae city beyond and closer to the solid gate to the lands none of these people have ever been allowed to even see.

Avery has been beyond the gate for the rare hunts that take place when food is so scarce Kaleb is forced to grovel at the king’s feet. It’s a game to the king–dangling their wolf powers in front of them, keeping them hungry and desperate. It’s all I can think about when we travel into the wide pit, where houses lean at odd angles and the stench of smoke from thousands of funeral pyres burned over the years clings to everything in sight.

But there is the gate to the outside world–to freedom I can taste it on th