For a heartbeat, the whole group is still. Heidi thinks maybe everyone is too numb from Junie’s breakdown to process anything else. But then she hears it too... the shuffling. The slow and hypnotic dragging of footsteps. It’s not the confident steps of wolves who’ve survived hell, but the weird, stiff cadence of puppets tugged by invisible strings.
Heidi jerks her head up. And her stomach drops.
Across the multiple paths of the labyrinth, Moon Blessed are... scattering. They are not even running or strolling with purpose. As it appears, they are just drifting forward, one by one, as if so unseen magnet is pulling them deeper into the maze. Their faces are slack, eyes fixed ahead on nothing. They look like zombies in an apocalypse show... except way more terrifying because this is real, and she knows those people.
"Wait—wait, what the hell are they doing?" Val whispers, her hand still clinging to Junie’s.
A boy with a shredded shirt that makes him look like he lost a fight with a blender calls out hoarsely. "Jace! Hey! Stop, bro, stop!" He scrambles to his feet and runs after a tall boy already twenty paces down another path.
The tall boy doesn’t even twitch or glance back. He also didn’t acknowledge his na.
"Jace, co on!" The first boy’s voice cracks as he desperately grabs his friend’s wrist. "Snap out of it, you idiot, don’t do this."
Heidi thinks maybe it works, maybe friendship saves the day, until...
The mont his hand makes contact, his face slackens too. His pupils glaze over like a curtain dropped across them. His grip falls limp, then... he just turns around and starts walking with Jace, perfectly in sync.
What in the blazes of thunderstorms–
Heidi’s blood runs cold.
"Oh, hell no," Val mutters, voice rising shrill with panic. "That... that was like a vampire bite but with worse and faster effect."
A girl shrieks suddenly. "LUKA!" She sprints after a boy disappearing down a side path, her bare feet slapping the stone. Her long blond hair is matted with blood and sweat and her bra is hanging on by one pathetic strap, but she doesn’t care. "Luka! Don’t you dare leave ! You’re my mate—you can’t—don’t you dare..."
She catches him, grabs his arm with both hands, and shakes him violently.
And then she freezes.
Her head tips forward like her neck gave up. Her mouth falls open, and then—without a sound, she straightens and steps in beside him. Her arms drop limp as her pace turns robotic, and just like that, she’s gone too.
The rest of the group collectively gasps.
"Holy shit," soone mutters. "Holy actual—shit."
Heidi feels her whole body buzzing, heart pounding. "It’s like—it’s like they’re being... recruited."
"More like harvested," Val says darkly.
Around them, chaos erupts. So Moon Blessed scream nas. Others run forward, only to stop short, terror locking them in place. A few start sobbing openly, hugging each other like that’ll anchor them here.
Heidi drags her eyes from the lost to the living. About twenty-five of them stand here now. No, twenty-eight... because another boy just brushed shoulders with one of the wandering ones and—snap!
He’s gone, too!
One girl with a shaved head lets out a hysterical laugh. "Nope! Nope, I’m out. We gotta get out of here. Sothing’s wrong with this place!" She waves her arms like a drowning person. "This is—this is brainwashing shit. I’m not waiting to find out if it’s contagious."
Another voice pipes up with despair. "And where exactly do you think we’re going? This is a maze, genius. We don’t know up from down in here!"
The arguing spikes instantly with a heavy fear in the air. The Moon Blessed voices overlap as they debate:
"We can’t just stand here..."
"We have to try to snap them out of it!"
"Didn’t you see? It spreads! Don’t touch them!"
"We need to move, like now."
The Alpha boy finally snarls loud enough to cut through the noise. "Haven’t you guys learned? Arguing won’t help us right now. We’re not wasting ti. We move. Now."
Heidi swivels around, jaw dropping. "Excuse ? Did you not just see half our people shuffle-walk their asses to God-knows-where? You want to abandon them?"
"I’m trying to save the living," He snaps back, throwing his hands listlessly in the air. "Not the ones already dead."
Heidi sees red. Her fists clench so hard her nails bite into her palms. "Dead? They’re not dead, Alpha Boy. They’re still breathing. They’re our people."
"They’re gone," he bites out.
His tone is final, cruelly final, and it makes Heidi want to throw herself at his throat. "We ca in with over a hundred. The demons slaughtered most. Forty made it out. Now fifteen more are walking to their deaths, and unless you want all twenty-seven of us gone, we move."
Her wolf growls inside her furiously. "You coward," Heidi spits, heat burning her cheeks. "You’re just going to watch them go and do nothing?"
Heidi can’t believe this is the sa boy who has earned her trust with his sense and display of leadership. She rembers how he barked orders that actually got them through the demon swarm... how he kept a steady head when everyone else panicked. And now this? Now he’s just willing to.... cut them loose?
How can he beso willingly want to give up on more than fifteen of them without even trying to save them first?
"I’m going to protect who’s left!" His voice booms, echoing off the cold stone walls. He points down a corridor opposite the enchanted ones. "We head that way before whatever’s pulling them cos for us too."
Heidi steps forward, chest heaving. "No. I’m not leaving them. We can try..."
A weak hand grips her wrist.
"Heidi."
It’s Junie.
Her face is pale, greasy with sweat. Her whole body shudders from exhaustion and blood loss. Her healing, seemingly is frustratingly slow. Very slow.
She looks up at Heidi with glassy eyes. "Please. Don’t fight him."
"Junie..."
"I can’t—" Her voice breaks on a whisper. "I can’t handle another fight. If sothing happens, I’ll die for sure. I need rest... I need ti for this to regrow." She lifts the stump slightly, her lips twisting in bitter irony. "And if it ever even does."
The plea in her voice guts Heidi more than the Alpha Boy’s arrogance ever could. Her chest tightens, fury battling the grief of the weight of their losses, but in the end... Junie wins.
Because Junie’s alive. Junie’s here. And Heidi isn’t ready to lose her too. She swallows hard and forces herself to nod. "Okay."
Junie exhales shakily and leans into Val, who steadies her with trembling hands.
Heidi turns to the others. "Fine. But we’re not scattering. We stick together, take one path and one line. If we start splitting up, we’re done."
A murmur of agreent swells through the group.
The Alpha Boy narrows his eyes at her but doesn’t argue. He just jerks his chin toward the chosen corridor. "Then move."
And so, they do.
One by one, the ragged survivors shuffle into a single path, keeping close, shoulders brushing, breaths ragged and uneven. Heidi stays near the back, her eyes constantly flicking to Junie, to Val, to the blank stares of their friends disappearing down the other corridors.
Moving forward feels like betrayal to the lost souls. And yet, she moves because what can she do? It’s just a few of them now against the horror of the labyrinth.
Help is not going to co. Help is not coming.
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