Radley's Labyrinth for Horny Monsters by Annabelle Hawthorne (highly recommended books .txt) 📕

rub it into Abella’s injuries after she released us from that obedience spell. She has to sit downstairs until it cures. We did have a pretty good talk about the state of things between you guys.”

“Uh…” Mike looked over at Tink, then back at Beth. “Between us how?”

Beth winked. “It’s none of my business, but I find it fascinating that they don’t seem to mind sharing you.”

Mike blushed, and Beth left. Once he was sure she was out of earshot, he pinched Tink’s ass, causing the goblin to squirt out from between the sheets onto the floor.

“Lawyer woman talk funny,” Tink said, finding her dress. “Tink think she hide secret.”

“What kind of secret?”

“Don’t know. Not bad, not good. Just secret.” Tink adjusted her hair, then tugged her dress into place. “Go see snake lady, get goggles, smash witch. Plan okay?”

Mike laughed. “The plan sounds great.”

Mike stared at Ratu, his mouth open in disbelief. They stood at the edge of a frozen lake, fog rising off its surface and spilling across the rocky shore like waves. Up above them, the chained gem burned silently, its rays melting the surface ice into a thin layer of water that was perfectly still. It had taken them almost an hour to get here, bypassing several trapped corridors in the process.

“So you threw it in the lake,” Mike said, “and then froze the whole thing.”

“I did.” Ratu was holding a stack of golden disks in her hands. They were each roughly the size of a vinyl record. “I was worried that Emily would eventually snap and come for the artifact herself.”

“Still seems like overkill.” Mike looked at the others. Tink stood by his side, followed by Abella (who had insisted on coming) and then Beth. If not for the heat source above, he would be shivering. The fairies circled the edge of the lake, their lights chasing one another through the rising fog. Sofia stood to the side, the dagger tucked into the waist of her pants. He didn’t want to have something that sharp on him just in case the artifact did influence his behavior.

“I assure you, it was worth the risk. Asterion?” Ratu handed the disks to the Minotaur, then pulled a large crystal from the sleeve of her kimono. When she pointed it at the gem, the Labyrinth rumbled as a fiery beam lanced its way into the top of the ice, cutting downward at a gentle angle. “We may have to go digging for it a bit, I’m afraid. Shouldn’t be hard to find, but unless you want a fifty-foot drop straight to the bottom, we need to take the long road on this one.”

The gem melted a sizable tunnel, the tight beam giving off plenty of warmth. Ratu took the disks from Asterion.

“Stay here with the others,” she told him. “We should be back within the hour, but come for us if we don’t. Even if we die, the artifact still needs to be destroyed, so maybe the goblin can do it. Shall we?” Ratu smiled for Mike and then moved into the tunnel. Mike followed behind her, stepping carefully on the ice. The melted water made it slicker than usual, and Mike had a horrifying vision of slipping into the beam and cutting himself in two. Ratu was about twenty feet ahead—she tossed one of the disks in the air, and it hovered there, moving into the path of the beam.

“Cool,” Mike muttered, watching the beam deflect and cut into the side of the tunnel. He stayed behind Ratu and observed as she repeated the process several times.

“How do you know where to go?” Mike asked.

“Easy. I listen to my instinct and then do the opposite.”

“How does that work?”

“You try.” Ratu stopped in the tunnel, holding up one of the disks. “Use your gut. Which way do you think we should go?”

Mike frowned, looking left then right. He felt a strong urge to go right. “That way.” He pointed.

“Then we go the opposite.” Ratu tossed up the disk, and the beam carved left. “The artifact is a perversion of the natural world. Every fiber in your being wants to avoid it. When we get closer, you will probably begin to feel sick.”

“Yikes.” Mike wiped sweat off his brow, wondering if Ratu was right. His body was hot and cold, a result of the beam’s heat and the cool ice around them, causing him to feel feverish. Yet the feeling of unease increased the farther they went, a nauseous feeling in his gut that spread out across his body. When he placed a hand on the wall of the ice tunnel to steady himself, Mike’s balance suddenly shifted, and he slipped.

“Ahh!” Mike slid several feet, putting his arms and legs out to steady himself. Finally coming to a halt, he sat up, expecting to see Ratu right in front of him. His eyes widened when he realized that Ratu was farther down the tunnel than she had been when he’d slipped. Somehow, he had slid uphill.

“We are very close,” Ratu told him, a frown on her face. “The effects are fairly strong. Now I worry I might have further damaged the case it is in.”

“Could the beam destroy it?” Mike asked.

“No. Put on the goggles. Just in case.”

“On it.” Mike held up the goggles. He hadn’t put them on yet because they limited his peripheral vision quite a bit. The goggles themselves looked like they had walked out of a steampunk wet dream. Several lenses could easily be flipped into place, revealing untold secrets to the wearer. Sliding the band over his head, he took a deep breath before sliding them into place.

The frozen lake around him unfolded in his eyes, bright-yellow lines crisscrossing through the ice. Staring in awe, Mike looked all around him. He was seeing flaws in the ice, lines that bent and adjusted to account for the hole they had tunneled. He could see the bedrock at the end of their tunnel, a vein