"I know something."
Heads swivel to find a girl who looks twenty -two—maybe a year older than Heidi, steps forward from the huddled crowd. Her braid swings down her back, and though her voice stutters, there’s determination in her eyes. She clasps her hands together like she’s holding them steady by force.
"I met my mate last night," she says quickly, before nerves can drag her back into silence. "During the mate bond ceremony."
That earns her a ripple of gasps and a few "Lucky!" whispers from the crowd. Even now, with doom looming, Moon Blessed can’t resist the gossip of who found their mate.
The girl swallows, straightens her shoulders, and pushes on. "He told me some things about the labyrinth. Things that weren’t in the school’s speeches."
The hush deepens. Even Alpha Boy tilts his head curiously.
She breathes out shakily. "According to him, not every demon in here is our enemy. There are... good ones. Demons who will shelter us, protect us, and even guide us if we find them. They’re rare, but they exist. And if we want to live, we have to find them."
That makes murmurs explode and Heidi is suddenly glad she didn’t speak first.
"Good demons? That’s..."
"Demons aren’t good!"
"Are you serious right now?"
Someone scoffs loudly. "Sounds like your mate was trying to score points for a kiss."
The girl flushes but stomps a foot. "It’s true! Why would he lie? I’m already trapped here too—he had no reason to make it up. He’s just trying to make sure I survive. He said the path of light..." She gestures firmly to the glowing maze to their left. "...leads toward them. Toward shelter. If we want to live, we go there."
Her words tumble into the air and hang there like a thrown stone, waiting to sink.
Heidi’s breath hitches. Find the good demons.
Amias’s words resurface as sharp as a blade in her mind. He hadn’t given her many cryptic warnings, maddening riddles... but he had said that. And now here’s a girl saying the exact same thing, without knowing Heidi’s connection.
Her wolf bristles with restless energy. "See? See? We’re not insane after all. He told us the truth. And look... there’s confirmation. Boom. We’re geniuses."
Heidi can’t believe her wolf. She thought she was mad at Amias because of his stick stunt?
Heidi rolls her eyes internally. We’re not geniuses. We’re still stuck choosing between a moaning hell tunnel and a shiny death disco.
"Fair. But at least one of those has a Yelp review now."
Heidi almost snorts out loud, clapping a hand over her mouth to hide it. Trust her wolf to crack jokes when their lives are on the line even though Heidi doesn’t even know her name yet.
Meanwhile, the group is splitting fast. Voices rise higher, louder, and overlapping.
"She’s lying!"
"No, she’s right! It makes sense!"
"Since when do demons have ’good’ versions? This isn’t a children’s book!"
"I’m not walking into the dark just to prove a point–"
"You think light means safe? That’s exactly what they want us to think!"
The noise is growing again, panic threatening to boil over. Alpha Boy raises his voice to try and cut through it, but for once, his calm authority doesn’t quiet them as easily. The word demons has shattered their control, because demons aren’t abstract anymore. They’re here, waiting to choose who goes down first.
Junie nudges Heidi sharply in the ribs. "You’re thinking really hard about this. Spill."
Valentina leans in too, narrowing her eyes. "Yeah. What’s with your face? You look like you swallowed the wrong end of a potion bottle."
Heidi hesitates. The urge to tell them about Amias gnaws at her, but if she admits she had secret tutoring from a Bellamy, she’ll paint a target on her back. Especially here, where trust is already dangling by a thread.
Her wolf mutters, "Say nothing. Not yet. Keep the ace in the sleeve until we need it. These kids are panicking enough without knowing your favorite mentor whispered about good demons in a groping session."
So Heidi just shrugs, feigning nonchalance. "Just... thinking the girl might not be lying, that’s all."
Junie raises her brows. "Wow, deep analysis, detective."
Valentina rolls her eyes. "She’s right though. It makes sense. If there are good demons, where else would they be but in the light? Darkness screams death trap."
Heidi is about to support that motion when Valentina gasps and hastily turns to her. "Wait up, Heidi Grace Remington. You mentioned receiving tips from a source who told you about good and bad demons. Then, they must have told you about this path, haven’t they?"
Heidi’s heart skips at Valentina’s pointed stare. The question sounds like someone just accused her of knowing the Wi-Fi password and refusing to share it.
She licks her lips, trying not to look guilty of... anything. "He didn’t say anything about the paths," she admits finally, her voice a little smaller than she’d like.
Junie immediately flings an arm up, as though Heidi just confessed the world’s most obvious oversight. "Well, duh. It’s, like, basic knowledge. If there are supposed to be ’good demons,’ then which path do you think they’d hang out in? The one with literal glowing heavenly vibes, or the one that sounds like a demon swamp trying to burp its way into our nightmares?"
A couple of students snicker nervously, but Heidi doesn’t laugh. Her stomach knots. Something about the whole thing doesn’t click. She can’t explain why—it’s like one of those stupid math problems where all the numbers add up but your gut insists the answer is still wrong.
Valentina crosses her arms, eyebrow arched like a skeptical aunt at a family barbecue. "I hate to say it, but Junie kind of has a point. If you have two doors, and one has, you know, a horrifying moaning soundtrack included, and the other one is basically Disneyland Main Street with music? Which one are you picking?"
"Not Disneyland," someone mutters darkly from the crowd. "More like Las Vegas before a scam."
"Semantics." Valentina waves them off.
The debate sparks like wildfire again, voices pitching high. Everyone throws in their two cents; louder, faster, and overlapping until it’s a chaotic mess. Heidi feels her chest tightening. None of them is wrong, but none of them feels right either.
Still, when Alpha Boy raises his voice again, this time it works. The chaos ebbs into quieter pockets of murmuring "Okay, okay. But we’ll waste all our time here and get picked off in panic if we don’t make a decision. Let’s keep moving first, okay?"