Bound to Four

Day 4 Painful Maze

Dawn didn’t announce itself with a gentle chime. It hit Liora like a hammer blow, sharp, violent pain tearing through her skull as though glass were splintering inside her head. She jerked upright, gasping for air, fingers clawing at the fake grass beneath her. Above her, the synthetic sky glowed an unsettling gold, too serene, too bright.

“Thalen?” Her voice cracked and echoed back nothing. The spot beside her lay empty except for the thin blanket, now cold without him.

The bond flared in her mind, their agony leaping along her nerves and propelling her upright. She raced into the house and found the others in the kitchen. Every breath in the room came as a ragged gasp or stifled grunt, the silence between crashes swollen and expectant. Cassian’s hands, braced on the countertop, trembled so violently his coffee sloshed over the rim, pooling into the cracks of the faux-marble. Rook fell next, heavy and slow. Kael let out a raw, broken roar and pounded the wall so hard it cracked. “STOP!” he bellowed.

But the pain didn’t relent, only a momentary pause before it blazed through her again, muted but still suffocating, a reminder that it was theirs, all of theirs, shared. “Make it stop,” she whimpered, though she knew it was impossible.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain vanished. Cassian hauled himself upright, chest heaving, jaw clenched. Rook muttered, “What did we do?” Kael was already pacing. “New day,” he snapped. “New rules.”

A chime rang out, too cheerful, too bright:

WELCOME TO DAY FOUR, NEWLYWEDS. TODAY’S THEME: SACRIFICE.

Liora’s stomach dropped.

The glass doors slid open behind her, revealing that the pool had vanished. In its place stood a labyrinth of verdant hedges: lush, perfect, utterly artificial.

“Where is Thalen?” she demanded. No one answered. Rook’s voice drifted low and uneasy: “Sacrifice…?” Cassian slipped an arm possessively around her waist. “They want us to betray each other.” She leaned against him, partly for show, partly because she needed the warmth. “Then we won’t.”

A deep rumble split the garden and a single dark corridor yawned before them.

ONLY TWO MAY ENTER. FAILURE WILL BE PENALIZED.

Kael’s humorless laugh cut the tension. “There it is.”

All eyes turned to Liora. “They’re forcing one of us to choose,” she said.

“Or forcing you,” Cassian corrected. Silence coiled around her chest as her pulse hammered.

“If those who go get punished anyway…” she began,

“I’ll go.” The voice was thin but unwavering. They spun to see Thalen standing at the bedroom door, barely able to hold himself upright but alive. Relief nearly buckled her knees. Cassian caught him before he could fall.

“What did they do to you?” he asked, scanning the cameras with a silent warning.

“I can still walk.” Thalen’s words were earned lies; she felt the tremor of exhaustion through their bond. Cassian guided him back to the wall; Liora wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, her hands lingering in a touch she’d never admit was more than courtesy.

The directive squawked out of the speakers:

SELECTION REQUIRED.

Cassian’s hand closed over Liora’s in a quick, fierce squeeze. “I’ll go,” he said. She nodded, tightening her grip. “Together.”

They vanished into the maze’s maw. Each corridor warped and changed before their eyes, pathways sealing shut behind them while new ones gaped open without warning. The synthetic sun sank lower in the artificial sky, its golden light darkening to a threatening amber. In a shadowed alcove where hedge walls met, Cassian pulled Liora close, positioning them out of the watching lenses’ reach, at a distance where their connection to the others grew faint. His fingers found her waist as he leaned in, his kiss beginning as something gentle before transforming into something desperate that made her forget to breathe.

She pressed closer, performing for their unseen audience, but the way his hands settled at her waist felt less like theater and more like confession. The bond between them surged without warning, electric, undeniable, stealing her breath as he tilted her face to his. His eyes held none of the calculation she expected, only naked intensity that made her pulse stutter.

His lips brushed her ear, voice dropping to a whisper that cameras couldn’t capture: “There’s something you should know...”

Liora turned her head, not wanting to face what she was feeling.

“LOOK! There!” Liora pushed back, heart pounding, and saw a massive wooden puzzle blocking the path.

She rushed toward the massive wooden puzzle, her fingers scrabbling against the edges of pieces that seemed to actively resist alignment. Cassian’s hands joined hers, his jaw tightening until their eyes met in sudden understanding.

“Another rigged game,” he whispered, drawing her against him.

“This is designed to divide us. Get back to the others, they need you more.”

Her throat tightened. “And you?”

His thumb traced her cheekbone in a gesture too genuine for their watchers.

“I know their methods. I can handle this.” His mask of confidence slipped back into place as she tore herself away and ran.

The first screams reached her as she burst out of the maze, raw, gutting cries. Rook lay motionless on the floor, Thalen slumped against the wall, and Kael paced like a caged animal. She dropped to her knees beside Thalen. “Thalen.” No response. His skin was colder than before, the bond flickering and waning. “No,” she whispered, voice cracking. “No, no.”

A gentle chime sounded:

EVENING REWARD AVAILABLE. THE BRIDE MAY SELECT ONE GROOM FOR PRIVATE REST.

Nausea coiled in her gut. “As if anything here is truly private,” she muttered under her breath. She surveyed the men before her, her gaze lingering on Thalen’s ashen face.

A sardonic chuckle escaped Kael’s throat.

“Of course,” he said, voice laced with venom.

Rook’s silence weighed heavier than words, his clenched jaw speaking volumes.

She hooked her arm beneath Thalen’s, bearing his weight as she helped him stand.

“This is about survival, not preference,” she whispered to herself. Kael’s laugh sharpened behind her, but she kept her eyes forward.

The maze entrance parted, revealing Cassian, disheveled, panting, seconds too late. When their eyes locked, the bond between them flared with unspoken truths: strategic calculation, painful comprehension, and beneath it all, the sting of what might have been. Liora wrenched her gaze away first, knowing that if she looked back, it would shatter her resolve