The Whispering Night (Luminaries #3)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Anyone could be a Diana.

A Diana could be anyone.

This is what Winnie considers as she slowly straightens. Her locket’s burn has cooled. It’s just a glowing ember now, a faint reminder of what happened, like a puddle after a storm.

She is cold. She is thirsty. The waist on her pantsuit is starting to cut off circulation to her vital organs, but she finds she can’t leave the maze yet. She needs to think without eyes upon her or Luminaries begging to shake her hand.

After all, anyone could be a Diana.

A Diana could be anyone.

This isn’t Winnie’s first time facing such a truth. Four years ago, her dad was caught as a Diana—and she truly believed, for four agonizing years, that he was one. Then ten nights ago, Winnie discovered Erica was also a witch. Then right after that, she fought three Dianas in the forest, leaving two of them burned to crispy pulp.

Winnie pushes out a hand. She wants to feel the wall the signora backed her against. It is both solid and… not. This is no sturdy hemlock, no majestic oak. Nor is it a wild bush, with space for wind and creatures to weft through. The leaves and branches absorb Winnie’s palm’s pressure—but they don’t let her in.

She wishes Dad could see how much his maze has grown. The hedges consume all sight, all sound. His sketches across the family desk are a full-grown, proper maze. And honestly, the purple granite fountain doesn’t look that bad.

This is a place to get lost in.

And it is also a place to get found again.

At that thought, the last of Winnie’s demands for an adult slide away. Sand in an hourglass. Because one thing most people don’t realize about her is that she doesn’t like to be cornered. Tell her she is an outcast from the Luminaries and she must serve a punishment for ten years? Okay, fine. She’ll train on her own, enter the hunter trials, and get it done in four.

Oh, you want to hunt her ex–best friend and try to kill her aunt? That’s right: Winnie will literally burn you alive.

Big or small, high stakes or low, Winnie doesn’t like to have her back pressed against a wall. But it’s in those moments, when everyone looks at her and sees only weakness, that Winnie always, always finds her strength.

Or maybe it’s just spite. Never underestimate the power of Team Petty, after all.

Either way, the Crow made one hell of a mistake confronting Winnie here—right in the maze that Dad built. She’d have been better off leaving Winnie hanging after that breakfast introduction. She should have simply walked away and never initiated further conversation. Then the whole not knowing what the Diana wants would have sent Winnie into a stressed-out tailspin.

Instead, Signora Martedì cornered Winnie in a maze and literally pushed Winnie’s vertebrae, sacrum, and skull against a hedge wall. So now like oxygen and hydrogen leading to H2O, total clarity washes through Winnie’s brain. She has developed harpy-keen vision; she has grown banshee-fast muscles; she has earned vampira-sharp fangs; and most important of all, she has the loyalty of a bear that she isn’t afraid to use.

No one threatens Winnie Wednesday’s friends and gets away with it.

And no one threatens her family.

Winnie pushes away from the hedge. Its leaves rattle goodbye. The fountain burbles ciao ciao . She won’t leave this maze the way she came in—Dad made three secret exits, and if she simply pushes a bit deeper, she will find one of those hidden portals out of here.

The sun rises behind her, bellicose and unyielding. Except now Winnie appreciates it. Warm me, she thinks as she digs her hands into her pockets. I’ve got a long walk ahead.