Crowned by Fate Chapter 161

Adrian's POV

I stepped back from the left Skye, the one who had been in my arms moments ago, who had begged me to mark her.

I already had the answer in my heart.

And I did. This Skye, the one on my left who promised comfort and escape, wasn't real. The real Skye would never ask me to mark her in a dangerous maze. She would never suggest I give up my responsibilities to my pack.

"Adrian?" The left Skye's voice trembled. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're not her," I said quietly to the left Skye.

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "How can you say that? I'm the one who's been with you, who loves you—"

"You're everything I might want in a moment of weakness," I interrupted. "You're the escape route. But you're not my Skye."

She moved closer, desperation clear in every movement. "You really don't want to choose me? I can satisfy you better than she ever could. "

Her hand reached for my face, and I caught her wrist gently but firmly.

"That's exactly why you're not her," I said. "Skye would never ask me to be less than who I am."

"Choose me," she whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "Choose me and the other one disappears. The one you choose becomes the real one. That's how it works in this maze."

I turned to my right side where the other Skye stood.

I took her hand. Her fingers were cold, trembling slightly, but they gripped mine with desperate strength.

"Nobody can replace you," I said, looking into her eyes. "Not even another version of you."

Relief flooded her face, and behind us, the false Skye let out a soft gasp.

"You're making a mistake," she said, but her voice was already changing, becoming less human. "You could have had paradise."

"I already have everything I need," I replied without looking back.

The air shimmered and warped. When I glanced over my shoulder, the false Skye was dissolving, her form breaking apart like smoke. But instead of vanishing completely, she transformed, shrinking and darkening until a large black butterfly hovered where she had stood.

"Adrian, look at those markings. Is that the same butterfly that landed on your shoulder when we first entered the maze? Pure black wings with silver edges—I remember thinking how unusual it was."

My blood ran cold as the memory surfaced. Just after entering the maze, before the walls had separated us, a butterfly exactly like this one had landed on my shoulder. I'd barely noticed it, too focused on planning our route.

"Maybe that's when the illusion started," I said, watching the butterfly circle us once before flying over the wall. "I've been trapped since the beginning."

"The maze can catch us without us even knowing," Ryder said.

"We need to move now," I urged. "The competition should be ending soon. We have to reach the exit before—"

The walls around us shuddered. A grinding sound filled the air, stone scraping against stone with a noise that made my teeth ache. The solid barriers that had seemed immovable began to shift and slide.

"The countdown," Lydia said urgently. "The maze is closing!"

She was right. Everything we'd fought for would be meaningless if we couldn't escape in time.

"Run!" I commanded.

"AWOOO!" Ryder let out a wild howl that bounced off the moving walls. A fierce grin spread across his face. "Let's race! Last one to the exit buys drinks for a month!"

Despite the critical situation, when I should have felt nervous and afraid, running with my pack, I felt truly free.

The wind whipped through my hair as we sprinted through the shifting passages. My wolf surged forward in my mind, eager and alive.

Skye matched my pace perfectly, her silver hair streaming behind her like liquid moonlight. Ryder whooped as he lengthened his stride, turning fear into fuel. Even Lydia, usually so composed, had fire in her eyes as she navigated the obstacles with surprising grace.

This was what it meant to be pack. Not the careful politics and calculated moves, but the pure joy of moving as one.

Guilt washed over me as I remembered my brief temptation. How could I have considered abandoning them?

These weren't just responsibilities or burdens. They were my family. Ryder with his irrepressible spirit. Lydia with her quiet wisdom. And Skye—brave, impossible Skye who had changed everything.

They were my pack. My home. My purpose.

Around us, the maze had become a living nightmare. Walls slid past each other with terrible grinding sounds, creating new passages and destroying old ones. A section of floor ahead suddenly began rising, becoming a wall.

"Left!" I shouted.

We veered as one, barely avoiding separation. A wall to our right started closing in, trying to crush us against its opposite. Without speaking, we formed a line—Ryder in front, then Skye, then me, with Lydia at the rear. The space grew narrower, stone scraping our shoulders.

"Faster!" Skye urged.

We burst through just as the walls slammed together behind us with a crash that shook the ground. My heart hammered as I realized we'd been inches from being crushed.

But there—ahead—I saw it. Daylight. Real sunlight streaming through an opening. The exit was close, but the walls were moving faster now, closing in from every direction. The opening shrank with each second.

"Don't stop!" I roared.

Ryder reached the gap first, diving through with inches to spare. Skye followed, her smaller frame sliding through easily. I grabbed Lydia's hand, pulling her with me as we threw ourselves through the rapidly shrinking opening.

We tumbled onto grass—real grass beneath a real sky. Behind us, the walls crashed together with a sound like thunder. The exit vanished completely, sealed as if it had never existed.

For a moment, we all lay there, breathing hard, feeling the warmth of actual sunlight on our faces. The familiar scents of the forest filled my nostrils—pine and earth and freedom.

We'd made it. We'd actually made it out.

The relief was overwhelming. Not just because we'd escaped, but because we'd done it together. My pack—my family—was safe.

Then Ryder's voice shattered the peaceful moment.

"My shoe!"

We all stared at Ryder's feet. Only one shoe remained.

"My shoe!" Ryder repeated, hopping on one foot while examining his sock-covered left foot. "It must have fallen off when we were running through the maze!"

The absurdity of the situation hit us all at once. After everything we'd just survived, after facing illusions and moving walls and near-death experiences, Ryder was worried about a shoe.

Laughter burst from my chest, deep and genuine. Soon we were all laughing, the tension and fear of the maze dissolving into pure relief. We'd made it out alive, and somehow Ryder's missing shoe was the funniest thing in the world.

"I'll buy you a new pair tomorrow," I said between chuckles, wiping tears from my eyes.

Ryder's face turned serious. "But this was a birthday gift from Skye! Five hundred dollars for the pair!"