Marie-Fey whirled around and Zahir smiled at her from the doorway.

"Well," he said, "You do surprise me. Yet again."

Marie-Fey just stared at him, eyes wide, fingers back, gripping around the edges of the mirror as she felt her body starting chill at the sight of him.

How?

Why?

He wasn't supposed to arrive at the palace for a few more days. They had time. They should have had time.

"Oh don't look so startled, dear," Zahir said, laughing slightly. "Did you really think you could avoid me discovering this little activity of yours?"

Marie-Fey's voice failed her for a moment, then she slowly unpicked her fingers from the mirror and straightened up, carefully folding her hands at her stomach, eyes flicking to the exit he was blocking then back to him.

"I had hoped Zaydan's departure would—"

"Oh I didn't need Zaydan's eyes to know something was wrong," he scoffed, "I couldn't make that man betray you, however I threatened him. How can someone with his personality betray the person he's been looking for lifetime after lifetime. No, all you had to do was remove just one body from this chamber, and I was aware of what was happening."

"Because it would be too easy otherwise," Marie-Fey muttered.

"Exactly."

"So what do we do now? You're here ahead of schedule, but you still owe me the fulfilment of a promise. Do you intend to go back on that?"

"You wouldn't look down on me if I did so, would you, you are trying to sabotage me in quite a distinctive way."

"Sabotage?" Marie-Fey asked with a dramatic gasp, eyed wide with innocence, "what an awful word. I'm doing no such thing. Merely levelling the playing field a little, you can't think badly of me for that, surely."

Zahir just smiled. "Badly, no. Though I would like to know where you got this little idea to remove the women from this tomb? You told you that little secret?"

"That I cannot say. The information was passed to me via one brother, you got the news from another, but even that one did know the significance of his words, only that he was to pass them along."

Zahir sighed in annoyance. "Even when they're not involved in enchantment, your family has a way of interfering," he muttered. Then his empty eyes returned to her, then blinked and moved beyond, his gaze past her shoulder.

Marie-Fey looked behind her, and moved away from the mirror. The ghost she had seen for a mere second back in her family home, the girl with the shattered face, now peered out at them from the mirror, her one whole eye fixed in Zahir as he looked back at her.

"Don't worry, I remember you," he said calmly, walking forwards, Marie-Fey carefully moving circling away so she was closer to the door. "I said I would always place you in highest role of importance. The one who could never be removed. And insure I would never lose my power."

Zahir shine a wicked grin on the woman and her ghost started to scream.

The sound literally shook the very ground and Marie-Fey stumbled out of the room as the scream, merging with Zahir's laughter, echoed around her, following her through the halls as she ran back towards the main chamber, the walls and ceiling shaking overhead.

She fell into the main hall, racing down the stairs, her eyes set on the staircase that led back to the tunnels when the stairs simply vanished. She skidded to a stop, her fists tightening in her skirts as she stared up at the sudden sheer cliff face that had perviously been accessible via a stone staircase and now simply... wasn't...

She spun to look behind her and her jaw slowly dropped. The entire chamber was starting to move. The walls were growing, shifting, writhing as the stairs crawled and the archways bulged. The world around her started to shift, realign itself, turning into a new labyrinth as the furniture, the accessories and the bodies themselves were clawed into the floor like quicksand, swallowed whole and gone from sight.

Gone from reach where she could have them pulled from the darkness. And she was now trapped in darkness as the torches moved with the walls, disappearing into new tunnels and illuminating rooms that hadn't been there before.

She whirled around, staring up at the sheer cliff again, hand pressing to the rock as the stride of boots echoed out at her from the new tunnels.

"Oh wife, my dear, I think I may have to reassess our original deal," Zahir sang out. "See, killing me is one thing, but ending my reign once and for all? I'm not quite sure how you came across such knowledge but this little sceptical is a problem for me."

Marie-Fey spun around as Zahir walked out of one of the halls, looking down at her from the top of the stairs, smiling as he casually leant against the balustrade.

"It's such a shame, see because I enjoyed the idea of this little cat and mouse game last for a few more years. Alas, rules change. Maybe we'll try again in the next life. Though I have decided for myself that we won't be bringing back the rest of the Leigh Clan. A little too much trouble for my liking." He straightened up and held up a hand. "Now, see you in the next life."

A rolling wave of energy shocked through the hall as whatever power he unleashed shot towards Marie-Fey and she barely got out a gasp before the strike hit home.

Only it didn't hit her.

She felt the attack strike, the way one felt a tremendous wave impact the rocks on stood on. The tremor went through her, and yet she was still standing at the end as a scream of pain deafened the hall, making both she and Zahir look around in confusion.

Then the air directly before Marie-Fey shimmered and shifted and a ghostly figure emerged, screaming, hands to her head as she howled in pain. It was the ghost of the woman from the mirror and, even though her appearance was still ethereal blue, there was a marring of red that bloomed from her heart and trickled down her gown.

Zahir's face turned white with rage.

"Is this your final stand? Wipe yourself from existence in the hopes she succeeds where you all failed?" he snarled, striding down the stairs, his eyes fixed on the ghost, who was starting to scatter like petals in a breeze from the ground up. "There are only so many of you to protect her! Force me to and I will annihilate you all then then her! And then I will simply start again!"

As he roared, the ghost's body faded from over her chest as her screaming stopped, like the pain faded with it and she looked up, her gaze tired.

"You could have been so great," she breathed out.

Zahir froze in his tracks, his eyes black with fury, and the ghost faded away.

It was enough of a distraction for Marie-Fey to slip away and race down one of the tunnels while they spoke. She didn't know how the ghost had 'died' in her stead, but she wasn't going to stay. She lifted her skirts and fled down the closest tunnel, stumbling around turnings, losing herself in the labyrinth, gasping for breath as she tried to figure out how to get out.

Was there even a chance? Zahir had suggested he would kill her without seeing her, hadn't he? He could stop her heart in an instant.

Was that not what he had been about to do before that ghost had intercepted?

But she had intercepted.

Did that mean his power was a linear assault? A line of sight attack?

"Keep running."

Marie-Fey's eyes snapped up at the voice as she ran through the spectre before her, the cold making her cry out as she looked back.

The woman looked back at her, eyes wide, her mouth warning her to keep running, before that same shock wave hit and she started screaming, fading bit by bit.

Marie-Fey staggered away, finding her feet again as another ghost appeared ahead, racing past her, bodily placing herself between Marie-Fey and another attack, taking the final death.

Marie-Fey's blood ran cold as she ran.

The tunnels felt like they were closing in on her. Shrinking and darkening. The walls' sandy colour started to turn black, darker than the night sky. The torches along their surfaces did almost nothing to illuminate her path.

And then tiny white lights began to bloom from the darkness around her.

A star field rippled into life, guiding her way.

"Stay alive. Help is on the way."

A soft, low male voice murmured around her, the sound stemming from every star point.

Marie-Fey let out a gasp, feeling the weight of her gown, her fear starting to drain her of energy, tiring her. It was all very well and good for a disembodied voice to tell her to keep living but she was the one trapped in a maze, unsure of how to get out and her survival rate!

"Marie-Fey," the voice said, firmer and more tangible, "Remember he is not infallible. He may have the powers of gods, but he is still of the mortal realm. His body cannot withstand long periods of power before he begins to tire. You must keep going until he tires. You can survive this."

Just as he said the final word, another scream erupted from behind Marie-Fey as another ghost fell to the attack meant for her.

"You can't run forever, Marie-Fey!" Zahir shouted, his voice ratchetting through the halls. "I will bring you back to me!"

And a huge chunk of ceiling plunged from above, crashing down into Marie-Fey's path, barely avoiding her as she screamed, scrambling to the left to tumble down another corridor. The floor erupted, hurling her to the ground and she tangled in her gown, rolling into the wall that started to crack, sending her scrabbling to her feet again and running, gasping for breath as she tried to see through the darkness and avoid losing her footing as the ground rolled under like a wave charging towards the shore.

The intersection ahead shifted before she could reach it. Two exits vanished and she was forced to the left again. Another archway closed and he was forced to the right.

She was being herded!

He was forcing her back towards him by physically taking away her other options!

Taking another corner, she looked up and her eyes widened as she crashed right into Zahir.

"Hello, dear," he said, smiling as she recoiled backwards, almost falling.

He reached for her and another spirit was in his way, a second taking her place as soon as she began to fade and Marie-Fey dove past him.

She was forced to take three more turnings and she burst out into the main chamber again, on one of the upper floors at the edge of a staircase that she almost fell down, heart thundering, chest heaving as her wild eyes scanned the room, trying to figure out where to go next. The only exit she could see what the one high above, where the stairs had been that led to the outside world. But she couldn't get back up there!

She looked back over her shoulder and her eyes widened at the sight of Zahir striding towards her.

Lifting her skirts, she fled down the stairs and a sound echoed through the chamber, making both her and Zahir look up.

The chamber door was being dragged open.

And Marie-Fey felt her heart stop as Gharam and Maanah appeared.