Page 52 of The Lord of the Labyrinth

Patch groaned. “You don’tsneakinto a fortress, girl. That’s what this is.A Fae fortress.It has spells to ward off those who wish the palace and its inhabitants harm. You won’t make it through.”

Kate studied the palace a moment. “Well, I don’t mean anyone in the palace any harm, do I? If anything, I care about the welfare of someone inside, which is like the opposite, right? I should be able to walk right in.”

Patch glared at her. “Just wait until Lord Arun hears about this...”

Kate clasped a hand around Patch’s mouth, silencing him. “He won’t find out becauseyouwon’t tell him. Got it?”

The kobold glowered. His dark eyes sank into his wrinkled face with displeasure and his pointed ears twitched beneath the edges of his black cap.

“Please, Patch. I need to see my brother. He’s only a kid. He doesn’t belong here. He’s terrified and just wants to go home. Roan locked him up in the dungeons before he sent me to the labyrinth. I need to know he’s okay.”

The kobold crossed his arms over his chest, and Kate slowly lowered her hand from his mouth. When he didn’t yell to summon Roan, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, you are on your own, then. I’ll not give Lord Arun a reason to put my head on a pike on the ramparts. He threatened to kill me after a stupid troll beamed you with a rock.” Patch glanced at Magda. “No offense, Magda.”

The troll shrugged as a breeze drifted off the water, stirring the silver fur on her body.

It took a moment for Patch’s words to sink in. “He threatened you... because of what happened to me?”

Patch rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, girl. He was mad with rage when he saw you were hurt. I thought for sure old Patch was done for. You must never underestimate a Fae’s anger, girl. It don’t come easy, but it comes strong.”

Roan had been upset to see her hurt? Her chest tightened as she recalled the almost reverent way he’d stroked her skin last night, the tenderness in his voice as she’d woken in the healing pool in his arms. A flutter of treacherous hope spread warmly through her chest.

Yet it was blacked out by a shadow of a dark voice that whispered in her ear:That’s not love. That’s ownership. You are not a lover to be cherished; you are a toy to be possessed.

She remembered the words he’d tossed so carelessly at her. She was a pet to him, a toy, said with the arrogant assurance that there could be nothing between them but physical desire occurring at his convenience, as if she had no will or purpose of her own outside of his bed.

Even if he did care about her, that wasn’t enough. She needed more. She neededlove. But could a dark Fae even know the kind of love that she needed?

It was foolish to entertain the thought, because she wasn’t going to be here forever. The dark whisper grew until that flutter of hope was smothered, and Kate resolved not to think of it again.

I’m not staying. I will solve this labyrinth, take Caden, and go home.

If the thought of home made her feel strangely empty, she took strength in her decision and forced her gaze back to the palace. Her determination left her feeling strangely empty. Kate turned back toward the palace and the rocky walls she’d have to climb to get to it. If she could get in and find Caden, then perhaps she could find a way to send them both home. If she failed in that, her plan was to return to the cave and go back into the labyrinth once more with Roan none the wiser. It was possible the glowworms might even show her the way to the center or at least point her in the right direction. Maybe even Merlin’s magic could get her there.

“You should both wait for me here by the cave,” she told her friends. “It’ll be easier if I sneak in on my own. I’ll come back soon.”

“Be careful, Kate,” Magda replied.

“I will,” Kate promised. She rolled up her sleeves and started toward the rocky base that rose up out of the sea, holding the glittering palace far above.

“I’m coming, Caden.”

* * *

A golden falconrose higher on a thermal current of air far out on the sea, staying just out of reach of the faintly shimmering barrier that kept him from the shores of the northern kingdom of the Unseelie. It was shielded, as was his own kingdom, from being breached by the enemy.

But that didn’t stop him from flying as close as he could. His keen hawk eyes now spied three figures walking along the shore. One of them broke away and started toward the palace.

But that figure was no creature born in the land of the Fae. It was a human. Ahuman. No human was to be brought into the Fae realm by the Unseelie. But apparently, Roan had done it.

So the treaty agreed to after King Bahden’s death had been broken? This was better than he could ever have hoped. Now the Seelie had their chance. He would return to the Morning Court and tell his subjects what he had seen, and they would have no choice but to declare war.

The fire of greed and desire filled the falcon’s chest. His little side attacks were no longer necessary. For the first time in centuries, Culan truly felt joy.

* * *

Kate cursedherself for not going rock climbing that one time she was invited by some friends. Every muscle in her hands was strained or stiff or scratched from stretching to reach for gaps in the rocks to hold on to. She wiped blood away on her jeans, wincing, but she had to keep moving.

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