Page 78 of The Lord of the Labyrinth

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It was night,with a full moon overhead, yet Kate couldn’t recognize where she was. She only knew that she was no longer in her world. Was this the right place? Nothing looked how she remembered it. The ivy-covered walls of the labyrinth had fallen into ruin. The once intricately carved towering gates lay in pieces on either side of the entrance. Charred evidence of fires blackened the once pale stone.

The air was thin, as though nothing grew here anymore. What had happened to this place? She remembered how deeply parts of it had smelled of flowers, where others smelled of darkness and decay, but the scents had been rich and real. Now the place smelled stale, empty, lifeless. It was as though all the dark and beautiful things that had lived within the labyrinth were but a dim memory. Kate got to her feet and removed the book of tales from her raincoat as she stared at the labyrinth and the pale moon far above. Where had the bright moonlight gone?

Kate slapped a balled fist against her chest as fresh agony sliced through her heart. She was too late. Roan’s world could only look like this if Roan was no longer here to see it grow and flourish.

The air around her suddenly crackled with energy, as though lightning was about to strike. Then in a blinding flash of light, a figure appeared before Kate. She shielded her eyes until they adjusted. The woman in front of her wasn’t Thalia Moondove, but she was a familiar face that gave Kate a burst of hope.

“Eudora?”

Lady Eudora didn’t smile. Her blue eyes were so filled with grief that it seemed like they would never carry joy again. She wore a court gown of deep purple and silver, and on her brow was a circlet of glowing pearls and diamonds. She looked just as beautiful as she always had, yet she seemed to have aged from the grief in her eyes.

“I had hoped after all these years that you would come back.”

Kate drew closer to the other woman. “What do you mean, ‘all these years’?”

“It has been a hundred years since the battle of the labyrinth... a century since you left...”

“A hundred years?” The words punched Kate in the stomach.

Eudora shook her head. “Time is less stable here than it once was. The years speed up and slow down without control compared to your world. Roan always held time in place, mastered it better than any of us.”

Kate felt ill. It had only been a short time in her world, half an hour at most?

“Much has changed since you left,” said Eudora.

“What about Roan?” They were the only words that Kate could get out right now.

“He is frozen in a deathlike sleep. After Roan sent you home, our mother appeared. She cast the most powerful enchantment I’ve ever seen upon him. She laid his body to sleep in the heart of the labyrinth, and Rath chose to stay with him until he wakes. I haven’t seen either in a century.”

Kate didn’t understand. Rath and Eudora were in love... and they’d been parted for that long? “Why didn’t you go visit him?”

“The labyrinth grew far more dangerous after you left. I tried many times to find the center, but I always lost the way.” Eudora paused to clear her throat. “Mother left the mists of time and returned to us. She gave me the right to rule the Unseelie, and she returned to the southern lands to rule the Seelie court.” Eudora’s voice quivered. “But I have no desire to be queen. I only wish for my brother to return.”

Kate placed a hand on her arm. “Can Roan be saved?”

“I don’t know. Mother said only you would know the way.” She glanced around at the dim and dying world. “We need him. All of us, from theSidhedown to the smallest pixies, need him. This world is nothing without his light.” The Fae princess spoke, her heart in her eyes. “You must bring him back to us.”

“Can’t you show me the way?”

Eudora shook her head. “I only know he lies in the heart of the labyrinth. It opened briefly at my mother’s command to allow Rath to carry Roan in and just as quickly closed behind them. Now, the heart is just as impossible to find as it’s always been.”

Kate turned toward the gates, taking in the dark path that was half filled with stones and shadows. She had failed to find the center before—how could she do so now?

After a moment, she opened her mother’s book and stared at the story on the page. “The Ballad of the Bride of the Dark Woods.”

The bride put her hand in the king’s, and she smiled at her husband. “You know I’ve uncovered your secret. You are the woods, and the woods are you.”

“The woods are you...” The hairs on Kate’s neck rose as she realized that all this time she’d had the key to solving the puzzle right before her. How had she not seen the connection before? She was the bride and Roan the king of the dark woods.

Only here, Roan was thelabyrinth. The labyrinth was Roan. Therefore, the center of the labyrinth was and always had been theheartof its king.

“You’ve found the way?” Eudora asked as she joined Kate at the gates.

“Yes... I think so.”

Eudora embraced her with a fierce hug. “Then we shall arm you to fight whatever dark creatures you may meet on your way. Babbitt!” Eudora summoned the brownie, who appeared instantly in that way only brownies could.

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