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“Treasure. What else would you dig for? You humans sure are daft.” He started walking, and since it was in the direction she wanted to go, Kate kept pace with him.

She ignored his insult. She needed to learn as much as she could about Roan, this place, and the labyrinth. “Doyouknow how to solve the labyrinth?”

Patch’s boots slapped the earth in a rhythmic march as he walked. “Only the way back. I live on the outskirts. Only safe place to be in here. Go any deeper and you run the risk of being eaten or killed.”

“Eaten or killed?” Kate’s stomach gave an anxious flop. She’d been told the labyrinth had danger, but she hadn’t considered that something might eat or kill her.

“Trolls, basilisks, the baobhan sith, and hundreds of other creatures. They all roam the labyrinth. They feed off of any Seelie scouts and spies foolish enough to find their way deep into the labyrinth.” He shot her a dark grin, as though the idea of Seelie being eaten was amusing. “It’s how Lord Arun protects us. The Seelie fear this place, and the only way to reach the palace is through the labyrinth.”

“Theonlyway?” Kate hesitated. “Why can’t they go around it?” So Roan’s labyrinth wasn’t designed to torture poor humans like her, but rather to keep his people and the palace safe. As little sense as it made, she preferred to think of Roan as a protector, rather than the man who’d kidnapped her because of some silly wish.

Patch shot her a look as if he questioned her sanity. “Because the labyrinth has no end, girlie. It goes on forever and a day on either side, like an endless wall between us and the Seelie kingdom. You can never find the center unless you already know the way.”

An endless wall?Kate couldn’t imagine such a thing was possible, but perhaps here she’d have to do as Roan said and never make assumptions of what was possible or impossible.

“Wait... what do you mean, find the center?” She’d been trying to find her way through to the other side where the palace was.

Patch arched a bushy black brow. “It’s a labyrinth, not a maze, girl. You go to the center, not to the other side.”

Kate felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She’d wasted hours going about the puzzle all wrong. How could she have forgotten the story about the labyrinth and the Minotaur from the island of Crete? The goal was the center, not the other side, whereas mazes were about reaching the other side.

“I’m an idiot,” she muttered.

Patch chuckled. “Well, don’t blame yourself. Lord Arun made this impossible to solve. Unlike most labyrinths, which always lead to the center, albeit in the longest way possible, he’s put up dozens of dead ends and ways that lead back to the beginning.”

“Is the palace at the center?” Kate didn’t want to think about how vast the labyrinth was if the distant palace was at the center of it.

“No, the palace faces the sea on the other side of the labyrinth and is protected from the sea by more enchantments.”

“If I’m supposed to reach the center of the labyrinth and the palace isn’t at the center... then how does that get me to the palace?” Kate tried not to let her disappointment show as she focused on her new goal. Reaching the center of the labyrinth.

“Don’t know. Never been myself.” Patch didn’t clarify if he meant the center of the labyrinth or the palace, but Kate had a suspicion he hadn’t been to either.

“You said there were trolls, basilisks, and... What is a baobhan sith?” She knew what trolls and basilisks were, at least from mythology and lore.

“The baobhan sith are Fae, pretty ones who will lure you into a dance. When you are exhausted from dancing, they will drain your blood.” He hesitated and then gave her a nudge. “That blade you’re wearing is made of iron. It would kill a baobhan sith.”

“My blade? Oh!” She’d almost forgotten the slender dagger that she’d tucked into her boot. “How did you know I had it?”

“There’s a gem in the hilt. Kobolds can sense the presence of jewels, just like dwarves. ’Tis why we mine.” He tapped his bulbous nose. “We can sniff them out.”

“Wait, I thought fairies didn’t like iron. Why would Roan have an iron blade?”

Patch smirked at her. “You don’t become king of the dark Fae unless you’re strong, girlie. Roan is from the purest Seelie and Unseelie bloodlines. He carries the magic of the wild from his father, and there are rumors of other powers he’s taken from his mother’s lineage. A Fae like that will be uncomfortable around iron but not weakened like the rest of us.”

“Roan is both Seelie and Unseelie?” That was something she hadn’t expected.

“Aye. As is Lady Eudora, Lord Arun’s sister. It makes the Seelie king blinding mad, it does.”

“Why?” Kate asked.

“Why? Because to have the power of both worlds? Culan would kill to have that power.”

“Culan? Is he the Seelie king?”

“Aye, and he’s Lord Arun’s and Lady Eudora’s cousin. Culan’s father was Lord Arun’s uncle. When he died, he left a power-hungry son on the throne in the Morning Court.”

Kate walked with Patch and remained quiet for a long moment as she considered her next words carefully.