“Eudora, did you grow this?” Thalia asked Eudora.
The four-year-old princess nodded eagerly.
“Well done, my darling.” She bent down to squeeze her daughter in a fierce embrace before she turned to Roan and put an arm around him in silent warm welcome.
His mother always welcomed him. She seemed to know how much that mattered to Roan, who was only seven years old. To be loved, to be cherished. King Bahden had no interest in his offspring, but the queen? Her heart was full of sunlight and love, especially for her children.
Thalia tilted Roan’s face up as she met his gaze. “You are loved, my dark little prince. You are deeply loved. Never doubt it. You carry my light within you, and it will always be right here.” She tapped a slender finger on his chest right above his heart. “Do not be afraid to shine in the darkest night.”
The memory was ancient, yet he’d lived it so fully and clearly in his mind and his heart. Now she was lost to him.
Roan left the memory as easily as he had slid into it. His anger rose. This morgen had tried to take what belonged to him and him alone. And now it would pay the price. Kate was unconscious, which meant she would not be harmed by his light, and he could not afford to wait another moment.
Roan let the full might of his shine explode from his body. The morgen screamed in agony. Its eyes turned red and then cloudy white as it went limp and died. Roan swam forward and grasped Kate’s hand, wrapping an arm around her waist and kicking them both toward the surface.
As he broke through the ring of bright water, he sucked in a breath. He pushed Kate over the ledge to safety, and she lay still on the grass near Patch. Roan dragged himself out of the pool and knelt by her side. He gently rolled her onto her back and pressed his ear to her lips. She wasn’t breathing.
He cursed and placed his mouth over hers and summoned the water in Kate’s lungs toward his lips. Then he drew back, allowing the water to escape her mouth. It formed a shining orb above her body. With a wave of his hand, the orb shot away and splattered on the ground.
Kate suddenly coughed, her body spasming. Roan turned her onto her side as she coughed a few more times, then let out a raspy sigh as she calmed. As her eyes opened, she stared up at his face in confusion.
“Roan?” she whispered. The pleasure of hearing his name sent a jolt of joy through his dark soul. He stroked tender fingers over her pale cheek, glad to see a tiny blossom of color return to her skin.
“Lesson one of the labyrinth, Kate. Never drink from the still pools,” he chided.
She shivered a little and glanced around. “No, wait, where is he? I need to save him?—”
“The kobold? The fool is alive. Youdidsave him, but at unnecessary risk to yourself.Neverdo that again,” he warned. “You’re mine, Kate. Your life belongs tome. You cannot throw it away on another.”
She narrowed angry but weary eyes at him. “I wasn’t going to let him die. He’s myonlyfriend in this place.”
Roan helped her sit up and settled her on his lap. She raised a half-hearted protest, but he ignored her. He needed the comfort of holding her in his arms. To think he could have lost her over such a foolish thing.
“Iwould be your friend, if only you would accept that you belong to me. If only you obeyed me, my rebellious little mortal.”
Kate burrowed her face against his chest, as if to seek his body heat. Though they were both soaking wet, he was by far the warmer of the two. He liked how she turned to him, even if it was for warmth and not comfort. She had offered him such comfort when he’d been wounded and weary. He wished to could the same for her now.
“Friends don’t order each other around,” Kate said.
Roan chuckled, wrapping his arms tight around her. After a moment, she lifted her head, her lips accidentally brushing his jaw as she looked up at him. Heat shot through his body at her lips touching his skin, but he held still. Her brown eyes were full of pain, a pain not of the body but of the soul.
“I saw something when the morgen sang to me.”
“What did you see?” he asked.
Kate paused, a tear rolling down her cheeks. “My mother.” That tear gleamed like a frozen dewdrop upon her skin.
He reached up and captured the tear, imbuing it with a silent healing enchantment, then stroked it across the scrape on her cheek.
“It must have been a memory I’d forgotten. I was so young when she died, and my dad remarried so soon. It felt like I just blinked and my mom was gone, and Sandra was in our lives. That memory... it was so clear.” Fresh tears clung to her lashes like diamonds. “Tell me that it was real, Roan. That somewhere deep within me I still have that memory, and it wasn’t just an illusion?” Her plea trembled in the air, and her distress made him restless.
Roan brushed the backs of his knuckles over her now healed cheek, wanting to soothe her.
“The morgens’ song can only unlock true memories, Kate,” he promised. “Whatever you saw while under their spell was real. That memory may be very deep, but it’s there. Sometimes our oldest memories are our strongest.”
Kate pressed her cheek against his chest again and remained quiet. It seemed she needed time to process all she had been through. One of her hands rested on his chest, her fingers stroking his skin.
“Did you see anything when they sang to you?” she asked after a long moment.
