“Don’t fail me now,” she whispered as she stepped into the darkness. She held on to the memory of Roan as he let her glimpse his shining form, the light that glowed around him like the most powerful starlight ever seen. The memory of that light kept the hope within her burning on.
Her hands became her eyes as she felt for the closest wall and took careful steps forward. No glowing crystals or luminescent glowworms yet. It felt like hours passed before the darkness gave way to something that shone with a distant light.
She began to peel away her armor, piece by piece within the dark as she walked toward the light. It had protected her, but now she was certain she did not need it any longer. She no longer feared the labyrinth, because she didn’t fear Roan.
When the tunnel ended and she left the vast darkness behind her, she found herself in a courtyard. Decaying, wilted flowers covered the beds that she guessed must have once been filled with wildflowers. An elegant stone fountain covered one wall of the courtyard, but it was empty and a century of dust covered everything that Kate could see. Her heart broke at the thought of how beautiful this place must have once been before Roan had...
She shook herself free of that painful thought.
What lay in the center of the garden was what held Kate’s attention most. A four-poster bed stood alone, far from everything else.
Kate knew with certainty that this bed was the very center of the labyrinth.
It pulled her closer with the force of cosmic gravity. The bedposts were laced with a thick draping of spiderwebs, concealing whatever lay upon the bed. But it could only be one person.
Kate took another step. She saw a statue of a gray dog lying beside the bed. Its head lay on its paws as if asleep. The dog suddenly moved, sounding like stone grinding upon stone as it looked at her.
It wasn’t a statue. It was alive. A growl of warning came from the dog, then died away. The dog cocked its head at her as though it recognized her. She recalled what Eudora had said, that Rath had gone with the queen to guard Roan in his enchanted sleep. Rath’s wild form was that of a black dog, wasn’t it? Wasn’t that what Caden had said?
“It’s me... Kate,” she whispered to the dog, then nodded to what lay hidden beyond the cobwebs of the bed. “He’s in there, isn’t he? ”
The dog stood, shaking his fur. A century of dust floated into the air, changing its color from gray to black. Then the dog slowly came toward her, his paws making no sound upon the soil. Kate held her breath as the dog nuzzled one of her hands. Then he pressed his nose into her palm.
A sudden wave of images filled her mind.
Roan collapsed as Kate vanished in a blinding beam of light. Rath held his friend in his arms as Thalia appeared on the battlefield. Thalia cast an ancient enchantment over Roan, falling like golden dust on his skin, halting the progress of the cursed magic in his body but unable to cure him.
The years passed. The walls crumbled, flowers withered into dust, water vanished, trees decayed and fell to the earth. The ivy shrank into dry husks and fell away. All that had once made the labyrinth a dark and beautiful place vanished as the century rolled forward. This place that had once been untouched by time had now been conquered by it.
Kate’s lips parted in shock as the vision faded. The black dog changed before her eyes into the weary form of Rath.
“Eudora hoped you’d come...” he rasped, his voice hoarse after a century of silence. “We all did.” He placed a trembling hand upon her shoulder. “Please, bring my friend back to me,” he pleaded. “And I will owe you a fairy’s debt.”
Kate nodded. She had to. She would find a way.
With careful fingers, she pushed the delicate layers of webs away from the bed, revealing Roan’s sleeping form, still as death upon the bed.
Her love’s skin was pale, his eyes closed. A faint patchwork of black veins could still be seen on his neck and hands. His fingers were folded around the pommel of a sword that lay lengthwise upon his body, a warrior king lying in death’s bittersweet repose.
Even now, he was still beautiful to her, still filled her heart with such a deep longing that could fill up centuries with her need to be with him. How could it be that her virile, strong, stubborn love had been asleep for a hundred years?
“I came back,” she whispered to him, thinking foolishly that her words would wake him. But he didn’t stir.
Kate lifted her face to the moon. Its gentle power, weaker than it had been before, still soothed her skin. She unwound Roan’s fingers from his sword and brought one of his cold hands up to her cheek. It took her a long moment to find the strength to speak past the pain in her throat.
“You’re the reason I’m here, Roan. I chose to stay, even as you forced me to leave you. I would choose you over all the lives I might’ve lived in my world. If there’s one thing I learned about being human while I’ve been here, it’s that my stubbornness and my determination can be one of my greatest strengths. And if I have to sit here at your side for a thousand years to bring you back, that’s what I’ll do.” She kissed his knuckles and gazed at his serene face. The proud, beautiful Fae king had become her world and had given her his heart. She just had to find a way to save it.
“I found the heart of the labyrinth. Keep your bargain with me, Lord of the Labyrinth. You promised to send me home. Keep your promise.”
You are my home,she thought with all her heart.Come back to me.
The world was quiet. Nothing moved, not even a breeze rustling the dead flowers.
“Please... show me how to save you,” Kate whispered. “Please...”
A single drop of rain fell upon her nose. Dozens of other drops followed as rain clouds eclipsed the moon.
Rain... rain like tears.Tears!
