Page 57 of The Lord of the Labyrinth

It was a trap! Kate scrambled for the door, but it shut and bolted before she reached it. Kate turned and gaped at the woman. She looked to be in her mid-twenties, and the gown she wore was made of silver-and-gold satin. Pearls were threaded into her hair, and a diadem of silver stars and moonflowers adorned her brow.

The woman chuckled. “Kate of the Winslows. We meet again.”

“We’ve met before?” Kate asked.

The Fae’s blue eyes sparkled with mischief. “We certainly have. Not that you would remember. I’m afraid you were unconscious at the time. Traveling through the realms can be overwhelming to mortals. My brother landed in the middle of his throne room with you in his arms.”

Kate let that sink in and then she gasped. “So Roan is your brother?”

“Yes, my elder brother. I’m Eudora Moondove.”

“Not Eudora Arun?” Kate asked curiously.

“Among the Fae, females have equal standing. We female Fae keep our matrilineal names, and the males take patrilineal names. My mother was Thalia Moondove, and my father was Bahden Arun.”

“Men and women are equals here?” The irony didn’t escape her that she’d had to travel to a land of myth to finally find more equality between the sexes.

“Oh yes.” Eudora smiled softly. “Now about my brother... He can be so delightfully broody. He said very little of his plans for you and simply shooed me out of his bedchamber. And then the next thing I heard is that he’d put you in the labyrinth, and he gave me charge of your little brother.”

“Caden is here?” Kate spun around, hoping she’d find her brother in some corner of the room waiting to shoutsurprise, but deep down she knew he wouldn’t be there.

“He is with Rath, who is Roan’s dearest friend. You can be assured that he will see to Caden’s care.”

“Oh please, can’t I see him? I’ve been so worried?—”

The Fae princess tutted and waved Kate over to sit beside her on the plush bed. Kate sat down, and the woman grasped one of Kate’s hands, gently squeezing it.

“You mortals. Always in such a hurry. He’s all right, my dear Kate. I swear it.”

Kate’s chest tightened as her panic flared again. “But Roan left him in the dungeons...”

“No, he didn’t. My beast of a brother only wanted you tothinkthat so he could make you do what he wished. He would never have left the poor boy down there.”

“But I did do what he wanted...sort of.” She didn’t want to tell Roan’s sister about how foolish she’d been to fall for him and sleep with him. That he somehow captivated her so completely when she was with him that it was impossible to think of anything or anyone else.

“Well, you wouldn’t be the first female to bend to his wishes, just the first human one who made it far more difficult for him to get what he wanted. I imagine it must be an unsettling thing to have to obey my brother’s whims. I can quite understand why you resisted. Males always believe they have a right to us, don’t they? And always, they are quite wrong and try to force us to do as they wish.”

Kate hadn’t really thought about it like that, but Roan had just thrown her into the labyrinth on a whim because he wasn’t pleased she didn’t want to stay and be his little human pet forever. It almost made her laugh to think of Roan throwing a Fae king–level tantrum when she’d refused his order to wait naked in his bed. Kate wasn’t someone who felt smug very often, but she did in that moment. She’d rejected Roan’s demands and had made love with him onherterms.

“Now... Please do not be offended, but I wish to fix your clothes,” said Eudora. ”All that mud is bothering me and... Is that blood?”

Kate glanced down at herself. Her jeans were torn at the knees, and she had wiped her bloody hands on them during her climb, which left reddish-brown stains in places. Her sweater and part of her jeans had mud streaks.

Eudora marveled at her appearance. “Good gracious, what on earth have you been up to, little mortal?”

“I... um... climbed the rocks by the sea to get into the palace.”

Eudora gasped. “Youwhat?”

Maybe Kate shouldn’t have said anything, but she wanted to trust Eudora. “I climbed,” she repeated.

“I hadn’t actually given any thought to how you got inside the palace, but climbing? You could have died, Kate. Even in our land, death is quite permanent.”

“I had to make sure my brother was safe.” Kate realized what she’d done had been very risky, but making sure Caden was okay, seeing that he was safe and well cared for with her own eyes? That was worth it.

Eudora lifted Kate’s hands, turning them over and frowning when she saw the cuts and abrasions.

“Well, that won’t do, will it?” She closed her eyes, and a warm tingling moved through Kate’s body. The cuts healed and the scrapes vanished.

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