Page 69 of The Lord of the Labyrinth

Babbitt and Kate materialized by the sea, the sand shimmering like diamond dust around them as the waves rolled in.

“Stay here, Mistress Kate!” Babbitt vanished, leaving Kate to stare up at the towering palace of the Twilight Court.

“Kate?” A deep, familiar voice had her spinning around. Patch and Magda were rushing across the sandy beach toward her. She embraced the troll and even hugged the ever-grumpy kobold.

“What happened, girl? The earth is speaking to me... it screams of blood and death,” the kobold said. “Something bad’s happened, hasn’t it?”

“The Seelie attacked the dwarves,” said Kate. “Roan sent me with Babbitt. I was supposed to hide with Eudora and Rath, but?—”

The brownie reappeared on the beach, but she wasn’t alone. Lady Eudora and Rath were with her. Behind them was a small boy with blond hair and large, worried eyes. The child unsettled her. There was something about him that Kate didn’t like.

“Kate, where is this cave you spoke of?” Eudora asked.

“Over there.” Kate pointed to the cave entrance, half hidden in the distance.

“Everyone inside the cave, now,” Rath ordered. He scooped the child into his arms, and they all ran for the shelter of the cave entrance. Eudora clutched a silver bow, and a quiver of arrows was strapped to her back. Gone was the princess’s beautiful crown and dress. Instead, she wore a white shirt tucked into black trousers, along with a slender silver chest plate. A fierce light filled her eyes. She was a Fae warrior princess.

“I should be at Roan’s side,” Eudora said, her usually soft voice now steeled with resolve. “But he has commanded us to protect you and Caden, which means keeping far away from the battle.”

“Caden?” Kate said the name, not knowing who the Fae princess meant.

Eudora’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, Caden. Your brother.” She pointed at the boy Rath had been carrying, now back on his own feet. The boy was staring at her, just as confused as she was.

“I don’t have a brother,” Kate said. “I don’t have...” She was certain she had no brother... she was certain she didn’t even have a family. She had no family, no one... except Roan. But that didn’t make sense. Surely she’d had a father. A mother... Was she an orphan? Why couldn’t she remember her parents... or even the lack of them?

“Kate?” The little boy reached for her hand. “You don’t remember me?”

Kate jerked away from the child and stepped back. “No. I don’t know you... I mean... please leave me alone.” She didn’t want to look at those eyes staring at her with such pain.

A sudden throbbing in her head made her wince and close her eyes.

“How could he do this?” Eudora hissed at Rath. “He’s robbed her of her memories.”

That didn’t make sense. Roan wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t even possible. Was it?

“We have no time to worry about that now. Follow me, everyone. We need to put distance between us and the palace,” Rath said. The glowworms above them began to shine, pulsing as they pointed inward, away from the cave opening.

The tall Fae warrior led the way, following the glowworm trail that lit a winding path through the cave. They walked in single file, but Kate fell behind, looking back at the distant cave entrance one more time. She couldn’t just leave Roan like this... but there was no way to get back. It would take too long to scale the cliffside again, and most likely he wasn’t even in the palace anymore. War had come to the land of magic.

“Roan, be careful,” she breathed.

When she turned back to follow the others, they were gone. She was alone in the dark caves.

“What? How?” Kate asked. She’d only looked away a moment. They couldn’t have gotten that far. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Eudora! Patch! Magda!” The silence was punctuated by the sound of dripping water from a great distance.

“No,” she whispered. “No... no, no...” She looked back toward the cave entrance, but it had vanished as well. She was lost... in the dark.

Kate ran blindly through the caves, shouting their names. Her hands got scraped whenever she collided against a wall in the dark or stumbled over the jutting crystals. Their once vibrant green glow had faded to a dull milky white and was barely visible.

“Help!” Kate shouted until her voice grew hoarse. When she stopped, her legs shook hard enough that she could barely keep moving. Had she been here for hours? Days?

She lost all sense of time as she leaned against one of the walls and sank down to sit on the floor. Despair filled her, making it hard to breathe. She was alone, with no way out and no way to help Roan. Even the glowworms had abandoned her, their lights so dull far above her that she wondered if she’d ever see them shine again.

This way,a voice whispered in the dark.This way...

The glowworms above her began to pulse brighter, like newborn stars in the night sky. As if in a dream, she moved in the direction of the voice. The dark world around her transformed into a silver forest of ghostly aspen trees and a mist that reflected shimmering mirages of herself in every direction.

Where was she? The cave was gone. She was alone in a forest she’d never seen before. Was this part of the labyrinth?

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