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Closing her eyes, she turned away from the chamber, reached for the wall, and hurried forward.

Illusions were twisted games played on the mind, she told herself. Nothing more. An attempt to force a person to believe something that isn’t true.

Her fingertips hit the corner of the corridor where it turned left, toward the king’s prison. When she opened her eyes, there was no corner, just a stretch of endless corridor.

Kate snickered, pleased that she’d figured it out, closed her eyes again, and followed the wall to the left. When she was a few steps down the new corridor, she risked opening her eyes again.

This stretch glowed from torches mounted on the gilded walls. The golden, lattice-work ceiling allowed sunlight to filter through winding ivy. Familiar. When she glanced over her shoulder, she noticed the air wavering at the entrance, the illusion a translucent veil and nothing more.

A smile creeped over her mouth. She sprinted down this corridor, the connecting path she recalled led to the king’s chambers. After all, she’d spent enough time in that horrid room, observing the tortured man suspended in a prison of blue flames.

This had to work. It was the hope she’d clung to since coming up with this plan. She prayed the children were safe. Prayed that she’d make it to Dagda before she was caught.

Prayed…

“You fool! Why did you leave her?!”

The bellowing shout from one of the guards followed her down the corridor, pushing her faster. She reached the bend and swung around the corner as one of the guards ran past the illusion. No way was she about to count on her luck. It would be only a matter of time before they backtracked and realized she’d found the adjoining corridor.

Kate pushed her legs to move faster, forcing her lungs not to fail her with each labored breath. The echo of her heart thumping in her chest resonated inside her skull. All she saw was the Fae king trapped in that blue fire cage. Her hope. Her beacon of light in this suffocating darkness.

The maze of corridors and stairways finally delivered her to the very chamber she sought. No more shouts. No threat of being found.

She didn’t stop until she burst through the doors and slammed them shut behind her.

Kate bent over, bracing her hands on her knees as she leaned against the doors, sucking in as much air as her aching lungs could hold. Her legs trembled beneath her weight. Her head spun.

But she’d made it.

Still struggling to catch her breath, she lifted her head. There, where it had been since Daeanna created it, the silent blue-flame cage. Within the confines, the angelic creature of a man, his gold-spun hair hanging over his head, draped down to his waist. Porcelain white robes with delicate gold threadwork. He hung, suspended, limbs limp and dangling.

The small circle of crimson where the tip of that dagger exited his chest.

“What did I agree to be part of?” Kate whispered, crossing the room to the fiery cage. The flames did not emanate any heat, deceptive in their presentation.

When she lifted her gaze to the king’s head, she gasped.Two sun-bright eyes stared back at her, the thoughts in them unreadable. She stumbled back a step, shocked by how fiercely his gaze latched onto her, leaving her self-conscious in her own skin. If there were ever a time she felt the need to flee, Dagda ignited that need.

His presence overwhelmed. Intensified.

One chance. You can’t run now.

“You’re Dagda, am I right?” she said, and immediately wanted to smack herself on the forehead. Especially after the king narrowed that blazing gaze on her. “Something terrible has happened. Will happen. It involves your daughter.”

His lips pulled back in a vicious scowl. “You come to seek my attention in this matter? For what reason?”

Kate blinked. In all the times she’d been in this room with Daeanna, she’d never heard the man speak. She didn’t think hecouldspeak, impaled as he was by the magical dagger. His voice was deep and hypnotic, even laced with an edge of ice.

“For what reason? Your daughter has kidnapped five children, one the infant of the very man she’s determined to get back. The other four children are hiding in a chamber Daeanna has held me prisoner in. I managed to escape the guards and reach you in hopes you can stop her before she causes more damage and death. I fear for those innocent children.”

The king chuckled—chuckled!—and glanced down at his chest. “Well, mortal. Are you willing to take a gamble and set me free? Only then will you find out whether I can stop her or not. If you aren’t willing to take the risk, then you waste your time here speaking to lame ears.”

Dagda closed his eyes and lowered his head, ending the conversation.

Steeling her nerves, Kate rounded the cell to the king’s back and hesitated. Magic fire encased him. Though no heatcame off the cage, she wasn’t about to believe the flames were cold. In fact, if the colors of the flames denoted heat, her arms would be burned to crisps within a few breaths of contact.

The children need you to help save them, whatever the sacrifice.

The chamber doors swung wide. Four guards rushed into the room.