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Chapter Eleven

The bride discovered that the trolls, creatures without beauty, had the voices to sing and make the dryads weep at their sonorous songs.

—Anon., Tales from the Twilight Court

A song woke Kate from sleep, and the voice that sang was soft and deep. She reached instinctively for Roan, but he was gone, just like last time.

Kate drowsily sat up, her eyes taking in the rhythmic pulse of the glowworms and cave crystals as a beautiful, melancholy tune continued. The words were in a language Kate did not understand and somehow filled her mind with the image of the bright and beautiful moon high in the sky.

She pushed back the blankets, dressed quickly, and wandered through the cave in the direction of the song. She found Patch sitting on a rock that was low to the ground, a spellbound expression on his face as he watched Magda.

The troll was the source of the intense, beautiful song.

Kate sat beside Patch and listened as the song’s deep notes vibrated the air around them. She felt such peace just sitting and listening to the troll sing. Magda held her arms up to the sky, even though they were in a cave, but a brightness glowed from above, lighting her upturned face.

Kate looked up and saw hundreds of glowworms, their glow keeping time with the song. Magda spun in a slow circle, rocking back and forth on her booted feet as she sang. Kate once more saw images in her head, but this time they played out like a movie.

Magda was facing the other trolls, frozen in place as they began to hurl stones at her. She had accepted her fate. She was too small, too unlike the others of her clan, and she deserved to die.

Then sunlight flashed across the blade of a dagger. A dagger belonging to King Arun. The rain of rocks stopped.

Kate gasped as she saw herself through Magda’s eyes.

A tiny human who challenged the trolls and then, while they were confused, came to Magda and held her hand out to her.

It was a gesture of friendship and trust, so sacred among the Fae that Magda was overcome with emotion.

A stranger had saved her and offered her the precious gift of friendship. Then that new friend had been hurt.

The troll’s song deepened as rage, sorrow, and fear for Kate’s safety colored the visions the song produced.

Kate’s lips trembled. She felt what Magda had felt when they had entered the cave. Magda’s desperate need when she’d called for Lord Arun’s help. Her hope and fear as she guided him to the cave to save Kate.

So that was how he knew I was hurt.

Magda ended her song, and her arms dropped back to her sides. She turned toward Kate, a solemn look of relief on her face.

“Kate is back,” Magda said in her slow, solemn voice.

Patch gave a start as he only now realized Kate was sitting next to him.

“Oh! Glad to see you back, girl. After Lord Arun took you to the healing pools, you both vanished. Magda said she felt you close by, but neither of us could see you. We hoped you would show up at some point.” He turned away from her to wipe a tear from his eyes, then clapped his hands together as he stood, trying to act like everything was back to normal.

Kate smiled at Patch, still shaken by the power of Magda’s song. “Does that mean you missed me? Worried about me?”

“Me?” Patch scoffed. “Hardly. But I promised Magda I would wait to see if you came back. She rather likes you and doesn’t want you to get hurt.”

Kate hid a smile. She had a feeling that Patch liked her too but didn’t want to admit it. “I actually didn’t go anywhere. Roan made us invisible to you.”

The kobold’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Well, what do you expect from a Fae king? You finally figured out pleasing him wasn’t so bad, eh ?” He snorted as he retrieved his bag of gemstones from the ground.

Kate’s face burned with a hot blush. “Um...”

She glanced between him and Magda, trying to change the subject.

“So, do either of you know the way out of here?” The moment the question left her lips, she saw the glowworms pulsing strangely above her, as if forming a tunnel of light that was darker where she, Magda, and Patch stood, and grew brighter down in the distance.

“The glowworms... they’re showing us where to go!” Kate realized as she pointed in the direction of the brightest light.

“So we’re asking worms for directions now?” Patch grumbled as Kate and Magda started toward the well-lit tunnel.

As the three of them walked in silence, Kate felt intensely grateful that she was not alone. She had friends. Patch could have left her a long time ago but hadn’t. And Magda was a lot like her, an outcast. She smiled a little at the thought of how her two friends had stayed with her.

It made her think of home and her friends in high school.

Those relationships had remained superficial.

Whenever she’d felt herself looking forward to seeing someone too much, whenever her joy at the sight of their face became too noticeable, she’d pull up her walls.

It was better—safer—so she couldn’t get hurt again.

Like with her mother. And then her father.

I kept myself from making real friends because I was afraid.

It seemed so silly to think that she’d feared her friends would simply abandon her.

They had left after graduation, but she hadn’t actually lost them as friends.

They had even called her every week to see how college was going.

Yet she’d always convinced herself she was alone, even when that hadn’t been the truth.

Life at home had been so easy in some ways, and she’d been so blind to that fact. She had faced death at least twice here, and she was beholden to the rules of a dark Fae king who desired her. It kind of put her situation back home in perspective.

Heat rolled through her body when she remembered how much Roan had desired her last night and how much she’d wanted him too. She was still sore, but it felt good in a way she couldn’t explain. Maybe it was because she’d let nothing hold her back last night. She’d finally felt free.

Her thoughts turned from Roan back to the labyrinth. Here everything was beautiful and dangerous. Here she could lose everything, including her life. But she had to continue, for Caden’s sake. He needed her.

A sudden thought pierced her like a dagger.

She’d been so worried about others leaving her that she hadn’t realized she’d done the same thing to her brother when she’d made that wish for Roan to take her away from her life.

She’d willingly left Caden behind, at least in her own secret wishes, without a thought as to how that would make him feel.

She fought off the wave of sickness in her stomach.

And then she’d managed to get him stuck in this realm with her.

Now she had to find a way through the labyrinth and get him home, no matter how scared she felt.

I can’t let fear stop me.

She hadn’t let fear rule her when she had saved Patch from the morgens or when she’d rescued Magda. She had refused to let fear take over because someone had needed her.

When I got hurt, they were here for me . They called Roan to help me. They waited for me, even though they weren’t sure I’d come back. That’s what friendship is.

Her affection for the grumpy kobold and the quiet troll only deepened. They really were her friends, no matter what Patch may grumble in disagreement.

The tunnel widened slightly now, and Magda gestured for Kate and Patch to wait as she scouted up ahead.

The faint scent of sea salt tingled Kate’s nose.

Were they near an ocean? She thought she remembered Patch mentioning that the Crystal Cave was by the sea.

Surely they hadn’t traveled so far across the vast labyrinth so quickly. ..

“Magda, do you see the ocean?” Kate asked. The glowworms’ light began to fade, and a natural light slowly grew brighter ahead. She could see Magda already returning to them.

“Yes, the ocean is ahead,” Magda said.

How was that possible? The sea was far north and east of the labyrinth, based on what she’d seen when she’d first entered the towering gates.

They followed Magda back toward the surface. Soon, they all stepped around a bend in the tunnel as it opened to face the sea.

Kate stared in awe at the dark-blue waters crashing along the rocky shoreline, which sent a cascade of foamy water up into the air.

The cave gave way to a beach with fine white sand for about fifty yards until it reached the rocks in the water.

To the right, the coastline continued for miles, with tall cliffs beyond the sand and the beaches.

But to the left was the palace... Roan’s palace. .. where Caden was.

“Patch, how did we get here?” she asked the kobold.

Patch stared up at the towering edifice of the rocky base that led to the palace of the Twilight Court with surprise.

“I don’t know. Must be wizard magic. This cave led to the sea in the northeast where the Twilight Court is, but when we entered it, we were on the fringe of the labyrinth to the southwest...” He scratched his beard, deep in thought.

“We go to the palace?” Magda asked Kate.

“Yes!” Kate exclaimed at the same time Patch shouted, “No!”

“ Yes. ” Kate shot the kobold a look. “We are. My brother is in there, and I need to see him. Roan had him locked up in the dungeons the last time that I was here.”

Patch wagged a finger at Kate. “Lord Arun wants you in the labyrinth, girl. He?—”

“He won’t know I’m here. I’ll just sneak in.”

Patch groaned. “You don’t sneak into a fortress, girl. That’s what this is. A Fae fortress. It has spells to ward off those who wish the palace and its inhabitants harm. You won’t make it through.”

Kate studied the palace a moment. “Well, I don’t mean anyone in the palace any harm, do I? If anything, I care about the welfare of someone inside, which is like the opposite, right? I should be able to walk right in.”

Patch glared at her. “Just wait until Lord Arun hears about this...”