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“No! I won’t go. I’m staying with you .” Kate cupped Roan’s face as that beautiful and often frightening intensity started to fade from his gaze.

It terrified her. She was losing him. Just like she lost her mother.

.. her father. And she couldn’t go with him; the faraway look in his eyes warned her of that bitter truth.

“We’re in this together,” Kate said, her voice breaking. “I’m yours. You can’t just leave me... You can’t .”

“It’s all right,” Roan whispered. “You will be all right, little one. You are brave and compassionate. There is no realm you cannot conquer with your love. Whatever happens next, you will be all right.” Roan held her wrists as he held her gaze. “Forgive me...”

“Forgive you?” Kate’s heart was fracturing like a sheet of ice. Each word he spoke sent deep cracks echoing through her.

“I stole your memories.” He touched a pink crystal that hung around his neck.

“I thought you would be happy if you no longer had that darkness within you... because I didn’t want that darkness within me.

I thought…if you had no one else to love…

you might love me and stay…” Roan’s eyes held a thousand years of sorrow.

“But it was wrong to take them from you, wrong to take your choice away. I’ve never been worthy of you… ”

“I know what you did, Roan.” Kate stroked her fingers along the lines of his jaw, trying to soothe him. “Your mother told me, right before she gave them back.”

Roan’s eyes widened in shock.

“My mother?” His focus on her broke as he looked around the battlefield, but she wasn’t there. She still dwelt in the mists of time. “Where is she?” He looked so young then, as young as a Fae king ever could, as his face lit up with a moment of hope.

“I was separated from Eudora and the others in the Crystal Cave. She brought me to her, in a silver forest covered with mist,” Kate said.

“She said it was a place out of time. She told me what you’d done.

.. but I forgave you. I chose to come back for you, even knowing what you’d done.

” She hated admitting that, but she wanted only truth between her and Roan.

“I never should have taken them from you. They belong with you... they are part of you. That is what makes you strong. I didn’t realize that until now.

” The pain and regret in his beautiful blue eyes nearly tore her very world apart.

If she’d ever doubted a dark Fae king could have a heart, this was her proof that Roan did.

He let out a weary sigh, and the glow of his eyes dimmed a little more like a star’s light fading out.

Kate felt so helpless; just as she could not aid a dying star in the distant sky, she could do nothing to help Roan now. It didn’t stop her from trying, though. She’d believed Thalia when she’d said that Kate could save Roan. She just didn’t know how .

“You can’t go. Your mother said I could save you. I came back to save you.” Kate could barely speak—her throat felt like she’d swallowed glass shards.

“You have already saved me.” Roan’s words were breathless, like an ancient forest breathing in soft sighs.

Only now did she realize that Eudora and Rath had arrived, standing behind Babbitt, Patch, and Magda. And clutching Eudora’s hand was Caden... her brother. She wasn’t alone. They were all here when she needed them the most.

Remembering how she’d forgotten Caden, even for so brief a time, was strange and painful. How she’d pulled away from him, not wanting to touch him, not wanting to remember. Now her hands ached to hold him close.

Caden pulled free of Eudora to come kneel beside her. “What’s wrong with him, Kate?”

“I don’t know...” Kate looked up at Roan’s best friend and his sister, wishing they had answers.

Rath had his arms around Eudora now. Tears stained the princess’s face, and Rath looked as if his sorrow would forever leave its mark upon his face.

“Is there nothing we can do?” Kate asked them.

Roan smiled sadly and answered for them.

“There is not, my darling Kate. I used a cursed ring to draw Culan to his death. It is a magic too dark for even your light. It won’t be long now.

..” He managed a wry smile. “I never imagined what it would be like to die... But if it meant saving you, I would do it again in every life I am given.”

He steeled himself and grasped her hands. “I have just enough power left to send you and Caden home.”

“No. Save your strength. I’m not leaving you.” She pressed her forehead to his. “I’m not .”

Roan closed his eyes and Kate pressed her lips to his, soft and sweet as she fought off a sob. She belonged right here with him.

Roan’s lips trembled against hers before he pulled away. “That is why you must go. You have a life, and now you must live it. I should never have stolen you and brought you here.”

Kate remembered what Thalia had shown her, what would have happened to his world if she had never come here. He was wrong. By bringing her here he had given her a chance to save this world and him. She just had to find the way. His eyes closed as he drew in a shallow breath.

“I have no regrets, Roan. None ,” she promised him. “If I had the choice, I would ask you to bring me here all over again. You don’t need to hide your true self from me, Roan. The light or the shadow. I love you for who you are. I always have.”

His eyes opened and he stared at her. “I will love you to the beginning of all there is and back again. No matter what happens, my love for you will stretch beyond time. Now, kiss me, Kate, before you go, so that I may leave this life with the memory of your lips.”

Roan reached up and threaded his fingers through her hair at the nape of her neck and held on to her as he slanted his mouth over hers.

The kiss was lightning from a summer storm, crashing waves upon a rocky shore.

It was the flutter of a butterfly’s wings upon one’s skin.

It was the beginning of everything, and yet it tasted so bittersweetly of the end.

Kiss me, Kate...

The world began to spin around her. She felt herself being ripped away from Roan.

The battlefield and the labyrinth became a wild blur.

Streaks of colorful light shot past her, the roar of the winds of time deafened her ears, and she could barely breathe.

She screamed Roan’s name, but he, and the rest of his world, was already gone.