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Kate glanced around, looking for any sign of a deadly creature, but all she saw were distant glowing lights that bobbed in the gloom.

The pale sunlight above them had vanished as night had come over the labyrinth.

The mesmerizing lights had become a beacon, showing her a way out.

Kate tried to keep her eyes upon the lights ahead and glanced down to where she put her feet with each careful step, but soon she was gazing straight ahead in a trance.

Sploosh! Her foot sank into the water as she stepped off the safety of the thick grassy path.

She screamed and fell forward into the water, which closed in around her up to her chest like quicksand.

Oh no... She knew in that panicked moment how the other creatures had died. She looked toward the lights in the distance.

“Help!” she shouted. “Help!”

But no one came. The water grew thicker, pulling her slowly downward. Despair threatened to drown her.

No, she’d come too far to let some stupid bog defeat her.

Kate shut her eyes, no longer looking at the lights. Instead, she stretched her hands out toward the grass that was so close she could feel the thin, crisp stalks brush her fingers.

“I don’t need the light to follow... I have my own.” She thought of all the moments in the last week where she had proven that she was strong. That she was enough. That she had a right to be here. It made her feel warm and bright inside.

The grasses tickling her fingertips began to thicken and the water around her moved, becoming more fluid, and she dared to kick her legs in a powerful stroke.

Her hand grasped a thick knot of grassy soil, and with a cry of triumph, she opened her eyes.

She was holding on to the narrow earthen pathway that she’d fallen off of.

She dragged herself onto the bank, her clothes drenched, her armor feeling as though it weighed a thousand pounds.

When she got back onto solid ground, she sat on her heels and took a moment to catch her breath.

Glaring at the distant lights in the darkness, Kate got to her feet, checked that her dagger was still at her hip, and continued her trek through the marshes. But this time she followed her feet and her instincts, not letting the tempting lights trick her.

For the next two weeks, Kate braved the vast span of the labyrinth.

Each time she turned down a new path, she battled her way through creatures or dangerous elements, striking out with her dagger, drawing blood when she had to, evading when she could.

With each deadly encounter, she lost more and more of her fear.

The paths she followed grew darker, the rocks sharper, the smells more rotted and decayed, as though death lingered in every shadow. But Kate wasn’t going to give up. Nothing could stop her.

Except, perhaps, a basilisk.

She came to a stop thirty feet from the entrance to a tunnel that called her name. Roan. Roan is in there somewhere. A vast serpentine creature lay coiled before the entrance, sleeping. Kate cursed under her breath. Her dagger would be of little use against something that big.

A raspy voice came from her right. “Close your eyes, girl! Close ’em!”

Patch stood rooted to the spot, his hands half raised as if to indicate she should be silent.

A bag of what she guessed were gems hung at his hip, which meant he’d been visiting the mines within the labyrinth, far deeper than he used to go.

Her relief at seeing her friend was cut short as she had to face the fact that they were in grave danger.

“Patch?”

“Shut up and shut your eyes, girl. Now! ” he urged.

The basilisk’s long body twitched, its tail flicking. From where it lay, it could see them easily, but not at the same time. Kate had to find a way to distract the basilisk if it woke up.

She took a step to the left, away from Patch, her blade clutched in her hand, even though it was useless against such a beast. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Patch waving frantically at her not to move, but he didn’t understand.

The snake was going to go after one of them.

.. unless she could find a way to stop it.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She carefully, slowly removed the breastplate of her armor.

If she could get the basilisk to stare at the armor, maybe the reflective surface would rebound the snake’s deadly, hypnotic gaze and freeze the beast. She raised the armor like a shield, moving toward the creature, her eyes careful not to make direct contact with it.

The snake’s eyes were closed, but suddenly the head lifted and its eyes opened.

Despite trying to be ready for it, it still startled her and she glanced right at its eyes.

Yellow slitted pupils stared at Kate before she could clamp her eyes shut.

A slow lethargy stole over her limbs as the snake uncoiled and came closer to her.

She was almost frozen now as the snake’s forked tongue flicked out into the air as though tasting her scent.

Sleep... sleep the long sleep of death. No more pain, no more anything.

The words circled around her, then slid deep within her.

The basilisk... it was the basilisk talking to her, Kate realized.

Such peace, little human. Don’t you wish for it? For quiet? For the end? I can give it to you.

Kate tried to move, but it was as though her feet had grown roots and trapped her in place. She tried desperately to remember what Patch had said about the basilisk and its poison. She couldn’t possibly fight this snake with a dagger and had no way to use its own poison to kill it.

Off to the side, she could hear Patch muttering.

“Come on, old boy. Just bloody move. You can save her. You’ve lived a good life, and it’s worth giving up for her.

” He was trying to convince himself to move, to draw the basilisk away from her.

Kate’s heart ached at the sweetness in the grumpy kobold’s voice, and it only deepened her resolve to keep him safe.

Surrender to me, little human. Let go of your fears. Let go of your worries. I shall take them all away...

The basilisk’s words struck something within her. Let go of my fear...

The longer she gazed at the beast, the more she realized she recognized it. The yellow slitted eyes turned blue, vibrant like a summer sky. Roan’s eyes.

This snake came from Roan. It was a manifestation of him, a part of him, one of the most dangerous parts. But she wasn’t afraid of Roan. She wasn’t afraid of his darkness.

“You have no power over me,” she said. “You are but a piece of the labyrinth... a piece of Roan. You cannot control me. Leave us and go.”

The basilisk blinked. For a long second it stared at her intensely, then it turned its head and slithered away, unblocking the path to the tunnel beyond. Kate, free of the spell that had held her frozen, crumpled to her knees, her arms shaking. Patch rushed over, staring at her with wide eyes.

“Took you long enough. Where have you been, girl?” Before she could speak, he’d wrapped her in a hug. Kate laughed to keep from crying.

“Sorry I’m late,” she replied.

“Better late than never coming back at all, I suppose.” He let go of her and fixed his lopsided hat. “You’ve come here to save him, haven’t you?”

“Yes. Do you know the way?”

He shook his head. “No, ’fraid not. No one does. Everything’s changed, it has.”

“What are you doing so deep in the labyrinth?” she asked. “You said you always kept to the outskirts.”

“My brothers started digging deeper and deeper inside, moving their mines farther in because gems were becoming scarce. I warned ’em, but they wouldn’t listen. I had to follow.”

“I saw Magda,” Kate said.

The kobold grinned. “Ah, she’s done well since you left, girl. Very well. Got herself respect among the palace trolls, and now she leads them without fear into the labyrinth.” He was quiet a moment. “That’s because of you, Kate.”

Kate’s heart clenched as a wave of emotion swelled within her. “And how about you, Patch?”

“What about me?” he asked.

Kate wasn’t sure exactly what she was asking, but she didn’t dare admit that she’d missed him. He seemed to understand, and he grinned again.

“There’ll be time for you to hug me later, girl. You have a king to save. Now, concentrate. You’ll find the way.”

“You said I’d never find the center,” she reminded him, trying to tease him. But this time his gaze turned solemn and his smile faded as he reached out and gently clasped her hand.

“That was then,” he said. “Things change. You’ve changed.

You’re Kate of the Winslows now. You just stopped a basilisk from killing us both.

If anyone can find the center, it’ll be you.

” He said it with such sincerity that Kate had to stop herself from hugging him again.

He believed in her. Everyone believed in her.

“You know the way. Just trust yourself.” He gave her a gentle push toward the tunnel she’d been trying to reach before she’d encountered the basilisk.

It was much like the one that led to the Crystal Cave. A tremor of hope clenched in her chest. If this was the same cave, perhaps it could help her like it did before. She had to believe.

“Don’t fail me now,” she whispered as she stepped into the darkness. She held on to the memory of Roan as he let her glimpse his shining form, the light that glowed around him like the most powerful starlight ever seen. The memory of that light kept the hope within her burning on.

Her hands became her eyes as she felt for the closest wall and took careful steps forward. No glowing crystals or luminescent glowworms yet. It felt like hours passed before the darkness gave way to something that shone with a distant light.

She began to peel away her armor, piece by piece within the dark as she walked toward the light. It had protected her, but now she was certain she did not need it any longer. She no longer feared the labyrinth, because she didn’t fear Roan.