S:

"Sarah," a hypnotic drawl as he weaves a crystal before my eyes, "I'll take you to the castle." He holds out the crystal with deft, gloved fingers, and I realize he wants me to reach for it.

In his eyes swim flashes of predatory design. The pupils grip me, and I am afraid but am also filled with a desire to challenge, or to embrace whatever nature moves this strange man. Opaque, half-formed urges battle deep within. I blink, trying to sort out my instincts.

He is close enough to touch me, one hand still offering the crystal. The other slips against my cheek and removes a strand of long hair from my eye. My mouth opens slightly in response to his subtle gesture.

"Sarah, love, you'll have to trust me."

Something familiar in the air between us makes me reach for the crystal. I squeeze my eyes shut hoping I have not done something horrible. Oh, God, what if he...?

"Look, we've arrived, Sarah. Open your eyes," a regal but tender command. His touch on my shoulder.

"But where's Toby?! She said he'd be here!" I exclaim, relieved that he kept his word, yet still afraid to trust—this could all be some clever illusion. If he had truly kept his word, wouldn't my brother be here?

"Listen, I don't know what she said to you. But I can guess who she is. As much as I would like it to be, this is not my labyrinth."

"...then this is a trick," I cut in, my worst suspicions confirmed.

"It may be a trick, but it's not mine. And I fear it is something worse than a trick," he explains with patent earnestness as he paces around an empty throne room.

I look away from his fierce gaze in order to examine everything—the discarded cloaks and bits of hay, yellow stone walls cluttered with pots and pans. The dais. Wait...

"Why do I feel I've been here before?"

"You have. You stormed my castle once many years ago."

"How is that possible? That would have meant I was only a child!"

"No, no, Sarah. I need you to understand," he pinches his nose. The doubt flooding his eyes catches me off guard—was he wrestling with himself somehow?

"I need to understand..." he continues, but fails to meet my eye.

"If I've been here before, then what's behind that door?" I nod in the direction of a stone arch, leading to a staircase. "How big is your castle? You could be hiding him."

I can feel it. This man has hidden something from me before. He could just as well be doing it now. My train of thought diverges, as flashes of images start to tease the corners of my vision.

"Hey, wait, I think I'm remembering!" Excitement washes over me, "Yes it was here. Yes, I was here. Just like this. Exactly like this. Only, you weren't here...you were..." I look to the archway and make sure he follows my line of sight, "there, waiting for me."

"Go on, what else do you remember?" he asks in a low, hushed, almost threatening tone. Goosebumps spill down my arms.

"You were speaking. Trying to distract me. And I was calling out." I can tell the look on my face disturbs him.

"You don't remember what I said to you?"

What an odd question. The look on his face waxes inscrutable.

"No...no...you just wanted to stop me. You wanted him! You wanted my baby brother!" Realization dawns.

I run for the archway, knowing full well, I have been naïve to trust the Goblin King. Of course Toby must be there in the room beyond. I have to get to him.

"This is all a trick! I have to save Toby!" I shout as I cross the threshold. But once crossed, everything swirls and changes.

I gasp, toes inches from the edge of a stone ledge. To my right, a stairway takes me down. I scramble as fast as I can, calling for my brother all the while.

I keep calling, climb multiple staircases, but after several minutes grow silent. Something isn't right. This isn't like the last time. This isn't how I remember.

His silhouette startles me from the darkness of a nearby arch. Breath catching, I notice he is wearing dark red under leather armor, with the feral spark in his eyes both tempered and enhanced by the serious expression on his brow.

"So you haven't found your baby brother? What a pity."

The click of his boots as he approaches me my heart skip.

"This isn't like last time."

"None of this is like last time."

"What do you want?" I ask, helplessness and desperation edging into my tone.

"To help you," he raises his eyebrows at me and bares his canine teeth in a pained smile.

"But you've tricked me. I should have never accepted your help in the first place," I back away, but he advances.

"No, this time, she tricked you."

I stare, lost, entirely lost.

"She was the one who told you to find your baby brother here, isn't that so?"

I nod, feeling more and more like a child in front of him.

"But you've come to the castle. And he isn't here."

"You say that because you want him for yourself," I retort with waning conviction.

"Forget the baby, Sarah, this time I've come for you. And you are very lost. We both are. Yet I suspect we are closer to what we seek than what it would first appear. Hear me out, won't you?" The soft plea in his last words strikes me. Deep down I want so badly to believe I can trust him.

Collecting myself and straightening my posture to look more his equal, I incline my forehead, as if to signal my assent. I try to look powerful and composed, but really it's nearly impossible to move my mouth at all, especially with the violent force of his presence so close and so demanding.

"Sarah, you are, we are, in some sort of half-world that draws on the energy of my labyrinth. And I suspect what we seek lies at its center."

"...we..seek?" I scrunch my face.

"That woman whose voice you heard is our common enemy. She wants whatever lies here at the center of this half-world. But it belongs to you, not to her."

"If it belongs to me, then why the 'we'?" I interrupt.

An array of expressions cross his otherwise regally controlled features, tugging at my heart strings but offering no further clarity to my mind.

"Because..." he swallows, hesitates, opens his mouth only to stop again. He clenches his forehead with his leather clad fingers, "Because we will both be lost in this limbo until you find what is rightfully yours."

"What if you want it for yourself?" I scrutinize, but feel ever so slightly guilty for grilling him.

"I very well might, but it's yours, and it is your right to take it."

"What is it? I think you know," I press.

"It is, I am not certain what it is, or even how it is. What I do know is that whatever it is, it contains enough power to heal my world for eons. And I think once you see it, you will know."

"To heal your world?" This is news. I definitely haven't planned for this detail. But then, now it's just gotten a lot harder to believe he doesn't want to take something from me.

"Stop! Don't listen to him! He's a Goblin King and never to be trusted!" a shrill female voice breaks in from across the room.

"Wait, who...?" He turns in utter confusion before a flash of light blots out both our sights.

"No, my Lady, you shall not interfere!" A deep male voice follows half a second after the flash.

The king and I are on our knees against the stone. He is clutching me, but mumbling as though in pain.

I squeeze him out of fright and try to crane my neck over his shoulder to see where the voices are. But a new flash blinds us again. The strength of his arms coils over me, a hand shielding my face.

"You imbecile!" a throaty cackle, "The more you get in my way, the closer you bring them! So close, so close! And then, you'll see..."

"No, my Lady, I'm afraid it's you that cannot see..."