Floss is most definitely NOT marrying the Goblin King, even if it saves her a trip through the labyrinth.
Floss, an aspiring law student, has enough troubles to ruffle anyone’s bustle. Her school of choice won’t let her in because of her gender, her equal rights league is hopelessly ineffective, and there aren’t enough calming tonics in the world to stave off her panic attacks.
Now her niece is missing, the roguish Goblin King keeps proposing, and sinister forces threaten Floss’s city. She’ll have to brave a dangerous labyrinth and question everything she believes in to save not only her family, but an entire kingdom down below.
If only the Goblin King wasn’t quite so distracting, she might actually be able to do it.
"You may find love turns up without you looking for it.”
“Which is exactly why I’m avoiding it at every turn. I can’t afford the distraction.”
&
A roguish grin took over Asterion’s face, and Floss felt that little flip of attraction that ladies weren’t supposed to feel towards goblin kings.
“You might enjoy being married to me,” he said. He cast his arm towards the labyrinth. “You can be queen of all this and more.”
“Oh, well, when you put it like that, I’ve always wanted to be queen of an underground maze riddled with goblins.”
&
“Oh goodness.” Floss clutched her head; her throat tightened and ached, and she wriggled her sore toes inside her boots. “I don’t know if I can take it.”
“’Course you can,” said Siri. “Just like you eat an elephant.”
Floss cocked her head. “How do you eat an elephant?”
“One bite at a time,” answered Siri. “That’s how you’ll get through the labyrinth. Except it’ll be one step at a time.”
&
Asterion took one of her hands and held it against his chest. “Feel this,” he said. “My heartbeat. Can you feel it?”
Beneath her hand, Floss could feel the pulse of his heart, fast, but not galloping like hers.
“Feel it in your hand,” he coaxed. “Feel it down your arm, reaching for your own heart.”
&
"Will I see you again?”
One corner of his lip tipped up, brimming with mischief. “Oh, you’ll never get rid of me now. I plan to be an inexorable nuisance.”
Floss allowed herself a satisfied smirk, though it was still directed at his waistcoat. “It just so happens that I have a vacancy for an inexorable nuisance in the aboveground.”
&
“Promise me,” he said in a voice that trembled, “promise me that you won’t hate me. That you’ll give me a chance to make you love me.”
&
Because life wasn’t a game of cards that were either red or blue, one suit or the other. It was a deck made entirely of jesters, each with the potential to be anything, any colour or suit, the winner or the loser.
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