Page 115 of Storm of Secrets and Sorrow

“Mirrorgates?” Axel said. “You mean figuratively, right?”

Scarlett’s smile morphed into a sly grin as she lifted a hand. White flames and shadows swirled with what looked like flecks of bright white embers, but they were somethingmore.

“It is Chaos,” Scarlett said simply. “I possess more than the standard Legacy.”

“She is being uncharacteristically modest,” Sorin said flatly. “She is as powerful as any First god or goddess.”

“Impossible,” Theon scoffed.

“Yet here I stand, Lordling,” Scarlett drawled. “Chaos at my fingertips, gifts fromfourgods and goddesses, and two Fae elements.”

“You are telling me the mirror in the Underground is a gateway to other worlds?” Axel cut in before Theon and Scarlett could start bickering again.

“Obviously they are mirrors to other realms,” Scarlett replied. “Your brother saw me in one years ago. Why not gateways?”

“But…how?” Axel repeated.

“Now I control them with Chaos,” she answered, that power flaring in her palm again. “Before I took that control, though, I cannot say.”

“Before… Are you saying someone else could have used the mirror?” Theon cut in.

Scarlett gestured to Tessa. “How do you think she got here? The gateways were…broken, I guess one could say, before I obtained the means to control them. But that doesn’t mean others weren’t using them in the meantime. Anyone willing to pay the cost could find a way.”

“The cost?” Tessa asked.

“All power comes with a cost. The greater the power, the higher the price,” she answered grimly.

“And what was the cost ofthatpower?” Theon sneered, jerking his chin at the Chaos swirling in Scarlett’s palm.

“More than you could ever imagine. But if you think I took this power because Iwantedit, you are mistaken,” Scarlett answered. “The realms require balance, and when the demand for it comes, you have little time to decide how to correct it before fate intervenes. Sometimes it requires choosing between two unwanted outcomes, but in the end, I think you will find your own costs just as steep.”

“I need to show you something.”

“Fucking Fates,” Axel muttered, his hand going to his hammering heart as Katya all but ran across the room to where she had a couple books and some papers spread across the coffee table.

He’d taken a quick shower after the events of the day, and he’d just opened the bathroom door to find her standing there. She’d scared the shit out of him. Or, at the very least, his shadows, which now hovered around him. He let them linger as he made his way over to Kat, and his heart rate slowly went back to normal.

She was kneeling on the floor, looking back and forth between two books and something she’d drawn on a piece of paper. She’d changed too, wearing soft pants that clung to her and a loose top that rode up as she reached for another book. Her curls had clearly been piled hastily atop her head, several falling free.

Scarlett and Sorin had left, Scarlett pulling Tessa into an embrace and whispering something into her ear no one else heard. Then Scarlett and Sorin had disappeared into the air,leaving them with a few answers, sure, but really only more chaos to wade through.

Traveling is what Scarlett had called it. The ability to step from one space to another within the same realm. An ability that Theon had mentioned in passing many times. It was supposedly taken from the Legacy when Devram was created, or at least from the ones who’d been sequestered here. How Scarlett could TravelwithinDevram though was something Theon would surely obsess over along with all the other information he’d learned.

But Theon wasn’t the only one obsessing.

“What’s all this, kitten?” Axel asked, plopping onto the sofa. He was exhausted. His next round of rations wouldn’t be here for another day, and he was on edge. He should have taken Luka up on his offer.

Peering over her shoulder, he studied what she’d drawn a little closer. It was a Mark of some kind, and that had him sitting up a little straighter. Marks weren’t something to mess around with. One minor imperfection could change the entire meaning and purpose. When she reached for her pencil again, Axel’s hand snapped out, grasping her wrist.

Startled amber eyes met his. “What are you doing?”

“What amIdoing?” Axel said. “What areyoudoing? Surely you know you should not be experimenting with Marks.”

“I’m notusingthem,” Kat remarked. “It is simply a reference.”

“For what?”

“Scarlett was very adamant that there was only one Source Mark,” Katya said, tapping the sketch. “This is a rough drawing of what Sorin’s Source Mark looked like.”

---