Page 61 of The Other Side of the Mirror

Eva said Aviel being heranimawas a lie. But did she know who I was to her?

I should have known from the moment I had fallen half in love with her after she stabbed that golem the first time we met. There hadn’t been an ounce of fear in her entire body as she had brazenly taunted me while fighting a magical creature in her living room. I should have known during those nights in the Faewilds when I found myself sharing pieces of myself that I had never shown anyone, talking until it was so late that the stars had faded from the sky. I should have known when we laid next to each other night after night, our hands clasped together in our sleep. I should have known at that moment of pure perfection in that lake when I had her lips on mine. And I should have known from the pure dread I had felt at leaving her behind in that castle as I fought the urge to throw her over my shoulder and take her back through the mirror with me, consequences be damned.

I could barely remember a time when I wasn’t completely desperate for her. And I, like a godsdamned fool, kept finding ways to talk myself out of what my heart had known all along.

She’s my anima.The thunderstruck looks on Rivan and Yael’s faces as I frantically blurted out that word had been almost comical had I not been half out of my mind because she was injured, and in danger.

As we rode, I could see them sorting through the lies the entire realm believed, trying to determine if any of it was real. But I could only think about Eva. Of getting her back, after which we could unravel the truth from the lies together. I tried my best to focus on how to get into Morehaven, and inside the prince’s rooms undetected, not what he was doing to her inside them.

Had she already guessed what I had finally let myself understand? Or had every moment since we had last written to each other been so filled with fear that she hadn’t had the opportunity to realize who we were to each other?

The thought of her terror, the look in her eyes when she realized she couldn’t stay in my arms. The sickening lurch when I woke up without her, knowing the prince had been the one to take her from me, her gasp of pain still echoing in my ears. My soul felt like it had torn in two, the pieces roiling with every gallop it took to get her back to me.

Unless you’re already too late.

Fear gripped my heart. For a moment, I wasn’t on horseback any longer but a battlefield, staring at my father’s crumpled body, bloodied and broken. Then, next to a four-poster bed, looking into my mother’s sightless eyes.

But I didn’t let myself dwell on that old fear. Didn’t let myself think about how I hadn’t been enough to save either one of them.

Not when I needed to focus on saving her.

Rivan and Yael exchanged a fearful, worried glance as I looked back. At least they couldn’t see the trembling of my hands as I clutched Smoke’s reins in one fist. I wrote a quick message on my palm; the letters jolting with each gallop.

Even if she couldn’t read the words through her bonds, at least she could feel that I was there.

Hold on, Eva. I’m coming for you.

Chapter27

Eva

Iwoke with a start. Aviel’s hands were on my face, my waist, his body over mine. He bit down where my shoulder met my neck, and I recoiled, yelping as his teeth found an already tender spot. He must have bitten me there to wake me from the dream, and I knew from the wetness beading on my skin that he had drawn blood.

I reared back to kick him, but he saw the movement coming. Before I could react, he pinned me to the bed.

Those pale eyes stared into me, cold and predatory, just as they had in every nightmare. They would likely haunt me until the day I died.

“Did you truly think this was your happily ever after?” Aviel laughed. “It’s mine. Just as you are.”

“I willneverbe yours,” I spat.

I thrashed against him, furious, feeling darkly proud when his face contorted in rage as I kneed him in the thigh. Still, I couldn’t get him off me. I fought a flare of panic as he held me down.

I was trapped. I wastrapped.

His fingers stroked my face. It felt like a struggle to keep myself together every second his hands were on me. But I refused to give in. Refused to let him see me break.

I snapped my teeth in an attempt to bite his hand. But he moved it down against the collar on my neck, pressing down in a warning.

“Keep on struggling and see where it gets you,” Aviel snarled. “You are mine, and I’ll have you whether you want me or not.”

He tore the front of my dress, pressing down on my collar when I tried to pull away. I froze as the manacles on my wrists gave a little. My hands were still in the bulbs, but they had to be unlocked.

Alette.

She had said my freedom would be under the pillow. A weapon? Whatever it was, I would only have one shot, and I was determined not to waste it. I didn’t doubt Bash was coming for me. But the likelihood that he would make it here in time to stop this?—

The only person who could save me now was myself.

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