Page 109 of The Mirror in the Mountain

The onslaught of magic bearing down on my own was rapidly becoming too much to bear.

“You don’t have to,” Rivan said calmly. “It shouldn’t be too much longer for them to be far enough away. To retreat before it’s too late.”

My head was too bleary to understand what he was saying. “What are you…”

“Just keep those doors closed as long as you can,” Rivan said calmly. “When I’m sure our people are safe, I’ll take care of everything.”

It was getting harder and harder to do so, the iron repelling the very magic I was using to reinforce it, the onslaught of my adversaries only increasing in strength on the other side. Sweatdripped down my neck, down my back. Rivan’s eyes shot to mine in alarm.

“New plan,” he said, kneeling in front of me—and it was only then that I realized I had fallen to my knees. “Let them come.”

I shook my head stubbornly from side to side.

“Bash—”

“Not yet,” I rasped. “I can hold them.”

“It won’t be long now,” Rivan said sternly. “We can hold them off the old-fashioned way until then.” He raised his sword with one hand, pulling me to my feet with the other as I begrudgingly nodded.

Releasing the breath I had been holding, I let my magic drop, unable to wield it a moment longer. My shadows streamed back from the door, hovering around me. Gathering my strength, I focused on my breathing, counting each second just as Eva had taught me.

It felt like a mere moment before the iron doors burst open. Fire whipped through it, but that stone wall still stood, and it redirected harmlessly to the sides. The stone turned a deep red, but Rivan looked entirely unconcerned at the unceasing fiery onslaught, even as the wall split down the middle, thousands of tiny pebbles tumbling toward us. Soldiers rushed forward, forced to enter through a narrow crack in the middle of the stone. But Rivan was ready for them, cutting them down one by one, the pile of bodies building a wall in itself.

I belatedly realized that the rest of the stone wall was thickening, more and more pebbles melding together to create a veritable copy of its iron brethren. A piece of paper appeared right in front of Rivan’s outstretched hand. He snatched it from the air, a pained groan slipping from his lips before he slashed his sword across his adversary’s exposed throat.

“Cover me,” Rivan roared.

With a blast of shadow that was far weaker than it should be, I knocked the next round of opponents back through the narrowing split in the stone. My shadows slipped from my grasp just as solid rock took its place, the rubble strewn around us, uncaring as those trying to force their way through found themselves embedded inside it, their screams suddenly silenced. The rock turned a dull red as it heated once more, but the glow was fainter this time, the wall now a monument as it spread to close any remaining gaps, its barrier not so easily broken. My eyes fixed on where a hand still reached from the center of where the opening had been, its owner now an eternal piece of the mountain itself.

Rivan dug his fingers into the stone floor. It melted around his touch like oil. His hands were raw and bleeding, but he didn’t seem to notice; his face serene as he closed his eyes. The very mountain seemed to shudder as his magic took hold.

My mouth went dry. “Rivan…”

Sweat beaded on his brow, a dark trail of blood dripping from one nostril, then the other. The ground lurched beneath me, and Adronix started to shake like it was about to collapse on top of us. The shouts of the soldiers trying to get to us turned into panicked screams.

“What did you?—”

Rivan’s eyes flew open just as I heard the roaring from far away. “Run.”

My eyes shot to his. “What did you do? They?—”

“—won’t survive. Now get down that damn passageway and help her, Bash.”

I didn’t move. Wisps of shadow flurried around me in a panic, barely managing to catch Rivan as he slumped forward with a groan. I knelt beside him, my arms replacing my shadows, even as his hand curled stubbornly into his homemade handhold.

“That sound you hear?” He drew in an unsteady breath, and my grip on him tightened. “That’s an entire mountain’s worth of snow about to bury Aviel’s army alive. And it’s attempting to come through those doors.”

My mouth dropped. That roaring sound was now deafening, drowning out the screams from the other side. It was already far too late for them.

Rivan’s hand stayed firmly on the rock, the other hand pressed to his side.

Where blood was leaking through his fingers.

“RIVAN.”

My scream was lost in the cacophony, so loud it felt as if Adronix was coming down on itself. I could feel the very mountain shudder, vibrating with the rage of what Rivan had done. My shadows flew forward, pressing up against his wall. Trying my best to reinforce it against the power of nature itself as frozen death swept away the army on the other side of it, even as the avalanche of rock and ice tried to force its way in. Attempting to ensnare us in its icy grasp and take us with it too.

Rivan bared his teeth, grunting against the battle of magic against the mountain, the tide of the latter nearly pulling me under.

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