Page 118 of The Mirror in the Mountain

My father’s eyes crinkled, and I let his laugh wash over me. “Why would one exclude the other?”

I stared at him, trying to preserve every part of his smile, his laugh, that feeling ofhim, into my memory.

“Evangeline.”

My head snapped to my mother, my voice breaking as I managed to whisper, “Hi Mom.”

“It’s time now,”she said, the crowns in her eyes glinting. “To right a century of wrongs. To claim your birthright. And to stop that bastard once and for all.”

I knew I needed to go, but I didn’t want to leave them, not yet. But I nodded, furiously blinking my tears away as Idesperately tried to drink them in one last time—unwilling to let their blur impede upon my attempt to commit every last piece of them to memory. Wanting to stay suspended in this wrinkle in time for just one more minute, one last heartbeat before they were gone again forever.

“We’ll be with you,”my father promised, sensing my devastation. “Even if you can’t see us. We’ll be there, right beside you, until the end.”

“Remember,”my mother said, reaching out as if to brush my tears away. Her hand stopped abruptly, coming to hover a hair’s breadth above my left hand. Her index finger dipped downward to where the shadowy ring that had once been hers shimmered strangely. “The only way out is through.”

“I love you,”I said, looking into eyes that were the mirror of my own as I said the words that had once been too late.

And it felt real.

Chapter 52

Eva

Iwas falling. Until I wasn’t.

There was a familiar tingle on my palm. Silvery words that brought me back to reality all at once.

Come back to me, hellion.

Shaking, I reached up to wipe my eyes. But my face was now dry, as if that pocket in between reality never existed. And yet, I knew it had. At least in the ways that mattered.

The mirror I had just stepped through was built into the obsidian stone of the wall, the twin to its counterpart within Adronix. It was dark and still, the blue glints dimming as its very glass seemed to fade into the shining black wall, seamlessly integrating into the surrounding stone.

I turned to find myself in the heart of a colossal cavern. A massive, bioluminescent cave so immense, I couldn’t see the end of it. Glittering stalactites hung above the gleaming azure lake before me, the jagged obsidian dotted with those glowing blue stones. A trove of more blue rocks sparkled on the cave floor, flowing out into the lake like a sea of sapphires. Every surface swam mesmerizingly from its glimmering light.

There was a whole universe in this cave. I was momentarily stunned at how familiar this place felt, though I had never beenhere before. It might even feel like a haven, had Aviel not been at the shore.

Adrenaline flooded through my veins even as dread pooled in my gut, my heart attempting to beat out of my chest in panic. My own personal nightmare knelt at the edge of the underground lake, his back still to me. The water swirled with that bioluminescent light as he dipped his fingers into it, a bluish ether flowing through him.

Stealing the magic of the land.

My stomach hollowed out as his cold blue eyes snapped to mine, a shudder going through me at the phantom touch of his gaze. It was everything I could do to keep my breathing even.

I should strike now, before he could gather even more power…

My scalp prickled as he stood up, a slow, sinister smile spreading across his face as the undulating glow cast him in an eerie light. I refused to back away, even as my heartbeat thundered in my chest.

“Took you long enough.”

The sound of Aviel’s voice sent another jolt of terror down my spine. My jaw clenched. Hehadbeen waiting for me in case he needed to use me for whatever came next. It was yet another ambush, even if it was one I couldn’t have avoided.

And I’d run right into it.

“It’s only fitting that it’s you and me at the end, darling.” He smirked. “Just as I always planned.”

Bile rose in my throat. That dread had turned into fear, and I was drowning in it.

I reached for my bond with Bash yet found it blocked, as though this place was entirely disconnected from space and time. Even if Bash and Tobias did find a way to follow me through the closed mirror and bring the stone that would siphon Aviel’s stolen magic…I couldn’t wait for them to save me.

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