Page 124 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I realized with growing horror that she was going to burn herself from the inside out. And take him with her.

Bursts of flame shot from underneath her skin, her fingernails. Her dress turned to ash, her entire body starting to bubble and blacken.

There was a voice screaming at me to run. But I knelt there, frozen. Unable to do anything but watch. As if witnessing what was about to happen would somehow help, as Alette made the sacrifice I had thought would be mine.

“Fly away now little bird…” Alette’s voice was fire and flame as she sent a burst of embers toward me, chasing me toward the mirror. “Your fate is your own.”

I shot to my feet in a burst of pure adrenaline. But the crown was gone, the space where it had floated now empty. My stomach sank. Had I somehow failed the Choosing?

The cave groaned, shaking from the force of the magic at war inside it. An ember burned my cheek, and I ran, every thought eddying out of my head except the need to survive. Shards of rock shredded through my leathers, tearing into my skin as they shook loose from the high ceiling above.

Agony flared from the stab wound in my gut, stealing my breath. I stumbled, falling to my hands and knees. The air had grown dangerously thin, like Alette’s approaching eruption was burning right through it.

A massive stalactite crashed down in front of the mirror, blocking it from view, only adding to the already insurmountable distance.

I had to get back. To my friends, to my family. To myanima.

Because he was mine. And I’d promised him forever.

I forced myself toward the mirror, crawling, every inch of me screaming as I hauled myself over the suddenly scorching rocks, their serrated edges slicing through my palms. Not looking back even as I sensed Aviel break free, sucking the power from his temporary prison. Not even when I heard his echoing scream of rage.

I was so close?—

But I wasn’t going to make it.

A whip of Aviel’s stolen fire wrapped around my leg, burning through my leathers as it tried to take me back to him. I screamed, my fingers clawing against the black rock, knowing I was far too drained to stop him.

My fingers slipped as I was yanked backward. Then a stalactite fell inches from my face, shrapnel barely missing my eye. I wrapped my arms around it. Gritting my teeth, I dragged myself forward, refusing to give up.

Even if I was meant to be this realm’s High Queen for only a flicker in time, I wouldn’t end my reign without a fight.

This was my realm to protect, powerless or not.

I was distantly aware of a weight settling atop my hair as if in confirmation. My head snapped around, looking back at the lake, even though I knew that golden crown wouldn’t be there.

Flame licked at my feet, real for once, and Aviel’s hold on me slipped, his screams echoing throughout the cavern. I reached up, feeling the warm metal encircling my head, those flecks of gold I thought might burn brushing almost excitedly against my palm.

I had come through the Choosing victorious. Despite Aviel’s schemes and maneuvers, the crown choseme. Perhaps it too could sense intent. By choosing the good of the realm over everything else, I had won its allegiance—and, apparently, the right to summon it.

Smoke curled around the black stone ceiling like storm clouds. I coughed, my eyes streaming as I tried to make out a glimpse of the mirror where it had been blocked by an avalanche of obsidian.

I had to get back to Adronix. Ihadto.

As I tried to stand, I fell hard, a rush of dizziness overtaking me. I had nothing left, that well of power inside me entirely drained, and the Source too far to draw from. Yet that feeling of magic still remained, perched on one finger.

Where my mother’s ring seemed to tremble in anticipation.

For a second, I thought I imagined it. But no…there was a vibration of magic, a familiar ripple from the stone glimmering at me as if happy I had finally realized the truth that seemed so obvious. One that I might have figured out sooner had it not been for every distraction since.

After all, my mother had told me the answer before I even knew the question.

The only way out is through.

The boon the sprite had given to me, the ring that had once been my mother’s, pulsed frantically. My bloodied finger pressed against it almost unthinkingly.

The gray diamond split in two, disappearing in a wisp of Celestial power that felt like my own. A tiny, oval mirror lay beneath it, its rippling surface unmistakable.

A way out.

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