Page 49 of The Mirror in the Mountain

Carefully, I removed my dagger from its sheath, the accompanying sound far too loud as the air seemed to thicken.Clenching my jaw, I sliced it against my opposite palm, wincing as I squeezed my fist so that my blood dripped upon the center of the circle. Wiping the remaining smear on my blade onto the moss, I returned it to my side as the dark drops sank into the mound.

The woods stayed silent, the night deepening as a cloud went over the moon. My breath caught as I realized the glow of the fireflies had disappeared, the sudden blackness reminding me far too much of a cold, iron box closing in around me, that once comforting darkness bent on smothering any last semblance of hope.

A blue light flickered through the leaves of one of the surrounding trees—one that I recognized immediately from that horrible night. That shimmer of sapphire that had led me straight to safety. To my friends.

Then the sprite was there before me, perched on a low branch so we were nearly eye to eye. She was barely the size of my hand, with elflike features and shimmering blue wings so oblong they reminded me of a dragonfly. And she was entirely nude, her skin so dark she almost blended into the night. Only the blue sheen on her skin allowed me to see the outline of her large, unblinking eyes, her deep blue lips, and the voluptuous curves of her body. Her hair was a wild, electric azure that matched her dragonfly wings, somehow still despite her continuous fluttering.

I didn’t dare move an inch or take too deep a breath. She cocked her head, as if waiting for me to make the first move. Then she sunk into a deep bow, her wings tilting forward with a slow flap before she rose.

Hastily, I bowed back, though the hair on the back of my neck rose at leaving myself so exposed. While her features were human, they alsoweren’t, in a beautiful yet terrible way I couldn’t entirely comprehend.

“I remember you,” I croaked, my throat suddenly dry. “It was you in the forest that night who led me to them…wasn’t it?”

“And I remember you, girl,” the sprite’s voice was everywhere at once and louder than I expected, each word reverberating through the brisk night air. “Night with a soul of iron, forged in fire. The lost queen. Yes, I know who you are…and who you will be. Or I wouldn’t have come.”

I swallowed hard against my parched throat. “Thank you, for what you did that night. For saving me.” The sprite nodded slightly in acknowledgement, her dark eyes never leaving mine. “But if you know all that, then you know why I’m here…and who I’m trying to stop. Can you help me?”

She nodded slowly, then flashed her sharp, black teeth in what I wasn’t sure was a threatening look or a smile. Rivan’s words echoed in my head.Don’t make any promises. Don’t make any threats. And don’t piss it off.

“Seeing what lies ahead is a strange business,” she mused. “We can see intent, and how it will shape what comes to pass. And we have seen the False One’s attempt to circumvent the rules of this realm.”

“I want to stop him for the good of the realm,” I said firmly, hoping my sincerity showed. “But with the nature of his magic, he’s too powerful for me to stop. I need to know where the Choosing takes place so I can get there first. And if he has a weakness that we can exploit to stop him if we don’t. Something we’ve overlooked or can use to drain his stolen power or keep him from gaining more long enough to end him for good.” I paused, belatedly adding, “Please.”

Her head tilted from side to side, the motion almost birdlike. “It’s not a matter of what to take from him. It’s a matter of what he took from you.” She stared at me with those wide, unblinking eyes, wholly black and entirely disconcerting.

“He took my magic,” I said, haltingly. “But that’s?—”

“And your blood,” the sprite said, so matter-of-factly that my skin crawled.

“My…” I trailed off as I remembered the puncture marks down my arms after my initial imprisonment. I had assumed they were all from Aviel drugging me, or him making Alette do so. But in my unconsciousness, it would have been only too easy to take my blood as well. My insides twisted at yet another invasion.

“He would have to steal both from you to be crowned,” she continued, those luminescent wings fluttering in mesmerizing rhythm. “Your magic at his command, and your blood in his veins, in order to complete the Choosing. But he took it one step further, creating a bloodbond not so easily broken.” Those black teeth glinted in the moonlight in a vicious smile, her head tilting at an unnatural angle. “And so, you have the way to stop him.”

“I’m sorry,” I stammered, ignoring the sinking sensation in my stomach. “But I don’t understand.”

“He bound you to him, girl,” she said, her voice harsh and all-encompassing. “Your blood binds your life to his…and his to yours. What happens to one will happen to the other.”

The world seemed to narrow in on me as I finally made sense of what she meant. “You’re saying…we’re linked. That if I’m injured, it will slow him down?—”

“He didn’t link your bodies,” the sprite sneered. “He bonded yourlives. There is only one way to be certain. To stop him for good.”

There was a dull, tearing sensation in my chest. A roaring in my ears as I realized what, exactly, her words implied. “The only way to stop him is to…kill myself?” The two words seemed to echo faintly in the thickening dark. I shook my head. “Absolutely not. There has to be another way.”

“There is always another way,” the sprite said placatingly. “And there is always another choice. But will you be able to makeit?” Her laugh was high and shrill, echoing strangely in the night like it was coming from all around me. “Or will it be made for you?”

“Please,” I begged, nausea roiling in my gut. “There must be something else you can tell me. Something to help me stop him before the curse, and the effects of his rule, destroys your home too. If you can tell me how to reach the Choosing first, if I can just stop him before he attempts to thwart it, then maybe I won’t have to resort to that.”

Those sharp black teeth flashed as she leered at me as though disappointed. “Changing destiny’s a weighty business. Though there is something…strange. Perhaps it is not yet set in stone.”

The sprite dipped her head down in consideration, her hypnotizing wings slowing. I realized I was holding my breath only when I was forced to take another.

“There is a mirror,” she said deliberately. “The Seeing Mirror, deep in the heart of Adronix. It is there that you seek, there you must reach before the False One, for it is the gateway to the Choosing. Only those meant to rule may pass through.” She darted forward, her wings a blur as she hovered only inches from my face. “Once he claims the crown with your power and your blood, you will lose your chance to stop him.”

Adronix. I remembered the name—the frozen northern mountain the False King had supposedly been imprisoned beneath, though he had been safe in Morehaven posing as the savior prince. My heart beat unsteadily in my ears, hope forming against all probability. “And if I get there before he does…if I become High Queen. Will I be able to stop him?”

The sprite stared at me in a way that sent a shiver down my spine. “I met your mother once in these same woods. The Queen Who Might Have Been. I told her of the False One, and of the danger he would pose to her progeny. She was not afraid of her destiny. Of what would happen in the end.”

She studied me, and for a second, I thought she almost looked sad. “My gift to you is the one left by her to my safekeeping. If only for her sacrifice, I hope you get to make another choice. Remember…the only way out is through.”

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