Page 63 of The Mirror in the Mountain

Eva

We sat at a long ashwood table in front of enormous open windows that overlooked Esterra—a city of domed spires and stained-glass windows, rising from the swirling sand. The heady scent of the hanging gardens on a balcony below wafted toward us in the breeze, the greenery a stark contrast against the white sand dunes in the distance.

Despite the view, I hadn’t been able to stop staring at my uncle. The resemblance was obvious now that I knew to look for it—the color of his eyes and raven-black hair, the slant of his brow, even the way he held himself. Something inside me ached at the living reminder of my dad, a pang going through my chest at the small mannerisms I had forgotten about so easily.

Eliav had brushed away any further talk of what we had come here for until after the meal. The heaping trays of grilled meats and eggplant, olive oil doused dips accompanied by warm flatbreads and crudité, eggs baked in tomato sauce, and artfully arranged fruits had kept our hands and mouths far too occupied to hold more than the most basic conversation.

But I could feel him watching me too, those familiar eyes seeming to catalogue my features as diligently as I had his.

My stomach stuffed to bursting, I pushed back my chair, walking to the windows to take in this new city. What I assumed were palace guards were training in a lower courtyard, flames shooting in carefully controlled bursts down the line of similarly leather clad soldiers. The way the elemental fire users wielded their magic seemed more like a dance than anything else as they twisted and swerved, their movement flowing yet precise. Unable to help myself, I copied some of their motions with my fingers, my darkness flowing around them like black flame.

A particularly wild blast from below made the hair on my neck rise as, for a second, I saw the fire that had consumed my home around me, felt it licking at my heels as I ran?—

“Impressive, aren’t they?” Eliav said from behind me, making me startle enough that he raised a brow.

“That they are,” I agreed, noting Bash’s eyes on me…along with a protective surge of concern in response to whatever old terror I had sent down our bond. I sucked in a carefully counted breath through my nose, hearing my father’s voice as I let it out slowly. Grounding myself back in reality as I pretended to still be watching the training below.

“My Kingsguard are the best in the realm,” Eliav continued. “Though youranimaand his coterie might disagree.”

I shrugged with feigned nonchalance. “I haven’t met a lot of fire users.”

Though Alette’s fireball tearing through Morehaven had certainly shown me what they could do.

His gaze fell to my hands, then back to my eyes, where I belatedly realized my darkness must still linger. “Your father wielded darkness too.”

I hadn’t known that. While I knew about my mother’s light, the bittersweet realization that I shared my magic with my fatherbut could never talk to him about it, learn from him…It was yet another injustice of his murder, another thing that had been taken from me.

The declaration took me so off guard that I blurted out, “You look so much like him.”

Eliav flinched, almost imperceptibly. “When my brother disappeared in the night with his children, I never expected them to return without him. I had hoped we would one day be reunited here.”

“Then you should be willing to fight against the king who killed him,” I said firmly. “To ally with your family, before it’s too late to stop him.”

“What I know is that the False King is buried beneath rock and stone and ice,” Eliav said with a condescension that made my blood boil. “That my brother fled because of him, and never came back.”

“ButIdid,” I whispered. “As did my brother. And we need your help.”

“You’re far too revealing to play the game of kings,” Eliav said, his voice sincere for once. “Though your father was never one for politics either, despite his station and Celestial ability.”

“Lucky the game I play is for High Queen,” I said, matching his tone while trying my best to share a confidence I didn’t feel. Though my parents’ stringent strategy lessons had prepared me more than I realized, it was another thing entirely to take on the role that was needed of me without feeling like an imposter.

His mouth quirked, just a hint of a dimple forming on the right side of his mouth. “Then I look forward to seeing if more than just his darkness was passed on through you.”

I tried and failed not to tense as a blast of fire so hot I could feel it rose from the Kingsguard in a fiery inferno, more than one of them adding to its fury. They were putting on a performancefor me, I belatedly realized. A way to show off their might, no doubt ordered by the king beside me.

Did he know the exact circumstances of how his brother died? The fire wielders that had terrorized us on the False King’s orders?

If he didn’t, I wasn’t about to offer to tell him.

I tilted my head as I realized that no one had told me something important. “Do you wield fire too?”

In response, Eliav let out of burst of blue flame so hot, I could feel it prickle against the skin of my face despite the space between us. It swirled upwards in a tight spiral before dissipating into falling embers.

“Not Celestial,” he said, so casually I knew it must bother him. “But powerful enough to rule this part of the realm.”

Everyone was watching us now.

“I wouldn’t be so foolish as to discount any display of power like that,” I said with a shrug. “Nor expect magic to have anything to do with what it truly takes to rule.”

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