Page 8 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I turned toward the door.

“Tell me about her?”

The question wavered, like he hadn’t entirely meant to say it out loud. But he hadn’t seen his twin sister for more than a few minutes since they were seventeen. I could at least do this much for him.

Walking over to where he sat, I pulled the chair from the desk along with me. Turning it around, I sat with my arms folded over its back, facing him.

Tobias’s hazel eyes were so like hers I felt a pang in my chest as he murmured, “The last time I saw her, my mother had just pushed her through that mirror.”

“The mirror took her to Quinn’s house. Who is also likely fae, by the way,” I said, sharing some of what we had spoken about during those long nights in the woods. Tobias jolted slightly at the name, though his face betrayed nothing—like that mask he had worn for so long had slipped back into place. “After that…well, it took her a while to move on from what happened to your parents. What she thought had happened to you. But she went to college with Quinn, which likely saved her from Aviel tracking her down sooner. And despite everything, she never lost her fight, nor stopped her training. She went to college on a full fencing scholarship…”

Regurgitating the little details Eva had told me in the woods before we had known what we were to each other made an acheburn in my chest. But I forced myself to continue, weaving the story of her life since he had disappeared between sips of tea.

Tobias’s face remained unreadable. But I took his silence as a plea to keep going. So I told him how we met—how it had been fate or luck that when the False Prince’s lostanimahad finally been found after so long with nothing to go on, Yael, Rivan, and I had been closest to retrieve her. The fight against the golem after Eva had returned to her hometown. The trek through the Faewilds and how I fell for her long before I realized what she was to me. How I failed her by doing the same to her as I had to him: by bringing Eva to the monster they had spent their whole lives unknowingly trying to escape. How smart she had been in Morehaven, trusting her instincts instead of the lie we had all believed. And how she had discovered Aviel’s deception, leading to her imprisonment before she had managed to free herself.

Tobias sighed heavily. “If I’d only gotten back to her before my capture, she would’ve always known what Aviel was. He would’ve never gotten the chance to deceive her, let alone the rest of it.”

I flinched, knowing the part I had played in Tobias’s capture had made me every bit as complicit as his delay in returning.

“When I saw her in that dungeon baiting that guard to attack her?—”

I nearly dropped my mug. “She didwhat?”

Tobias winced. “There was a guard who liked to prey on the female prisoners. I didn’t even realize Eva was there until she lured him away from someone else.” His darkening expression was a reflection of my own at the danger she had knowingly put herself in, even if I understood the reason behind it. “She succeeded. Goaded him into getting close enough for her to knock him out and take his keys. If she hadn’t stopped to try to save me, maybe she would’ve made it out before Aviel had a chance to stop her.” He shook his head. “Too many whatifs. What happened after that? All I know is Aviel ordered her brought to his bed.”

His eyes flashed with a familiar white light. I flexed my jaw, trying not to remember the way that same light had entirely incapacitated us all.

“She got away,” I whispered. “She outsmarted him and convinced one of his servants to help her flee. When I reached her, she was already in the forest.”

The haunted look in Eva’s eyes after her escape flashed across my mind.

And now she’s right back there.

On instinct, I reached for that stagnant bond, cursing it for being blocked so thoroughly that I had no idea what she was going through. I finished my tea in a gulp that burned my throat, finally starting to feel the effects.

Tobias blinked, the only sign of his confusion. “How did you know to come for her?”

“I grew concerned when I hadn’t heard anything from her. And then she dreamwalked to me.” I blew out a breath. “I should’ve known far before then that she was myanima. It wasn’t long after that she accepted the bond between us.”

Tobias’s mouth twitched in what might have been distaste. “I suppose we’re going to have to learn to tolerate each other then.”

I winced. “It took her a bit to come to terms with the bond too. Between what happened with Aviel, how he used theanimabond to lure her in, and how wary she was to open herself up in the first place…” My voice cracked, on the verge of giving out entirely. “He put that band around her neck, which blocks our bond. I can’t…feel her. But there’s another way to reach her, one that Aviel doesn’t know about, provided she can see it.”

I lifted my hand, my mother’s quill shining where it wrapped from my pointer finger to my palm. A curl of feathers circled around the pulse point of my wrist.

His eyes fixed on its iridescence. “Can I write her a message?”

The hesitant question took me by surprise, but I quickly nodded.

“Even if she can’t read it, it will let her know we’re here,” I said firmly. “I haven’t been doing it too often in case someone’s watching. But I know she’ll want to hear from you if she can.”

I held out my hands, extending my right pointer finger and my left palm. Then I looked pointedly to the left to let him know I wouldn’t look over his shoulder at what he wrote. But he held out my palm to me when he finished.

It’s me, sis. Eyes up.

“Our mom used to say that.” Tobias dropped my hand, his voice choked. “Eyes up, stout heart. The only way out is through.” Quietly, he added, “It’s one of the last things she said to us, actually.”

I nodded, unable to speak through the lump in my throat. But I swallowed it down.

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