Page 9 of The Mirror in the Mountain

“Get some rest,” I said shakily. “Tomorrow, we’re saving your sister.”

Chapter 6

Eva

Igroaned as I woke, my head pounding. It was too dark to see anything, though the world moved strangely around me in sickening jolts as my back slid against the cool metal beneath me. Pain radiated up my ribs as my side collided against something hard, threatening to pull me back into unconsciousness.

Of course Alette had disappeared before she could be of any help against the guards who had taken me, leaving me in the middle of whatever her half-cocked plan had been. But shehadgotten me out of that room, and delayed Aviel from his plans for me, though I could only guess for how long.

Perhaps freeing me hadn’t been her goal this time. After all, she had succeeded in getting Aviel away from the Source, if the sounds of soldiers and horses cutting through the darkness were any indication.

Now it was up to me to save myself.

Based on the rocking motion and jarring bumps, I was confined in the back of some sort of carriage as Aviel transported me to gods knew where. I shifted only slightly in case I was being watched…and felt iron biting into my wrists and ankles. I was shackled, even here in this new prison.

Aviel was taking no chances I would flee again.

Reaching out with my hands and feet as far as I could, I felt around the corners of my cage, even as my blood dripped down my arms from where new cuts sliced into old scars. It was a box, barely bigger than I was, my flexed fingers brushing against it where my hands were secured at my sides. The cold of the metal bit into my back, one shiver turning into another as it leeched away any sense of warmth.

Aviel might be taking me away in a coffin, but I refused to be reborn into the new life he imagined for me.

My own choppy breathing echoed loudly in the box—still so dark that for a second, I wondered if I had gone blind without realizing it. My head ached, my ears still ringing from the aftermath of that explosion. The toxin stubbornly clung to my mind, making my thoughts sluggish. My eyes strained, failing to make out even the faintest outline. Surely, if I waited long enough, they would adjust.

And yet, the unfamiliar darkness only deepened, the walls pressing in more tightly with every passing second.

Gasping, I attempted to suck in a full breath—trying to calm my mind, my heart. Trying not to think about how I was never going to escape this time. I yanked futilely against the shackles binding my wrists, only succeeding in making myself bleed further as the cold iron didn’t budge.

There was a crushing weight in my chest, as if an invisible force was squeezing the life from me. Despite knowing it was the worst possible thing to do, panic tore through me like a creature clawing at my ribcage as it tried in vain to escape.

Breathe. I had to breathe.

But there was no air, the darkness suffocating. The rising tide of pain and fear and dread threatened to swallow me whole.

I couldn’tbreathe.

I could almost appreciate the sadistic irony. That the core of my own magic, the one thing that had always helped me breathe easier, was now being used to break me.

A bump in the road bashed me violently against the too-close walls of the box, and I bit back a cry, the claustrophobia setting in worse than before. I was dangerously exhausted, choking as the stagnant air seemed to solidify in my lungs, my broken ribs screaming as I gasped for breath. Staring into the rocking darkness as it ate me alive.

There was such silence in my heart—utter, awful silence, without Bash sharing it, the lack of him a torture all on its own. It blared like an alarm in my head, drowning me in his absence. Like, without him, some intrinsic part of me had stopped working. The gaping place where he should be pulled what was left of me toward it like a black hole ripping apart a star trapped in its orbit.

I was alone. Utterly alone…and I was scared, both of what was to come and how little control I had over it.

Misery crawled up my spine. With every lurch forward, the seams holding me together unraveled a little more.

Breathe,I heard my dad’s voice say, and I clung to the memory.Now hold. Breathe out. Hold again.

Clenching my fists, I forced myself to heed that voice’s command. It took far too long to do so in my clattering cage, but I finally managed one deep breath, then another, my breaths still too loud and shallow. Counting each second.

I breathed until the buzzing cleared from my head, trying desperately to center myself. Forcing myself to focus on anything other than my enclosed tomb. Centering myself on revenge.

Aviel had taken everything from me. I would make him regret it.

You need to make a plan.

My mother’s strategy lessons came back all at once, her tone as no-nonsense as always.

Focus on the facts. What exactly do you know and how can you use it?

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