Page 92 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I could feel that combination of terror and resolve across our bond, the same as I had felt from her before she had given herself up for the rest of us. For a heartbeat, I could even feel those bands of light cutting into me as they dragged me away from her.

Despite my best effort, my voice wavered as I said, “It won’t be a better world without you.”

Her teeth skated over her bottom lip. “Bash…”

“Don’t even try to argue against that,” I said warningly.

“Every time I stop to think, I remember that I could stop this all now,” Eva whispered, her voice hesitant. “I know thatthere’s another way. But I can’t help but feel horribly selfish. Our people’s lives, our friends’ lives,yourlife…they’re all depending on me. And I feel like I’m failing.”

My hand curled into a fist at my side. “What if I were to ride out tonight alone?” Eva’s eyes shot to mine, suddenly wide with alarm. “Use my shadows to shield me. Find a way into Aviel’s camp and see if I could take him down like the assassin I was trained to be in the last war?”

“And why exactly should I let you risk your life instead of mine?” Eva’s words were clipped despite her pressing panic across our bond.

“Because we’re more expendable than you are,” Yael said from behind us. “All of us.”

Eva went still. Yael, Marin, Rivan, Quinn, and Tobias stepped out from the tree line, coming to sit on the logs beside us.

Quinn’s lips were pressed into a hard line, not a hint of her usual smile to be found. Tobias folded his arms across his chest, though his face remained an impassive mask. Yael simply smirked, tugging Marin to her side and wrapping a blanket around them both.

Eva’s hands were so tightly fisted, I knew her nails bit into her scarred palm. “No. Never. Not to me.”

“Hypocrite,” Quinn coughed.

Eva stiffened, a strange mix of shame and determination shining in her eyes.

Rivan sat down on Eva’s other side with a sigh. “Blood and magic are a strange, fickle thing, in some ways more so than Seeing. Even if you were to sacrifice yourself now, it doesn’t mean it would stop the war that’s coming. The battle that was always meant to happen, so long delayed. Some of our people will die fighting to stop the False King from once again taking over this realm. And it will be worth it, to die fighting for what we believe in. But to lose you now before the fight has evenbegun? If that sprite wasn’t right, we lose our best chance to stop him, and our future High Queen all at once.”

Eva’s lips were trembling. She squeezed her eyes shut, and I reached out to take her hand. “I don’t want to fight about this. Not when our time together might be limited.”

“Then believe in us,” I said softly. “In all of us. Because none of us can fight a war while being distracted that you might suddenly decide to end yourself. You need to believe we can win this without your sacrifice.”

Tobias nodded from where he sat across from his sister, his eyes sparking with light too bright to be a reflection of the flames. “You and I haven’t survived what we have and made it this far to fail now.”

Eva bit her lip, her eyes darting between us before she whispered, “Okay.”

Yael raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

Eva’s mouth twitched. “I believe that we can win. Even if Aviel does beat us to Adronix. I won’t use what I know, even then, unless I’m absolutely sure there’s no other way to stop him.”

It was a careless truce. But one I could live with.

“Though don’t expect us to entirely let this go either, or to take our eyes off you until this is over,” Rivan added with a dangerous smile.

Eva let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I can convince you otherwise?”

Rivan’s smile widened. “Not a chance in hell, sweetheart.”

Yael chuckled grimly. “Now that that’s out of the way, I suppose it’s time to talk about what comes next.”

“When we get to Adronix, we need to get Eva to the Seeing Mirror so she can complete the Choosing,” I said, having run through these steps in my head as we rode so often it felt strange hearing them aloud. “Then defeat Aviel’s army, isolate him anddrain his magic while doing so, and imprison him underneath Adronix where he belongs.”

“One impossible thing at a time,” Eva added with a slow smile.

I grinned at her.

“I’ve been thinking about how to better drain his magic,” Marin murmured. She reached into her pocket, withdrawing a familiar oval stone. “The way our mother’s invention works is to draw power from that which shouldn’t possess it, such as the magic-blocking bands you two wore.” Tobias and Eva let out an identical wince as she gestured at them both. “But she originally made it to be used on those cursed with unwanted magic. It should be able to drain Aviel of the magic he’s stolen.”

“Hopefully, it will protect whoever uses it on him if he tries to steal more magic from them,” Yael added. “Or at least long enough to incapacitate him.”

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