Page 113 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I blindly sent a wave of power behind me, even as I realized the soldiers following me were no longer fighting back—just herding me onwards as they blocked my retreat.

You’ll regret that,I thought, hoping it would prove to be true.

It occurred to me far too late that they werelettingme through. They had likely been ordered to do so by their master, especially with my companions facing so much more resistance. That in following Aviel here, I was doing exactly what he wanted—providing him with the very magic he needed to steal should something go wrong.

My steps faltered. Then my heart leapt into my throat as I realized the edges of the Seeing Mirror were evening out, likea pond starting to freeze in winter. I watched them harden, darken, still?—

The gateway was closing.

Summoning my darkness, I leapt forward just as a wave of pure, gut-wrenching fear broke through our strangled bond.

I heard Bash’s roar of helpless rage.

But it was too late to stop, even if I wanted to.

I twisted to look over my shoulder as I tumbled forward in what felt like slow motion—the old terror of the last time I had fallen through a mirror into the unknown almost overwhelming. The last thing I saw was Bash, our eyes meeting across the room like mine knew exactly where to find him.

There was so much blood covering him.

He yanked his sword from what was now a corpse as he ran for me, his fear palpable in those ever-swirling eyes. I wondered if he could sense my regret, or if it had been eclipsed by pure determination.

“EVA!”

With his anguished cry still ringing in my ears, I fell through.

Chapter 49

Estelle

Iknew this moment had been coming, but it was somehow worse now that it was here.

My eyes locked with myanima’s, his horror mingling with my own as I heard the voices outside our home. They were surrounding it, shouting orders to “smoke them out”even as I started to smell the stirrings of our fiery future. My eyes flitted over Adrian’s face, desperately cataloguing each detail for what I knew in my bones was the last time, even as my heart railed against that certainty. The strength of his gaze, the heartbreak in it, told me he was doing the same.

We had planned for this. Because of course we had, when we had known who and what was coming for us, for our children. Even as something inside me was screaming now that our fate had finally found us.

I could feel the ache of sorrow mixing with the grit of resilience as Adrian took me in his arms. There would be no time for prolonged goodbyes, not when destiny had come to tear us asunder. Though perhaps the knowledge of our limited years had the bittersweet silver lining of letting us say those lengthy goodbyes every day, in each kiss and in every heartbeat spent together.

If this was indeed the end, we had used our time—each moment all the more precious in knowing our minutes were numbered.

It didn’t mean that I was ready. Only that I didn’t regret the time I had been given.

“The only thing that I’ve ever wanted was this life with you,” Adrian murmured, an echo of the words he told me long ago in another realm. “If we were allowed an eternity together, it still wouldn’t have been enough.”

Then he kissed me, his fingers twisting in my hair. It was over before it had begun, his lips replaced with the bitter taste of goodbye.

“I love you,” I whispered so my voice wouldn’t break. “More than life itself.”

Those golden-brown eyes met mine one last time. “I love you. In this life and the next. Wherever we end up, we go together.”

He is mine. And I am his.

Adrian kissed the top of Eva’s head, then Tobias’s, drawing them both into a brief hug before backing away.

“Dad?”

Tobias’s voice was high and frightened, even as he moved protectively toward his twin. They were just turning into the people they would be, and my heart ached that we wouldn’t be there to see who they would become. Just as, if my suspicions were correct, we wouldn’t be able to protect them any longer from what was coming.

“Go with your mother,” Adrian said calmly, his eyes narrowing in determination as he turned toward the front door. “I’ll hold them off.”

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