Page 114 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I grabbed Eva’s arm as she started toward him. “Dad!”

“Come with me,” I said firmly. “Now.”

The fire was moving fast—too fast—magic moving through the flames. Abject dread flooded through me, seeping into mybones. My children had already started to cough, and I stifled my own as smoke scorched down my throat. Eva started down the smoke-filled hallway, but I pulled her back, taking Tobias’s hand as I half dragged them toward the living room.

We didn’t have time to escape another way, not with those fire wielding Elementals at our door. Nor with whom I suspected was with them.

Adrian would hold them off for as long as he could, but he was outnumbered. And Celestial or not, even he wasn’t invincible.

Something in my gut twisted. I stifled the primal urge to run to him as I felt his pain ricocheting across our bond, knowing what he would want me to do even as his stalwart acceptance nearly brought me to my knees. Because that pain was that of a canary in a mine, its death buying time so that others might live.

Flames licked up the walls of the living room. Tobias yanked on my arm, pulling his hand away. “We need to help Dad?—”

“No,” I barked. “This way.”

Eva struggled, trying to reach what she thought was the nearest exit. “There’s no way out from here, we need to?—”

“Trust me,” I gasped. “This is the only way out. You need to get to Quinn’s…”

A cough wracked my body, just as pain flared down my bond from Adrian.

“Mom, you need to tell us what’s going on,” Eva croaked. “Who are those?—”

I felt the moment myanimawas torn from the world like a scream from my soul. My heart felt like it was being split in two as it attempted to leave this earth right along with him, the death that claimed him reaching for me across our bond. Blood welled in my mouth, and I realized I had bitten through my tongue while attempting to stifle my cry.

To keep the truth from our children.

“Go,” I gasped, my ears ringing. The crowns around Eva’s pupils gleamed ruthlessly at me, as if reminding me exactly why this had all come to pass.

Placing my hand on her chest, I pushed as hard as I could.

She threw her arm out reflexively, catching the edge of the mirror—stubborn to a fault and too well-trained for me to catch her off guard, even in her state of shock. Her scream as the hot metal burned into her palm wrenched through me, adding to the cacophony of pain that was now my serrated heart.

“You need to go,now,” I choked out, my voice breaking as I lied, “Your dad and I will hold him off.” I grabbed them both, wishing I had the time to tell them everything but knowing I didn’t. “Eyes up, stout hearts. Remember, the only way out is through.”

It was the only goodbye I could manage. The last piece of safety I could give her, repeated so often it had become habitual. As much as I wanted to tell her, tell both of them everything, I would have to trust they would figure it out on their own when it came down to it. That the pieces I had put into place would reveal themselves in due course; that the same destiny that would take me from them would yield to its true and future queen.

“Come with us, Mom,” Tobias pleaded, his eyes flicking over to the rippling mirror in alarm. “Don’t…you don’t have to leave us.”

I took one last look at them both. “I love you.”

The door on the other side of the room crashed open. A hooded figure stalked forward, barely visible through the smoke. I knew exactly who he was, and who he wanted. With a yell, I ran at him, my magic flaring at my fingertips.

My light tore out of me, a manifestation of the silent scream I hadn’t allowed myself, seeking vengeance. But he was faster.His own Celestial light burned around me, and I cried out as it seared into my skin.

Tobias and Eva had frozen in place behind me.

I wouldn’t let him hurt them too.

My light speared toward Eva. She stumbled back; her burned hand reaching toward me, the shape of a partially unfurled rose that lined the gate now forever marking her flesh. But this time, her attempt to stay with me was in vain. Her mouth parted as if she were about to speak?—

Then she was nothing but another ripple.

The False King let out a bellow. My light surged forward, forming a wall of pure power in between us.

Tobias’s face went slack as he took in the space where his twin had disappeared. “How did…Mom?—”

My light reached for him, but it sputtered before I used it against him as I had to his twin, my magic draining far too rapidly. Dimly, I wondered if it was the force of the False King’s magic, or the repercussions of losing myanima. Either way, far too much of my power was being spent at once, at a rate I knew I couldn’t sustain.

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