Page 115 of The Mirror in the Mountain

“I can’t hold him back much longer,” I rasped. “You need to go.”

“I won’t leave you here,” Tobias insisted, taking a step toward me. “I can help.”

I shook my head again. “You need to live to fight another day. He’s too powerful, it’s why we ran in the first place?—”

As if in response, the wall of light wavered, so close to bleeding out entirely even as I kept pouring more and more of myself into it. Like trying to fill a bath without a plug, it flowed endlessly out of me in a painful torrent.

Except I knew there would be an end to it, and to me.

I didn’t have time to argue. So I tried another tactic, a pale substitute of the explanation I owed them both, even as my voice shook with the strain.

“He’s after both of you,” I said urgently. “But he’s mostly afterher. You have to keep her safe. You need to get her far away from here. Your magic…” Tobias’s eyes widened almost comically. “It’s contained in the amulet you wear. Make sure you keep it on, or he’ll be able to track you. One day soon, when it’s safe, when it’s time, the Solearans will find you. And help you defeat him.”

Tobias’s mouth had dropped open. From the horror in his gaze, I knew he had heard me. Perhaps he had even realized the fact that I hadn’t included myself in the future I was hastily trying to prepare him for, nor his father. “Mom…”

The ceiling shuddered, smoke curling dangerously around the beams above us. Tobias looked up just as a band of my light wrapped around his chest, redirected from the wavering wall. His expression changed to one of betrayal as it dragged him backward.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I love you.”

The barrier holding the False King collapsed, my light fizzling into sparks. His magic danced from his fingertips as if in mockery of the light I had been unable to maintain. I gaped at him as he stepped through, the last of my light disappearing before a jolt of pure energy slammed into me. I screamed, even as I fought to keep my hold on my son, to get him out?—

“No. Mom—” Tobias’s last shout seemed to reverberate through me as I forced him through the mirror.

Then he, too, was gone.

I raised both hands in a fighting stance, hoping I didn’t look as on the edge of collapse as I felt. But this bastard had taken myanimafrom me, and was hunting our children. He might very well kill me too.

But not before I tried to take him with me, fate be damned.

The False King’s lip curved as he pulled down the hood obscuring his face. “You can’t keep me from her forever.”

“Watch me.”

Light arched from his hand; its hue startlingly familiar. I dodged on instinct, even as my mind whirred. If Eva and Tobias hadn’t gotten far enough, if they hadn’t ended up at the Sagray’s and been thrown into the Faewilds…

I needed to give them every second I could.

Flinging myself behind my rapidly charring couch, I threw the chest behind it open, drawing my sword. But the second my hand touched the hilt; all I could see was Adrian.

Adrian, bowing as he asked for my name with a smile that had never stopped making my heart race. The look on his face that first time I had raised my sword against him to fight him for it. The taste of his lips when I kissed him for the first time. The moonlight in his hair that first night we had come together. The scent of him—like home, like belonging. The way he had held our children, one cradled in each strong arm, his lilting voice always the cure for our babies’ cries.

The lack of our bond felt like a void spearing toward my heart, intent on taking me with it. Because my world had stopped turning the second his heart stopped beating.

My every breath hurt, but my grip tightened as I regathered my resolve as though my home, my life, wasn’t literally crumbling around my ears. Footsteps slowly stalked toward me, barely audible over the crackle of the fire around me. But I would wait for the right moment.

Hold,I could almost hear Adrian whisper in my ear, his arms tightening around me. Tears sprang to my eyes unbidden, and I blinked them away.

A fiery beam fell from the ceiling as I sprang from behind the couch where we had spent so many family nights together. Myblade hit home, and the False King hissed out a grunt of pain as I slashed it across his stomach.

He drew his sword, light flaring above him as the house groaned. If I could just keep him here long enough, perhaps the fire would do my job for me.

I darted forward, but he was ready for me. His sword clashed against mine, sparks flying around us. He reached for me, but I was faster. A bloody line opened down his sword arm as I spun away, and I smiled grimly.

Our blades met, the clang of metal against metal lost in the roar of the flame.

“It’s almost a shame I have to kill you,” the False King drawled.

I kicked out as I spun away. My foot found its mark—the deep gash I had carved into his stomach spraying blood—and he let out a hiss of pain. “Can’t say the same.”

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