Page 116 of The Mirror in the Mountain

He was backing me toward the flame with each parry, his size and strength formidable, especially as my own power waned. And he was Celestial, a light wielder too. But as to who was stronger…

As if my thoughts had conjured it, light flared up his sword. I poured mine into my own to match it. He smirked, like he knew something I didn’t. Our swords collided, but this time, as his light flew down his blade, something about it made me pause.

My distraction cost me. Or perhaps my time had finally run out.

His light wrapped around my wrists like searing shackles. I jerked back, but his hand flattened against my heart?—

I screamed.

Light tore from me, my magic flowing from my chest, my hands, my mouth. All I could hear was his laugh as he took and took and took, the pain overwhelming.

I knew what he was. And, far too late, it became clear exactly why he needed my family. Why he had targeted my daughter specifically.

My body slackened in the False King’s hold, even as I coughed helplessly against the smoke, gasping for air. The world around me became a burning blur of light and flame, as the last of my magic was ripped from me, my life force draining right with it.

I closed my eyes.

Estelle.

That familiar, lilting accent filled my ears. Citrus and anise—a scent I thought I would never smell again—wrapped around me like an embrace before his arms followed.

Then there was nothing at all.

Chapter 50

Bash

There was only defiance on Eva’s face and written upon the tense lines of her body as she disappeared through the mirror.

My legs almost failed me as I tried to run toward her, as I rasped, “No.”

I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t.

Quinn was helping Yael to her feet as Tobias’s magic held a wall of soldiers off. Blood matted Yael’s dark hair to her head. Blue light still streamed from Quinn’s hand, obviously knitting the wound back together.

“Rivan. He needs?—”

An icy blast nearly impaled me. Shadesong’s dusky blade just barely knocked it aside, my reaction more instinct than thought.

I raised my sword, locking blades with an oncoming soldier before thrusting my dagger into his side. But another one was there in his place, fire blazing in one hand, a curved blade in the other. I nearly screamed in frustration, my eyes darting to the violently rippling mirror. Fire blazed toward me. I raised a trembling shield of shadow just in time, throwing my dagger at my opponent’s heart. She dodged—right into my sword as it slashed across her throat.

“Tobias.”

He had seen. Was already trying to get to her just as I was, desperately trying to force his way through the mass of bodies in between us and the ancient mirror.

My shadows shot forward, trying to clear a path. But my magic was too drained from what Rivan and I had done, my shadows as impermanent as smoke as soldiers ran right through them. My sword flashed, my ears faintly ringing as I surged forward, cutting down anyone foolish enough to get in my way. A weak band of shadows wrapped around the wrist of one about to throw an ax. It fell to the floor as he was taken down by one of Yael’s arrows.

“Bash.”

Tobias was almost to the mirror, his light twining up his sword so brightly I could barely look at him as he battled his way through a mob of soldiers.

“The mirror!”

As I looked to where Tobias was staring, my stomach sank like a stone. The ripples in the mirror had calmed, its edges already dark and dull. That stillness crept inward, its pace accelerating.

My heart stuttered to a stop in my chest.

The mirror was…closing.

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