Page 121 of The Mirror in the Mountain

I greedily drew on it, letting it fill me as Aviel stood above me unaware, his gaze still fixed on the rotating crown.

He may have been able to force the magic from this land, taking it as he had done to me—but this power was always meant to be mine.

Aviel’s eyes were locked on the crown mere feet away now. But perhaps sensing the change in me, he glanced down, then froze.

I knew what he would see. The bands of light chaining me had slipped down my glowing skin, no longer able to contain me. My hair had broken free from my braid, spreading around mein a halo of chestnut waves, each strand entwined with threads of blazing blue. And I knew the twin crowns around my pupils matched the color of the crown he was trying to steal from me, as if they had always known this exact moment was coming.

I didn’t bother going for my blade.

My head went quiet, everything seeming to still. Then my magic detonated like an explosion. Darkness merged with light, wisps of night mixing with the blue. Aviel’s body slammed back against a stalagmite, slumping against it. A smattering of rocks showered him as he gaped at me.

Shaking with the sheer force of the power within me, I got to my feet, retrieving my fallen dagger. A wave of stolen darkness surged toward me. I didn’t even look up as a bright shield appeared to stop it.

Snarling, Aviel stalked forward, closing the distance between us as I walked to the water’s edge.

Raising my dagger, I said with a lethal calm, “That isnotyour crown.”

The stone in my dagger emitted that familiar hum as my palm brushed against it. And suddenly, it clicked. I might never know exactly how, but the last gift my parents had given me, the dagger my mother had made for me, had also been a gift from another mother. One who couldn’t have possibly known her son would be linked to its recipient.

Somehow, the same power that had removed the band from my neck was imbued in the black stone of my blade. Perhaps fate had intervened in more ways than one.

Aviel laughed mockingly, bringing me back to the present. “Oh, Evangeline. You know all I have to do is drain you of this power too? And then both realms will be mine.”

Our magics clashed again. This time, neither of us seemed able to get the upper hand as that blue light fought against its twin. I just needed to get close enough…

I smirked at him as light flared in the corners of my vision, so different from my usual darkness. “Afraid to fight me hand to hand again, Aviel? After all, I would’ve beaten you last time if you hadn’t used my power to cheat.”

His face contorted with rage before smoothing out in a cold smile. “I see I’ll have to beat you before I break you.”

I pointed my dagger at him in overt challenge—the one I had no intention of discarding—even if part of me was convinced he could see through the ruse. But Aviel released his barrage of magic just as I let go of my own, wisps of steam rising in the air between us in its absence.

Aviel sheathed his sword in a practiced movement. “I’m afraid someone took the dagger I’ve grown accustomed to in recent years. Perhaps it’s time I took it back.”

He was fast, so fast I barely dodged as he came at me.

“I’m happy to stick itexactlywhere it belongs.”

I let out a battle cry as I thrust my dagger toward him, angled in what would be a fatal strike. He laughed as he parried it, then lunged forward, grabbing for me again. I drove my blade between us, aiming up toward his ribcage in another would-be fatal blow, but he knocked my arm away, kicking out in a rebuttal that nearly flung me back into the water.

Panting, I raised my dagger once more. I couldn’t let this go on much longer, not with the blood loss starting to make me feel lightheaded despite the magic now keeping my wound closed.

“I don’t want to kill you, darling,” Aviel purred. “Though I’d be lying if I said your disobedience didn’t make me want to punish you.”

His next attack found its mark, my side screaming at the blow. But my defeat of him wouldn’t be through skill alone, nor magic, old or new. It would be because of the gift I had been given long before I knew what it truly was, and through exploiting Aviel’s own surety in his victory.

I clutched my stomach, swaying. Letting my dagger hang limp in my hand. Giving Aviel an obvious opening as he charged toward me?—

My dagger embedded into the shoulder he had left exposed, digging in deep. He had expected me to go for that fatal blow yet again. But I didn’t need to kill him, nor did I want to with his link to me.

Not when I needed only to drain him.

Aviel’s face twisted in a smirk as his hand engulfed mine where it was wrapped below that black diamond. His fingers dug into my skin, about to pull my blade out, when his eyes bulged. My opposite hand covered his, holding him against the humming stone.

Stolen magic ran in rivulets along his skin into the device that I had finally recognized for what it was. Taking his power from him, like he had from so many others.

His free hand fastened around my throat. The power I had borrowed from the Source spilled out of me in an excruciating torrent, even as what he took from me disappeared into Bash’s mother’s invention.

The diamond flared impossibly bright, blue light streaming between our splayed fingers. Then the stone cracked right down the middle, shattering into nothing.

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