Page 21 of The Mirror in the Mountain

There was another wave of stinging distress and pain so acute it was all I could do to stay upright. For a heartbeat, I felt the suffocating sensation of being caged…of being trapped. Then there was only her fear paired with the heaviness of resignation.

“We gonow,” I growled, unable to fathom failing her yet again. “We have to try. I’m not leaving her to fight him alone. My magic can block enough of whatever’s waiting for us there to get enough of us in. Then we take down whatever we find when we get there. And get her out.”

Rivan’s gaze fixed on me. “And the False King?”

“I’ll distract him long enough for the rest of you to save her. Maybe between our forces and the Solearans, it’ll be enough to defeat him this time.”

Yael stared at me. “You’d better mean we.We’lldistract him.”

“She won’t forgive you if you trade your life for hers,” Tobias murmured, his gaze shrewd. “Or those of your people.”

“And he’ll just use you to get to her,” Rivan added, understanding dawning on his face.

“I can deal with that,” I countered stonily. “As long as she’s free.”

Rivan was already shaking his head. “Bash?—”

“We don’t have time to come up with a better plan,” I gritted out. She was blocking the worst of it from me, I realized, as a muted shock of pain still reached me despite her efforts to keep me out. “He won’t kill me, not when he can use me as leverage.”

“Absolutely not,” Marin hissed. “You don’t know that. He very well might.”

“And it’ll give the rest of you and her enough time to figure out how to weaken him,” I stubbornly continued.

Yael grabbed my arm, fear and concern warring on her face. “You’re not thinking clearly. You need to slow down, block her out, and think this through.”

“If this were Marin, you’d already be through the mirror,” I said accusingly. Shadows streamed from my fingertips, prying away the hand holding me back.

Her jaw flexed. “We’re not letting you trade yourself for her. Eva wouldn’t want that.”

But I was already walking toward the door, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might tear through my ribcage and find its way back to her. “This isn’t up for debate.”

Chapter 11

Eva

Icouldn’t breathe as my darkness tightened around my neck. Couldn’tmove, even as something inside me frantically urged me to fight—a compulsion I could no longer distinguish as Bash’s or my own. Aviel drove his fist into my gut, crowing with mirthless laughter as I doubled over with a cry.

I let Aviel think he had me as I slumped back onto the covers, closing my eyes as my own magic choked the air from my lungs. Let him think he had already won, if only to give myself leeway for one last shot.

And then he was on top of me, flattening me to the bed with the full force of his body. Dots danced in my vision as he wedged a leg in between mine, parting my thighs. My body was growing heavier, my struggles for breath weaker, even as my fingers searched blindly for a way out. With a cold laugh, Aviel licked the wound he had bitten on my neck, one hand reaching down to lift my dress.

I felt his arousal press into my hip, just as I felt what I had been searching for pushing against my side, inches from my hand.

Springing to life, I kneed Aviel in the groin with every ounce of strength I had left. He fell against me with a cry. Before hecould do anything, I snapped the cold metal band in my hand around his neck with a loud click, my blood still dripping from the clasp.

His eyes went wide as his magic slipped from his hold—that collar taking from him exactly what it had taken from me.

I didn’t give him a chance to recover. Before he could call for help, I snapped my neck forward, slamming my forehead into his face. His nose crunched against me as it broke, his blood splattering down my awful sheer dress.

Aviel slumped on top of me, unconscious.

Gasping for breath, I pushed him off me, scrambling away. I half fell off the bed, crawling on my hands and knees to where the key to my ankle shackles had fallen next to the footboard. There was a splitting sensation in my side where I was sure I had rebroken a rib. My head throbbed, and the room swam concerningly, paired with a sickening sense of déjà vu.

Scooping up the key, I staggered over to a pillar on the far side of the room. Needing to put as much distance between me and Aviel as I possibly could, as I tried to suck down a breath.

I slid down the pillar to free my ankles, turning the key with shaking hands. My heart pounded in my throat, Bash’s blaring panic only exacerbating the issue, but I pushed all of it aside for now.

Because I needed to kill him. To stop him from hurting anyone ever again.

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