Page 50 of The Mirror in the Mountain

An unbearable heaviness settled in my chest at the words that could have only come from my mother’s lips. I opened my mouth, desperate to know more about their last meeting. About how much, exactly, my mother had known about her fate, and what awaited her?—

But the sprite was already gone.

Something glinted on the moss of the mound below me, exactly where I had spilled my blood. I knelt down, feeling numb even as the word for what lay before me hazily surfaced from that long-forgotten fairytale.

A boon.

The silver ring’s thin band split in four to hold an oval-shaped gray diamond the exact color of Bash’s shadows. I pulled it onto my shaking finger, utterly unsurprised to find it a perfect fit. The diamond seemed to ripple in the moonlight as the clouds finally parted.

Gingerly, I stepped over the mushrooms now swaying mockingly in the breeze. Stumbling backwards the second I was free of the circle, I fell to my knees, struggling to breathe.

The night flickered strangely as a gust of icy wind tore through the trees. But it wasn’t the source of my shivering as I slowly got to my feet, my steps far heavier than when I came here. I managed one, shuddering inhale, my exhale cut off in a sharp gasp that was quickly carried away with the wind.

Chapter 22

Bash

The emotions Eva sent down our bond felt somewhat muted, though they were such a whirlwind that I knew she must have succeeded. I updated the others as we shivered by the horses. Yet there was something about what she was feeling that made me uneasy, the grimy taste of something like…dread.

My finger went to my palm, the impulse almost unconscious.

Any luck?

I stared at my empty palm, trying not to think about how much her lack of response reminded me of those days I had done nothing while she had been imprisoned, thinking she was safe with her prince. How I had watched that same crease-lined space during each insufferable hour after she had been taken from me the second time.

Just as I was about to head back to the faerie mound to check on her, consequences be damned, Eva stepped out from between the trees. Her face was too pale in the moonlight, looking lost even though she had easily found us. As her gaze met mine, her face twisted in something resembling a flinch before her expression shuttered.

My sudden nausea worsened when she didn’t immediately speak once she reached us, as though carefully parsing through what she wanted to say. Her fingernails dug into the rose-shaped scar on her palm, a sign of her nerves I knew she wasn’t conscious of making.

What could the sprite have told her that had her this shaken?

When she spoke, her voice was carefully devoid of emotion. “I found her. But I’m not sure if we can make it before he…”

“Make it where?” Yael asked impatiently.

“To Adronix,” Eva said coolly. “The sprite said there’s a secret mirror, the Seeing Mirror, that will bring those who enter to the Choosing.That’swhy Aviel brought me north. Why he was waiting to bring me with him before he stole my magic. If he makes it through first, he’ll be able to be crowned High King.”

Rivan swore. “And once that’s bound in the magic of the land, he’ll be truly unstoppable.”

Eva nodded, but I noticed Quinn’s brow furrow.

“The High King or Queen receives power from the land itself once they are coronated,” I explained quietly.

“And with what Aviel can already do…” Yael grimaced. “Let’s just say that magic is best left to you, Your Majesty.” She gave Eva a short bow, frowning as she barely reacted. “Because if we can’t stop him before that happens, it’ll be infinitely harder after.”

“I take it that we can’t just mirror there?” Tobias asked dryly. But I noticed he, too, was watching his sister carefully, his usual detachment slipping due to his obvious concern. He and Quinn exchanged a worried look, the latter’s fingertips glowing faintly as though her magic could fix whatever ailed my silentanima.

“It’s a gateway to the Choosing, not a gateway to Adronix,” Yael replied with a sigh. “And due to the prison below the mountain, there was never supposed to be a mirror there.”

“We’ll have to go the long way,” Rivan said. “Besides, as we can assume that traveling there is the next step of Aviel’s plan, we’ll need to bring an army to match his.”

Eva shifted on her feet and something in the set of her shoulders, her downturned mouth, gave me pause. There was something wild, something desperate sneaking down our bond that seemed out of place, even with the understandable anxiety of getting to Adronix before him.

There was more to it. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Is that all?” I asked, my unease building at the carefully blank expression on her face. Then the tumult of her emotions ceased as the wall she had built between us all too easily blocked me out.

Eva hesitated, looking anywhere but at me. I stared at her with panic building in my chest.

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