Page 79 of Mostly Shattered

I don’t need another person watching me from the shadows, making decisions for me.

The silence between all of us becomes a palpable thing. I try to focus all my energy on solving this stupid puzzle so we can get out of here.

“I haven’t betrayed you,” Costin says quietly.

I refuse to stop walking. My hands tremble at my sides, and I ball them into fists. “But you don’t trust me either.”

Before we can say more, the ground beneath us rumbles. The labyrinth is changing again, the walls groaning as they rearrange themselves. A narrow door creaks open. I see bits of light reflectedfrom within.

“Seriously, does anyone want to tell me about this prophecy?” Anthony asks.

He doesn’t get an answer.

I’m still shaken from the argument, but there’s no time to dwell on it. The labyrinth isn’t going to wait for us to sort this out. I take a deep breath, forcing myself to focus on the path ahead.

I try to move forward, but Costin and Anthony step in front of me. I frown at their backs.

“Stop it, both of you.” I forcibly push between them and give Costin a pointed look. “I don’t know what’s waiting for us in there, but you need to stay out of my way and let me do it.”

Anthony drops to the side and lifts his arms out of the way to let me pass.

Costin seems more hesitant to obey. He doesn’t say anything. He just nods, his expression unreadable.

I move past them to enter the chamber first, feeling the need to prove myself. It feels like I’ve stepped into a kaleidoscope with fragmented light dancing across the walls, turning into soft rainbows, like those cast by prisms. The effect is mesmerizing, almost beautiful, but something about the way the colors unnaturally shift, and change keeps me on edge.

The floor beneath my feet feels solid, but the air is thick, shimmering with the kind of magic thatmakes my skin prickle. I step forward cautiously, but my heart is already racing. This place feels alive. The labyrinth is watching us, waiting for me to take the next step, the final step. I know this is it—the last test. The test of courage. But I have no idea what form it will take, and that terrifies me more than anything else we’ve faced so far.

As I walk deeper into the chamber, I feel a chill crawl up my spine. Large antique mirrors line the walls. Their smaller handheld counterparts hang from the ceiling to reflect the light, scattering it in a dozen directions. Each one catches glimpses of us, casting us into a hundred different versions as they reflect against each other. The reflections twist and stretch, multiplying until I can’t tell where we end, and the illusions begin.

“The magic is stronger here,” Anthony says. “Be careful.”

A mirror catches my attention. There is nothing special about it other than I’ve seen its design before in the penthouse library. For a moment, I stand, staring at the dirty, frazzled reflection staring back. A familiar feeling creeps over me from when I was in the library the night Costin came to tell me of the prophecy. I had stared at myself for so long, watching my face blur, wishing I could step through the glass into another world, a place where I couldbe free from everything that weighed me down. I wanted to escape. To disappear.

Now, as I peer into the reflection, it’s not just a longing for another world that stirs inside me. It’s the realization that no matter how many worlds I wish for, I can’t outrun the one I’m in. This time, I must face it.

“Tamara?” Costin asks. “What do you see?”

I can’t answer him. The background of my reflection is not the mirror chamber I’m standing in. There is a foggy haze hiding something lurking within its depths. I watch it move around, a mere shadow against the foggy light. I lean closer to see what it’s trying to show me.

Chapter

Nineteen

The light around me starts to flicker, and the image begins to clear as the fog takes shape.

“Yoo-hoo, Tam-tam,”a voice calls as if from far away. I hear a slight whistle.“This way.”

My blood runs cold.

The world tilts before righting itself, and I’m no longer in the labyrinth. I’m standing in my birth mother’s San Francisco Victorian home. I’ve only been there once—in the alternate timeline—but I easily recognize the eclectic space. There is a cozy air to the home, one that had made me feel as if I truly belonged for the briefest of times. The floor-to-ceiling bookcases aren’t filled with ancient magical tomes but rather novels and self-help books, and there is a charming reading nook. The home is well lived in, with protective charms and totems thatblend with artistic decorations. It’s nothing like the perfect, unchanging decor of Astrid’s domain.

It’s how I remember it. Exactly. Down to the takeout Chinese food on the coffee table. We had to eat in the living room because there is no dining table. Instead, art easels fill the dining room. I stand amongst those paintings now, looking through the large archway between the rooms.

An open decorative box is placed on the living room floor. That is where Lorelai kept her vampire stakes. Costin’s vampiric sister is waiting outside with her brood to avenge his death, but she never makes it inside.

No one else is here, but I feel as if they’re close.

“No,” I whisper. “Not this night. Not again.”

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