The Mirror in the Mountain (The Mirrored Trilogy #2)

5. Bash

Chapter 5

Bash

M y heart pounded loudly in my ears; each beat a thunderous drum in my chest. Every instinct screamed at me to do something, even as I stood rooted to the spot, the room closing in around me as I stared at the space where the last missive had appeared.

“She’s alive,” Marin said firmly. “You would know if she wasn’t.”

I swallowed hard; my mouth dry. Ignoring the voice that whispered, Would I?

Tobias’s hands curled into fists. “We can’t just sit here and?—”

Another flash, and Yael snagged a second message from midair, a frown crossing her face before her eyes met mine.

My heart caught in my throat. “Is she?—”

“I don’t think so,” Yael said, her features tight. “Our people there say the prince—” She shook her head, correcting herself. “The False King is gathering a contingent. He’s leaving the castle. Which means someone’s doing our job for us.” She frowned, worry lines etching her forehead. “We have to assume he’ll take Eva with him.”

“Whatever happened, it at least bought her some time if Aviel now needs to move her,” Rivan said grimly.

“We need to let him get farther away from Morehaven so there’s no chance he can quickly return to the Source when we do attack,” Yael said, then winced. “Even if that means Eva’s trapped with him longer. But if they’re on the move, and in a hurry?—”

“—whether anticipating retribution from us or running from whomever orchestrated that attack,” Rivan interjected.

“Then this may work in our favor,” Marin finished.

I forced myself to swallow my immediate retort. They were right—though I noticed Tobias looked no happier about that than I did.

Only when Marin took my hand did I realize it was shaking.

“So we wait,” I gritted out, the word tasting like ash on my tongue.

“And recover,” Marin said, giving Rivan a pointed look before spearing each of us with one in turn. “We’ll all need to be at full strength when the time comes to save her.”

“A full-frontal attack on Morehaven was never a good option anyway, even without the Source as a factor,” Rivan muttered. “It’s too well fortified. But if we can catch up to them in transit or find a way to head them off at their end location…” I could practically see the battle plans being devised behind his eyes. “This needs to be a surgical strike.”

“Marin and I can make sure everything is ready to go when the time comes and keep an eye on any communication about where they’re going,” Yael said. My sister nodded in agreement.

I let out a long breath. “I’ll see if I can find anything else about the Source. Something that could help us.”

Yael shook her head, gently taking my hand. “We can do that too. You need to try to sleep and see if you can find her.”

My mouth dropped open as I stared at my friend. I should’ve thought of that. Though being able to calm my body enough to sleep when my anima was the False King’s prisoner—when she needed me—would be another battle entirely.

But if it gave me the chance to talk to her…

“And you two need to rest and heal,” Marin chimed in, staring down Rivan before turning to Tobias. “Especially if you want your magic at full strength when it’s time to fight.”

He looked ready to argue but seemed to think better of it, giving my sister a short nod as a muscle flexed in his jaw. Yael helped Rivan to his feet, Marin on his other side as they brought him toward his room.

Tobias followed me, the stairwell painfully silent as we ascended. Tilting my head at the correct hallway, I led him to Eva’s old room, which the house had long since magically cleaned. Though the scent of her on the sheets was long gone, it still held the memory of her within its walls, and I couldn’t help my surge of longing for her. I saw her everywhere. I could almost hear the sound of her laughter, still feel the touch of her fingers against mine as we all gathered for breakfast at that table by the window. Could practically see the way she had looked in the moonlight—wide-eyed and far too stunning for having just woken up from a nightmare. The one about the monster who now held her captive.

Tobias was looking at me strangely. I realized I was just standing there, staring blankly ahead, my hands slowly clenching and unclenching.

“You love her, don’t you?”

It wasn’t a question, but I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“We’ll get her back,” Tobias said in a low voice, eyes glimmering with deadly promise.

“Or die trying,” I swore hoarsely. “But I am s?—”

“Don’t apologize again. I heard you the first time,” Tobias said coldly. “I may not like what you did, but if we’re both going to be in her life, I can try to forgive you for it.”

“If you need to take a swing at me first, I won’t stop you,” I said, meaning it. I dropped my hands to my sides, steeling myself in case he decided to take me up on the offer immediately.

Tobias stared at me before letting out a short, rough laugh. “I’d prefer to do so in a fair fight.”

“We’ll train together soon then,” I promised, relieved to have moved past at least some of the discomfort between us. I walked toward the door just as my sister arrived, carrying a tray of food: a hearty-looking soup, boiled eggs, and some thick, crusty bread coated in butter, alongside a pot of tea.

Tobias was too thin, a testament to his treatment while in captivity, but to his credit, muscled in a way that showed he hadn’t let himself languish. I pondered how lonely, how isolating it must have been exercising alone in that cell after an entire childhood of having Eva train at his side.

He thanked Marin as she set the tray down on a table, dunking the bread in the broth of the soup before tearing the piece off with his teeth like he was starving.

Marin looked at me expectantly, and I felt the muscles in my jaw flex.

“If anything changes, or if you find out anything useful, wake me,” I demanded.

“Of course. Rest while you can,” Marin ordered in return. I barely resisted my retort that it would be easier said than done, though she seemed to understand the sentiment from the look on my face. She poured a cup of faintly steaming tea from the kettle on Tobias’s tray, holding it out to me. “This should help.”

“Thank you,” I said wholeheartedly, the scent of chamomile and mint filling my nose as I brought the cup to my mouth.

“If you find her, tell her thank you,” Marin added softly. “And to give him hell.”

She squeezed my hand before leaving the room. I stared at Tobias, who was now methodically polishing off the eggs one by one, his soup bowl empty. “Can I get you anything?”

The kettle shook slightly as he poured himself some tea. “No.”

I turned toward the door.

“Tell me about her?”

The question wavered, like he hadn’t entirely meant to say it out loud. But he hadn’t seen his twin sister for more than a few minutes since they were seventeen. I could at least do this much for him.

Walking over to where he sat, I pulled the chair from the desk along with me. Turning it around, I sat with my arms folded over its back, facing him.

Tobias’s hazel eyes were so like hers I felt a pang in my chest as he murmured, “The last time I saw her, my mother had just pushed her through that mirror.”

“The mirror took her to Quinn’s house. Who is also likely fae, by the way,” I said, sharing some of what we had spoken about during those long nights in the woods. Tobias jolted slightly at the name, though his face betrayed nothing—like that mask he had worn for so long had slipped back into place. “After that…well, it took her a while to move on from what happened to your parents. What she thought had happened to you. But she went to college with Quinn, which likely saved her from Aviel tracking her down sooner. And despite everything, she never lost her fight, nor stopped her training. She went to college on a full fencing scholarship…”

Regurgitating the little details Eva had told me in the woods before we had known what we were to each other made an ache burn in my chest. But I forced myself to continue, weaving the story of her life since he had disappeared between sips of tea.

Tobias’s face remained unreadable. But I took his silence as a plea to keep going. So I told him how we met—how it had been fate or luck that when the False Prince’s lost anima had finally been found after so long with nothing to go on, Yael, Rivan, and I had been closest to retrieve her. The fight against the golem after Eva had returned to her hometown. The trek through the Faewilds and how I fell for her long before I realized what she was to me. How I failed her by doing the same to her as I had to him: by bringing Eva to the monster they had spent their whole lives unknowingly trying to escape. How smart she had been in Morehaven, trusting her instincts instead of the lie we had all believed. And how she had discovered Aviel’s deception, leading to her imprisonment before she had managed to free herself.

Tobias sighed heavily. “If I’d only gotten back to her before my capture, she would’ve always known what Aviel was. He would’ve never gotten the chance to deceive her, let alone the rest of it.”

I flinched, knowing the part I had played in Tobias’s capture had made me every bit as complicit as his delay in returning.

“When I saw her in that dungeon baiting that guard to attack her?—”

I nearly dropped my mug. “She did what? ”

Tobias winced. “There was a guard who liked to prey on the female prisoners. I didn’t even realize Eva was there until she lured him away from someone else.” His darkening expression was a reflection of my own at the danger she had knowingly put herself in, even if I understood the reason behind it. “She succeeded. Goaded him into getting close enough for her to knock him out and take his keys. If she hadn’t stopped to try to save me, maybe she would’ve made it out before Aviel had a chance to stop her.” He shook his head. “Too many what ifs. What happened after that? All I know is Aviel ordered her brought to his bed.”

His eyes flashed with a familiar white light. I flexed my jaw, trying not to remember the way that same light had entirely incapacitated us all.

“She got away,” I whispered. “She outsmarted him and convinced one of his servants to help her flee. When I reached her, she was already in the forest.”

The haunted look in Eva’s eyes after her escape flashed across my mind.

And now she’s right back there.

On instinct, I reached for that stagnant bond, cursing it for being blocked so thoroughly that I had no idea what she was going through. I finished my tea in a gulp that burned my throat, finally starting to feel the effects.

Tobias blinked, the only sign of his confusion. “How did you know to come for her?”

“I grew concerned when I hadn’t heard anything from her. And then she dreamwalked to me.” I blew out a breath. “I should’ve known far before then that she was my anima . It wasn’t long after that she accepted the bond between us.”

Tobias’s mouth twitched in what might have been distaste. “I suppose we’re going to have to learn to tolerate each other then.”

I winced. “It took her a bit to come to terms with the bond too. Between what happened with Aviel, how he used the anima bond to lure her in, and how wary she was to open herself up in the first place…” My voice cracked, on the verge of giving out entirely. “He put that band around her neck, which blocks our bond. I can’t…feel her. But there’s another way to reach her, one that Aviel doesn’t know about, provided she can see it.”

I lifted my hand, my mother’s quill shining where it wrapped from my pointer finger to my palm. A curl of feathers circled around the pulse point of my wrist.

His eyes fixed on its iridescence. “Can I write her a message?”

The hesitant question took me by surprise, but I quickly nodded.

“Even if she can’t read it, it will let her know we’re here,” I said firmly. “I haven’t been doing it too often in case someone’s watching. But I know she’ll want to hear from you if she can.”

I held out my hands, extending my right pointer finger and my left palm. Then I looked pointedly to the left to let him know I wouldn’t look over his shoulder at what he wrote. But he held out my palm to me when he finished.

It’s me, sis. Eyes up.

“Our mom used to say that.” Tobias dropped my hand, his voice choked. “Eyes up, stout heart. The only way out is through.” Quietly, he added, “It’s one of the last things she said to us, actually.”

I nodded, unable to speak through the lump in my throat. But I swallowed it down.

“Get some rest,” I said shakily. “Tomorrow, we’re saving your sister.”