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

30. Eva

Chapter 30

Eva

“ W here. Is . She.” Marin’s voice held none of its usual kindness, each word forced out from between gritted teeth. “Where is my anima? ”

Bash stepped to my side, shifting so he was shielding me. White-hot rage flashed across our bond.

“I don’t know,” Eliav gritted out as Noam’s fingers inched toward his blade. “This wasn’t me. I swear it.”

A shout echoed down the tan stone hallway, then the familiar clang of clashing swords. I drew my dagger on instinct as a guard burst into the room, the black diamond gleaming.

The guard stopped short at the scene before him. “Your Majesty?—”

“Just tell us what’s happening,” Eliav ordered calmly, like he didn’t have two blades at his jugular.

“It’s our own people,” the guard said hurriedly. “The Kingsguard. They’re…it’s a coup.”

Bash swore under his breath, shadows swirling up his arms.

“A coup.” Eliav was nearly expressionless, his voice flat and disbelieving. “Abrahim, are you sure?”

“They are the False King’s,” Abrahim said, glancing behind him as if he expected them to appear at any moment. “And they know she’s here.” He nodded meaningfully at me.

Rivan swore. “Of course the False King’s supporters found a hold here again.”

Marin’s eyes flashed. “If they have Yael?—”

“Then I know where they would’ve taken her. If you’ll remove your blades,” Eliav added silkily. “This appears to be an attack on my rule.”

Marin’s blades didn’t move an inch. “One that was timed for the visit that you demanded.”

“Something they must have taken advantage of since the False King’s supporters appear to have infiltrated our own Kingsguard,” Noam argued, a hint of shock coloring his tone. “ They must have taken her.”

Marin’s features were deadly with rage. “And we’re to believe you had no idea that your personal guard was behind this? This was your people.”

“Not on my orders,” Eliav retorted. “We’re wasting time. If my Kingsguard are truly among the False King’s supporters, they would have known where to lie in wait. We’ve both been betrayed.”

Bash glanced at his sister. “Marin.”

Her blades were sheathed at her sides as quickly as they had appeared. I remembered Yael telling me once that her anima was the more dangerous of the two of them. The silent way Marin moved, the way those blades had found their mark before I could so much as blink, was more than enough to confirm why.

“I’m going to trust you,” Marin said, eying the Eastern King with utter distaste. “For now. Even after you lured us here into a trap. But if you’re lying—if you had anything to do with her capture—I will flay you alive.”

Eliav merely raised a reproachful eyebrow at her, entirely unruffled as he drew his sword.

“Those still loyal to you are gathering in the throne room, Your Highnesses,” Abrahim said. “Though it appears our way back is blocked, if you wish to use the alternative route.”

“Of course,” Eliav said cryptically.

Quickly, I retrieved my sword from where it had been stowed by the door, feeling its pommel sing under my grip as I reattached its sheath to my back—wishing I had decided to dress in my leathers rather than the thin fabric of this dress.

“If our Kingsguard are indeed with the False King, we must move quickly,” Noam said, his brow furrowing. “They’ll likely move any prisoners to the dungeons…and if Yael is as powerful as I remember, they’ll need the iron down there to bind her.”

“Then we need a way down there, and quickly,” Marin snapped. “If they targeted her before Eva and Bash, they’re likely looking for someone to torture for information that they deemed expendable.”

Eliav nodded. “Especially if they see her as a traitor to Esterra for siding with the Southerners.”

Bash’s shadows curled around his sword as if getting ready to strike.

“I will attempt to discourage anyone who decides to come down this hallway,” Abrahim said, bowing to Eliav, then to me.

My eyes widened, but Eliav held up a hand. “Absolutely not. You’re coming with us.”

Abrahim opened his mouth as if to argue, then bowed slightly, closing the double doors behind him. “As you wish, my liege.”

I tensed as flame flickered in his palm before he pressed it against the lock, effectively melting the two doors together.

Rivan let out a low, threatening sound, stepping toward the door, but Eliav held up a hand.

“Unless you think it wise to waste time fighting our way down to the lower levels,” Eliav drawled. “I suggest you follow me.”

He walked briskly to a brightly colored, ornate rug in the middle of the room. Pulling it back with a flourish, he revealed a round red mosaic on the tiled floor, patterned like a radiating swirl of fire. Carefully, he pressed on three of the inner tiles. They sank down with a heavy clunk before the entire circle of the mosaic lowered, slowly exposing a spiral staircase.

“Do all the castles in this realm have secret passageways?” I asked, unable to help myself.

Eliav shrugged. “Whether for escape routes in times of need, for eavesdropping, or for carrying on elicit affairs?—”

“Historically, of course,” Noam cut in.

“Many of the rulers who built these ancient palaces included them, though their existence is a highly kept secret.”

“Count yourselves lucky they did.” Noam nodded at the door where, from the clash of swords in the hallway, it seemed the fight was getting closer.

“Hurry now,” Eliav said almost cheerily as he led the way, a ball of blue flame bouncing ahead of him.

We hastily followed, our footsteps resounding on the dark metal of the stairwell as we rushed downward. The air was thick with the mineral scent of rust and particles of dust glittered around us as the light scattered into the darkness below. Noam pressed a tile underneath the mosaic as he ducked underneath it. It slid seamlessly back into place over his head.

Without the daylight, the tunnel reminded me unnervingly of the secret passageway I used to escape Aviel back in Morehaven, its stone walls lit with a bright blue glow. And not all of it from Eliav’s fire, I realized, as a familiar rock shone from within the stone. Sensing my trepidation, Bash reached down from behind me to hold my hand.

I didn’t let go as we continued downward.

Rivan’s low voice echoed as he asked, “Will the Kingsguard know about these tunnels?”

“Most don’t,” Noam replied. “They’re known to the royal family and only our most loyal guards,” he nodded at Abrahim. “Though we can’t count it out.”

“They won’t have expected us to escape the way we did,” Eliav said firmly. “They’ll be looking for us in the wrong place. But if the thick of the fighting is in the throne room, then that’s where we’ll go.”

He came to a sudden stop as the pathway split, a metal stairwell leading upward to the left, a narrow corridor veering to the right.

“This is where we must leave you,” Eliav said softly. “Abrahim will take you the rest of the way. We’ll reconvene in the throne room when you have retrieved Esterra’s lost daughter.”

“Please feel free to leave none alive for their treachery,” Noam added, looking at Marin. She gave him a sharp nod before they quickly clambered upward.

“Quiet now,” Abrahim warned us as he ducked into the smaller passageway.

The only sound was the dripping of water as we hurried through the narrow tunnel. Bash ducked down behind me so not to hit his head on the low, rocky ceiling. The glowing blue rocks were few and far between here, and the cramped, dark space was getting to me more than I wanted to admit. My breath came in shallow pants as I felt the walls start to close in around me, the cold iron of the box seeping into me like I might never again find warmth or safety?—

I stopped short as I heard a cry of pain. Blinding wrath burned through me in the next moment—so strongly I couldn’t tell if it was Bash’s or my own. Abrahim motioned to us to follow him into a cramped alcove where he pointed at a barely visible outline in the stone. He held up a hand in warning, looking through what appeared to be a peephole.

“Tell us what you know, traitor, and your death will come more quickly,” said a deep, rough voice on the other side of the door.

Yael’s laugh didn’t hold a trace of fear. “Yours won’t.”

Abrahim held up four fingers. Four adversaries then.

Easy .

There was a yelp of pain, then the unmistakable, acrid smell of burnt flesh. Marin’s knuckles went white against her blades.

“Then we’ll make you talk, traitor,” a second voice sneered.

“How exactly am I a traitor for not following the False King in his new face?” Yael panted. “Or am I simply a traitor for leaving this sandy piece of earth and never feeling the need to look back?”

Abrahim gave us a nod, mouthing a countdown, then pressed his hand against a notch on the doorway.

It was hard to say whose magic incapacitated Yael’s torturers first. One second, they had turned in surprise, a ball of fire sputtering in the hands of the one directly next to Yael. The next, they were all mangled on the ground—their features barely discernible from the force of our collective fury. Marin’s blades had sunk into the head of one, the heart of another.

But that was Yael’s blood spattered on the ground, running from her nose, her lip. The unmistakable signs of a struggle in her dishevelment, the marks of her mistreatment all over her bruising face and the red, blistering skin of her chest and arms.

They hadn’t deserved the quick deaths they had been granted.

I removed the keys hanging from what remained of one of their belts and tossed them to Marin. She was already at Yael’s side.

Yael grinned as her chains fell to the floor. “What took you so long?”

We hurried back the way we came after ascertaining that Yael was healed enough to continue. Marin’s magic soothed away the worst of her burns, as well as her thankfully bruised and not broken ribs. She still held herself stiffly, flashing me an exasperated smile at the concern I was sure showed all over my face.

I could practically feel Abrahim’s anxiety to find Eliav and Noam as we followed him up the dark metal stairwell after them. Marin walked ahead of me, her arm around Yael even in the narrowest sections. As we reached the end of the passage, Abrahim pressed his ear against the wall, then raised his sword before tapping on a glowing blue stone. A bright, rectangular outline appeared in the rock that Abrahim carefully pulled inward.

We emerged into a nondescript, empty corridor. I blinked owlishly at the sunset shining through a small half-moon window, even the dim rays blinding after so long underground. There was no need for Abrahim to gesture around the corner—the cacophony of noise that preceded the ongoing battle left little doubt of how close we were. He bowed deeply to me. As I bent to return it, he disappeared around the corner, no doubt to find his kings.

Bash’s shadows crisscrossed up his sword as his eyes became the same color gray. He smiled devilishly at me as he admitted, “I’ve been aching for a good fight.”

Rivan grinned as he came up next to him. “Let’s go then. Before we miss all the fun.”

“Yael…” Bash’s gaze dropped to the pinkish burns still visible on her bronzed skin.

“I’m fine,” Yael said, her mouth twitching with annoyance. “I can help. And I’m not sitting on my ass while the rest of you keep a kingdom from falling.”

Marin inclined her head. “And I have no plans to ever leave your side again.”

Yael laughed as she raised her sword, the long, thin blade glinting in the dying light. She limped slightly as she started toward the sounds of battle, Marin at her side. We followed them around the corner to an enormous, domed room, a great golden throne shining in the center of the chaos. The two sides were all in the same uniform, as those who had remained loyal were forced to fight against their former brethren.

Noam was standing in front of Eliav, a shield of wind whirling around them like a tornado. Fire pelted them from all sides. Their own Kingsguard surrounded them, far too many of them adding to the assault.

A burst of wind blew my hair forward as Yael’s magic joined Eliav’s shield, strengthening it against the onslaught. Then a guard moved toward us, a flare of his fire heading straight for me. For a split second, my darkness seemed to cower before it, then Bash’s shadows engulfed him. The fire disappeared, and the guard was lifted off his feet by the smoky tendrils that snapped his neck before he slumped lifelessly to the floor. Bash glanced at me quickly, concern permeating our bond as he stepped over the body, already ready for the next of them.

I nodded slightly in thanks as I breathed in for a familiar four-count, letting my exhale strengthen my resolve—finding that calm even as fire lashed out at us from all sides. But now wasn’t the time to falter.

A flame arced toward my anima, and my magic flooded into the room without a second thought. Like it had been waiting to be freed from the shackles of my own fear, eager to extinguish the fire that threatened me once again, and those I loved. Darkness streamed from my hands, forming a shield in front of me. Ready, this time, to smother anyone and anything that might threaten me or my family.

Yael and Marin fought side by side, and those who faced them didn’t get any farther. Rivan raised walls of stone, bursting from the castle floor to shield him from the flames before they hurled forward, crushing the oncoming guards who weren’t quick enough to jump from their path. Bash’s sword and shadows sliced through the room in deadly tandem.

Enough , I thought, as I watched a flame whip far too close to Bash for comfort. There was a slice along his forearm I hadn’t seen him receive, the sight of his blood illuminated by the encroaching fire filling me with a primal sort of fear.

Magic rattled my bones, then my darkness pulled me under.

My back arched as it flooded down my spine, my head thrown back, my lips parting with an inhuman cry as the power became more than I could bear.

ENOUGH .

I erupted. Night flew out of me just as it had in Morehaven—pure blackness blasting outward in a shockwave from my eyes, my feet, my hands. Whipping around me in a hurricane of inky tendrils, wrapping around my enemies who had foolishly raised their swords against me. Bending to my will as it hurtled toward the traitors surrounding their former king and his anima , the very people they had sworn to protect .

Unyielding, solid darkness attacked soldier after soldier, their magics flaring and dying as they did. I caught a glimpse of teeth and claws as my magic tore apart my enemies—the flickering shapes of my nightmares come to life.

And I let myself hate them—for what they would’ve done to Yael, for what they wanted to do to my family. For whom they had chosen to side with, and what he had done to me.

No, I would not mourn these deaths.

Rivan opened his mouth, then shut it soundlessly, lowering his sword.

Bash let out a low laugh as an entire swath of bodies slumped to the floor. “What happened to leaving some for the rest of us, hellion?”

I stared at him through my night darkened eyes. There was heat in his shadow-filled gaze as he came up next to me. His thumb stroked my cheek until I could feel the darkness slip away.

Rivan’s wide eyes met mine. “You’re kind of terrifying now, you know that, right?”

My smile was a bit shaky. “Thank you.”

“An absolute menace,” Bash said, with that crooked half-grin that never failed to make my heart flutter. “But I’ve known that from the moment I met you.”

I rolled my eyes. “I gathered that from the nickname.”

There was a yell from the doorway as more guards rushed in, fire igniting from their outstretched hands as they came at us. More traitors, both against their kingdom and their realm if they believed in the sort of future Aviel promised.

With a smirk, Bash raised his sword, running toward the wall of flame rushing to meet him. His shadows streamed out of him, more pulling from the corners of the room before slamming into the flame with a sizzle, extinguishing it with half a thought. Then his sword met that of an oncoming guard, Rivan engaging another.

I couldn’t look away from Bash as he fought. That easy, vicious grace, the power behind each movement. His muscles bulged against the finery he was wearing—the thin tunic clinging to his frame as sweat plastered it to the defined muscles of his back. A warrior incarnate, the sight of him heating my blood in a way that was entirely inappropriate.

His blade went straight through a guard’s heart, before he spun around, his voice gravelly as he said, “If you keep thinking those thoughts, I’m not going to be able to focus.”

I winked, then ran forward to where Yael and Marin had joined Eliav and Noam and the remaining traitors closing in. Marin’s dual blades moved so quickly, I paused for a moment to admire her speed and skill as she dispatched one opponent, then another. Yael shot me a knowing look, the circle of guards around her clutching at their throats in unison before they fell to the floor.

Noam had an arm wrapped around Eliav’s waist. Holding him up, I realized, as I rushed to his other side.

Eliav waved me off. “Take one of them alive. I want answers.”

Indeed, the remaining traitors seemed to realize there was no hope for anything other than their own escape. My remaining darkness wrapped around the feet of one who had turned to run, and his flames lashed out blindly. Darkness engulfed his hands, his feet, smothering them as they held him tight.

For one brief moment I saw those shackles that had once bound me.

Then those tendrils dragged him forward, his eyes narrowing in hatred as my magic held his own power in check.

“ Why ?” Eliav demanded.

The traitor let out a cold laugh, then winced as my darkness bit into his skin. “You chose wrong when you didn’t ally with the True King the first time. And now you would have us back some untried girl? We weren’t about to wait for you to make the right choice.”

Eliav sighed. “How unoriginal.”

“He will not be stopped,” the traitor laughed, staring directly at me. “The King will not be?—”

Blue flame consumed him, my darkness dissipating as his screams quickly cut off, leaving only charged silence.

Eliav sagged, and Marin rushed forward. Healing light spread from her fingertips to treat the burn across his thigh, so deep I could see flayed muscle and charred white bone.

The Eastern King’s eyes met mine, barely a hint of the pain that I knew must be unbearable reflected in his gaze. “Return to Soleara and begin your trek north. I’ll see to securing your castle.”

“My…”

Eliav smiled, the first one I had seen from him that felt real, before dropping his chin in the slightest of bows. “Morehaven, Your Majesty. Stop that bastard from claiming your crown, and you have my word your throne will be waiting for you.”