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

32. Eva

Chapter 32

Eva

I barely had the energy to bathe the battle from my skin before collapsing into bed, unable to muster the strength to even find a nightgown. My magic was almost entirely spent, the little that remained curling up inside me like a cat. We had stumbled through the mirror back to my Solearan childhood home, though Bash had immediately mirrored down to the bronze castle below, checking in on his people now setting up camp inside it despite the late hour. From the message that appeared on my palm, a steady surge of them was still passing through its towering, rose-adorned mirror, readying to leave come morning.

Rivan had assured me before he left that there was still no word of movement from Morehaven. That Aviel was still gathering his forces, just as we were—even as the thought of him beating us to that ancient mountain made my blood run cold. We were still closer, despite today’s delay, though his words did little to abate the anxiety thrumming in my veins.

But despite the voice inside me that whispered there was no time to waste, my display of power had weakened me far more than I realized. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I awoke to Bash’s hands roving my naked body, his lips working their way up between my breasts, his teeth nipping at my neck to wake me. One hand palmed my ass, the evidence of his arousal pressing into my thigh as he yanked the bedding completely off me. I arched into him with a sigh.

My voice was still clogged with sleep as I asked, “Is it time to wake up already?”

I arduously forced my eyes open. It was still dark. Too dark to be morning, the room lit only by the hazy light of the full moon. My brain felt sluggish, my body heavy and sore in the aftermath of battle.

Bash didn’t answer beyond a low growl—instead kissing me firmly, his tongue plunging inside my mouth with forceful purpose. I wrapped my arms around his waist, trailing my nails down his naked back. One hand found my nipple, pinching it so hard it made me gasp. His knee slid between my legs, pushing them apart as he positioned himself between them. Then his weight pressed me into the bed as his hand tightened almost painfully on my hip.

Something made me pause. Something in his touch that had me jerking my head back against the pillow to break our kiss. Something muted across our bond that felt faintly like terror.

“Bash?”

His husky laughter floated through our bedroom. An involuntary shiver skittered up my spine, goosebumps rising on my flesh.

There was something wrong .

Suddenly, I was fully awake, fully alert, detecting a threat I couldn’t make sense of yet. Tensing even as I reached for him, my hands splaying across his cheeks to make him look me in the eyes. “Are you?—”

Bash gripped my wrists so suddenly I cried out, forcing them above my head with one hand. The other found my throat possessively, his thumb pressing into a pulse point on my neck where a band had lived, not long ago. Where another’s hand had wrapped around it.

And I knew.

My voice cracked as I whispered, “ Aviel. ”

Terror froze the blood in my veins. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight as I stared into the glacial depths of those pale blue eyes, startlingly still in place of Bash’s ever-moving gaze. Like that magic, too, had been silenced.

His head tilted questioningly, a slow, sinister smile spreading across his face as he asked, “How did you know, darling?”

I flinched at the smug malice in Bash’s voice, the tone one I had never once heard from him, each syllable warped with that aristocratic intonation. And at the pet name I couldn’t help but cringe away from despite myself.

The upward curve of his lips told me he had seen it .

A memory flared—a pale-eyed coyote staring at me from the tree line. But this. How was this even possible?

“Your beloved left plenty of blood behind the last time I saw him,” Aviel said, laughing quietly at my shock as Bash’s face twisted cruelly. “A simple sort of blood tie, albeit fleeting. But enough to remind you to whom you belong.”

No.

I struggled, bucking against him—but he had me pinned, my anima ’s face smiling at my panic. Stolen shadows blocked the door, and I knew my screams would go unanswered even if I could be heard over the muffled din of the preparations below. My darkness sputtered at my fingertips, a few weak tendrils trying desperately to come to my aid, before disappearing entirely.

“Push him out,” I pleaded over the sound of my own thundering heart. Remembering Rivan’s words and how I had fought Aviel in my dreams. “It’s your mind, your body. Don’t let him win.”

I saw the storm. The slight, familiar swirl of his eyes that told me he was still in there, still fighting. The loosening of the hand at my throat raised my hopes as I redoubled my efforts to get free?—

My stomach dropped as those eyes went still and cold.

“You should hear him screaming,” Aviel whispered into my ear, teeth biting down on the lobe so hard I cried out. “Begging you to stop him. To kill him before he can hurt you.”

Bile burned my throat. “Bash—” My voice broke as I battled against the body I knew so well. “Fight this. Please. ”

A flicker of anguish and something like loathing crossed his face. I could see it as he fought, throwing himself against the cage of his own mind, his body trembling from the battle within it. Fought…and lost, his irises freezing over once more.

A cruel, wicked grin spread his lips wide, and my skin crawled.

“You were foolish to think she could ever be yours,” Aviel sneered, pure hatred burning in his ice-cold gaze. “Not when I claimed her first.”

With a curse, I threw myself against Aviel’s hold. But his hands held firm, his grip bruising as he pushed me down into the bed with Bash’s superior strength. He let out a dark laugh, then his teeth found my neck—that same scarred spot—drawing blood as he bit down. I couldn’t help my cry of pain.

Instinctually, I bit down in response, my teeth sinking into his shoulder. Aviel’s grip on my wrists slackened. I shoved as hard as I could into the center of Bash’s chest, pushing him off me before launching myself off the side of the bed. Aviel moved toward me, but I had already palmed Bash’s dagger from the bedside table, pointing it at him.

I was shaking so badly the tip trembled.

“Here I thought to keep you somewhat dressed while in my bed,” Aviel’s gaze lowered, and I had never felt so exposed. “I prefer this for next time.”

He moved closer, his sneering smile widening as he did. So close now that Bash’s chest touched the tip of the blade?—

I froze. With a sickening grin, he leaned into it.

I pulled the blade back with a low cry, unable to look away from Bash’s blood as it welled from the shallow wound on his chest. But his eyes flickered from solely blue to their normal split shade, just for a moment. So quickly I might have imagined it.

Aviel’s vicious laugh had no trace of Bash in it as his hand gripped my arm with bruising force, pulling me back against him. “What exactly are you going to do, darling? Stab your anima ? Somehow, I don’t think he’ll appreciate it.”

I didn’t let myself second guess what I was about to do.

“Then you don’t know him very well.”

I sliced downward, watching Aviel’s eyes flare in shock.

The blade embedded into Bash’s thigh, and Aviel let out a startled shout. Not too deep—nothing that would slow him down for long. Just something jolting and painful enough to break Aviel’s link to him, as it briefly had already. To interrupt that bastard’s concentration long enough to give Bash a chance to?—

“ Eva ,” Bash choked out, his body crumpling.

I sucked in a breath that sounded more like a sob as I threw myself at him, dropping the dagger to the floor. My relief was so potent I felt lightheaded.

“Bash.”

I wasn’t sure which one of us was shaking harder as he held me, and held me, and held me.