50. Bash
Chapter 50
Bash
T here was only defiance on Eva’s face and written upon the tense lines of her body as she disappeared through the mirror.
My legs almost failed me as I tried to run toward her, as I rasped, “ No .”
I couldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t.
Quinn was helping Yael to her feet as Tobias’s magic held a wall of soldiers off. Blood matted Yael’s dark hair to her head. Blue light still streamed from Quinn’s hand, obviously knitting the wound back together.
“Rivan. He needs?—”
An icy blast nearly impaled me. Shadesong’s dusky blade just barely knocked it aside, my reaction more instinct than thought.
I raised my sword, locking blades with an oncoming soldier before thrusting my dagger into his side. But another one was there in his place, fire blazing in one hand, a curved blade in the other. I nearly screamed in frustration, my eyes darting to the violently rippling mirror. Fire blazed toward me. I raised a trembling shield of shadow just in time, throwing my dagger at my opponent’s heart. She dodged—right into my sword as it slashed across her throat.
“ Tobias. ”
He had seen. Was already trying to get to her just as I was, desperately trying to force his way through the mass of bodies in between us and the ancient mirror.
My shadows shot forward, trying to clear a path. But my magic was too drained from what Rivan and I had done, my shadows as impermanent as smoke as soldiers ran right through them. My sword flashed, my ears faintly ringing as I surged forward, cutting down anyone foolish enough to get in my way. A weak band of shadows wrapped around the wrist of one about to throw an ax. It fell to the floor as he was taken down by one of Yael’s arrows.
“ Bash .”
Tobias was almost to the mirror, his light twining up his sword so brightly I could barely look at him as he battled his way through a mob of soldiers.
“The mirror!”
As I looked to where Tobias was staring, my stomach sank like a stone. The ripples in the mirror had calmed, its edges already dark and dull. That stillness crept inward, its pace accelerating.
My heart stuttered to a stop in my chest.
The mirror was…closing.
And I wasn’t going to get there in time.
“ No .”
The whisper was lost to the din of the battle before it even got past my lips.
Tobias was shouting something as his light flared over and over. Then a blast of air knocked the soldiers in front of me to the side, forcing an open path down the middle.
“ GO ,” Yael yelled from behind me, her gaze fixed on the darkening mirror. “I’ll cover you.”
I was racing forward before she finished speaking, my heart lodging in my throat as the mirror closed in on itself.
My muscles screamed as I flew forward, faint shadows streaking past as though they could reach her without me. I would make it—there was no other alternative. Just because I knew she could, didn’t mean I would leave her to face him alone.
Not again.
Not when I was so close.
With my bloody hand outstretched, I leapt?—
And crashed into the enchanted glass a second before Tobias did. The entire mirror shuddered as we ricocheted back onto the stone floor, even the glowing blue glints surrounding it fading away. I was back on my feet in an instant, my shadows already searching for a way through.
Because there had to be. I wouldn’t lose her again.
There was a ringing in my ears. Tobias’s magic was barely holding the soldiers behind us back even as Yael fought her way through them. Quinn was nowhere to be seen. I could only pray she had heard the urgency in my voice when I yelled Rivan’s name, and deciphered the danger he was in.
Tobias swore loudly next to me, splaying his bleeding hand wide against the closed gate. Light streamed underneath his fingertips like he could force the glass to open.
His arms dropped to his sides, his shoulders slumping, even as his light kept the soldiers surrounding us away. As he took one step back, then another, he looked at me with those anguished eyes so like Eva’s.
Eva who was now trapped on the other side of the mirror. Alone with Aviel.
My own terror seemed to reflect back at me as I stared at him. My own helplessness.
I didn’t recognize my own voice as I rasped, “We’re too late.”