Chapter 67: Reflections
The chamber was darker than the others we had passed through. The air smelled of damp earth and old metal, like a cave that had been tampered with by human hands centuries ago. The torches along the walls flickered to life as soon as we stepped inside, fire crackling without anyone striking a spark.
“That’s not ominous at all,” Elena muttered, tightening her grip on her crossbow.
“This whole place is a trap,” Ethan said, his voice tight. He ran his fingers along the carved stone walls. Symbols. Spirals. More writing in that looping, ancient script none of us could quite decipher. “Someone wanted us to be here. Someone planned it.”
“And someone’s watching,” Echo added. Her eyes darted to the shadows, sharp, predatory.
At the far end of the chamber was another pool. Larger than the first, but the surface was perfectly still, smooth as glass. It reflected the ceiling above like a mirror—until we came closer.
The reflection changed.
It didn’t show the ceiling anymore. It showed us.
Standing together.
But in the reflection, one of us wasn’t standing with the group.
One of us had a blade in their hand.
And that blade was pressed against my throat.
My stomach dropped. “What the hell—”
“Don’t move,” Aidan warned, reaching for me like he could shield me from my own reflection.
But the image didn’t stop. It kept moving, like a recording playing out in real time. The figure with the blade leaned in close, their mouth moving—but no sound came.
Ethan crouched by the pool, his hands shaking. “This isn’t just reflection. It’s memory. Or… or prophecy. Or both.”
“Which is it?” Elena demanded. “Because if it’s prophecy, I’m shooting whoever it is right now.”
“Look closer,” Echo whispered. Her eyes locked on the water, her expression unreadable. “Do you see who it is?”
The firelight wavered. The surface rippled slightly. And then the reflection sharpened.
It was clear.
The betrayer was one of us.
And the blade in the vision was held by—
“Elena?” Ethan’s voice cracked.
Everyone turned.
Elena stiffened, her crossbow half-raised. “Excuse me? That’s not me.”
“It’s you in the reflection,” Aidan said carefully, his voice steady but his body coiled tight.
Elena let out a harsh laugh. “Oh, come on. You’re seriously buying this? A magic puddle says I go psycho and suddenly I’m the villain? Please. If I wanted Roxanne dead, I’d have done it ages ago. Cleaner. Quicker. With style.”
“Not helping,” Ethan muttered.
“Not lying either,” she snapped. “I’ve risked my life for this group more times than I can count. And now you’re all staring at me like I’m some time bomb?”
“Because maybe you are,” Echo said quietly.
Elena spun toward her. “Oh, that’s rich, coming from you. Miss Science Experiment herself. Forgive me if I don’t take life advice from someone who was literally bred to kill.”
Echo didn’t flinch. “I didn’t say I wasn’t a risk. But I own it. Do you?”
The tension crackled like static.
Aidan stepped between them. “Enough. The pool shows possibilities, not certainties. That doesn’t mean Elena will betray us.”
“It doesn’t mean she won’t,” Mara said softly from the back. She hadn’t spoken much since we entered, but now her eyes burned into mine. “The prophecy doesn’t care about loyalty. It only cares about truth. And truth has many faces.”
Elena’s face twisted with anger. “You people are insane. You’d rather believe some spooky pond than trust the person who’s bled beside you?”
Ethan looked up from the water, his voice low. “It’s not just showing her. Look.”
We leaned in.
The reflection shifted again. Elena still held the blade to my throat. But behind her, shadowy figures moved. Not hybrids. Not Creed. People we didn’t recognize.
Soldiers.
Humans.
The Hollow Creed.
“They’re inside,” Ethan whispered. “It’s showing us an attack. Not just betrayal. Invasion.”
The air in the chamber thickened, heavy with the unspoken question pressing down on us all:
Was Elena the traitor who would open the gates?
Or was the pool lying to us—playing on our fears, twisting what we saw?
\---
We left the chamber more divided than when we’d entered.
Elena stormed ahead, muttering curses under her breath. Aidan stayed close to me, his hand brushing mine like he was afraid I’d vanish if he let go. Ethan trailed behind, staring at the ground, lost in calculations none of us could follow. Rhea clutched the journal like it was her lifeline. And Echo… Echo just watched us all, her silence sharper than any blade.
As we reached the next passage, Elena suddenly turned and jabbed a finger at me. “You believe me, right?”
I froze.
The whole group stopped with me.
“I—”
“You hesitated,” she spat, her voice breaking. “Unbelievable.”
“Elena,” I started carefully, “it’s not that I don’t trust you—”
“But you don’t!” she shouted. “None of you do. That’s the problem. We’ve fought side by side for months, and the second a puddle shows me holding a knife, suddenly I’m the snake in the grass?”
Aidan stepped forward, his voice calm but firm. “No one said that.”
“You didn’t have to,” she hissed. “I saw it in your faces.”
Ethan rubbed his temples. “Elena, listen—”
“No, you listen,” she snapped, rounding on him. “You’ve been waiting for this. Haven’t you? You’ve always thought I was too reckless, too dangerous. Admit it.”
Ethan blinked, caught off guard. “I think you’re reckless, yes. But dangerous? Only when you’re on my side of an argument.”
It was meant as a joke, a crack to lighten the mood—but it didn’t land. Elena’s jaw clenched.
“Say what you want,” she muttered, turning away. “But when this betrayal comes, it won’t be me. And when that happens, I hope you choke on your doubt.”
She stormed down the tunnel before anyone could stop her.
The echoes of her footsteps lingered long after she was gone.
\---
That night, we camped near the roots of an enormous tree that had cracked the stone floor, its branches stretching high above into the unseen world. The fire burned low, but none of us could sleep. The prophecy had done its job.
We were no longer just fighting enemies.
We were fighting each other.
And that was exactly what Sylas wanted.