"No!" Clara shouted as the floor split wider between her and Lucien. She fought against the silver light pulling at her wrist.
"You must choose," Isolde urged, her golden eyes glowing brighter.
"Wait," Lucien called across the growing gap. "Clara, there's more you need to know. The mirrors didn't show everything!"
Clara looked back at the mirrors surrounding them. One began to glow more brightly than the others.
"Look!" Lucien pointed. "The mirror is showing what really happened."
Despite Isolde's pull, Clara turned to watch. The mirror rippled, showing Elara—Clara's first self—before she ever met Lucien. She wasn't just a town healer. She was sick with a strange illness. Her skin was pale, and silver lines ran through her veins like spider webs.
"What's wrong with me?" Clara whispered.
"Witch sickness," Isolde said quietly. "Your power was too strong for your human body even then."
In the mirror, Elara got weaker each day. The locals began to whisper that she was cursed. Then one day, while collecting herbs in the forest, she collapsed. That's when Lucien found her—their first meeting wasn't when she saved him from a wolf attack.
"You lied to me," Clara said to Lucien.
"I didn't remember the truth until now," Lucien answered, staring at the mirror in shock. "These are memories even I had forgotten."
The scene continued. Lucien carried Elara back to her house and cared for her. Day after day, he returned, bringing food and fuel. Slowly, they fell in love.
"I was dying," Clara realized. "The witch blood was killing me."
"Yes," Isolde agreed. "And Lucien couldn't bear to lose you."
The mirror showed Lucien desperately looking for a cure. He traveled to a nearby town where a strange man offered to help—Dominic, though younger, without the silver in his hair.
"I went to him for a healing spell," Lucien said in shock. "Not to become a vampire."
In the mirror, Dominic gave Lucien a bottle of red liquid. "This will save her," he said, "but at a price. Your lives will be bound together forever."
Lucien didn't pause. "I'll pay any price."
When he returned to Elara, she was barely breathing. Lucien poured the liquid into her mouth, then drank what remained as Dominic had directed.
What happened next made Clara gasp. Both Elara and Lucien began to shudder. Red light poured from Lucien's eyes and mouth while silver light rushed from Elara's. The lights twisted together, making a glowing chain between them.
"A blood bond," Isolde stated. "Dominic used vampire blood mixed with witch blood. He was trying to make you both immortal together."
"But it went wrong," Lucien said, his voice hollow.
In the mirror, the routine failed. The red light devoured Lucien, turning him into a vampire. But the silver light was too much for Elara's weakened body. It poured out of her fully, forming the locket as her body went still.
"No!" mirror-Lucien cried, holding Elara's dead form. "Come back to me!"
Dominic emerged in the doorway, smiling coldly. "She will, in time. Her soul is bound to yours now. She'll return again and again until you complete what was started."
"You tricked me," mirror-Lucien growled, lunging at Dominic with new vampire strength.
But Dominic was bigger, stronger. He pinned Lucien easily. "Not a trick. A necessary step. The Bridge must be forged through repeated crossings between life and death."
Clara's eyes widened. "Dominic knew about the Bridge even then?"
"He was the Creator's servant," Isolde said. "As was I."
The mirror showed more scenes rapidly—Lucien learning to control his vampire nature, then finding Elara reborn twenty years later. They fell in love again, but this time, when Lucien tried to turn her to keep her with him forever, her witch blood fought the vampire blood. The fight killed her again.
"Each time I returned, my witch blood grew stronger," Clara realized. "And each time you tried to keep me with you..."
"I killed you," Lucien finished. "Over and over, without understanding why."
Another mirror lit up, showing Erynn meeting with Dominic centuries later.
"Enough," she said. "The cycle must be broken. They've suffered too much."
"The Bridge isn't ready," Dominic countered.
"Then I'll make it ready," Erynn stated. "I'll complete the ritual myself."
The mirrors went dark suddenly. The castle shook fiercely, and chunks of ceiling began to fall.
"The worlds are merging!" Isolde shouted. "Clara, you must choose now!"
Clara looked across the growing gap at Lucien. "All this time, you were trying to save me."
"And I'll keep trying," Lucien said. "Clara, I've loved you across lifetimes. Whatever you choose, I'm with you."
The silver light around Clara's wrist pulsed stronger, pulling her toward Isolde and the ring. The building was breaking apart around them.
Suddenly, a new voice spoke. "There is another way."
They all turned to see Erynn stepping through a crack in the wall. But she looked different—her hideous form was gone. She looked human, yet her eyes still glowed emerald green.
"The Bridge doesn't need to be one person," Erynn said. "It was never meant to be a burden carried alone."
"What do you mean?" Clara asked.
"The locket contains half the power needed," Erynn explained. "The other half..." She looked at Lucien.
"Is in me," Lucien realized. "The vampire half of the blood bond."
"Yes," Erynn nodded. "You both can become the Bridge together."
Isolde's face twisted with anger. "No! That's not the plan!"
"Your plan has caused enough pain," Erynn shot back. She turned to Clara. "The choice is still yours. Become the Bridge alone and lose Lucien forever, or share the burden and stay together."
The floor between Clara and Lucien cracked wider. The silver light pulled Clara one way while her heart pulled her toward Lucien. Beyond the crumbling walls, the three worlds were touching now, their edges starting to tear like paper.
"Decide!" Isolde ordered.
Clara looked from Isolde to Erynn to Lucien, her mind running. Everything she thought she knew had changed. Who could she trust? What was the right choice?
As part of the ceiling crashed down between them, Clara made her choice. She took a deep breath and...