Chapter 16 The Mirror of Shadows
The darkness wasn't just a lack of light. It was thick, like cold oil, filling my mouth and nose. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't scream. Just as my lungs felt ready to burst, the pressure snapped. I fell through a hole in the air and hit a hard, cold floor.
I gasped, drawing in air that tasted like old copper. I scrambled to my feet, my hands searching the ground. "Leo? Xavier?"
But the temple was gone. The mountain was gone. I was standing in a room made of dark glass. Above me, there was no sky, only a swirling purple mist that never moved.
"Looking for someone, Elara?"
I spun around. Director Vance was standing ten feet away. He wasn't wearing his tactical gear anymore. He wore a simple black suit, and he looked perfectly calm. In his arms, he held a small child.
My heart leaped. "Leo! Give him to me!"
I lunged forward, my silver light flickering at my fingertips. But as I got closer, I froze. The boy in his arms wasn't Leo. He had the same face, the same messy hair, and the same small nose. But his eyes weren't gold or white. They were a deep, haunting violet.
"This is Elias," Vance said, his voice smooth and terrifying. "Leo’s twin. The one your mother stole from the hospital the night you gave birth."
"No," I whispered, my head spinning. "I only had one baby. The doctors said... they said I almost died, but there was only one."
"They lied," Vance replied. "They needed one child to stay in the light with you. A child to test the wolf's blood. But they needed the other one here, in the Shadow Realm. Elias has been raised in the dark. He is the king of this place."
I looked at the boy. He didn't look like a king. He looked like a lonely child who hadn't seen the sun in years. My heart broke for him. Even though I didn't know him, I felt the pull in my chest. The mother’s bond was screaming. I had two sons. And one had been a prisoner his entire life.
"Where is Leo?" I demanded, my voice growing hard. "Where is my other son?"
Vance pointed to the wall behind him. The glass began to clear, turning into a window. On the other side, I saw the temple ruins. I saw Xavier and my father. They were fighting Julian’s shadow guards, their bodies covered in blood. Leo was there, too, trapped in a circle of black fire.
"They are in the world of light," Vance said. "And you are here. The gate is closing, Elara. You can only stay in one world. If you go back to save Leo and Xavier, Elias stays here forever. Alone. In the dark."
I looked at Elias. The boy reached out a hand toward me. "Mother?" he whispered. His voice was tiny, like a ghost.
I felt like I was being ripped in half. If I stayed, I would lose Leo and Xavier. If I left, I would abandon a son who had already suffered for five years because of my blood.
"I won't choose," I said, my silver light flaring up until the glass room began to shake. "I am a mother. I am the Silver Queen. I’m taking both of them!"
"You don't have the power!" Vance roared. He dropped Elias and pulled a black dagger from his sleeve. "The Shadow Realm eats silver light for breakfast. You’re getting weaker every second you spend here."
He was right. I felt the fire in my veins starting to dim. My legs felt heavy. The baby in my stomach was quiet, as if it were hiding from the cold.
"I don't need magic to kill you, Vance," I said.
I didn't use the light. I used the rage. I charged at him, tackling him to the glass floor. We rolled over the dark surface, my nails digging into his face. He stabbed at me with the dagger, the blade grazing my shoulder, but I didn't feel it.
I grabbed his wrist and slammed it against the floor until the dagger flew away. I hit him again and again, every punch fueled by five years of lies and pain.
"Where is the way out?" I screamed, my hands around his throat.
Vance laughed, blood bubbling in his mouth. "The only way out... is a life for a life. Someone has to stay, Elara. The gate demands a balance."
Suddenly, the glass floor under us cracked.
A hand reached through the floor, a hand made of silver light. It grabbed Vance’s ankle and pulled.
"Go, Elara! "
It was my mother’s voice. She was below us, her body fading into sparks of light. She wasn't a scientist anymore. She was a sacrifice.
"I started this fire," she whispered, her eyes meeting mine through the glass. "I’ll be the one to go out in it. Take the boys. Run!"
She pulled Vance down into the dark mist below. He screamed as the purple shadows swallowed him whole.
I grabbed Elias and ran toward the window. "Leo! Xavier! Hold on!"
I punched the glass with everything I had. It shattered into a thousand pieces. I jumped through the hole, clutching Elias to my chest.
I fell through the clouds and landed back on the temple floor. The black fire around Leo vanished. Xavier turned around, his eyes wide as he saw me and the boy in my arms.
"Elara? Who is that?" Xavier gasped.
"Our son," I said, gasping for air.
But the reunion didn't last.
The ground under the temple began to moan. The stone altar cracked open, and a giant, black eye opened in the center of the floor.
"The gate isn't closing," Julian’s voice boomed from the shadows. He was standing on the head of the dragon, which had grown twice its size. "The balance has been tipped! The Shadow King is rising!"
A giant, clawed hand, the size of a car, reached out of the floor and grabbed Xavier by the waist.
"XAVIER!" I screamed.
The hand pulled him toward the eye.
"Save the boys!" Xavier yelled, his claws digging into the stone as he was dragged down. "Elara, run! Save our children!"
"No! I won't lose you again!"
I ran toward him, but a second hand burst from the ground, blocking my path. Then a third. And a fourth.
From the darkness of the pit, a figure began to climb out. It had Xavier’s face, but its skin was made of starlight and its hair was white as snow.
"Thank you for the children, Elara," the creature said, its voice shaking the entire mountain. "Now, give me the one in your womb."
The creature lunged at my stomach with a blade made of black glass.