Sebastian considered this.Ever so gently, he touched Kieran’sarm, making him snap to attention.Sebastian offered him a quarter smile.
“I think,” he offered, “you’re more capable than you think.You just have to give yourself the grace to get back up after you fall instead of getting stuck on tripping in the first place.”
“Maybe,” Kieran scoffed, “but it’s not like anyone’s there to help me stand up again, metaphorically speaking.”
“I would,” Sebastian said, “if you asked.”
Initially, Kieran dismissed the statement with a laugh, and the conversation soon turned to other things.By the end, though, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Sebastian had said.As the next few days passed and they approached the Mirrorveil Woods, Kieran found himself repeating it over and over in his head.
Magic had become something shameful to him—proof that he was a lesser witch than Delilah and his sister.He’d felt embarrassed going to them for help, especially knowing that they pitied his lack of experience so strongly.But perhaps Sebastian was right: He would never improve if he was too embarrassed to try.
And maybe what he really needed was help from someone else.
Each of the following nights, Kieran opened his journal and tried his hand at penning more spells.Seaweed sat by his side, piping with excitement every time Kieran’s eyes and hands began to light up with the faint silvery glow of his magic.It was helpful, in a way—it felt a bit like the spirit was doing her best to encourage him.Poetry magic still seemed risky, whereas prose felt more straightforward.With prose, Kieran didn’t have to be as worried about his magic misfiring due to overwrought phrasing or homophone slipup.
Each morning after, Kieran found himself at Sebastian’s doorwith fistfuls of spells he’d written the night before.He needed all the help he could get with the Mirrorveil Woods creeping closer and closer with each sunrise.Thankfully, Sebastian was more than happy to act as Kieran’s magical guinea pig and spell editor.He would read the spells over, telling Kieran where the magic was most effective and where he might be able to tighten things like sentence flow and word choice to make his writing more concise and the spell stronger.The more direct the writing style, the more easily the magic came through.
It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
It did also help Kieran’s stomach churn a little less, days later, as he watched the Mirrorveil Woods come into view from the window in the lower observation deck.
The forest below them was like nothing Kieran had ever seen before.The pines were tall and thick with strange, shimmering silver bark.At first, Kieran thought they had colorful images painted on them.Then one of them moved, and a little orange fox darted in and out of the trees.At the sight of it, Seaweed began to chirp excitedly.
The bark wasn’t colorful—it was reflective, like mirrors.The stripes of color he saw in the trees were the reflections of the descending aeroship and the cloudless blue sky.Incredible.
He withdrew his notebook from his pocket, itching to commit the image to writing.He scribbled out a few sentences, speculating as to how he could leave marks on the trees to remember his path.Almost immediately, he felt the warmth of magic begin to rise from his chest, asking to be poured into the words.The silvery glow of it wove around his fingers, creeping toward the pen.
He hadn’t even had to try to summon it.In his memory, theonly time he’d been able to cast so easily had been by accident when he wasn’t fully in control of his magic.At the realization, Kieran felt the unexpected prick of tears in his eyes.At his side, Seaweed stood on her back legs, gently pawing at his trousers with a flicker of excitement in her black eyes.
I’m actually doing it.
“Hey, Kier!Ariel and Santiago want us to meet in the control room!”
In an instant, the magic vanished.Kieran turned to find Delilah standing by the door to the staircase.She smiled and nodded toward the stairs.
He tucked the notebook back in his pocket.“I’ll be up in a minute.”
Delilah nodded and vanished up the stairs.
Kieran glanced back down at his hands, grinning.
Maybe there’s hope yet.
Ariel landed the ship in a meadow of silvery-green grass that fluttered in the breeze.This far south, winter rarely yielded more than the occasional frost and gray skies, and even with the cold, tiny glasslike flowers poked up from between the grass.They reminded Kieran of buttercups that had turned translucent.
After the ship was in place, the crew—excluding Sebastian—met up in the control room.While they waited for everyone to arrive, Kieran found himself staring out at the woods, his pulse beginning to speed up.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”He glanced over at Delilah.“Have you been here before?We’re only a day or two from Kitfield.”
She shook her head at the mention of her hometown.“No.This is super remote—I think it’s at least twenty-five miles from the closest town.Though, growing up, I heard rumors about this place.Mostly that the reflections make it hard to navigate, so people avoid it.It’s easy to get lost when the only thing you can see is yourself.”
“At least it’s not underwater,” Kieran muttered.
“You say that now, but I’ve heard plenty of stories about people who get lost in these woods and get trapped for so long that their own reflection starts to drive them mad.”
A shiver ran down Kieran’s spine.“Ah.How charming.Verbena really knows how to pick exciting locales, doesn’t she?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was trying to get you killed,” Briar said.
