In the glass, I see myself clearly. Dark hair tangled from earlier with Rhett, green eyes wide with fear and determination. Gray’s oversized hoodie I threw on hangs loose on my frame, and there are shadows under my eyes from too little sleep and too much worry.
I look small. Ordinary. Nothing like someone who should be standing in this chamber trying to make the world different.
For just a moment, my reflection freezes. Not me—I’m still breathing, still shifting my weight from foot to foot. But the girl in the mirror goes completely still, like someone hit pause on just her.
And then she blinks.
I didn’t.
Riley.
She looks like me, but different. Same dark hair, same green eyes, but she’s wearing a crown—thin silver that catches the light. She stands up straighter than I ever do, like she’s never wondered if she belongs somewhere.
But her hands are shaking.
She puts her hand against the glass from her side. Her mouth moves, but I can’t hear anything.
“What do you want, Riley?”
The words just come out. I need to know.
“To be joined. To be whole, finally.” Her voice sounds desperate, even though she’s trying to hide it. Like she’s been waiting forever for someone to ask.
I can see it now—she looks as lonely as I feel. She doesn’t want power.
She just doesn’t want to be alone anymore.
“She’s right, Little Queen.”
The voice slides into my head, cold and too close. Ethos. I can almost feel him behind me.
“Take her. Take everything. That’s what power is.”
Something dark threads through the mist around my feet, and for a second, I want to. The way Riley sounds matches exactly what he’s whispering. It would be so easy to just reach out and—
No.
I look at Riley again, really look. Past the crown, past how perfect she seems. She’s just a girl who doesn’t know how to put herself back together.
Just like me.
I press my hand against the mirror. “No. I won’t consume you. I won’t make you disappear just so I can feel better.”
Relief washes over her face, and suddenly she looks more like me than she ever has. Not some perfect version. Just Bree.
“Then we stay separate,” she says quietly. “But together.”
I nod.
We both put our hands flat against the glass. When I speak, she speaks with me:
“I swear to choose, and be chosen. To remain two, and yet one. To protect, and not consume.”
The Ether explodes.
Light bursts everywhere—from the mirror, from the walls, probably from me. It’s so bright I have to close my eyes. Every mirror in the chamber starts making this sound, like singing but deeper.
Then Ethos screams.
