“A pool,” she whispers, turning back to grin at me. “A Pool of Truth.”
“Let’s not be hasty–”
Odette takes off, and I have half a mind to throw the shadows at her and force her to stop. Instead, I rush after her, keeping my attention on the water around us.
A pool. Of course there’s a goddamn pool up here. What else would make sense?
“We found it,” she whispers, kneeling by the edge. There’s a gentle ripple, but nothing else. Not even her reflection as I peer down. “The Pool of Truth.”
“We don’t know this is it,” I say, studying the water. The closer I get, the more things get strange. While Odette doesn’t have a reflection, I do.
If anything, it’s usually the other way around. I can hide in the shadows and avoid my reflection, but Odette should be seen in the clear surface of the pool. It’s not a terribly large body of water, but big enough that we should both be able to see each other with the way we’re standing.
She glances up at me, an array of emotions dancing over her face. “Why can’t I see myself?”
“That I don’t know,” I tell her, stabbing the base of my scythe into the ground. The clouds give, but slowly, like they’re made of mud. The base sticks enough that I can gently lean against it. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Let me have that book back.”
I don’t hesitate, and she starts flipping through pages as I study the water. I can’t figure out what the reason would be that she can’t see herself, but maybe that’s a good thing. If this does in any way connect to the Mad Queen, it would be good for her to only be able to see one of us.
“Why is there so little in the pool?” Odette grumbles. “There’s more in the Fountain of Youth, but didn’t you say that it had been destroyed?”
“Yeah. Midas took care of it.”
Odette huffs, looking down once more. As she does I feel a pang in my chest, and I reach up to rub over the spot. It’s a strange ache, almost like the stab when Midas struck me with his gold.
It must be a phantom pain brought on by the mention of his name. Midas may have been the only thing that’s been able to hurt me in a long time but he’s dead.
Just as the thought travels through my mind, the ache intensifies. I gasp as a blister of searing pain rocks across my chest, like someone shoved a hot coal straight through my sternum.
“Zarev?”
Gasping, I drop the scythe and barely manage to kick it into the shadows before I kneel. Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I feel the shadows inside me dancing, like they’re fighting over something.
With my eyes closed, something flickers across my vision. Agony, despair, like they are my own thoughts, roll through me, and I see fragments of something that doesn’t make much sense.
Blood. Bones. Something frozen that holds my hand, and dark hair against the red-stained ground.
Hands lock on my arm, and I think Odette’s trying to shake me. “Zarev!”
Ice. Cold, unforgiving, it rolls through me. Or I think it does. It’s hard to tell, but my breath catches all the same.
“Control your shadows!”
My eyes tear open at Odette’s words, but I’m looking into the water instead of at her. Staring back at me is an image that matches what I felt.
Ban and a woman I’ve never seen. She appears to be dead, wide eyes peering up at him from a pool of blood. He has one hand banded behind her head, the other holding a red, bleeding–
“Oh my Gods,” Odette hisses. “Is that a…a spine?”
There’s a rumble around us, but I can barely focus on it. I’ve never felt such an intrusion before, like my mind is fighting against something I can’t see.
But Odette’s right. Whatever Ban is holding, it definitely looks like a severed spine.
As we watch, his eyes turn into a mix of blue and black. One darkens, the other glows bright; I think his magic is at war with itself. Like the powers can’t decide which should take over.
Then he roars, the sound profound as it carries through the water and makes us jump back. It’s heavy with pain, grief, and from the circle forming around him the shadows rise and nearly swallow him.
