“Are you in the mist too?”
“No. I told you. I don’t have magic, Syrsee. I’m a wraith.” She looks to the side again. “Shut up, Lucia. You’re making things worse.”
“Lucia!”
“She’s here,” Echo says. “She’s telling me what to do. She doesn’t want me to tell you that because she thinks you won’t believe me if you know it’s coming from her. But please,” Echo begs with praying hands, “please give me a chance to tell you what’s happening and what we can do about it. Because Ryet is caught up in it too, ya know. He’s going tobethe Darkness.”
“You just said earlier that Josep is the Darkness.”
“He is, for now. But why do you think they made Ryet?”
“So Paul could rule the world like a king?”
This throws Echo for a moment, but obviously, Lucia is filling her in because she comes back with an answer. “Paul is the enemy of the Darkness. He was made for that purpose only.” She hesitates, looking to the side again. At Lucia, I guess. Her tone changes. “That’shispurpose? How?” There’s a pause here, where Lucia must be talking. “No. I want to know, Lucia Who the hell is he? What the hell is going on?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I want to know too. Tell us, Lucia. Or I won’t even listen to your stupid plan.”
Echo’s head juts back as if in surprise. “No fucking way!” Then she laughs as she looks at me. “You’re not gonna believe this.”
And when she tells me, she’s right.
I don’t.
“Listen,” I tell her, “I need to go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“I… I made a promise and I need to at least try to see it through. But I’ll be back.”
Obviously, Lucia is objecting offscreen, for lack of a better word, because Echo has turned her head to the side and is listening. When she looks back at me, her words are more urgent. “There’s no time, Syrsee. They’re here. And if we don’t get a handle on this magic?—”
“We?” I ask, suddenly angry. Because I don’t even know this girl. She has no right to ask me for a favor, let alone try and guilt me into doing her one. “It’s not about ‘we,’ Echo. This is my magic and what I choose to use it on, or how I choose to use it, is none of your fucking business.I’ll be back.”
Then I turn away from all the mirrors, close my eyes, take in the mist all around me, feel the purple and the gold, andpressinto it.
I know it worked this time because when I open my eyes, the gold is so bright, I have to shield my eyes for a few moments.
“Syrsee?” Paul says. His voice is smooth and comforting, how I know it best.
“Paul!” I say his name with excitement, pushing my hand farther and farther away from my face until I can see him backlit against the… sun? I think? “I found you! I’m so sorry it took me so long, the mirrors were?—”
“It’s over, Syrsee. It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s… just… over.”
And then, before I can even ask him what the fuck that means, I’m back where I was—trapped in the maze of mirrors—and no amount of shouting his name or pressing myself into the mist changes this.
I replay his words in my head, panicking.
I missed it?
“No!” I scream. “It’s not over! Itcan’tbe over! I didn’t win yet! I didn’t do anything yet!”
“It’s not!”
I whirl around and find Echo staring back at me from the mist. And then I look around and realize I’m not trapped in the maze.
I’m in a cave.
“Where am I?”
Lucia steps into view, smiling at me. “Welcome to Josep’s lair, little witch. It’s not over yet. Nothing is over yet. The battle is just beginning. But his scions are awake now and they will be here soon, so let’s get to work. Where did you leave your mirror?”
For a moment I think she’s talking about the maze of mirrors I just came from, so this question doesn’t really make sense. “What?”
“The mirror Tristin brought you? The Coyrah mirror?”
“Oh.” I take a breath, feeling very out of sorts. “I… think it’s back at Ryet’s cabin in West Virginia? I don’t know, actually. I don’t even know if that place is real.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Lucia says. “Doesn’t need to be real. Because you’re gonna take us there in a dreamwalk.”
