Mira Ashwood's POV
I collapsed.
The white light vanished and my legs gave out. I hit the ground hard, gasping for air. My whole body felt like I'd been turned inside out and shaken.
"Get up." Shade grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. "We have to run. Now."
"I can't." My voice came out as barely a whisper. "I can't move."
The cult leader on the horse laughed. It echoed through the trees like thunder. "Run if you like, Rogue King. We'll catch you. We always do."
Shade's grip on my arm tightened. I could feel him shaking not from fear, but from the curse coming back. The death-echoes were returning. His tattoos flickered like a dying lightbulb.
"Shade," I managed to say. "The voices. Are they...?"
"Getting louder." His jaw clenched. "But that doesn't matter right now. You matter."
Before I could ask what he meant, he scooped me up in his arms and ran.
Everything blurred together. Trees whipped past us. The cult army roared behind us. Shade's heart pounded against my ear like a drum.
"Put me down," I said. "I'm slowing you down."
"Not happening."
"You're going to get yourself killed!"
"I've been dying for two hundred years. What's one more day?"
That shut me up.
We burst through the edge of the Mistwood. Suddenly the fog was gone, the creepy trees were gone, and we were standing on a normal road under normal stars.
Shade set me down but kept hold of my hand. "Can you walk?"
I tested my legs. They wobbled but held. "Yeah. I think so."
Behind us, the cult army stopped at the forest edge. They didn't cross. Just like Shade said their magic didn't work outside the Mistwood.
The cult leader sat on his horse, watching us. Even from this distance, I could see his bone crown gleaming in the moonlight.
"This isn't over, Mirror Queen," he called out. "We'll meet again soon. Very soon."
Then he turned his horse and disappeared back into the fog. The army followed. Within seconds, it was like they'd never been there at all.
Except for Elara.
She was still on her knees at the edge of the forest, gasping for breath. Our eyes met across the distance.
"Mira," she wheezed. "Please. Help me."
Part of me the old me, the sister who'd loved her wanted to run back. To help. To forgive.
But then I remembered her smile at the festival. Her deal with the cult. Her plan to cut out my heart.
"You made your choice," I said. My voice sounded cold. Hard. Like someone else was speaking through me. "Now live with it."
I turned my back on her and walked away.
Shade walked beside me, not saying anything. After about five minutes, we reached a gas station. It was small and run-down, with flickering lights and a bored teenager behind the counter.
Normal. Everything was so wonderfully, beautifully normal.
"We need a phone," Shade said to the kid.
The teenager looked up from his phone and nearly fell off his stool. I guess we looked pretty rough muddy, bloody, and wild-eyed.
"Uh," the kid said. "There's a payphone around back?"
"Thanks." Shade grabbed my hand again and pulled me toward the back of the building.
The payphone was ancient and covered in graffiti. Shade picked up the receiver, then paused.
"What?" I asked.
"I don't have any money."
"You're a two-hundred-year-old king and you don't have money for a phone call?"
"I've been living in a cursed forest for two centuries. When exactly was I supposed to go to an ATM?"
Despite everything the cult, the army, my sister's betrayal I laughed. It burst out of me like a hiccup, and once I started, I couldn't stop.
Shade stared at me like I'd lost my mind. "Are you okay?"
"No," I said between giggles. "Not even a little bit. But that was funny."
A tiny smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Just for a second. Then it was gone.
"Wait here," he said.
He disappeared around the corner. A minute later, he came back with coins.
"Did you steal those?" I asked.
"Borrowed."
"From where?"
"The kid's tip jar. I'll pay him back later." He dropped coins into the phone and dialed a number.
"Who are you calling?"
"The only person who might be able to help us." He pressed the phone to his ear and waited. After a few rings, someone answered.
"Marcus," Shade said. "It's me. I need a favor."
I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but Shade's face got darker and darker.
"Yes, I know I said I'd never contact you again... No, I can't explain on the phone... Because the cult is hunting us, that's why... Us. Me and a" He glanced at me. "A Mirror-Touched wolf."
Silence. Then Shade pulled the phone away from his ear. Even I could hear the yelling coming through the receiver.
"Are you insane?" the voice screamed. "Do you know what they'll do if they catch you with one of those? They'll tear you apart! They'll"
"I know," Shade said calmly. "That's why I need your help. Can you get us transportation or not?"
More silence. Then, "Where are you?"
Shade told him the gas station's address. "How long?"
"Two hours. Maybe three. And Shade? You're going to owe me big time for this."
"Add it to my tab." Shade hung up.
"Who was that?" I asked.
"My brother."
"You have a brother?"
"Half-brother. We don't really talk."
"I noticed."
Shade leaned against the building and slid down until he was sitting on the ground. His tattoos were barely glowing now. His hands kept shaking.
I sat down next to him. "The voices are bad, aren't they?"
"They're always bad. But yeah. Without you nearby, they're..." He trailed off. "Let's just say I won't be sleeping tonight."
Without thinking, I took his hand.
The moment our skin touched, his tattoos blazed bright again. The shaking stopped. His whole body relaxed.
"Better?" I asked.
"Much." He looked at our joined hands. "I don't understand how this works. How you do this."
"Me neither. I don't understand any of this." I leaned my head back against the wall. "Two days ago, my biggest problem was whether Silas would notice me at the festival. Now I'm a Mirror-whatever, my sister wants to kill me, there's a cult army after me, and I'm holding hands with a cursed rogue king at a gas station."
"When you put it that way, it sounds insane."
"It is insane."
We sat there in silence for a while. Above us, stars twinkled like nothing was wrong. Like the world wasn't falling apart.
"I'm scared," I admitted quietly. "That cult leader called me Mirror Queen. But I don't feel like a queen. I feel like a scared kid who has no idea what she's doing."
Shade squeezed my hand. "You froze twenty cult members and cleared the fog from half the Mistwood. That's pretty queen-like."
"I didn't mean to do that. I don't even know how I did it."
"You will. I'll teach you."
"You don't know how my power works."
"No. But I know how to fight. How to survive. How to turn fear into strength." His silver eyes met mine. "And right now, that's what you need most."
I wanted to believe him. I really did. But doubt gnawed at my stomach like a hungry rat.
"What if I can't do it?" I whispered. "What if I'm not strong enough?"
"Then we'll both die." He said it so matter-of-factly that I almost laughed again. "But I don't think that's going to happen. You know why?"
"Why?"
"Because you're the first person in two hundred years who's made me want to live instead of just survive."
My heart did a weird little flip in my chest. Before I could figure out what to say to that, headlights appeared on the road.
A black SUV pulled into the parking lot and stopped in front of us. The window rolled down, revealing a man who looked almost exactly like Shade same dark hair, same sharp features but with warm brown eyes instead of silver.
"You look terrible," the man said.
"Good to see you too, Marcus." Shade stood up, pulling me with him.
Marcus's eyes landed on me. "So, this is the Mirror-Touched girl causing all the trouble."
"Her name is Mira," Shade said sharply.
"Right. Mira. Get in. Both of you. We need to get off the road before"
A howl split the night.
We all turned. Back at the forest edge, purple light was gathering. Lots of it.
"They're crossing over," Marcus said, his voice tight. "That's impossible. The barrier should stop them."
"Unless someone broke it," I said, my stomach dropping. "When I cleared the fog..."
"You destroyed part of the barrier," Shade finished. "They can cross now."
The howls got louder. Closer.
Marcus threw open the back door. "Get in! Now!"
We dove into the SUV. Marcus hit the gas before we even got the doors closed. The tires squealed as we tore out of the parking lot.
Through the back window, I watched purple lights pour out of the Mistwood like water from a broken dam. Dozens of them. Maybe hundreds.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
Marcus's hands gripped the steering wheel. "The only place the cult can't reach you. The one place in the world protected by magic older than theirs."
"Where?"
He met my eyes in the rearview mirror.
"The Academy of Broken Wolves."