Mira's POV
I won't let anyone else die for me.
That's my only thought as I face Marcus, silver light pouring from my hands. Behind me, Kael struggles to stand. Leo is trapped in magical chains. Rowan's wooden body is cracked and splintering.
And it's all my fault.
"Brave," Marcus says, watching me like I'm a fascinating insect. "But stupid. You're untrained. Unfocused. You don't even know what you're doing."
He's right. The power flooding through me feels like holding onto lightning. It wants to explode in every direction, destroy everything. I'm barely keeping it contained.
But I have to try.
I push the silver light toward Marcus, imagining it as a shield, a wall, something to stop him. It crashes against his dark energy and—
Shatters.
I'm thrown backward, hitting the wall so hard stars explode in my vision. Pain shoots through my spine. The silver light flickers and dies.
Marcus laughs. "Pathetic. Your parents had decades of training. You have what? Ten minutes of awakening?" He raises his hand. "This is over."
Dark energy gathers around his fingers, so much of it the air turns black.
This is it. I'm going to die just like my parents.
"NO!"
Morgana appears between us, arms spread wide. Her face—her real face, not my aunt's—is twisted with something that might be fear or rage or both.
"Marcus, wait!" she shouts. "Don't kill her yet. We need to know if more of your power is still inside her—"
"I don't care anymore." Marcus's voice is ice cold. "She released my stolen souls. She showed everyone the truth. She's more trouble than she's worth." His eyes narrow. "And so are you, apparently. You were supposed to keep her docile. Obedient. Instead, she's become this."
Morgana flinches. "I did everything you asked—"
"You grew attached." Marcus's dark energy shifts, pointing at Morgana instead. "I can see it in your eyes. You care about her. After everything I've done for you, you betray me for a child."
"I haven't betrayed—"
"You're in my way."
The blast hits Morgana before she can move. She screams and crumples, smoke rising from her body.
"NO!" I scream. I hate her. She killed my real aunt. She lied to me for eighteen years. But she just tried to save me.
Marcus steps over Morgana's unconscious body like she's garbage. "Now. Where were we?"
The ceiling cracks. Large chunks of concrete start falling. The whole building is coming down.
Kael appears at my side, moving faster than someone with his injuries should be able to. "We're leaving. Now."
"I can't just—"
"Yes, you can." He grabs my arm, his grey eyes fierce. "Your death won't stop him. It'll just make everything your parents did meaningless."
"But Leo—Rowan—"
"I'll get them." He looks at Leo, who's still struggling against magical chains. "Guardian. Do you trust me?"
"No," Leo snarls.
"Smart. But do you trust her?" Kael nods at me.
Leo's amber eyes find mine. After a long moment, he nods.
"Then we're leaving together." Kael raises his free hand, and shadows pour from his palm. Not attacking shadows—these ones swirl and spin, forming a circular doorway in the air. Through it, I see nothing. Just empty darkness.
"A portal between dimensions," Rowan gasps, her wooden voice cracking. "Huntsman, that takes enormous power—"
"I know." Kael is bleeding again, the wound in his chest reopening from the strain. "Everyone through. Now!"
Marcus roars in fury. "You dare defy me, Kael Ashford? I made you! Everything you are is because of me!"
"Everything I am," Kael says quietly, "is a lie you created. I'm done being your weapon."
He slashes his shadow blade through Leo's chains. They shatter. Leo leaps through the portal without hesitation.
Rowan shrinks down, her massive tree-form collapsing into vines that slither toward the portal. "Mira, child, hurry!"
But I'm frozen, staring at Morgana's unconscious body on the floor.
She's a liar. A murderer. She deserves this.
Except—eighteen years. She raised me for eighteen years. Changed my diapers when I was a baby. Made me breakfast even when we had no money. Listened to me talk about my plants even though she thought it was stupid.
Some of it had to be real. Didn't it?
"Mira!" Kael shouts. "We're out of time!"
More attackers pour through the windows—at least twenty of them. Marcus's reinforcements.
I make a choice I'll probably regret.
I run to Morgana, grab her arm, and drag her toward the portal. She's heavier than she looks, and my muscles scream in protest.
"What are you doing?" Kael stares at me like I've gone crazy.
"I can't leave her!" The words burst out. "I know she's terrible. I know she doesn't deserve saving. But I'm not a killer. I'm not like Marcus."
Something flashes in Kael's eyes. Respect, maybe. Or recognition.
"Leo!" he shouts into the portal. "Catch!"
He grabs Morgana's other arm and together we throw her through the swirling darkness. I hear Leo's surprised yelp on the other side.
An attacker's blade whistles past my ear. Kael spins and cuts him down, but three more take his place.
"Go!" Kael pushes me toward the portal. "I'll hold them—"
"Together," I say firmly. "We go together or not at all."
He looks at me for a heartbeat. Then nods.
We dive through the portal as Marcus's power blast destroys the wall where we were standing.
The darkness swallows us whole.
For a second, there's nothing. No sound. No light. No up or down. Just emptiness and the feeling of Kael's hand gripping mine.
Then we're falling.
We hit solid ground hard. I roll, gasping for air, my whole body aching. Around us is a sleek apartment that seems to exist in permanent twilight—windows showing nothing but swirling grey mist outside.
"Between dimensions," Kael gasps, collapsing beside me. The portal snaps shut behind us. "Safe house. No one can find us here unless—"
He stops. His face goes pale.
"Unless what?" I ask.
That's when I hear the sound. A slow, deliberate clapping.
Someone else is in the apartment.
Someone who was waiting for us.
A figure steps out of the shadows—a woman with silver hair and eyes exactly like mine. She looks like the woman from my memories. The woman who died eighteen years ago.
She looks like my mother.
"Hello, little spark," she says with my mother's voice. "I've been waiting so long to meet you."
Beside me, Kael whispers one word: "Impossible."
The woman smiles sadly. "Oh, Kael. You of all people should know that nothing is impossible when you're dealing with Memory Weavers." She turns those familiar eyes to me. "Did you really think your mother would leave you unprotected? That she wouldn't find a way to watch over you, even from beyond death?"
My heart stops. "Who are you?"
"I'm the memory your mother hid inside your first potted plant. The piece of her soul she saved just for you." The woman—the ghost, the memory, whatever she is—kneels in front of me. "And I have so much to tell you about who you really are."
Behind her, in the shadows of the apartment, I see more figures stepping forward.
Other Memory Weavers.
Dozens of them.
All supposedly dead.
All very much alive.
"Welcome to the Resistance," my mother's memory says. "We've been fighting Marcus Thorne for twenty years. And now that you've awakened..." She touches my cheek gently. "Now we finally have a chance to win."