Page 62 of Wicked Prince of Mirrors
“That’s where we came through the portals,” I clarified.
“It is,” Methrin confirmed.
Lyra held up her fingers. “We’ve been traveling by water for almost two months in total, does it take that long to travel?”
“Generally magic is used to speed up travel, I suspect many have reverted to the old ways.”
Another thought came to me, slow and cold. “Astrahal is where you grew up? Isn’t it?”
Methrin kept his gaze focused on the shining city that rose in front of us. “Yes,” he said shortly.
From somewhere within, a dark laugh echoed.There’s no homecoming, no welcome for monsters.
Flickers of black captured the edges of my vision. I blinked, hoping they’d go away but they didn’t. Instead, when I looked at the city ribbons of darkness rose from it like smoke, vapors flickering and dancing. Ribbons of blackness wrapping around each building.
My voice trembled. “Methrin?”
He took my hand, his touch warm, reassuring. “I see it too,” he said, jaw set.
“What do you see?” asked Lyra, her concerned gaze going from me to Methrin.
“You won’t be able to see it, but close your eyes and feel,” Methrin instructed.
Lyra’s fingers gripped the railing as she closed her eyes. The excitement on her face faded and her lips went tight. Her nostrils flared and her eyes flashed as she opened them. “Something is wrong there, terribly wrong.”
Methrin’s jaw was set. “It is here.”
“It? How is that possible?” Lyra demanded.
My vision went dizzy, just for a moment, then cleared, but those terrible black ribbons were still there. “Itas in the shadow?”
“I recognize it,” Methrin said, voice low. “It’s my shadow, my darkness, and it’s breeding, dwelling here.”
“I feel its viciousness, it’s fury,” Lyra added. “It came through the portal with us, didn’t it?”
I parted my dry lips. “It did. I saw it,” I confessed.
“We must have unsealed the locked portal,” Methrin mused.
“But my father has—had—the magic to lock the portals,” Lyra protested. “Would he not have closed them after us?”
Methrin pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingertips. “I did not ask him. I assumed . . .”
He trailed off, but I thought the unspoken words. What if Rydlin had an agenda of his own? He’d left the Everminati for an inferior realm with mortals, hepracticed magic, helped create the Boundary, and had locked Methrin in the mirrorverse. Someone with that kind of power should be able to unlock the mirrorverse as well, or at least do something to prevent the shadow from escaping and weaving between worlds.
Dread coursed through me. I did not know the sorcerer and while he’d been courteous and kind toward me, he’d also appeared troubled. Knowing he was not fully human should not have disturbed me. But it did, because I could not blame his trouble on age and the fact that he was too old to work magic. Was it betrayal or something else? Would Lyra know?
Lyra frowned at the city. “We know the Noz’Kareth is here, but if magic has been banished from these shores,howis it here?”
“The Shadow does not draw on moon magic,” Methrin explained. “Like us, its magic is innate. However, unlike us, its magic does not become exhausted.”
Lyra snapped her fingers. “No, but darkness and light cannot dwell together. If we vanquish whatever monster lingers in the temple, ideally, we will succeed in driving it away.”
Methrin hummed deep in his throat although Lyra’s reasoning sounded right to me.
“We can drive it away,” I said, thinking my thoughts out loud. “But the problem has never been driving the shadow away, because it roams, going from one place to the next, causing chaos. If it can go through portals, who knows where else it will go, what else it will do? We have to destroy it and stop this madness.”
“If it’s here, though, there must be a reason,” Methrin added. “It thrives on the souls of those with magic, Mirror Magic specifically.”
