The Crumpled Mirror by Elizabeth Loea (free novel reading sites TXT) 📕

attacked. I’d never had to use that before, but the reactions of my neighbors to that man’s shouting made me realize how efficient it would probably be in any circumstance.

Feet stormed down the stairs. There went the Lopez family, then the Taylors. Voices on the lawn shouted up at my apartment, where a little smoke had risen from my accidental display of magic.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), my driftwood rocketed into the fog above the apartment so fast that it almost threw me off. A couple hundred feet above, I was finally hidden enough that I could breathe without feeling as though at any second, someone would glance in my direction and find me out.

It was bad enough without that embarrassment.

I’d made a fool out of myself. Worse, I’d endangered myself and my friends. What would people with no knowledge of the magical world say about the magic-obsessed girl blowing up her apartment without even the slightest sound? Moreover, what would they say about me lighting that man on fire?

Already, sirens began to blare a few streets over. Half Moon Bay is a quiet town, so when something happens, the response goes on for weeks. Neal would surely have a field day over this one.

And there was my work, lying in the wreckage of my apartment. I tried to focus on the calming fog, the sea air that enveloped me, but all I could see was paper. There were notes everywhere, all across the front path and the sidewalk. They spilled into the street. Anyone who hadn’t known about my obsession would know about it now.

Oh, gods. Someone was going to tell the cops. What was I supposed to say? “Oh, don’t worry, officer. It’s just magic.”

Someone was going to tell my family.

There was nothing I could do about it but watch. I’d gambled on my magic and it had destroyed a good part of a building for what? To get rid of a few dozen ghosts?

I couldn’t do anything about the destruction of my life’s work. There was my high school diploma in the mud over there. Near it was my favorite book of fairy tales. And then there was Claire’s dress—red, with sequins—that she’d mailed me for prom. I hadn’t gone to prom and had never given it back.

That apartment had been a monument to a compromise I’d made. It was a promise in action. It was where my words crossed: high school student and obsessed sleuth, searching for answers. Now one of those worlds was all but gone, and there was nothing I could do to get it back without getting the cops called on me.

Vivi stared up at me from the ruins of my apartment, unblinking and unflinching.

As families huddled together outside the apartment building and my life as I knew it crumbled to pieces, I sat in the sky above them and just let myself cry.

XX

The return to the circle of burned trees was an arduous one. I wasn’t out of magic, but big things like fire and explosions and such drains your energy. It’s why it’s always wise to eat three square meals a day and to avoid doing big things (like summoning demons) before breakfast.

A headache bloomed behind my temples, which I attributed to the cold and the stress of the morning. On my way back, my bare calf propped against the mark I’d drawn on the board, I skimmed the letter Amaranth had left.

This note was more cryptic than the last.

Dearest Clementine--I will not be able to write for a while. I am headed somewhere that will not provide me with pen and paper, so I wish you well from here on out. When you are done with this test, perhaps we can meet in person.

First: you took a book from Indigo’s library. Either read it or return it.

Second: I assume you’ve figured out blood magic by now. A thing like that can break the laws of space and time, of course. It can be used to bring back the dead, or to change fate.

It can be used to pay less than the asking price for grave magic. Magicians always want less than magic costs.

Tick tock. Good luck.

Regards,

Amaranth

Each scan over the writing made me more anxious than the last. What was this talk of knitting realms together? That was too much—too big. The ghosts, the realms, the murders, these letters from Amaranth, these tests, whatever was wrong with Mint...it was as though I was being pulled in a thousand different directions.

I couldn’t even keep track of which secrets I had to keep and when I had to keep them.

When I landed in the grass right before the portal to the clearing, I took a moment to collect my breath. It felt as though I’d spent the last few days trapped with these new friends, but the truth was that I’d still spent most of my time alone, one way or another. Maybe when this was all over, we could do normal stuff. I could take them to the mall and show them how to use the claw machines. Ginger could teach me how to scale those trees in the forest. I’d never been to Lilac’s realm and Adrian hadn’t even described his, but exploring was half the fun.

And Indigo—

Well, that wasn’t something I had time to dwell on.

I strolled through the portal into the clearing and turned toward home. Home was the only name for it now that my apartment was gone, after all. A few paces in, though, I paused. The grass tickled my ankles, the air cooling to late afternoon around me.

With a last glance at the house in the distance, I ducked into the portal that led to Indigo’s library, the stolen book in my jacket pocket a heavy weight on my heart. I knew it was unwise. Ghosts had swarmed my apartment earlier, and we’d all agreed not to return to our realms. I would be breaking that agreement twice by going to Indigo’s home as well.

But