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

to be in much better shape than I was, and Adrian and Lilac both wore the kind of exhaustion that took a week of sleep to get rid of.

We were woefully unprepared.

Adrian and Lilac pulled me to my feet and I brushed the sand off myself.

“The ghosts know our names and they’re under his control,” I said. “That’s dangerous. Knowing our names is what lets him kill us.”

We stood together, four young adults awaiting some kind of orders. We were a sorry bunch: two of us sopping wet and sandy, the other two ready to pass out from exhaustion. We didn’t know enough magic to change the course of time or bend space to our will.

All we had was an ocean portal and a friend in danger.

One at a time, the three of them looked to me.

“Did any of you memorize the spell to banish ghosts?”

“We all did,” Ginger replied. “Except Indigo.”

That was all we needed. If we could hold the ghosts off or banish them, Oberon would be manageable.

Ginger had a knife, but none of the rest of us were armed. I still had my Sharpie, fortunately, since I’d stuck it into my bra, but what would a pen do against someone like Oberon?

“Wait,” Adrian said. “Since we’re about to die, can I get the mark you have on your palm? For fire?”

I glowered at him, but it was a reasonable request. They all needed something to defend themselves with, and I couldn’t imagine any of them had studied many runes in the last week, considering that they hadn’t been getting notes from a secret adviser.

“Palms out,” I said.

Adrian got the fire rune on both palms. I gave Ginger a rune for ice, although I’d never tested it. Lilac, who I trusted most of the three of them, got the most dangerous rune: lightning.

“Only use those if you’re being attacked by something with a pulse,” I advised. “Stick with the banishing spell as much as you can, because none of that magic will work on ghosts.. Use it. Until your last breath, use that spell. Let’s go.”

There was no time. At any moment, we might all fade to ashes. Oberon would get what he wanted, and we would all be dead.

This time, when I looked at the horizon across the ocean, I knew it would be the last time I would stand on the beach at Half Moon Bay.

And what did I have left? Nothing worth anything. My apartment had been destroyed. I wasn’t allowed entry into the only house I could call home now. The friends I had here would never understand the world I already had one foot in. My sister was at the bottom of the ocean. My research had been ruined along with my apartment.

“Any words of encouragement?” Ginger prompted.

I waited for someone to speak until I realized she was looking at me.

“If any of you die, I’ll kick your ass,” I said at last, and we ran for the ocean.

XXXII

The ocean was calmer by the time we swam out to the portal. By then, it was almost midday. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept, but it wasn’t important. I had too much energy now.

Indigo could have been dead already. It had been...what, half an hour? An hour? That was more than enough time to kill a man and be done with the rest of us.

Oberon wanted us all together for the spectacle. And we were swimming right toward him. We didn’t have another choice.

If we knew his real name, of course, it would be much simpler to take care of him. Alas, he was smart.

The salt stung my eyes and my throat as I paddled toward the portal. I could barely manage full range of motion, but Ginger and Lilac swam at my sides and pushed me along when needed.

We surfaced right above the portal and got one last gulp of air before our dive.

I didn’t pause before I hit the portal. I just wanted to get out of this ocean as soon as I could. I closed my eyes as I sank, sank, sank...and continued sinking.

There was a change in temperature, a chill in the water, and a darkness unsuitable to the ocean at midday. Instinctively, I opened my eyes to complete and utter darkness.

I shouldn’t have gasped, but my self-preservation instincts had disappeared the minute I’d heard that crack of an elbow against Indigo’s skull. Now, I couldn’t even see the bubbles as they left my mouth for the surface.

I felt them, though, as they floated across my ankles.

I was upside-down. Where was I?

Something bit my hand. Something big—big enough for its jaws to close over my wrist.

“Fire,” I whispered into the current, although I had no air to speak with. A spark lit up the ocean, and it was an ocean, as it blasted a hole through the gods-forsaken creature that had bit me.

It was huge, absolutely giant. Eight eyes glistened in the darkness, the light of the fire simmering across them like moonlight across an ocean. The jaws ocean, the fins backpedalled, and my hand was released. It was pure instinct that made me turn my feet, brace myself on the jaws of that terrible creature, and push as hard as I could for the surface.

Water slid past me. I sent up a wish to whatever tree or god or ancient artifact magic originated from that my friends had made it to the surface. I swam as hard as I could, imagining every second that I could feel teeth on my feet.

Finally, as grey speckles bloomed across my vision, my head broke the surface of this odd ocean. Where the hell was I? And where were my friends?

Ginger and Lilac screamed my name from a few meters away. Adrian surfaced a moment or two after I did, his shoulder bumping mine as a greeting.

The air smelled of blood.

“Get out of the water!” I shouted, searching for a shore, an island, anything.

There it was: a little island,