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

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’m sure they’re different. I don’t think Oberon was capable of...practicality in the same way Mint was. Whoever Mint was, he wasn’t kind. Or cruel. He was just...just a man.”

He headed upstairs a couple minutes later, but I kept leaning against the doorframe until Ginger came to get me, her hair wrapped in a towel. She’d found facemasks somewhere and handed me one silently before she headed to join the others.

I didn’t appreciate my shower. I just watched the dirt and blood and salt and sand flow down the drain. There was too much left unresolved for me to be so peaceful, so calm.

Amaranth. Claire. Robin College.

Things would not get simple any time soon.

So why was I so relaxed?

We had all lived. Well, I’d died, but we were all alive now. That was more than I’d expected when I’d stared at Vivi and thanked her.

In the mirror, I didn’t look any different than a week ago, but I felt as though I was an entirely different person. That wouldn’t change any time soon, either.

I met the others in the library, in our usual spot. I leaned my back against Indigo’s chest and tried not to fall asleep as Adrian and Ginger bickered.

There would be more to fix—least of all, our own internal divisions. And I didn’t know if I had enough energy to work through any of it.

For now, though, we were riding high on survival. That was enough.

We split pizza. Unfortunately, Pizza Hut does not deliver to liminal spaces, but living in an enchanted mansion has some perks, including summoning food from a special cupboard to the right of the fridge.

I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a week. I hadn’t had a full meal in two days. I drifted off tucked into Indigo’s side in our library nook, listening to Lilac snore across the circle from me. Adrian tossed a blanket over us before he fell asleep, too.

When the doorbell rang at around three in the morning, I tried to get out of answering it. I thought nearly dying might be a valid excuse, but none of the others woke up enough for me to make them go instead.

I padded downstairs, feet cold on the marble of the entryway.

When I opened the door, I was greeted by a face barely older than mine. His dark hair was tied out of his face, his skin a deep bronze in the light of the mansion’s entrance hall.

“Who are you?” I demanded, rubbing sleep out of my eyes.

He passed me a note. It glowed a pale, shimmering green in the moonlight. It read:

We are delighted to inform you that you have been accepted to Robin College.

When I glanced up, he was gone, as though he’d vanished into mist. Considering the events of the last week, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he had turned to mist.

As I turned to go back inside, I observed that an additional line had been scrawled at the bottom of the note.

Congratulations. -- Amaranth

I leapt out into the cold to search for the note’s deliverer, but there was not a single movement as far as the eye could see.

Epilogue

“Clementine!”

“Coming!” I shouted.

I hefted my duffel over my shoulder and glanced around my room one last time. There was really nothing left to bring, unless I wanted to steal the comforter. Still, it felt as though I was forgetting something.

I checked one last time to make sure that Claire’s ashes were snug in the corner of the duffel. It had taken a lot of effort (and a lot of swallowed seawater) for Indigo to pull her out of the ocean. Fortunately, the coat hadn’t drifted far enough down for the bottle’s glass to crack; it had gotten stuck on a crag, so it was pretty safe.

The book of runes, too, was salvageable. I’d stuck it snugly in a water-resistant inner pocket, so even though it had gotten wet, it had still been legible enough to copy the contents over to a new one.

Both the new and old copy were tucked into my duffel.

I took one last look out my room’s window at the trees swaying in the breeze beyond. Clouds swept afternoon away from the sky as pale blue changed to a more respectable midnight hue.

I met my friends downstairs in the entrance hall.

“Are you ready?” Indigo asked, his smile as bright as ever.

Lilac laughed. “I think a better question to ask is are they ready for us?”

I squared my shoulders.

There was work to be done.

About The Author

Elizabeth Loea

Elizabeth Loea hails from the California Bay Area. She is currently completing her first year of college online, which frees up time to write, read, and avoid doing both of those things.