The Mirror King (The Orphan Queen, #2)(130)

“It’s not stopped,” James shouted. “We aren’t safe until the barrier is up.”

We turned onto Castle Street and rode for my home with everything in us. Drumming hooves, Tobiah’s ragged breath, the screams of people fleeing wraith—these sounds filled my head as I kept my eyes on the castle. The overlook was visible from here, a wide, flat surface lit with dozens of gas lamps.

Closer. We were closer.

The street ahead was clear. I urged Ferguson faster and faster.

The crack and shatter of glass blasted again over the pounding and the blood rushing through my head. Tobiah groaned and his hands slipped around my middle. His weight pulled away from me.

I reached around and pressed my hand on his back, trying to keep him from slipping off. But as Ferguson picked up another burst of speed, Tobiah slid backward.

James rode up alongside us and heaved his cousin back into place. “We’re almost there! Just hold on a little longer.”

Thin tendrils of wraith slipped up behind us, nipping.

One of the horses shrieked and a soldier cried out, but there was no time to look back. Tobiah groaned and shook himself conscious once more, his grip tightening on me when he realized we were still in transit.

“More mirrors?” James kept his hand on Tobiah’s shoulder, a feat while we ran at full speed toward the castle.

Tobiah’s answer was faint. “No.”

There was no other option, then.

As we reached the castle rampart, I reined Ferguson hard, pulling him to a stop at the thick gate, left open for our return.

Other guards thundered by before they realized what I’d done, but James was still beside us. “What are you doing?”

“The only thing left.” I stripped off a glove and dug Connor’s small, silver mirror from a pouch on my belt. Dented, tarnished, but still reflective. “Wake up,” I whispered, and the mirror began to shine in my hands. I pressed it against stone. “Wake up, stay here, and grow. Grow until you cover the entire wall.”

Dizziness swarmed through me, filling my sight and stealing my balance, but Tobiah kept his grip on me, and James added his strength, too. I breathed through the magical exertion as silver rippled outward, spreading across the stone.

All across the city, wraith halted.

“James, the overlook.” My words felt slow. “Get us there now.”

The overlook stairs were nearly impossible to climb.

Tobiah and I staggered up the narrow passage, James and Melanie at our heels.

“We couldn’t get the carts through,” Paige said from the rear, “so Rees and I improvised. People carried the barrier pieces in baskets and scarves, anything they could find. Is that all right?”

“As long as the pieces are there.” I lurched up the last steps to find a huge glittering pile of barrier scales in the center of the overlook, and a small crowd of nobles and military.

Stumbling forward, I caught Queen Francesca’s eye, Kathleen Rayner’s, even Chey’s. Near them stood the Corcorans and a handful of other Indigo Kingdom nobles, all watching with frightened expressions. Many of them still wore their ball gowns from earlier this evening.

It seemed like ages ago.

The Ospreys were there, too, with Aecorian nobility and the remainder of the Queen’s Guard. Claire leaned against the railing, both feet attached.

I glanced at Paige. “Why is there an audience?”

“They’re afraid,” she said. “They want to know what’s happening.”

“Then they’ll have to wait until we’re finished. We can’t delay.” As Tobiah and I marched toward the barrier pieces, Melanie and James flanking us, I wondered what they saw. A king and queen, dressed as vigilantes? Or two young people, thrust into power before they were ready?

The castle shuddered as wraith strained against Connor’s mirror.

“What’s your plan?” Melanie took my arm to steady me.

“Don’t even ask,” Tobiah muttered. “She hates telling people her plans.”

“Do you remember when I told you about Mirror Lake?” I knelt at the pile of barrier scales, shining in the light of gas lamps and wraith. Our audience moved to hear, but guards kept them back. “And the other night, you, James, and I talked about creating a barrier ring around Aecor.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re going to turn the Red Bay into a bigger Mirror Lake.” Her eyes were wide as she gazed at the massive pile of scales.

“Not just the Red Bay. Tangler Bay, all the way through the Hand River and Grace Bay and the Wildern Sea. Yes. All of it.” I glanced from Melanie to James to Tobiah. “Mirror Lake didn’t just hold back the wraith for longer than the barrier, but normalized everything that touched it, everything that reflected over it. We’ll need to remove the wraith that’s in the city, but once it’s gone, we should be able to hold on for a few more years.”

Someone in the crowd asked, “Will this be enough?”

The pile of barrier scales here stood taller than my head. There were thousands of pieces. Hundreds of thousands.

“I can’t even consider that we won’t have enough.” There hadn’t been many pieces in Mirror Lake, but this was so much larger. I bent to take a scale from the edge of the pile; it was warm, but not as warm as those from Mirror Lake had been. Though maybe with the wraith heat pouring over the city, everything else felt cool by comparison.