“I am standing right next to you.”
I blinked, and Prince Darren appeared. He was no longer wearing the training attire of the Academy. Instead, he was dressed like that first day I had passed him in the mountains.
“You are not good enough,” the non-heir continued. “You know that, don’t you?”
I opened my mouth to tell him he was wrong, but no sound came out. I gasped, clawing at my throat and looking to Darren with wild eyes. Help me, I mouthed.
He threw back his head and laughed.
I lunged at the prince, but all I grasped was air, and then cold, hard marble. Knees bruised, palms bloodied, I looked up to see the prince was now on the bench with the others. He winked at me as he whispered something in the Black Mage’s ear, and the man laughed hoarsely.
“Don’t trust him, and you can’t get hurt.”
Ella stood in front of me, dark ringlets billowing as she gazed down at me earnestly.
I tried to assure her I never would, but I could only offer silence.
Suddenly, the entire room spun, and I found myself outside my parents’ house in Dem’shaa. Eagerly, I ran to the door and threw it open.
An outpouring of smoke filled my lungs, and I coughed repeatedly, a hand over my nose as I felt along the wall, trying to see through the haze.
“Mother, father…?” I choked. “Alex… Derrick? “
My voice was back, but it did no good. There was only silence to answer my call. Stumbling, I made my way forward, coughing and shouting as I pounded on the walls.
I threw open my parents’ bedroom door. The smoke suddenly cleared. In front of me were their bodies—mangled and bruised, spread out across the floor. A pool of blood lay at my parents’ feet, and their eyes were glassy, without depth.
I sank to the ground.
“Ryiah! Help me—please! Ryiah!“My heart dropped. Alex.
I raced out of the room in search of my twin. I could hear both his and Derrick’s screams coming from across the hall. Pounding on locked doors, ignoring the suffocating smoke, I pleaded for them to answer.
Barreling into the final room and finding it empty after the smoke had shifted, I felt hysteria rise within. Where were they? Who was doing this? I slammed my fist against a doorframe.
“You are too late, Ryiah. They will be dead too, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”
Halting, I turned slowly to find myself face-to-face with a stranger. The dim figure was shrouded in a heavy haze of smoke. It was impossible to make out any of her features.
” What did you do?” I gasped.
“You can end it all,” the stranger insisted, ignoring my question. Her voice was unsympathetic and yet strangely familiar. “You can end this right now and never lose them.”
“I don’t know what you are—”
“Call out for Piers. This is a dream.”
She was lying. This wasn’t a dream…It couldn’t be. Could it?
The stranger snapped her fingers, and an image shimmered in the air. I could see myself seated in a giant circle, sobbing quietly, eyes shut, as Sir Piers paced the edge. He held three fingers up, laughing.
The vision ended, and I was back with the stranger.
“Call Piers and surrender, now!” she commanded. A blast of magic hit me, slamming me against the wall.
“No.” I struggled to right myself—even if she was telling the truth, I didn’t trust her.
“You fool!” the stranger raged. “You would rather lose your family than give up your chance at an apprenticeship!”
“If this is only a dream then I won’t lose them.” I folded my arms stubbornly.
All at once I found myself hanging across the ledge of an endless pit, suspended mid-air as the shadowy stranger looked down. Her magic was all that kept me from plummeting to its depths.
“Do you think you won’t feel death? Do you think you’ll be able to tell the difference when every inch of your corpse is screaming out for the pain to stop?” the girl challenged. Still obscure in the shadows, her voice rang with familiarity. “These visions induce madness. You heard your instructor. How many times do you think you can die before you become mad as well? Are you so stubborn that you would rather lose yourself than give up a mage’s robes?”
I remained silent.
“This is not a choice, Ryiah. Surrender now, or I will kill you. You have five seconds.”
“Please—”
“One.”
Why was it so important for me to fail?
“Two.”
“Who are you?”
“Three.”
“Why—”
“Four.”
I couldn’t do it. Even though I was going to die, I couldn’t call out for Piers. I believed the stranger. I believed when she said I would feel every moment of it, but I couldn’t do it.
“Five. ” Her cold eyes met mine, and a coursing shock tore through my body.
The stranger was me.
“Five!” the second Ryiah shrieked.