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.
“They won’t be alive, will they?” James stood at Tobiah’s side. “Like Chrysalis or”—he lowered his voice—“me?”
I shook my head. “They have magic in them, but they’re not magic, or wraith. They’re just pieces of metal formed in a very specific way.”
And if they did become truly alive, we’d know right away, because I’d be dead.
The castle shuddered again, making our audience shriek. Guards pushed them back.
It was just the four of us now. Tobiah, Melanie, James, and me—and this immense pile of silver scales that could be our salvation, or could ruin everything.
If I died, the mirror would fail. Chrysalis would revert. James would die.
Tobiah lifted his eyes to mine, something desperate and hopeful in there. “Are you sure?”
I repeated the words I’d told Melanie before I ventured into the wraithland. “If I’m not willing to take risks for my people’s well-being, I don’t deserve to be queen.”
He bowed his head. “I’d make the same choice.”