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“Only your magic is depleted,” I pant, “and so is mine, so how about it?” I put my blade to her neck.
“You wouldn’t hurt me,” she says. “You’re my cousin. You’re too good, too soft for your own good, Uncle saw to that. If you killed me, you’d be racked by guilt forever.”
“Let me worry about that,” I whisper.
“If you don’t kill me, you won’t be Queen.” Her hand presses into my neck. “And if I don’t kill you, I won’t be, either. That is not an option.”
“So you chose already.” I’m trying to breathe but her fingers are blocking my airpipe. And I have chosen, too, it seems because I don’t press the knife more.
You’ll let her be the Queen of the world? a little voice breathes inside my head.
No way.
I tighten the link between us, that bond of blood and magic, that twinness of our nature. The two Queens, black and white. I am her reflection, her shadow.
I pull the bond tight, and then I drop my knife.
Her hand releases my neck and drops to her side. “What are you doing?” she snarls. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Magic,” I whisper. “Watch. I am your reflection, your shadow. This is how it works.”
I take a step back and so does she. I smile and she smiles back.
Then I reach inside me and snap the bond to my boys, even as it hurts me and makes me cry out—severing her bond with them, too, pulling out the roots of her enchantment, destroying any link to them.
She falls to her knees, and I fall to mine, gasping for breath. Cutting my bond with the boys felt like a stab to the heart. I feel like I’m dying. Like my heart has been cut out and thrown into the lake. I’m mourning and I don’t know if it’s for myself.
But then a spark jumps inside me, easing the crushing pressure on my chest, and familiar magic rushes into me—Sindri’s wind, Ashton’s rivers, Emrys’ flames, and Jason’s earth energy.
Before I turn, I sense them approaching. As I make it to my feet, they have come to stand with me, in their monstrous forms, the earth trembling under their paws and talons. The wolf and the panther flank me so that I rest my hands on their backs, the dragon and the griffin tower over me.
Their magic fills me up, restoring mine. Our bond pulses through me, strong and whole. The griffin gently butts his curved beak against my shoulder. The dragon nudges me with his muzzle.
I take a step forward. “It’s over.”.
Ophelia is still on the ground, bowed over, her long dark hair hiding her face. She’s trembling. “Please, don’t,” she whispers.
The Headmaster, my father, steps forward. “You have to end her.”
“It’s not good form, asking me to kill a student, Dad.”
“Please, don’t kill me,” Ophelia whispers, lifting her head. “You owe me a favor, Maddie, remember? I call that favor in now. Don’t kill me.”
“Mia,” my father says.
“I don’t care if she lives,” I say. “She can live.”
Can’t take any more of this, of pain and destruction.
“Only one can be the Queen,” he says.
“And what if neither of us becomes Queen?”
“You can’t do that. There will be no balance, and you’ll be leaving a door open. What if she comes back to kill you later on and try again?”
“If you think I’ll perform some deadly ritual on my boys to take over the world,” I snap, “then think again.”
“Mia—”
