The mirror cracked again. A sharp sound, like a scream made of glass, cut through the dark.Aurora’s hands burned as she clung to Mason. The chains rattled, glowing white-hot where their wrists touched. Mason’s reflection pulled harder, dragging him toward the silver surface that rippled like water.Aurora’s heart hammered so loudly she thought it would burst. Her throat was raw from screaming, but still she cried, “No! I won’t let you go! Do you hear me, Mason? I won’t!”Mason’s body trembled, half inside the reflection already. His silver eyes glowed fiercely, but his brown one was filled with sorrow. His lips moved slowly, as if every word cost him everything. “Aurora… live…”Aurora’s grip slipped on his arm, sweat and blood making it slick. She gasped and held tighter, her nails digging into his skin. “Don’t you dare,” she shouted, her tears falling fast. “Don’t you dare say goodbye to me!”The mirror pulled harder. Mason’s reflection sneered, its silver eyes cold and merciless.

The ground quaked beneath them. Aurora clutched Mason tightly, her arms wrapped around him as the broken mirror world shook like it was tearing itself apart. Cracks split through the floor, glowing with silver fire. Walls bent inward, shadows stretching like claws.Above them, Vazquez’s form grew larger and darker, his silver eyes burning like moons. His voice thundered through the hall, shaking the very air.“You dare change the price?” he roared. “You dare trade another soul when the mirror had chosen?”Aurora’s chest burned as she glared up at him, her tears still falling from Norra’s sacrifice. Her voice trembled but did not break. “She gave herself for us. You will not take that away.”Vazquez’s laughter boomed, cruel and endless. “Do you think I will allow her pitiful act to stand? Do you think I will let two live when one was meant to vanish? Then you know nothing of me.”The shadows thickened, swirling into monstrous shapes around him. Claws, wings, twisted faces, all screami

Aurora woke to silence. Her body ached all over, every bone heavy, every muscle screaming. She lay on a cold stone, her cheek pressed against rough cracks. Slowly, painfully, she pushed herself up.Her hands shook. Dried blood coated her arms, her clothes torn and burned. Her flames were gone, no fire flickered around her fingers, no warmth remained in her chest.She blinked, her eyes adjusting. The ruins were gone. The endless void was gone.Instead, she stood in a strange place. The ground stretched like glass, smooth and black, reflecting her faintly. Above, there was no sky, only a ceiling of swirling silver clouds. Faint whispers drifted through the air, voices of thousands, maybe millions.Aurora’s heart quickened. She knew this was no normal place. This was the edge. The border between life and death. Her voice broke into a whisper. “Mason.”The name echoed faintly, carried on the whispers. Aurora looked ahead and froze.A road stretched before her, but not of stone. It was m

The world was silent. Not the silence of peace. The silence of something broken. Aurora opened her eyes slowly. For a moment, she thought she was blind. Everything was white, not bright, not glowing, just endless pale emptiness. No sky, no ground, only a haze of white stretching forever.Her body was heavy. Her arms ached, her chest burned where the chains had pierced her, and her fire was little more than a spark inside her.She tried to push herself up, but her strength failed. Her hands slipped, and she collapsed back onto the cold white ground. “Aurora…”Her heart skipped. She turned her head weakly, and there he was. Mason. He lay only a few feet away, his body broken and bruised but alive. His silver eyes flickered faintly, his brown one dull with exhaustion. Aurora crawled toward him, dragging her body across the ground. Each movement sent pain shooting through her muscles, but she didn’t care. When she reached him, she pressed her forehead against his shoulder, her tears so

The water crushed her. It pressed into her chest, into her lungs, into her bones. Aurora thrashed, her arms flailing in the suffocating dark, but the black ocean swallowed every movement. Her fire sputtered weakly around her body, a faint glow in the endless void, before flickering out completely.Her throat burned as she fought not to breathe in the icy water. Her chest heaved painfully, every second a battle against drowning. Her mind screamed: “Not here. Not like this.”She thought of Mason, chained, fading, his silver eyes desperate. The image lit a spark inside her.Aurora’s lips parted, and her last breath of air escaped. The ocean rushed into her lungs, but instead of choking, she froze. The water wasn’t just water. It was alive.Whispers filled her ears, vibrating through her skull. Thousands of voices, old and broken, all speaking at once. “Drown… sink… sleep forever.”Aurora’s body trembled, her fire gone, her strength failing. Her eyes rolled back as the voices wrapped tig