Locked forever in a room.
A secret too shameful to share.
A curse too painful to bear.
The room creaked, and Isla’s bones vibrated with the movement of everything around her being eaten up, enclosed, matted over.
No.
She refused.
Isla hadn’t worked for years for her efforts to be useless, to be a victim of this room and her circumstances.
She hadn’t even known how much she was missing. Now that she saw how much the world had to offer, she wanted it all.
She wantedeverything.
Isla wouldn’t return here. She would either break her curse—or die trying.
Before she could make a single move to stop her fate, however, it seemed she was too late. There was nothing she could do as the remaining walls all fell down atop her.
The bites of a million pieces of glass were a constellation across her body as the room shattered. Before she could move out of its path, a massive solid pane crushed her without breaking. Her breath was torn from her chest. The world was black and silent. Her face pressed against the glass, so closely she couldn’t breathe.
Was she permanently in the mirror?
Had she joined the girl in the reflection?
She tried to move a foot, a leg,anything—and finally managed to feel around with her fingers. Only one hand hadn’t been crushed by the wall.
Give me a chance,she told her broken bones.Give me a chance, and I’ll make sure we never become her.
Her fingers searched blindly, desperately, until a blade cut through her skin like butter. She grinned beneath the rubble. It was one of her swords. She gripped its hilt—
And broke through the glass that had smothered her.
Isla gasped.
She was back in the hall.
The mirror had gone still again. Her rattled reflection stared back at her. This time, it did not move of its own accord.
Isla tore her hand away, her palm cold as ice.
There was no applause. No sound as she backed away, and the demonstration ended. Cleo was crowned the winner.
Isla remained in the hall until it was just her, the mirror, and Celeste.
“How long?” Isla finally asked. She was certain her time had been far longer than everyone else’s.Thatwas why the crowds had left sosuddenly.Thatwas why no one had caught her eye, why Celeste hadn’t nodded at her or touched her nose or done any of their subtle tricks to speak to one another in secret.
Celeste frowned. “Six minutes,” she said simply. “Why didn’t you look at the hourglass?”
Six minutes.That wasn’t bad.
Isla didn’t bother answering Celeste’s question, because she didn’t want to admit that she had been afraid to look. That she felt on edge.
She might have faced her fear in the mirror ... but she had never been more scared.
Now she had seen her worst fear embodied, brought to life.
