“Joshua.” I choke on my own tears. “Why?”
Wren wails. She places a hand on his boot, then rests her forehead there.
He smiles all the way to his eyes. “Because.” One small word. All his energy. “It was the right thing. The good thing. I—inhale—spent—exhale—my life . . .” Inhale. One swallow. Two. Throat cleared, he starts over. “I spent my life believing I was meant to save. It was time to fulfill my purpose. To be the man my father knew I’d become.”
I trace his brow, feel every single hair roughing up his cheek.
“A tear spilled from true heartbreak plus the reverse effect of the mirrorglass makes an Unbinding Elixir,” he says. “Ky’s tear made you forget. Mine made you remember.”
Right hand over his heart, I feel his pulse slow. Left hand clutching my treble clef–heart necklace, I feel mine race. We don’t have much time.
My mind screams in a place no one hears. Resolve takes over. This won’t be like Kuna. I slip my hand beneath his shirt, touching skin to skin.
“Here we are again,
At the edge of good-bye.
Please don’t leave me now,
Let this death be a lie . . .”
I sing the words over and over. A tear slips and splashes onto Joshua’s face. Nothing changes.
“El.” Joshua covers my hand on his chest with his. “It’s okay. I’m ready.”
“I’m not.” I sniff, remembering Ky’s words.
“No matter what . . . if someone is already meant to die, if it’s their time, nothing can change that. Not a touch from a Physic or a drop of Ever blood. Death is a Calling all its own.”
No. I’m not going down without a fight. We’ve lost too much. My touch can heal his heart. It has to. I just need to try harder, to believe with all my heart it’s possible. My lips near his ear. Then my song releases, stronger this time. One for him alone.
“Take my heart,
Listen to my mirrorsong,
Let my voice give you
Everything you need . . .”
Joshua uses every effort to lift his hand to my face. His thumb traces my lip. His touch is so light I almost don’t feel it. When his right hand finds my left one, my curled fingers open.
Holding the charm he gave me, he asks, “You . . . still have this?”
Is it working? “Of course I do. I always will.” I have to keep singing.
“Take my hands,
Feel my healing touch,
Let my touch give you
The life that you need . . .”
His eyelids flutter. He’s fading. His broken heart is too much for him to bear. This solidifies the truth. Joshua is dying. And there’s nothing I can do about it. Because the only thing that can mend his heart is me. But I love Ky. This is where it ends.
“It’s okay,” Joshua whispers. “I’m ready.” He’s so far gone he’s repeating himself.
“You idiot.” I swipe my stupid tears. “Why would you do this? There had to be another way to undo—”
“No,” he says. “When I sought out the man who told me about the Elixir, I made certain the only one who could reverse its effects was me. It was a risk I was willing to take. A side effect I never thought I’d have to endure.”
My forehead meets his. I’ve come all the way to the past, only to destroy my future? A future without Ky or a future without Joshua? If he had given me the choice, which one would I have chosen?
I can’t make that choice. But I don’t have to. Joshua did it for me. He made the choice he knew I’d never be able to.
“El,” he says. “The mirrorglass crown. It reverses.”
I furrow my brows. “I know.” I swipe at my nose, my eyes.
“El. Mirrorglass reverses.” Then he winks, and I get a small glimpse of the boy and his guitar once more.
Mirrorglass. It reverses.
I peer at Isabeau. She has yet to wear the crown. Jasyn never wore it. The reversal effect too much for his Void-infested soul. Because the mirrorglass would have counteracted his darkness. What was it Nathaniel told me?
“The crown would have put a cap on Crowe’s darkness like a Confine on an underage soul.”
I kiss Joshua’s forehead. He’s a genius.
If Isabeau wears the crown, she believes it will reverse the darkness in her enough to take back the light—the Verity. “She’s going to try and kill me,” I breathe into Joshua’s ear. “She’s going to try to release the Verity and take it back by way of the crown at the same time.”
“Let her,” Joshua says. “The Verity cannot be fooled. Taking on the light by way of force will be catastrophic.” He wheezes. “But it needs to be done now. Ky will save you.” He finds the rose-button charm now. A slight smile lifts one corner of his mouth. “I’m a full supply of Ever blood as long as my body’s still warm.” He laughs.
I shudder.
Joshua reaches out, but Wren is too far. “Song.”
She looks up. Will she tell him she loves him?
“To the crown until death,” he says.
She fists her heart. “To the crown until death.” Then she transforms once more, taking flight and disappearing past the gaping hole in the ceiling.
“Your turn.” He looks at me. “Time for you to go too.”
I kiss his knuckles, bating my sobs as I force myself to rise.
I am the Verity’s vessel. Queen of the Second. I have experienced more than one Kiss of Infinity. I’ve fought against the Void and felt the sorrow of a Shadowalker. Now it has to end. Here. For good.
The entire room is still frozen in silence. I know none of them. I want to go home.
So I do the only thing left to do. I stand before the immortal Fairy Queen, waiting for her. She said this is a game? I say game over. How does she plan to kill me? By sword? Knife? Hanging?
Ah, much more clever, and most unoriginal. She’s going to do this the old-fashioned way.
Isabeau becomes the Lioness. And I’m the prey in her den.
Behind me the best Ever I know takes his last breath. The small connection remaining between us vanishes.
When she pounces I don’t fight her. This is no game of cat and mouse. She wanted a struggle? Too bad. It only takes her teeth to my arm and her weight to my head to make me drop like a sack of nothing. I’m shaking and heaving. This isn’t like the time I died in Jasyn’s façade. This death is more painful. I have no out-of-body experience. There is no Ever linked to Ky to immediately restore me. The Verity leaves my body, but I don’t see it. I am dying a slow and painful death.
Correction.
I am already dead.
ASIDE
Joshua
What is this place?
Death is a Calling.
And it is beautiful.