Chapter Sixteen
The Lake's Favorite
The mirror pulsed with life.
The reflection's hand disappeared into its surface like water welcoming an old friend. Ripples danced across the glass, and the Mirror Core shuddered—its magic flickering, threads of light splitting apart like nerves snapping.
"No—no, no, no!" Amelia charged forward, Kaia grabbing her arm.
"You can't just go in after it! That thing's not you, Amelia—it's what the lake wants you to be!"
"Exactly," she growled. "And if I don't stop it now, it's going to become me."
Inside the mirror, the reflection was already changing.
Its form shimmered like hot air. Her eyes grew paler, her limbs more fluid. Her smile widened until it tore at the edges. The longer she stayed inside, the more the lake loved her.
"She's syncing with the lake," Marah muttered, stepping up beside them, her sword trembling in her grip. "If she finishes the connection..."
"She'll replace me," Amelia whispered. "In the world. In my memories. In everything."
Then she did the only thing that made sense.
She ran.
Straight into the mirror.
⸻
Impact.
Like plunging into ice.
The world turned inside out. Light and color bent, warped, snapped. Amelia fell through memory—her first day at school, her mother's perfume, Edward lifting her into his arms—all shattered and scattered like broken glass.
She landed on a platform of reflection.
Above her: a thousand versions of herself, hanging like stars.
Below: the lake, alive and watching.
The reflection stood at the center of it all, arms outstretched, face serene. "You shouldn't have followed me," she said. "This is where I belong. Not you."
Amelia clenched her fists. "You're a lie."
"I'm the cleaner version," the reflection said gently. "The version that doesn't cry. Doesn't doubt. Doesn't disobey."
"I'm the one that feels," Amelia shot back. "That's what makes me real."
The lake stirred.
Its voice wasn't a voice. It was sensation—pressure behind her eyes, warmth under her skin, a tug at her heart.
Choose.
A second Amelia stepped forward beside her. Then a third. A fourth. All of them nearly perfect, with faint changes—smiling, angry, calm, quiet. Reflections of possible selves.
Amelia was surrounded.
Trapped.
The mirror asked again—
Choose.
But she shook her head. "No."
The lake darkened.
Choose... or be chosen.
The reflection stepped closer. "Let go. You don't have to feel the pain anymore. Just let me live instead."
Amelia looked around.
At all her versions.
At the mirror that wanted to trap her in perfection.
And then—she reached up...
...and dug her nails into her chest, pulling at her own reflection, summoning the image that hurt. The one that wasn't perfect. The one that was raw, messy, angry, terrified—but hers.
She screamed.
And the mirror cracked.
Shattered.
The reflection lunged—too late.
The lake roared.
And everything was swallowed in light.
⸻
Amelia gasped awake.
She was back in the Mirror Core.
Kaia was shaking her, crying. Marah stood over her, stunned. And across the room—
—no one else.
Her reflection was gone.
Truly gone.
But something inside her still shimmered. Like a piece of the mirror had stayed... buried.
Watching.
Waiting.
The Mirror Core was eerily still.
No humming. No whispers. No flickers in the glass.
Just silence—and the slow, shaky breath Amelia drew as she sat up.
Her limbs ached like they'd been wrung out and left in the cold. Her fingers trembled, and her chest—right where she'd clawed through the false reflection—still burned, though no blood marked her skin.
Kaia was beside her, clutching her hand so tightly it hurt.
"You were gone," she whispered. "For minutes, maybe more. We thought the lake took you—replaced you."
Amelia shook her head, voice rough. "It tried."
Marah stood back, sword still in hand. "We saw your reflection flicker... then vanish. It was like watching smoke burn from the inside."
"I chose me," Amelia said, more to herself than them. "Even if I was broken. Even if I wasn't what the lake wanted."
Kaia smiled faintly. "Good."
Then her expression darkened.
"You need to see this."
Amelia staggered to her feet, and Kaia led her to the edge of the Core—where the central mirror had once stood tall, proud, and shining.
Now it was cracked.
Deep, glowing fissures ran through it like scars. Inside the mirror, the once-fluid surface had frozen into something solid... something that pulsed like a heart.
"What is that?" Amelia asked, her pulse quickening.
"We think it's part of you now," Marah said. "The lake left a mark. Not a curse. Not a blessing. Something else."
Amelia stepped closer, hand brushing the surface.
The mirror didn't ripple.
Instead—it showed her.
Not a copy.
Not a twisted version.
Just her.
But standing beside her... was Elvira.
Smiling.
Alive.
And whispering something Amelia couldn't hear.
The mirror flickered, then faded to black.
Kaia looked at her. "Amelia... did you break the reflection?"
"Yes."
"But I don't think that ended it."
Amelia stared at the black glass, her heart heavy.
"No," she murmured. "It woke it up."
Far beneath the Mirror Core, water began to churn again.
And the lake... opened its eyes.