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I could not speak, but the pieces were falling into place.

“Mirrors show the truth,” she said. “I cannot hide from you in here.”

“Please do not say it,” I said, shaking my head.

“I wanted you to remember me,” Ana said, and I closed my eyes against her truth. “So badly, but when you didn’t, I knew I would be on my own.”

“This whole time, it was you. Why did you create such havoc forThe Book of Dis? You could have just taken it.”

“I did,” she said. “I have been using it for quite some time.”

I shook my head.

“I have created a lot of monsters testing the spells you created,” she said. “I often wondered what you were thinking, especially with the crimson mist.”

The mist, I thought.Isla.

But that would mean that Ana had cast the spell that killed her lover.

Worse, though, was that I was the one who had written those spells.

“I don’t understand. You are saying…I am responsible for the mist…for all monsters?”

“Indirectly,” she replied.

“Why would I…?”

“Before Adrian was chosen as Dis’s incarnate, she had chosen you. She fed these spells to you,” said Ana. “You were to bring balance to the world, but of course, men got in the way.”

“Dis hates me,” I said.

“She hates you because she loves Adrian,” said Ana.

“Then why did she allow me to incarnate again?”

“To keep him on her side,” said Ana. “Though I think you know it is too late for that. That is why she takes control of him, to remind him that he is a pawn.”

“And instead of destroying Dis, you wish to destroy Adrian?”

“There is no other way, Isolde,” she said.

“I don’t believe you.”

“Isolde—”

“There has to be another way!” I screamed, my pain and anger tearing from my chest.

“AdrianisDis upon this earth, and when we were powerful—when witches ruled the earth—we could keep the power in check, but too many of us are asleep.”

“Then let’s wake them up, Ana!”

She shook her head. “Look at you, one of the most powerful witches of our time, and you can barely wake up. You are so terrified.”

“You do not want anyone more powerful than you,” I snapped.

She shook her head. “You love him too much to see the truth.”

“The only truth I see at the moment is how you betrayed me.”