Page 42 of The Eternal Mirror (Lucifer’s Mirror #3)

Khaos

T he sun rises red.

Not blood-red. Not war-red. Just...soft. Muted. Probably it’s full of smoke from all the dead witches we’re burning.

The camp is already stirring when I step onto the ridge. Voices drift up through the trees. Hammers on wood, swords on whetstones, feet in dirt. Order in the chaos. Routine.

They look to me now.

I didn’t ask for this. But I agreed to do it.

And truth—I’m good at it. The best. I always was.

From the first moment I joined the army when I was a broken boy of twelve, I felt like I belonged.

But then, I had spent the previous six months in my father’s dungeons, kept in my beast form until I was nearly insane.

So I guess anything was an improvement .

Plus it keeps me busy. Stops me spending all my time dwelling on the absolutely atrocious state of my love life.

We should have stayed in fucking Hawaii.

I glance up as the basilisk circles over my head before coming in to land.

Then Zayne is back. He’s probably the biggest asset in the camp and has been doing regular searches of the area at dawn and again at dusk.

I think he likes being in his beast form—not so much thinking.

I was told he’s sharing a tent with the girl, Laura.

He sees me and heads over. Strangely, since I took over as commander, we’ve been getting along better. I still hear the occasional muttered asshole , but he does what he’s told, and he does it well. “Have you seen Amber?” he asks.

I shake my head. “She’s still in with Hella.”

“Shit.” He scrubs a hand through his hair. “Hella’s going to die. And Amber’s going to—”

“Amber will be fine. She’s strong.”

“Not this time. She’s different. It’s like she’s giving up. She won’t talk to me. Or even Josh. It’s like she’s shutting us out. Can’t you do something?”

“She’s shutting me out as well.”

His jaw tightens and a tic jumps in his cheek. “Just make her listen.”

I’ve thought about it, but I think if I push her, she’ll cut me out completely.

At least at the moment, she doesn’t physically bar me from her presence.

She just refuses to acknowledge me in any way.

I can let her know that she’s not alone, that I’ll do anything for her.

I won’t risk losing that. “We’re talking about Amber.

No one, including me, can make her do anything. ”

He looks away and swallows. “I’m scared,” he says.

“Yeah, me too.”

Something flashes in his face. Surprise, maybe.

“Well, that’s fucking honest,” he mutters. “I’m not saying I wanted fireworks and a speech about hope, but something a little more inspirational than ‘yeah, me too’ might have helped.”

I let the words hang there, and just stare past him, at the camp below. I can’t help but think about how little any of this matters if Amber doesn’t come back from whatever dark place she’s hiding in.

But that won’t help Zayne either.

I remember Khendril once telling me that one of the most important things a commander can do is inspire his men to greater things. So, I glance back at Zayne. “Next time, I’ll bring fireworks.”

He huffs something between a laugh and a snort. Doesn’t thank me but walks away a little less hunched.

I descend, boots hitting packed earth with enough weight that people clear a path. Not out of fear—at least, not only that.

I don’t look toward Amber’s tent. Not yet.

First, there’s work.

Thorben finds me by the command table, brushing ash off a corner of the map.

“Three days until the next ration shipment,” he says. “Scouts say no sign of anyone one else in the vicinity. Yet.”

“Yet,” I echo .

A boy runs up—skinny, flushed. One of the runners. “Prince Khaosti—sir—uh, I was told to report this to you.” He’s breathless, holding a folded bit of parchment and a worried frown.

I take the note. Read it. Then glance at him.

“Speak.”

“It’s Niall. He hasn’t come back. He was supposed to check the east perimeter last night. But no one’s seen him.”

“Who was he paired with?”

“No one,” the boy says, eyes wide. “He prefers to work solo.”

I glance at Thorben. He curses under his breath.

I don’t.

I tuck the paper into my pocket. It’s no real loss; Niall was never committed to the fight, and now he’s run. With luck we’ll never see or hear from him again.

I make the rounds. Talk to the command unit. Watch Sheela and Killian—he sits beside her now, always within reach. They’ve found something steady in the rubble.

I envy them.

Then a scream breaks through the usual noises of the camp.

Not loud—but sharp. Ragged. At the same moment, the bond tightens around my heart, jagged and painful.

I run toward the scream. I move fast, clearing obstacles, sliding between groups.

There’s a knot of people forming near the edge of the witches’ tent.

And just outside…Amber crouches on her knees beside Hella. She’s stopped screaming now. But I can feel her grief and her rage through the bond, like it’s ripping her apart..

Hella’s breathing is shallow. Too shallow. Her lips are blue .

Amber is chanting. Low and wild, hands glowing too bright, the earth cracking beneath her knees. Magic pulses—too much of it. Unstable. Grief-slicked.

I don’t step closer. I know better.

She’s trying to save her. She’s giving everything she has.

I know it won’t be enough. The witches were marked for death from the moment my father took them in.

But this death is on me. I captured Hella when she ran.

All she wanted was her freedom and I took that from her.

I handed her over to my father. I didn’t ask why.

I just followed orders. Because I didn’t care.

I almost wish I still didn’t care.

Hella’s eyes flutter. She says something—I can’t hear what.

Then nothing.

Amber’s hands fall still.

Silence.

The glow fades.

And I see it happen. Feel it. The moment she breaks. Not loudly. Not dramatically. She just...shuts off. Like a candle with no wick left.

She lets go of Hella’s hand. No tears. No words. And then she collapses in on herself. And I step forward and scoop her up in my arms and she curls against my chest.

Behind me, people murmur. Someone starts crying. I think it’s Sheela. Or maybe Josh.

“Build the pyre,” I order as I walk away.

I hope it is the last.

But I suspect many more will die before this is over.