I wasn't sure when to tell Sierra about the voices.

They were quiet, at first. A passing whisper. Something your brain invents to fill the unbearable silence. But then, I was able to make out some words.

"...think you're...to...anyone?...stupid."

I was confused, but figured Sierra would point it out if she heard anything, so I continued to pull apart the vines. It was an odd, quiet procedure. After the vines broke, they dissolved into dust and disappeared. The most disconcerting part was the absence of any sort of sound accompanying the vine breaking. My brain insisted there had to be a snap, or a rip, but instead I was left with the whispering voices of the realm.

I figured the voices were connected to me being a monster. They didn't sound like the Whisperers, whose voices reverberated in my head. It sounded like a small group of people gossiping a few feet away. But it wasn't bothering me, so Sierra didn't need to know. I didn't want to unnecessarily worry her. I often felt like a burden to her kindness.

"You are a burden."

I froze. That voice had been particularly clear.

"Hey, Amarie, look! Some of the vines are dissolving all on their own! Those must be the monsters that have been defeated in the battle!"

It sounded like Sierra. I hesitated for a moment before responding. "That makes sense to me."

"That's good, I hope they're doing okay. But we should hurry."

I was a bit disturbed. Sierra's voice was almost indistinguishable from the ghostly voice from before, the only difference being her timbre. If I couldn't tell the difference, that might pose a problem.

"Wow, you're stupid. Can't even tell which voice is your friend's."

My mood soured and I silently snapped another vine. At least I knew one thing: Sierra would never say anything to hurt me. If the voices were going to be negative, that would be an easy way to tell.

I got into a sort of rhythm, pulling whatever vine was in front of me. There were so many. At times, it felt like I was making no progress at all. But then, I'd look behind me and see how much I had cleared, and be reinvigorated.

"You're moving too slow. Your failure will doom them all."

I sighed. Maybe it was true, but I was working as fast as I could. I just needed to focus.

"Oh! I'm doing a thing!"

That exclamation sounded excited. I turned to see a silhouette of Sierra glowing with golden light, her arms moving through the vines like they were water, crumbling before her. I watched in awe. I had only seen her do this once before, when she faced Giselle for the first time. I had never seen any other Myth achieve that state.

"That's incredible!" I said, unable to keep the excitement out of my voice.

"Love is the answer!" she replied. "It's hard to be afraid when you're fighting with love!"

"You're incapable of love."

I was momentarily taken aback by the abrupt shift in tone, but recovered quickly. I went back to snapping vines, though they seemed colder than before.

Incapable of love. Was I incapable of love? A year ago, even a few months ago, I would have said yes. I didn't deserve to have any interaction with love. I was a worthless gnat amongst thousands, a creature more than a person, a being grotesque and insufferable, unless I was transformed. That was what they had told me. That was what I had believed.

But I wasn't sure I believed that anymore.

"You're delusional if you think you're anything but worthless."

The voice sounded suspiciously close to Damius.

I pulled apart the vines with more vigor. What did "worthless" mean, anyway? Not adding value? I hadn't added much value to the team in my opinion, but yet they seemed to value me. They listened when I spoke, they made sure I felt welcomed. Even from the beginning, when I couldn't even fight, Ravi gave me a job defending the school. Every time.

Sierra's golden light grew brighter, and I realized she had made a complete loop around the heart, tearing apart every vine in her way. There were only a few left.

"We can actually do this," I muttered. 

"You barely did anything."

"It doesn't matter," I responded, frustrated.

"What was that?" Sierra's glowing form had paused.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

"Amarie," she said, "your experiences are valid and I want to be here to support you. Are you okay?"

"She'll think you're crazy if you tell her."

I nearly laughed. That was how certain I was that she would understand.

"I've been hearing voices," I explained. "It hasn't been a big deal. It's just hard to tell the difference between them and you, sometimes."

"Oh! That sounds confusing. What are they saying?"

There was no judgement in her tone, no disbelief or condescending lilt. She simply acknowledged it and wanted to understand more.

Sierra truly didn't understand how much she changed the lives of others.

"They're tapping into my insecurities," I explained. "Like the Whisperers. But, not as bad."

Sierra's golden figure began to dim. "Well I'm glad it isn't as bad. They're being nicer?"

I shook my head before remembering I was invisible. "No. They're saying a lot of the same things. It just...isn't bothering me as much this time."

Sierra's form faded, but I could tell from the rapidly dissolving vines that she was still breaking them, just now at the same rate I was.

"It's because you're—"

"Well that's good!" Sierra said, her voice unintentionally covering up whatever it was the last voice had been trying to say. "That takes a lot of growth and strength, Amarie. I'm really proud of you."

I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that, but decided to keep focusing on the vines. There were only ten left. Then one dissolved in front of my face, presumably defeated by the army back on Lilitua. Nine to go.

"Hey, what are those glass things?"

I turned my head slightly to look at the heart. It looked different, not covered in a jungle of monster-controlling vines. Less ominous, more...gross. But sticking out of its bulbous mass were what looked like jagged shards of dark glass, as if someone had broken a tinted window and stabbed the heart with the leftover pieces.

"You're a failure."

"You're weak."

"You're worthless."

I suddenly felt like I was sinking. "They're Whisperers." I snapped another vine.

"I think they're Tormentors too," Sierra said, her voice pained. "I'm beginning to hear things now that I'm looking at them. Probably Tempters, too."

"They're ingrained into Damius' soul," I realized. "He is so corrupted, there is no separation."

"That's awful," Sierra said.

Then there was only one vine left. It was thinner than the rest, no bigger than a string, which is why we had missed it until now.

"Here we go," Sierra said.

Suddenly, pain shot through my being, something like electricity and ice, and I cried out. Just as quickly as it came, it stopped.

"Amarie!" Sierra yelled. "Are you okay?!"

A realization settled. "Sierra, did you touch that string?"

"Just barely, and then you screamed. Why do you...oh."

So she understood. The string was mine.

I glanced up the length of the string and saw an object in the void growing closer, being reeled in on the line like a fish that was already dead.

"My mirror," I said softly.

"Hello, little monster."

Damius' voice echoed throughout the void, so loud I felt my spirit shudder. I forced myself to look at the pulsing mass.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"You may think you've won, but I do not need my creations to defeat your allies. And you can never be free of me. You will always be mine."

"That's not true," I shouted. "I used to tremble at your presence, but lately, you've been nothing more than an irritating voice in my head."

He chuckled. "You are more foolish than I thought. Whispers have power, or have you forgotten all your failures? It is only a matter of time before you turn on your so-called friends and they cannot stop you. You will be their downfall."

For a moment, I was speechless. There was truth in what he said. There was always a piece of truth in what Damius said. It would be easier to dismiss a lie.

I pulled myself together. "Congratulations. You know my biggest fear. And maybe that would have worked before. But the difference between me then and me now is not that I no longer fear hurting my friends, but that I will not let that fear stop me."

"So you are not only foolish, but selfish as well," he sneered.

"No."

Something in my voice changed, and I wasn't sure what it was, but it carried more weight than it had before. "You have broken me and shaped me into something I was afraid of. YOU made me a monster. But I will not be one anymore. I fear my potential, yes. But I choose to reject that, because my love is stronger than your fear."

"You cannot possibly love yourself," he said cruelly.

"I don't," I said simply. "It will take me a long time to shed the self hatred you taught me. But I love the possibilities of me. I love my friends. I love goodness, and joy, and friendship, and all those things you said I would never have."

As I spoke, I felt warmth blossom in the deepest part of my soul, and my mirror began to glow. It drifted in front of me and I caught my reflection; something I had never seen in a soul mirror before. There was only one crack, splitting the mirror into two pieces. On the left, I looked as I always had, scared and withdrawn, eyes wide and anxious. But on the right, I was so much more. My face was determined, my eyes shining with confidence and strength. Tears shone in both the twin reflections, but for entirely different reasons.

"I don't love myself yet," I said to Damius. "But I love who I am becoming."

With that, I grabbed the string that connected us and pulled it from the back of my mirror like a weed. It snapped easily, and several things happened at once.

First, I felt a weight lift off me, like my lungs had been cleared of cement.

Second, my mirror flashed, and the crack disappeared, a complete image of me as I was, somewhere in between my broken past and my beautiful future.

Finally, the heart of Damius began to crumble away, turning black and brittle like the vines before drifting off into the void. When it had all fallen away, I caught a glimpse of a tiny mirror shard in the center of it all, no bigger than the palm of my hand.

The black glass pieces of the demons turned their sharpest edges towards the shard, and in one swift movement, slammed into it at the same time. When they moved away again, there was nothing left.

The demons turned towards us.

I had a moment of panic, then heard Sierra shout, "GISELLE!"

And I was overcome with a floating feeling and a fuzziness that could only mean one thing—we were waking up.

~~~

Only a few chapters left...

~Margot