Reminder: they are on land, having just made up after Sierra and Audrey's fight. Four Whisperers have already been seen and defeated: the Sphinx, siren, spirit, and basilisk forms. Our protagonists have gone to sleep.

~~~

Images flashed, dancing across the fractals of the jagged mirror shards. Six distinct scenes clashing with each other, a clenched fist, a spark of gold, a breaking wave, a bloody forehead, a stormy sky, a torn cloth. But as soon as I could distinguish one, it melted into another, a twisted, frantic narrative I could not comprehend.

My gaze wandered away from the chaos to the edge of the mirror. The reflective surface was set in dark wood, worn with age. It almost blended in with the void behind it.

Then something in my peripheral caught my eye.

It was a round metal disk, suspended in space like the mirrors. About the size of my head, it seemed to reflect...nothing. It was simply dull and gray, emanating just enough light to be seen against the darkness that surrounded it. Curious, I willed myself to move closer.

There was something wrapped around the edge of the disk, dark enough that it appeared amorphous. It resembled a vine, tough and twisted, although it held an indescribable flesh-like quality that made my bodiless spirit shiver. It glowed a faint, menacing silver that entranced me, just as I was repelled.

Then I noticed the vine extended beyond the mirror and fell beneath.

I followed it with my eyes, tracing its path down, down, down. I began to move downwards, noticing for the first time the true vastness of the realm, extending infinitely in all directions. I passed by mirrors of every shape and size, each flashing with its own miniature story.

Then I noticed another vine, slithering its way downwards, only a few feet away.

I continued tracing the path of my first vine, though the new one reflected the movements. Then another vine joined. Then another. Then another.

All going to the same place, I realized.

The vines seemed to multiply even with the thought, until the void around me was thick with a jungle of the strands. The cold presence that had been so faint before grew stronger, sharper, more menacing.

And then I saw it. Pulsing and bulbous, a mass so dark it made the void around it almost bright by comparison. It was here the vines converged, the nucleus of their unsettling aura, a nebulous creature somewhere between cosmos and bacterial. It emanated a frigid feeling, so intensely cold, my being was dry, brittle, and inexplicably pulled closer, even without flesh.

The most terrifying part was that the feeling was almost familiar.

~~~

I awoke slowly, the morning mist settling gently on my flickering eyelids. I lay still until the ground beneath me grew uncomfortable, then sat up, rubbing my arms.

I took a moment to look at the people spread out around me. Isaac was peacefully sprawled in a patch of grass, and Deynan was slumped face down in the dirt. I worried for a moment about his ability to breathe, but his chest was moving, so I figured he was fine. Sierra and Ravi were both curled on their sides, definitely closer to each other than they had been before we fell asleep. I glanced around for Audrey and Sophie before I realized they were sitting a few yards away, talking to each other.

I stood up carefully, trying to avoid making noise that would wake up the others. I yawned and made my way over to where Audrey and Sophie were sitting.

Audrey turned around and spotted me, then waved me over. "Morning."

Sophie smiled brightly at me. "How are you?"

I shrugged. "I'm not quite sure." I sat cross-legged next to Sophie. "I don't think my brain is awake enough to decide."

Audrey snorted. "I feel that. Sophie's a freaky early riser that I don't understand."

Sophie giggled. "I'm sorry?"

I couldn't help a smile drifting across my face. It suddenly struck me how normal this had become for me— sitting in the morning dew with two people who seemed to care about me. Only months before, I would have believed something this impossible. I still had trouble convincing myself it wasn't an elaborate trick.

"How close do you think we are to the castle?" Sophie asked.

Audrey shrugged. "Probably another day or something. Stupid castle is in the middle of the island."

"The land can also stretch and shrink from day to day," I added. "Lilitua is a tempermental being."

Audrey squinted. "I feel like I knew that? But honestly, people throw magic jargon around all the time. I've stopped trying to keep up."

My mouth curved into a smile. "I feel the same way about your culture and technology."

Sophie looked down and began to fiddle with something on her wrist. "Do you think we're ready to face this guy? He has armies. We're just seven kids."

"We have to be ready," Audrey replied. "And hey, being kids hasn't stopped us before. We're the best shot at beating this guy."

"It kind of bothers me that none of the adults ever come," Sophie muttered.

"They need to watch over the others," Audrey said defensively. "And we're stronger than they are anyway!"

Sophie shrugged. "I guess. I just feel...used."

Audrey's tension fell from her shoulders, her countenance suddenly guilty. "Oh, sorry, I forgot."

"It's okay," Sophie murmured.

I hesitated for a moment, then forced myself to ask. "What's wrong?"

Sophie smiles sadly. "You aren't the only one here with a bad father figure."

Those with the deepest pain hide it the best. But there are rare moments when the memory of their sorrow rises to the surface and seizes control of every limb, every movement. It only lasts a moment, but if you know how to look for it, that moment reaches across space and embraces you, until you feel the sort of ache in your chest nothing else can hope to replicate. Understanding and pity, a deep set connection in the hearts of the broken.

Sophie's face shattered for one moment—that one, sacred moment—and I felt that ache.

"Tons of people have bad families," Audrey said quietly. "But we've made a new one here."

The warmth of that single, simple statement made me forget, for a heartbeat, how to breathe. It wasn't a significant statement to Audrey, I was sure—but to me, it meant something greater.

Because I knew, when she said the word family, she was including me in the count.

The warmth quickly faded as I remembered my dream of the overwhelming cold.

I sighed and drew my knees to my chest. "I had a dream last night."

The two girls turned to me. Sophie frowned. "From the look on your face, it wasn't a good one."

"I'm not sure what it was," I admitted. "But I saw the mirror realm. More of it."

"Wait, what?" Audrey asked. "Mirror realm? You don't just see one mirror?"

"No, there's a separate plane of existence with all the mirrors, we think," Sophie explained patiently. "We talked about this."

"We did?" Audrey wrinkles her nose. "I have no memory of that, but I'm sure it happened."

Sophie snorted. "You should pay more attention."

"Don't judge me, I don't need to KNOW things to DO things."

Sophie ignored her and turned back to me. "What did you see?"

I explained my visions: the cracked mirror I always see, the gray disk, the vines, and the cold mass at the center of it all. As I spoke, Sophie grew more and more concerned.

"That's terrifying," she said when I had finished.

"That's weird," Audrey muttered. "No clue what it means."

"Yeah," Sophie said faintly, her eyes distracted. Thinking.

Just then, we heard a loud groan from behind us. I turned to see Deynan flopping over clumsily. "Foooooood," he called.

Audrey laughed. "I'll second that." She spring to her feet and jogged back to the campsite.

"How long before he notices the dirt on his face?" I whispered.

"That oaf? Next week, at best," Sophie replied.

~~~

Over breakfast, I reexplained my dream to the rest of the party. Sierra looked disturbed, Ravi looked intrigued, Isaac looked lost. Deynan looked more focused on stealing berries from Sophie than paying attention to anything I was saying.

"I'm sorry you had to experience that," Sierra said, shuddering. "It sounds horrible."

I shrugged. "It was. But it was also...familiar. And that scared me more."

"I wonder..." Sophie muttered.

"Sherlock has a hunch!" Deynan exclaimed, stealing another berry.

"I thought I was Sherlock," Ravi murmured, slightly offended.

"Nah, you lost that title when I discovered you were lame, Ravioli."

"I will skin you."

"Let's focus," Isaac prodded. "What were you saying, Sophie?"

Sophie jolted, then relaxed. "Oh, right. Yeah, I don't know, I was just thinking? That disk, it was like a mirror, but not quite? And we can assume all the other vines were connected to disks of their own. I'm wondering if those disks...are monsters."

I frowned. "But I'm the only monster left. And my mirror doesn't look like that." My stomach twisted slightly, as it always had with the word monster.

"I mean the artificial ones," Sophie clarified. "They don't have souls, so it would make sense they don't have soul mirrors. And if their life is controlled, it would make sense that their lifeforce is all connected..."

"To Damius," I realized with a whisper.

Sophie nodded. "But it's just a guess." She ducked her head.

"So that big gross cold thing is Damius?" Deynan asked.

"You could put it that way," Ravi said dryly.

Just then, there was a rustling in the bushes. We all turned to the sound.

"If that's a squirrel that just made me jump out of my skin," Audrey muttered, "none of you can stop me from killing it."

A chill ran over my body. "Oh no."

"She won't actually kill it," Deynan snorted, "you don't have to worry about—"

"No," I interrupted. "It isn't a squirrel."

Two yellow glowing eyes peered out from behind the bushes, and then a wolf stepped out into the clearing. It was a Whisperer, but this one did not have the humanoid visage of its predecessors. I knew it well. Tendrils drifted out from the black creature like smoke, and shadows seemed to bend around it like the sun itself didn't dare touch its cursed imitation of flesh.

Everyone immediately got to their feet, shouting and gasping and cursing as they scrambled backwards. But I remained still. The world seemed to fade into the background.

The wolf's terrible eyes, brimming with malice and spite, bore into me like a disease. I felt its presence the way one feels their blood pumping through their body after sprinting up a hill.

You are all alone, little one.

I had heard this before.

They will never accept you. You will never belong.

And I frowned.

It was the same booming voice, the same intrusive buzzing, the same petrifying sensation as the other Whisperers. But for some reason, my stomach didn't drop. My heart didn't twist. My body didn't feel as though every muscle was twice as heavy as before.

The Whisperer snarled. You make a complete fool of yourself. They don't want you around. They're better off without you.

"I..."

"Amarie, whatever he's saying, it's not true," Sierra said sharply.

I glanced up, suddenly free from the momentary trance I had been ensnared in. They had formed a semi-circle around me, each person a different mythical creature, tense and ready to defend me, even though they knew from experience it was largely futile.

"It might seem possible, but look at the facts," Ravi urged. "Insecurity is weakened by logic. You're smart. Use it."

Logic. I looked back at the Whisperer.

You are alone, it insisted.

From my peripheral, I caught a flash of light from Sierra's fairy wing.

And I laughed.

The Whisperer froze, but I didn't offer much time for it to react. "You cannot possibly say I'm alone and expect me to believe it now? When I am surrounded by the kindest and most accepting people in the world?"

"What's happening?" Audrey muttered.

They don't really care about you, the Whisperer growled.

"They do," I replied. "They make sure I'm okay when I fall. They hold me when I hurt. And they don't let me hate myself, something YOU told me to do all my life."

"Oh my gosh," Isaac whispered.

Come back to the pack. We will accept you.

"No, you won't. You only ever accepted me for who you told me to be. These people accept me for who I am, broken pieces, panic attacks and everything." I slowly got to my feet. "They accepted me when I couldn't even accept myself."

The Whisperer writhed and shrieked. YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. YOU DO NOT BELONG.

"Maybe I don't," I said softly. "Or at least, maybe I think I don't. But they think I belong. And I may not believe in myself, but I believe in them." I took a breath, remembering the conversation with Audrey and Sophie only one hour ago. "And...they are my family."

With that simple statement, the Whisperer cried out, a soul splitting howl. Its yellow eyes flickered before it bared its shadowed teeth and snarled.

Then it turned and disappeared into the undergrowth.

The world was silent.

Then I let out the breath I had been holding, my lungs shaking. My knees suddenly felt very weak.

"I'm not sure what just happened," Deynan said slowly, "but I'm like, ninety percent sure it was good."

One by one, they dropped their transformations and came to stand by my side. Sierra laid her hand on my shoulder. That's when my eyes began to water and tears began to roll their way down my cheeks.

"I—I don't know why I'm crying," I whispered. "I'm not sad. I'm not upset. Right now...I'm not even afraid."

"You can cry from being happy," Isaac said softly.

Sophie embraced me, and all my resolve fell apart. I was sobbing, shaking, but above all, I was smiling.

Soon, I was the center of the largest hug I had ever been a part of. And it was there, crying in a forest on a journey to fight the largest army of monsters the world had ever seen, that I whispered,

"I think, this is the happiest I've ever been."

~~~

YAY HAPPY AMARIE!

Hello, I know it's been...a while. BUT. I'm going to finish this book if it KILLS me. So don't give up on me quite yet.

~Margot