CALLUM
The mirror cracked.
Not in the physical realm — that had shattered days ago. This crack ran through him. He stared into the rippling pool of black crystal in his chamber, fists clenched, breath shallow. Magic hummed like a hive beneath his skin, angry and pulsing with hunger. “She resisted,” he snarled. “She returned.” His reflection flickered — once Valerie’s eyes had looked back at him through the Mirrorheart. Now? They were gone. She had pulled herself from the Gate. She had survived. And worse — she was changing. Becoming something I can no longer control.
Callum swept his hand over the obsidian pool, summoning the shadows that licked the edges of the room. “She was chosen,” he whispered to no one and to everything. “She was meant to fall. To surrender. To burn.” The ancient
