Chapter 42: The Bargain of Shadows

The quiet was the worst part.

After the surge of light, the echoes of Ivy’s scream, and the blinding pressure of magic, the stillness that followed felt unnatural—like the eye of a storm that hadn't finished raging. Ivy sat on the floor, clutching her chest, her breaths short and shallow.

"Asher?" she whispered again, praying the answer had changed.

But the room remained silent.

Killian wrapped an arm around her, but his face was ashen. Mira stood by Lyra, still chanting softly under her breath, her hands glowing faintly over the child's chest.

"He's really gone," Ivy murmured. Her voice cracked with the weight of it. “He traded himself for me…”

“No soul can enter the Mirror Realm unless summoned or tethered,” Mira said solemnly, “and only one soul was meant to cross tonight. When Asher intervened, he became the sacrifice that sealed the gate.”

Ivy’s mind reeled. “We have to go after him. There has to be a way to bring him back.”

Mira hesitated, clearly torn. “That realm... it's not like anything else. Time, space, and even identity don’t function there the way it does here. Most who enter lose themselves.”

“But Asher didn’t just enter,” Killian said. “He gave himself up. That makes him tethered. There’s got to be a loophole.”

Mira’s eyes glimmered with uncertainty. “A loophole, perhaps. But the cost…”

Ivy stood shakily, fire burning in her blood. “I don’t care about the cost. He saved my life. He saved Lyra’s. We owe him everything.”

Lyra stirred.

Her lashes fluttered, and then her lips parted with a soft, broken breath. Mira rushed to her side, placing her hands gently on Lyra’s temples.

Killian leaned over the couch. “Lyra? Can you hear me, baby girl?”

Lyra blinked. Her gaze was dazed, but there was a flicker of awareness. Her small hand reached up and brushed Ivy’s cheek.

“I saw him,” she whispered.

Ivy’s breath caught. “Asher?”

Lyra nodded slowly. “He’s still him... but the mirror is trying to take him. It whispers. Lies. Promises. It wants to trap him forever.”

Mira looked stunned. “How do you know that?”

“I… I can hear them all,” Lyra murmured. “The spirits. The lost ones. And the gate is mad. It doesn’t like that Asher isn’t broken yet.”

Killian ran a hand through his hair. “If he’s still fighting, we still have a chance.”

Mira looked pale. “Then we’ll need the original summoner.”

All eyes turned to Ivy.

“You opened the gate,” Mira said. “You might be the only one who can open it again—without losing yourself.”

Ivy stared at her hands. The faint scar on her palm from that night pulsed as if echoing the blood she once gave.

“Then I’ll do it,” she said. “But I need to understand exactly what I’m dealing with.”

Later that night, Mira led Ivy and Killian to the basement of an old chapel—one that hadn’t been used in over a century.

“This place is warded,” Mira said. “No spirits, no energies. Just truth.”

The walls were carved with ancient sigils. Dust floated in thick beams of moonlight as Mira pulled out an old grimoire.

“The Mirror Realm,” she said, placing the book on the altar, “isn't just a spiritual plane. It's a prison. A reflection of every soul’s darkest fears and regrets. And Isolde didn’t create it. She escaped it.”

Ivy’s eyes widened. “So she was... imprisoned there?”

“She was once human,” Mira nodded. “A powerful seer who used forbidden magic. She tried to transcend mortality, and the realm punished her for it. But somehow, when you called for help that night under the blood moon, your plea reached her. She made her way back through you—and into Lyra.”

“So to rescue Asher,” Killian said grimly, “we’d have to break into a prison built by the universe itself.”

Mira met Ivy’s eyes. “And hope you don’t trade one soul for another in the process.”

The next day, Mira began preparing the ritual. Candles of obsidian wax. A mirror soaked in moonlight. Ivy’s blood willingly offered once more.

“I’ll need a Guide,” Mira said. “Someone who can tether Ivy while she’s inside. If the connection severs, she’ll be lost.”

“I’ll do it,” Killian said immediately.

Mira looked unsure. “It can’t be you. Your emotions are too entwined. You’ll weaken the bond.”

Lyra walked forward, small but steady. “I’ll do it.”

“Lyra,” Ivy gasped, “no—”

“I can feel Asher,” she said. “He’s calling me too. I can anchor you. I know I can.”

Killian hesitated, then nodded. “She’s stronger than any of us know.”

Mira handed Ivy a silver pendant laced with runes. “This will be your only way back. Break it in the realm, and your soul will snap back here—if the tether holds.”

Ivy took it, then crouched in front of Lyra, pressing her forehead to her daughter’s.

“Don’t let go,” Ivy whispered.

Lyra nodded. “Never.”

The ritual began.

As Mira chanted, the mirror shimmered, then split like water. Ivy stepped through—and was swallowed whole.

The realm welcomed her like a predator.

Everything around her was warped. Familiar yet wrong. A hospital hallway. Her childhood bedroom. Asher’s apartment. All overlayed, twisted, and drenched in moonlight and blood.

“Asher!” she called, heart pounding.

Silence.

Then—a flicker.

A figure in the distance.

She ran toward it, each step echoing like thunder.

It was him.

Sitting on a bench. Head bowed. Shirt torn. Eyes hollow.

“Asher,” she breathed, kneeling in front of him.

He blinked. “You… you came.”

Tears spilt down Ivy’s cheeks. “Of course I did. I’m getting you out.”

He shook his head. “You can’t. It’s too late. The realm has its hooks in me.”

“We’ll break them.”

“Ivy—”

“I don’t care what this place says. I choose you. We both made mistakes, but we’ve paid enough.”

She reached into her shirt and pulled out the pendant.

“Touch this,” she said, “and we’ll leave together.”

He raised his hand.

But the air twisted.

The pendant burned.

And from the shadows—Isolde emerged.

“You can’t have him,” Isolde hissed.

Ivy stood protectively in front of Asher. “You lost. He’s not yours to keep.”

Isolde smiled coldly. “Oh, Ivy… you still don’t get it. I’m not trying to keep Asher. I want you.”

The shadows writhed.

A thousand voices screamed.

“I never needed your daughter,” Isolde said. “She was just a door. You… you’re the lock. And I’m here to pick it.”

Ivy’s grip on the pendant tightened. But the silver cracked.

A scream tore through her mind.

Outside the realm, Lyra convulsed.

“Ivy!” Mira shouted. “The tether’s collapsing!”

Inside, Ivy stared at Asher.

“I can’t hold us both,” she whispered. “If we both go, the pendant breaks. One of us has to stay…”

Asher reached for her hand. “Then go. Save our daughter.”

Ivy’s heart shattered.

She made her decision.

The pendant glowed—then burst.