The island is surprisingly small, an oval of black glass beach with pretty much no other features. The terrain slopes upward to a tall hill in the center of the island, with an indistinguishable structure at the top of it. 

        "I thought there was a maze," Spencer says as we stand on the beach, staring up at the hill. "Isn't there supposed to be a maze?"

       "Maybe that's it up there," I suggest. She squints. "Doesn't look like a maze. Too small." 

     "How do you know how big the maze is?" I counter. "Maybe it's a small maze."

    "Whatever," Spencer snaps. "Let's just go and get this over with." her expression is steely, but there's a flicker of fear in her eyes. I want to reach out and squeeze her hand, but she's holding a sword and I'm afraid she's going to stab me if I try anything. Plus I think I already went too far with the forehead kiss back on the ship. 

         The Snapdragon is moored at the beach behind us. Dorian promised that they would wait for us, no matter how long it took. I told them that if our seven days were up and we weren't back by then, they could go to the Bone Court and tell Antimony that we failed. They had looked me dead in the eyes and said: "You will not fail."

        I hadn't known what to say to that, so I had just nodded and said "sure."

         Kitty stayed behind on the ship. She had wanted to come with us, but Spencer had been adamant that she stay. "One of us has to make it out of this," she had said. Now she glances back at the ship, probably thinking about how this might be the last time she will ever see her little sister.

      "You ready for this?" I ask her, for a lack of anything better to say. She nods. "Born ready." And that's that.

     ************************************************************

       It's not a maze at the top of the hill. It's not even a building. It's a door. A plain wooden door in a plain wooden frame, with a simple brass doorknob. It appears to lead to nowhere, but I know better than anyone that appearances can be deceiving. 

         "Well," I say decisively, "I'm thinking we're supposed to go through this door."

"And I'm thinking you might be right," Spencer says. We look at each other, share a steeling nod, then I reach out and turn the knob. The door swings open. Beyond it is... nothing. Empty blackness. I lean out into it, stretching out a hand and snapping my fingers, bringing a flickering light to life in my hand. It turns out there's no point to this, as it illuminates nothing but more darkness. 

        "You want to go first?" I ask Spencer. She peers over my shoulder into the emptiness. "Nope." I sigh. "Fine. I'll go." 

        I take a deep breath, then step forward and find myself plummeting downwards. I yelp and catch hold of Spencer's jacket sleeve, yanking her down with me. "Chance!" she shrieks in protest, but it's too late now. We're both falling, hurtling into darkness with no idea where we'll end up.

          After what seems like ages, we crash in a heap to what appears to be solid ground. "Ow," I groan, and snap my fingers again to summon light. I feed a little more energy into it this time, and a ball of golden light roughly the size of a rose window rises into the air above us, revealing a round chamber with walls of stone. There are four round exits, each leading into what I assume is a tunnel. 

         I try to rise to my feet, and the floor lurches under me. "What..." I look down and realize that I am not standing on dirt, as I thought, but instead on a seething mass of dark brown, fanged insects that swarm around Spencer and I, trying to nip at any exposed skin. 

       "What the hell?" Spencer cries. "Why is the floor trying to kill me?"

"Run!" I tell her, grabbing her hand and pulling her after me into one of the tunnels. "Do you know where we're going?" she yells, and I shake my head. "No idea!"

      We round a corner, and suddenly a cold feeling trickles down my spine. I stop in my tracks. "Do you feel that?" when there's no answer, I turn to look around me. "Spencer?" 

          She's not there. That can't be possible. She was there a second ago. "Spencer?" I call again, frantically this time, but there is still no response. I'm panicking now. Is she okay? Did something attack her? Did she go a different way? Is she okay?  

        "Alright, Chauncey Rose, breathe,"  I tell myself fiercely. "You won't be any good to anyone if you're freaking out like this. Just... take a deep breath. Focus on your surroundings. See if there's anything that might tell you where Spencer went. You've got this. Breathe."

      I breathe in deeply and take a look around me. I no longer appear to be in a tunnel, and instead seem to have stumbled into a small room. The ground is normal here, thank god, but the walls... are made of mirrors. Everywhere I look I see my face staring back at me. 

        "Oh no," I mutter, the cold feeling I felt earlier returning and spreading through me. "What is this, what is this, what is happening..."

       Hello there, Chance, says a voice in my head. I look up and meet my own eyes in one of the mirrors. My reflection gives me a grin and a little wave. 

       Nice to see you, it says. We need to have a talk. 

"About what?" I ask cautiously, taking a step forward. 

          About you,  my reflection says, still with that odd grin. And what a mess you are. How you're terrified of absolutely everything. How you can't even do basic magic to save your life. How even though people keep reassuring you, you don't believe them. How badly you just... want... to give up.

    "Oh great, we're doing this?" I sigh. "Spencer and I already went over this, back on the ship. I'm a freaking warrior, remember?"

       Do you really believe that?  She was just saying that so you would continue this mission. Do you really think she cares? She's just here to save her best friend. And it's too late for that, by the way. 

        The image in the mirror flickers, revealing Nico, standing in the middle of a destroyed jail cell, his eyes flooded black. Nikolaius' eyes. 

      "I can still save him," I snap. "With the King's Bane. It will work."

But what happens then?  my reflection asks gleefully. This world is falling apart, under the rule of someone who doesn't give a damn. Do you think Antimony will give up on taking your world? He'll let you seal the mirror, but he'll already have forces in place. He won't stop until he gets to watch it burn.

        "Tristan will stop him," I snap, "he listens to Tris."

Tristan loves him, the mirror reminds me. He wants to make him happy. And it's too late for him, too.

       The image flickers again, revealing Tris in a forest, pouncing on a lanky figure and tearing into it with talons and teeth. His eyes glow with a violent, delighted light that is entirely inhuman and nothing like the boy I knew. 

          Even if you do find the King's Bane and use it, it will all be for nothing. You will be saving a life and condemning millions of others, human and otherwise. Dorian, and everyone on that ship, too, will be destroyed. Even if you succeed, you will fail. You can do nothing but fail, Chauncey Rose Dean-Kaplan. 

         "Alright, I'm getting real tired of this," I snarl. This has to be magic of some sort, an enchantment meant to confuse me, keep me from finishing my mission. But I won't let it.

         I close my eyes and focus on what Dorian taught me, back on the deck of the Snapdragon, about breaking through magical barriers. You can do nothing but fail, Chauncey Rose Dean-Kaplan. I shake my head, forcing that nagging voice to leave me along. I will not fail. I can beat this. Somehow, someway. I'm more than that. You're a freaking warrior. 

      I hold on to Spencer's words, playing them over and over in my head, as well as the look in her eyes when she said them. I think about Kitty, sparring on the deck with Skip, the shy glances and blushes they gave each other when they thought no one was looking. I thought of Nico, so strong in the face of his own destruction. I think of Dorian, who still held on to peace and loved their siblings, no matter what. Who still had hope. I couldn't let them down. I think of Tristan, who I failed once before. And lastly I think of myself. I've failed myself too many times, and I am not about to do it again. 

      I look my reflection in the eyes and snarl "Screw you." Then I let it all out. 

There's a rush, a blast of force so powerful that it knocks me down, then a scream from my reflection as all the mirrors burst as one, splintering into thousands of glittering pieces. And then suddenly it's over.

      "Chance?" a voice calls, and then Spencer is there, kneeling beside me, shaking me gently. I pull myself into a sitting position and face her. "Spencer?" she smiles, nodding wordlessly. She's okay. There are scratches on her face, and her eyes are red-rimmed as though she's been crying, but she's okay. 

        I take her face in my hands, brushing my thumbs across the tear tracks on her cheeks. She clutches my arm, searching my eyes. "What happened? What the hell was that? I- I saw-"

        Her voice breaks, and I am suddenly ready to murder anything that might have hurt her. "It wasn't real," I tell her. She nods. "I know, I know, but still... I saw you die, Chance. I watched all of you die. Kitty, Nico... And there was nothing I could do. Nothing at all."

       I don't say anything, just touch my forehead to hers. "I thought this was a maze," she mutters after a second. "This is not a maze."

       I can't help but laugh. "I think they call it a maze because you can get lost in it. Just... not in the way you might think. Or maybe in that way too. I don't know."

       Spencer laughs too. "What was it?" she asks. Some sort of spell?"

   "Yeah," I say. "Some sort of barrier to keep us from getting to a goal. I got rid of it."

        "You- you got through a magical barrier?"

"Yeah, I did." I grin, the fact fully setting in that I actually did it. "I did."

              Suddenly we're both laughing, both terrified out of our minds but happy because we're okay, we're okay and we're here together. 

       "I told you so you could do it," Spencer tells me, smiling softly. "You freaking warrior."

Then she's kissing me, and nothing else matters in the whole damn universe except for her lips on mine, my hands in her hair. We could die right now, and I would die happy because Spencer Cooper is kissing me. 

          "I hate to interrupt something so pure and adorable," says a voice from out of nowhere. "But I really don't think now is the time."

      I break away (reluctantly, I have to admit) from Spencer and turn to see that the room has completely changed. It's round and made entirely out of bones, empty except for a raised dais in the center. On it is perched a woman, sitting cross-legged and and holding a twisted crown in her hands.

         "Welcome," says Nyx, the queen of the Mirror Realm. "I hear you've come for the King's Bane."