“There is no going back. You are meant to be mine.”
Going back?
Why would I want to do that?
I was born to find him—of that I am sure.
I move past my thoughts and pull him back to me. My lips swelling, pressing, only to find Dace is no longer before me—someone else has taken his place.
Someone who bears the same strong, lean body—the same sculpted face. And while the eyes share the same color, flecked by brilliant bands of gold, the similarity ends there.
These eyes are cold.
Cruel.
And instead of reflecting, they absorb like the void I sense them to be.
Cade.
My sworn enemy.
Dace’s identical twin.
The one I was born to kill.
If he doesn’t get to me first.
I yank hard at my dress in a desperate bid to cover myself, as I shove a hand to his chest and struggle to push him away. But he’s unfeasibly strong and remains right in place.
“Where’d he go? What’d you do?” My gaze darts all around.
My question met with a tilt of his head, a quirk of his brow, and an absurdly muttered, “Who?”
“Dace! Where is he? What have you done?” The words ring high-pitched and shrieky, though they’re no match for the frantic pounding of blood rushing my ears, my heart pummeling my rib cage.
“I am Dace.” He smiles. “And Dace is me. We are one and the same. I thought you knew that by now?” He grins, and I watch in horror as his face morphs to resemble Dace’s before returning to his own sinister visage. Transmuting back and forth, over and over as I slam a f
ist against his shoulder, fight to break free.
This is not how the dream goes.
I don’t like this new ending.
“The light and the dark. The yin and the yang. The negative and the positive. We are connected, bound in mystical ways. One cannot exist without the other. As you already know.”
“You may be connected, but you’re not the same. Dace is nothing like you! You’re a demon—a trickster—a—” His face morphs back to Cade, and I finally break free. Desperate to find my way to dry land, only to discover the landscape has changed.
The Enchanted Spring has morphed into a steep, narrow mesa jutting out of the earth.
Before me lies an endless abyss.
Behind me stands Cade.
Preferring to die on my own terms, my own way, I inch forward until my toes clear the edge.
“Daire, please. No more games. No more running away,” he pleads.
I gather my dress in my hands, only to find it changed too. No longer the white gown I wore in the Upperworld, this gown is a deep, sunset red, with swirling skirts, an open back, and a deeply plunging neckline.