"Lift your feet!" he yells while we soar through the air.

The landing jars my spine-I'll take a million spine jars to be free-and we bump up over the snow.

Behind us, she's coming. Dark wisps curling downward and stretching for me. We'll never escape her. As long as she has her power, she'll follow me to the ends of the earth.

"Double back!" I shout. He shakes his head. "We can't outrun it. We have to destroy the bowl!"

Finally, I feel the nod of his chin. He slows and whips around a tree. The dark spirit passes us. He hits the throttle hard and we speed back up the mountain.

Over his shoulder, I can see her getting closer. Too close. I may not be able to stop her before I can get to the bowl but without another body..."If she enters my body, you have to kill me." Jai keeps driving, doesn't respond. "Promise me!"

We lean left to get around a tree on the right.

"You'll free my soul from the mirror, save my father, and leave her soul in limbo!" With those words, Jai nods. I lean on him content. Well, as content as someone can be while an eight thousand year old evil is chasing her.

The dim shadows from the fire flicker ahead. "Slow down," I shout up at him. "Let me jump off. She'll follow you." At least, I hope she will. He lifts a thumb off the throttle. "Not too much! Just dump me in a snow bank!"

Near the fire, his thumb lets go of the accelerator. I dive into a snowdrift. He races up the mountain. Evil is right behind him. Ignoring the ice covering me, I scramble toward the glowing coals and search for the spot where the mirror landed. I can't find it. Snow must have filled the hole.

Smoke fills my nose and my eyes water as I dig. The roar of the snowmobile nears. I glance up. The shadow of evil is now ahead of the machine and coming at me. I now dig frantically. My fingers turn numb. I keep digging until I hit dirt. I move over. A long swath of tape comes off my wet arm. The sound of the machine comes closer as the wrath in the trees descends. I've dug a trench, still no mirror. Damn. Damn. Damn. I want to cry and scream, but my fingers keep clawing the ice. The snowmobile stops on the other side of the flames as black soars over the fire.

My nails scratch hardness just as evil wraps her cold fingers around me. I clench my jaw and tear the bowl out with frozen hands. My whole body breaks into spasms that threaten to make me drop the vile vessel. Icy fingers creep along my skin and jab into my skull. Pain blazes. Blackness descends. My wrists throb and a cut opens.

The bowl warms in my hand as the voices inside scream at me. Fight her! Fight her! Fight her! Their cries whip threw me. I search for an anchor inside me. I think of my father who will die for her greed and Jai, who will surely be first on her list of death. Then I remember my mother sacrificed for this witch's quest for beauty and eternal life. For once, I force myself to bring up my mother's memory. The reminiscence of her kindness, her light, her smile, and her love for me give me strength until anger, love, and desperation wrestle with the evil enclosing me.

I feel pressure on my wrist. Slimy and threatening, it pushes my skin open. FIGHT HER! The voices in the mirror shout. Picturing my mother, imagining her arms around me, I stumble to the edge of the fire. A lightning strike of pain burns the cut on my wrist as evil slides into me. But amid my mother's love and with the power of their voices, I raise my throbbing arm and drop the ancient mirror into the coals.

Chapter 48*Snow.

I fall to my knees within the cloud of my mother's memory. Cold crunches under my skin, I don't feel it. I'm wrapped in my mother's arms, wrapped in her voice telling me she'll always love me, wrapped in warmth. For one long beautiful second, it like she's there with me.

Then the cold seeps in, the heat of the fire scorches my face, and she's gone.

Before me, the black specter howls and curls into itself while the frozen bowl sizzles in the coals. She stretches and screeches, but in the shadows of daybreak, she appears gray and fractured. An icy tendril stretches toward me. When she touches me, I feel nothing.

"Nivi!" Jai's frantic voice comes from across the coals.

I can't look away. Sparks shoot out of the center of the fire. High-pitched popping sounds fill the air as the bowl begins to melt into the coals. I recall her triumphant look in my dreams and I know my face mirrors hers.

"You're going to get burned." Jai's hands tug my waist and drag me through the snow and up the mountain. I still watch the scene from over my shoulder.

Now faint, the spirit hovers over the coals. Sparks flare into flames. Black shadow stretches then condenses. She twirls like a vortex above the blaze until it rises and wraps around her.

Jai pushes me under a huge evergreen tree. The smell of sulfur fills the windy air. Branches tear across my face. The ground trembles and we fall onto the snowy ground. Lying in the cold, we watch the fire turn more violent. It doesn't scare me. Victory swells in me as her power destroys her.

Flames mesh with black shadow until the fire is ribboned with the essence of Mali. Sparks and ash burst from the blaze and rain down on the mountainside. Trees groan and bend away from the blaze. The ground shifts again and her scream-a lovely knife to my ears-breaks out of the vortex. With the roar of thunder, the flames raise even higher until a surge of light like lightning stuns my eyeballs and an explosion booms across the mountain. Jai covers me while ash and sparks explode everywhere. Under him, I feel the whoosh of hot air pass over us while the forest sways and creaks above us.

Then silence.

My soul is calm.

She's gone.

We stand with ears ringing from the blast and slowly stumble down the soot dotted mountain. The explosion left nothing-not even one coal-but a circle of ash-covered snow. A slight wisp of heat rises from the ground, all that's left of Mali's evil. The evidence of what happened in the shadows of night is just speckles of black and gray on white.

I take in the calm scene before me. Melted snow drips from the trees surrounding us. The forest is quiet as the sun casts its soft light across the mountainside and the world turns from dark shadows to bright greens and white sparkling snow. A bird chirps above and the last remnants of fear trickle out of me like the water dripping onto the soot dotted snow. I've truly escaped from the nightmare into reality.

I let out a laugh of joy. Spin in a circle in the bright morning and face Jai.

He pulls his gaze from the ash circle. His eyes are wide, shocked. He blinks and steps toward me. I'm in his arms in less than a second. Under the rising sun amid the echo of water plopping in the snow, we hold each other in a tight, suffocating embrace.

"It's really over," I say against the strength of his chest.

His chin hits the top of my head in a nod.

We*re cold, dirty, exhausted, and his leg is a mess, but we are alive. My fingers clutch at him, this boy who risked his life to save me. This boy who makes me feel whole again. I never want to let him go.

He holds me just as tight. "Finally... it's just us," he says with a touch of humor laced in his tone. I can hear the pain in his voice too.

I step back and stare at his leg. Blood, dark and thick, wets the denim on his thigh. A different fear enters me. "You need to get to a hospital."

He tugs me back into his arms. "We got some cleaning up to do first, but before that..." His cold fingers brush my jaw before his warm lips brush across mine.

It's the best happily-ever-after-kiss, ever.

Chapter 49*Snow.

Home, I've never been happier to see my father's high-rise. Actually, I don't think I've ever been happy to see it before. I'm worried about my father. After we drove to the nearest hospital-I found the keys to the Mercedes in Mali's fur coat-they re-stitched Jai's leg in the emergency room and sent us on our way. We found a motel and slept for almost twelve hours. Once awake, the first thing I did was call my father's cell. I got no answer. After repeated attempts, I woke Jai and we left within the hour. The way back took less than ten hours-much quicker than our rambling escape.

The doorman doesn't recognize me in my white spiked hair until I speak his name and say hello. Frowning at his mess-up, he tips his hat and opens the door. I pace the length of the small box while the elevator ride seems to take forever.

"Relax, you don't know if anything's wrong yet," Jai says, pulling me to a stop.

I nod, but I can't help fearing the worst, that she already got rid of my father. Inside the apartment, I bellow, "Hello? Dad?" again and again.

No answer. Maybe he's out, but a strange foreboding has me searching the place. We check the main rooms before heading to the bedroom. The room is neat. Nothing is out of place except the bathroom, which has my heart racing. Broken pieces of the mirror cover the counter and floor and dried blood covers the pieces.

"Nivi, in here," Jai calls from the bedroom.

I rush to find my father tied up on his closet floor. His hands and feet are bound behind him, a scarf covers his eyes, and a rope twists across his mouth. Tight with fear, I stumble toward him. His chest rises and my own constricts with air. Jai and I scramble to loosen the bindings. I jerk the scarf away and wild eyes meet mine. Once they recognize me, warmth replaces fear. My hands shake as I tug the rope from his mouth.

"Nivea, you're safe. You're alive," he says in a raspy voice. "You were right...she drugged me...tied me up..."

I realize he's been lying like this for almost two days. Seeing such a powerful man in such a state makes blood rush to my temples. "It's over. You're going to be fine."

Jai tugs at the bindings on my father's wrists. "We need a knife."

"Is that..." my father rasps as Jai leaves.

"Jai. The guy you met at the club. Don't worry, he's a friend." A boyfriend? Perhaps? Not the time to worry about such things. Ignoring the thought, I tug on a knot. "He helped me escape from Smith and Mali and the Tong."

"The Tong?"

I smile sadly. "It's a long story."

Jai returns and in minutes my father is free. We hug for a long time. I can't remember hugging him for so long or with such ease.

In such a weak state, we have to help him walk to the kitchen. After several glasses of water and several granola bars that I have to force him to eat, he asks, "What happened? Where's Mali?"

Jai leans against the cupboards and raises an eyebrow at me.

I bite my lip. Ugh. I so don't want to do this. "Well...I was right. Mali wanted my inheritance and she wanted to get rid of you too." I've had hours of driving to put this together. I want to make this easy on him. Besides, the real story isn't so believable. "She and Smith were lovers." Nothing like breaking love's grip with some cheating.

Jai keeps his face immobile.

My father looks confused.

I open the freezer. "I'm sorry you had to find out." I pull out bags of chicken nuggets and fries from the bottom.

He shakes his head. "After what she did, hell even before...well let's just say lying tied up on the closet floor I couldn't find a reason why I married her. Why I was so enamored with her..." He shakes his head again as if his memory is fuzzy. Like Smith, I realize the bitch put a spell on him. "Where...where is she?" he asks.

The way he asks makes me think he doesn't want to know, yet the question is inevitable. Just like I knew he'd be asking, which is why I'm prepared. "I'd decided to go to the cabin and hide out."

My father clenches the glass in his hand. "She asked me about the cabin."

I nod. "They were following us. The roads were icy. Her car slipped off into a deep ravine." In reality, Jai drove the vehicle to the edge of a cliff. We tied a brick to the accelerator, and then pulled the brick off with a rope.

His mouth drops. "Did you contact the authorities?"

I set the oven to four hundred. "We...ah talked about it, but I was worried about you. I didn't want to deal with an investigation. Nor did I want to share the fact my step-mother was out to kill me."

After looking to Jai, who nods, my father rubs his temples. "I'm not sure what to think, what to do."

I pull out a pan from the stove drawer. "First, eat then think."

After we eat-he doesn't even complain about the processed food-my father gives me another hug and rambles off to the shower. I open the dishwasher, but before I can load the dishes Jai's hands tugs me into his embrace.

He holds me for a long time before saying into my hair, "I have to go. Ping keeps texting me." I nod. Why does that not surprise me? He leans back while gripping my hand. "I'll call you tomorrow?"

I look into his dark eyes suddenly shy. Funny how when your life is in danger it's easy to be open and honest, now we stare at each other like we're two freshmen at our first Homecoming dance. A soft smile finally lifts my lips. "Please."

He looks down the hall to where my father disappeared then at me. His gaze lingers on my mouth. Longing wells within me, but after a quick squeeze on my fingers he leaves.

Filled with disappointment, I shut the dishwasher and take a deep breath. The dishes can wait. I have one more thing to do before this is truly finished.

After I get a hammer from the laundry room, I enter the guestroom. In between strange plants my refection trembles. I drag out boxes and boxes of mirrors. It takes forever. They cover the bed, the desk, and the floor. Souls trapped behind glass bound in by brass and gold and silver with ancient magic. Sorrow at the destruction Mali wrought through time surrounds me, curls through me. Lives ruined and destroyed for eternal life and youth. My life almost ruined.

But no more.

I dig in my pocket for her bracelet, the last remnant of her power, and hope this will work. I smash the jewelry to bits until bone chips and dust, a sprinkling of death at my feet, scatter across the wood floor.

As I stand, a low hum builds and reverberates around the room. Somehow-most likely from the tie of our souls-I can feel the hum inside of me. With a sprint of anticipation, I move to the center of the floor.

The hum grows until it sounds like thousands of beating wings getting ready for flight. Glass wavers. I stand still while shadows behind my reflections shift and flash. Faint faces, joyful and triumphant, flicker across mine in the glass.

The beating grows faster and I wrap my arms around myself.

CRACK.

With the sound of thunder, glass shatters and explodes all around me. Crystals surround me and I can see nothing but the bright shine of glass like I'm caught inside a flash of lightning. Then the roar of tinkling sounds like the rush of a waterfall. The shattered glass thins and sparkling reflections hang in the air while invisible wings flutter past me, softly brushing my cheeks and arms. Their mass movement shakes the walls as the wings brush past me faster. A huge gust rolls through the room almost knocking me to my knees before the window shatters and a burst of flapping, stronger than ever before, surges outwards. I can feel bliss and freedom with every flutter against my skin.

One more surge of flapping and then nothing.

I look around at destroyed plants and the tiny shards of glass on every surface of the room, except for a small circle around me and I smile.

Chapter 50*Snow.

Three days later, I rush down the school steps after my first day back. The sight of my father's Porsche waiting at the snowy curb has me running across the sidewalk. I've a ton of make-up homework to do, but it will have to wait until the weekend. Tonight's important. When I get near the car, my driver gets out. Excitement bubbles in my stomach. I'm hot for my chauffer, I realize with a silent, silly giggle.

Jai tosses me the keys as he walks around the car. "I don't even have to ask."

I catch the ring with a grin. "I won't let him dock your pay."

He opens the passenger door. "You should. He pays me too much."

In the car, Chilly hops in my lap. Scratching a furry ear, I say, "For the last time, he's paying you about half of Harrison's salary."

"How am I going to survive as an architect apprentice after living like this?"

I roll my eyes and shift into drive. "Live frugally. You're used to it." His only response is a snort. "You done moving?" I ask, waiting for a red light.