Their footsteps echoed loudly in the grand hallway. Lina pulled Kai along. He was stumbling, his wet shoes slipping on the polished stone floor.
"Keep going!" Lina urged him.
Behind them, the wet, slapping sounds of the reflections grew louder. They were fast. Much too fast.
Nia ran at the front, her blue magic lighting the way. "The chapel is just ahead!" she called out. "I can see the iron doors!"
At the end of the long hall, the heavy wood and iron of the chapel doors gleamed in the moonlight. It was so close. Just fifty more steps.
But the False Kai did not run after them.
Lina glanced back over her shoulder. The boy with the wrong smile had stopped. He was standing perfectly still in the middle of the hallway. The army of stolen faces stopped right behind him.
"Why did they stop?" Mira gasped, running beside Lina.
The False Kai tilted his head. He raised his hand and pointed at the tall, antique mirrors that lined the walls of the grand hallway.
"You cannot outrun a reflection, Lina," his voice echoed. It did not come from his mouth. It came from the glass.
Before Lina could blink, the False Kai stepped forward and melted into the mirror on his left. His body turned flat and silver, slipping into the glass like it was water.
"No!" Kai yelled.
The glass in the mirrors rippled.
Suddenly, the mirrors all along the hallway right in front of the chapel doors began to bulge outward.
Wet, pale hands pushed through the glass.
Dozens of reflections climbed out of the wall mirrors. They dropped onto the stone floor right between the group and the chapel. They stood up, shaking the black water from their hair.
Now, there were reflections blocking the chapel doors. And the rest of the army was walking up right behind them.
They were completely trapped.
The reflections in front of the chapel smiled their empty, terrible smiles. They raised their wet hands, ready to strike.
Lina pulled her friends into a tight circle. She had nowhere left to run.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
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Next Chapter Summary for Chapter 125: Trapped between two armies of reflections, Lina must use the False Kai's own rules against him, but Kai's physical body begins to reject the real world.