Through The Looking Glass Ruins Novels & Stories

she’d promised. And she hadn’t. But presence wasn’t the same as proximity. She turned onto her side, watching Elara sleep through the baby monitor. The soft rise and fall of her chest steadied her breathing. “I chose this,” Lola whispered. She had to remember that. Melvin pov Therapy was different now. Less about surviving grief, more about navigating loss in real time. “I feel like I’m watching my life through glass,” Melvin admitted during one session. “Like I can see them but I can’t touch.”

“I’m heading to bed. Don’t stay up too late watching trash TV, alright?” “No promises.” Crystal responds, shooing me away. “You know that’s my favorite type since you’re so boring.” Rolling my eyes, I don’t bother responding before I head to my room and collapse on my bed so that I can finally let the weight of reality slam into me. “Shit,” I hiss, realizing what I was running headfirst into. “There really are monsters living amongst us and pretending to be humans.”

Veyra had decided to sneak off to go find the mirror stone on her own. Unknown to her Lioren had seen her and followed through. The entrance to the ruins of Fenwyre loomed before them—massive, vine-draped pillars carved with glyphs older than any spoken tongue. Veyra felt the air shift as she stepped across the threshold. It was like walking into memory. The stone beneath her bare feet pulsed faintly with a magic not her own, yet not entirely foreign either.

The ruins of Echo’s heart spread around them like the skeletal remains of a dead cathedral. Walls of black glass jutted upward like the ribs of some long-buried beast, cracked and glittering in the broken light of storm clouds overhead. The air reeked of ozone and scorched metal, the silence beneath it broken only by the slow groan of fallen beams, the faint hiss of dying wires sparking in the dust.

And suddenly, it was like reality tore apart. I froze instantly. The entire city shimmered violently. Like glass breaking, the beautiful buildings distorted. The glowing lights vanished. And suddenly, everything changed. The city was gone. What stood beyond the glass now looked dead. Collapsed buildings, broken towers, smoke. Ruins stretching endlessly across the land. The glowing rivers were black. The silver streets were cracked apart. Even the sky looked darker now. My chest tightened immediately. “What the fuck…” Beside me, even Iris went silent. The kingdom we had been admiring moments ago…

[The Foundation of Blood] The return to the Palisades was not a homecoming; it was a descent into the maw of a beast that refused to die. The ruins of the mansion sat atop the jagged cliffs of the Atlantic like a blackened skull, its glass eyes shattered, its skeletal framework groaning under the weight of the salt spray. The storm from weeks ago had left the site a graveyard of memories, but as the black SUV rumbled up the winding driveway, the air grew thick with a preternatural heat.

MAYA The house was too quiet. It had been six months since the metal of the car crumpled like paper. Six months since the world I built out of lies fell apart in a spray of shattered glass and screaming tires. I was the one who survived. I was the one who woke up from the coma. But sometimes, when I look at the empty space in our bed or the way Liam looks at his phone, I think the wrong person died that night.

The terrain between Wrenhill and the border is difficult this time of year—muddy in some places, frozen in others—but that doesn’t slow me down. I need to see the site with my own eyes. The stench hits before the buildings come into view—burnt timber, blood, and the acrid tang of dark magic. I dismount silently, motioning for the others to fan out and check the perimeter. There’s no howling. No survivors crying out for help. Just silence. Too much of it. I move through the ruins slowly, my boots crunching over shattered dishes and charred bone. The main house is a husk, one wall caved in, furniture upturned. There are claw marks on the door. Not just from wolves.

Drusden said, a dark smile forming on his lips. Marianne leaned in, desperation painted all over her face. “I would do whatever it takes.” Arah’s heart sank upon hearing that, and she had no idea where she’d jumped next. The place was dark, but it looked like some kind of ancient ruins—a structure with broken columns and marble floors. The fractured walls bore old writings and symbols she felt she was supposed to understand but couldn’t. The moon was visible through the round crack in the half-destroyed domed roof.

Scarlett's mind raced as she recalled the stories she had read, searching for any knowledge that could aid her in this dire situation. Taking a hesitant step forward, Scarlett noticed a dust-covered mirror in the corner of the room. Curiosity piqued, she approached it, her reflection staring back at her with determination. As she reached out to touch the mirror's surface, it rippled like water, revealing a hidden passage behind it. Without hesitation, Scarlett stepped through the mirror, entering a labyrinth of illusions and traps. The maze seemed to shift and change at every turn, disorienting her senses. Scarlett's heart pounded in her chest as she reminded herself that every illusion was