“I’m not sore.” But Annika poured in the pale green liquid.

“She tempts me to say fuck you.” Riley boosted herself into the tub.

“Consider it said.” Sasha closed her eyes, sipped the frothy drink. She heard the splash as Annika chose the pool instead.

“I hurt everywhere, and it’s worse knowing I’m going to be squatting and lunging and running at dawn tomorrow.”

“Add in upper body work.”

Sasha slitted her eyes open. “Consider it repeated in your direction.”

“We’ll be diving tomorrow, so that’ll mix things up. And maybe we’ll get lucky. I left Sawyer and Doyle working out where.”

“Bran?”

“He got a brainstorm about Annika’s deal, so he went up to work on it.”

Sasha decided she’d go up and help him with it. Eventually. “God, this smells so good. Why don’t I have one of these at home?”

“A hot tub, or a hot magician to make you magic hot tub potions?”

She smiled to herself. “Both.”

“Bet you could get both.”

“Bran, in my little house in the mountains? He has New York, and Ireland. My place is so isolated, so quiet, and he’s . . . he’s larger than life, isn’t he? All that power. He banks it—that’s control—but it’s huge, and passionate, and more than could be satisfied living in a little house in North Carolina.”

“Will you be, once we’re done with what we’re here for?”

“I don’t know anymore.” And that shifted her balance. “But I think I’ll always need a quiet place to go, to live, to paint. I’ll never block what I have again, or feel I have to be alone. I know more about myself, what I’m capable of. I know what it is to be a part of something really important. Something worth fighting for. And when I look at myself now . . .

“The mirror sees the truth, hard and bare. What she fears and fights against lives in the glass. And there lies her end, one only the stars can change. She fears her end.”

She came back to herself with Riley gripping her arm to keep her head above water and calling for Annika.

“I’m all right. I’m okay.”

“Take a hit.” Riley pushed the glass back in her hand. “I saved it when it started to tip out of your hand.”

Sasha shook her head, let out a breath. “Give me a second.”

“The water’s too hot, and you’re pale. Come, cool off in the pool.”

“Good thinking.” With a nod to Annika, Riley put the glass aside, pulled Sasha to her feet. “Out and in, pal.”

She obeyed, as she did feel too hot, and somehow too . . . loose. The cooler water of the pool helped offset the dizziness so she was able to climb out again on her own.

“Do you remember what you said?” Riley asked her.

“Yes. About a mirror, about the truth in it. I’m not sure what it means.”

“We should go in,” Annika decided. “Out of the sun.”