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Her eyes looked mad, wild and mad, as they stared down the path. The path where Sonya stood by the mirror.

“No one there. No one. And yet…”

As if in pain, Dobbs lifted a hand to her temple, pressed.

“Seven? Seven? A number of power. Seven. What does it matter?”

She looked back at Arthur’s body, and smiled.

“They’ll find him here, and mourn and grieve. And I will feast on their tears.”

As she gathered the skirts of her dress around her, Dobbs slipped into the trees.

Shivering in the brisk air, Sonya stood as she was. And shed the first tear for Arthur Poole.

“I come from you. You were standing up for your son, your family, your home. So will I.”

She stepped back through the mirror, into the warm where her faithful dog waited.

She crouched down, gathered him to her for comfort, and to wait until the dizziness passed.

It would, she thought. It would pass. Just as the mirror no longer stood on the path.

Still holding Yoda, she rose, walked back to where Arthur Poole’s body had fallen.

“They found you here. Worried, had to be worried, when your horse came back without you. So they looked for you, and found you here. And thought it was an accident. They never knew what she’d done. But I know now. It matters I know now.”

She walked back out of the woods while her head cleared and the leading edge of the horror dulled.

She went inside, splashed cold water on her face. Clover tried Bad Company’s “All Right Now.”

“Yeah, mostly all right now. Need a few more minutes.”

She gave Yoda a treat, and because Pye came out as if to saywhere the hell have you been, she gave the cat a couple.

Then she sat, texted Trey.

I know you and Owen planned to work on Cleo’s boat tonight, but can you both come? I’m fine. I’m okay, but I went through the mirror again, and saw something. I need to tell you in person. I’m fine, I promise, but I need to tell you.

We’ll be there. Is Cleo with you?

Not right now, but she will be. I’m going back to work. I wouldn’t if I wasn’t okay. And I promise, I wouldn’t tell you I was if I wasn’t. I just need to tell you.

We’ll be there. Tell Cleo not to cook. We’ll bring something. Work if it helps, otherwise, take a break.

I took one. That’s how it started. Don’t worry. Bring pizza.

She added that in hopes it would help ease the worry she knew he felt.

Done. By six, earlier if you need.

Six.

She added a pizza emoji, then a heart.

Back at her desk, Sonya wrote it all out while the details stayed fresh. It seemed to her they’d stay fresh forever, but she documented.

Maybe, someday, she’d put everything she’d documented since moving into the manor into a book. Like Deuce Doyle had done for Collin on the family genealogy.