Page 64 of Locked

My eyes looked… more fierce. Like I had work to do.

I was completely nude in the mirror, but I don't think I'd ever seen myself look more put together. Less meek. Ready to fight.

Rifyr called from the kitchen, his voice carrying down the hall in a way that I was sure had to be part of the elven magic he had claim to. My voice never carried like that. Elves had heavy roots in hunters and rangers. Rifyr's training as a rogue would have allowed him the magical skills to throw his voice as well.

It was comical to me that this was what he was using it for now.

"Sorry to bother you, Kitten, but do you have a waffle iron? If so, where is it?"

I cracked open the bathroom door and called up the hallway. "Under the cabinet to the left of the sink."

"What?" he called.

"The cabinet to the left of the sink."

"WHAT?" he repeated.

I rolled my eyes and reached for a towel to dry my hands. Apparently he didn't inherit the impeccable hearing part of being an elf.

I scurried up the hallway, pausing in the kitchen doorway to repeat myself once more.

He grinned when he saw me. He was wearing his underwear and nothing else. His hair was down, brushing the tops of his shoulders as he mixed up batter in a bowl.

If I'd insisted further on making breakfast myself via magic, I would have missed the show that was him making waffles.

I summoned it from the cabinet, sliding it onto the counter alongside him. The cord floated up and into the wall socket.

"Thank you," he called. "You didn't have to do that."

"Well, as much as I would LOVE to see you bend over, I thought you had enough to handle there."

"Now go back to bed," he insisted. "I'll bring it to you and feed you when it's done."

"You're feeding me now?"

"Of course, doll. You're a princess. And I'm gonna make you feel like one."

"I am literallynota princess," I said, sniffing as I turned to leave.

"You might as well be," he called after me. "You're my princess."

I grinned as I made my way back to bed, laying back on my satin sheets and gazing up at the ceiling. I'd left Kinden's magic intact. I liked my new blue room better than my old one. It felt more like me than the old room ever had.

I had the lights on, but I wished again that there were windows in this room. In any room. The magic that caused the mirrors to show different images was gone, so I was left looking at infinite reflections of myself.

And as nice as that was…

I closed my eyes, muttering some incantations under my breath and sighing with relief when I opened them to find a calm beach scene depicted on them.

Mother liked her control over things, didn't she? Well fuck her, because I was just as capable. At least in this sense.

I sighed. Unfortunately, 'this sense' was simple aesthetic magic. Nothing that could ever be of any use.

The next logical step would be to get me out of this tower.

But I didn't know how to do that. I wasn't good enough at spellwork to unravel whatever Mother had cast on the Tower. I could fix magic mirrors to show me the beach, but I couldn't get myself out of here to actually ever see one.

I didn't have any other option though. And when you ran out of options, you gave a second look at the ones you had.