Page 12 of The Eternal Mirror (Lucifer’s Mirror #3)

Khaos

“ A re we nearly there?” Grimlet asks from beside me. I cast a quick glance at the gargoyle. He seems to have gotten over his initial excitement, and he’s settled into his seat, eyes blinking and ears twitching. I guess he’s had to come to terms with some big changes over the last few days.

I check the GPS. “Yes, we're nearly there. Do you need something?”

“Grimlet is hungry.”

I actually have no idea what gargoyles eat or whether they even eat at all. “What do you need?” I ask. My stomach growls. I could use some food myself; let’s hope these people are friendly. As far as I can tell, we’re a long way from anywhere .

“Grimlet normally lives on magic. But there are no witches here; Grimlet needs food. Grimlet doesn't know what the food is like in this world. Grimlet will try anything.”

“Okay, I'll see what I can do.”

We left the tarmac about five minutes ago, and now we're driving through a forest of tall pine trees. There's just enough space between the trees for the truck to make its way. Up ahead, I can make out some sort of structure. I'm presuming that's our destination.

I finally pull up in front of a long, low log cabin in a clearing in the forest. There are no lights on, which is odd. Maybe they’ve all left. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ve always been a loner; maybe it’s better to stay that way.

Except I’m not alone anymore. I have Amber. And Grimlet.

“Wait here,” I said.

“Grimlet is always waiting,” he growls.

I haven’t got an answer for that, so I climb out of the vehicle and look around me. The air is cool, but the rain has stopped, and high above, the moon is shining through a break in the clouds.

I catch movement to my left and turn. A man steps out of the shadows; a pistol aimed straight at me.

More movement—this time to my right—and a girl walks out.

She's slight, not very tall, with pale blond hair.

But the gun in her hand is unwavering. A third person steps out directly in front of me, a rifle pointed at my chest.

I don't like guns, and I have no wish to be shot by one. I have important things to do. The dream with Amber still reverberates through my mind. I need to get back to her. Whatever it takes .

So, I will play nice. For now. I raise my hands slowly. “I'm a friend,” I call out.

“I think I recognize all my friends,” the man off to my left says. He's tall and looks maybe in his thirties, with dark, messy hair. I'm guessing he's the leader of this group.

“Are you Killian?” I call out.

His eyes narrow. “What if I am?”

“I'm a friend of Amber and Zayne’s,” I reply. “She sent me here.”

“For what?”

I'm not quite sure what to say to that. I should have spent a little more time thinking this through. But maybe the truth will serve me best at this point.

“I need help,” I say. “She said you might have some free time on your hands right now.”

The man steps closer, but the pistol lowers to his side. “Why would she think that?”

“Because the shadow creatures and the shadowguard are no more.”

Shock flashes across his face. “You’re fucking kidding me?”

“No. It’s the truth. The portals to Hell are closed. They go nowhere.”

“How the fuck do you know that?”

I open my mouth to answer when I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. The other two are drawing closer. The man has dropped the rifle to his side and is holding it loosely, but the girl still holds her pistol out in front of her as if she sees me as a threat .

“There was nothing last night,” the man says. He’s blond and looks young, maybe around twenty. “For the first time in weeks. Maybe he knows something we don’t.”

I know fucking masses that they don’t, but I keep my mouth shut.

Killian looks me in the eyes. “If you do, then now would be a good time to tell us.”

“I know that Hell no longer exists. Because I was there when Amber destroyed it.”

He shoves the pistol into a holster at his thigh. “You're going to have to explain that.” He looks at the other two and gives a small nod. “You’d better come in.” He waves a hand toward the house.

“I have a friend in the car,” I say. “Just let me get him.”

“A friend you can vouch for?”

I shrug. “As much as I can vouch for myself.”

Without waiting for another response, I cross over to the truck and open the door. I stretch out my arm, and Grimlet crawls onto my shoulder.

“What the fuck is that?” says the second man.

Grimlet vibrates with a growl and I speak before he can start throwing things. “This is Grimlet. He's a good friend of Amber’s. And mine.”

Killian stares at us both for a few seconds longer, then shakes his head, turns, and strides toward the log cabin.

The lights come on as we approach, revealing wooden steps leading up to a wraparound porch.

I follow him up and through the big wooden door into a hallway.

I sense the others coming behind us, and the door shuts .

For a moment, I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. It’s not in my nature to trust strangers. But I’m here now.

We walk down the hallway, through another door, and into a big kitchen. I move to the far wall and turn so I can see everyone. I don’t like having people behind me.

“So,” Killian says, “you clearly know who we are. Perhaps you could introduce yourself.”

“My name is Khaosti,” I say. “And I’m a friend of Amber’s.”

“So you say,” the younger man mutters. “But do you have any proof?”

I want to snarl that she’s my mate. We are bonded forever. But I don’t. I keep quiet about that. Maybe later. “You’ll just have to believe me.”

“Or not.”

“But who are you?” the girl asks. “How do you know Amber? Is what you said about Hell true? How did it happen?”

Killian holds up his hand. “That’s a lot of questions. Perhaps we can sit down.”

Grimlet tugs on my hair. “Do you have food?” I ask.

“I don’t see why not. What does your—” he looks at Grimlet, “—friend eat?”

I shrug. “I don’t actually know. Try him with anything. It’s going to be an experiment.”

“He’s your friend and you don’t know?” The second man sounds suspicious. I don’t think he likes me. I’m used to it.

“We only met recently,” I reply.

“Does it talk?” Laura asks .

I hear a growl reverberating in my ear again and almost smile. “Yes, Grimlet talks,” I say.

She almost jumps back as Grimlet inches along to the edge of my shoulder, spreads his wings, and flies down to the table. He perches on the edge, ears twitching, and looks around him suspiciously. “Grimlet is hungry.”

“Okay,” Killian says. He crosses to the fridge, pulls out bread, cheese, and butter, then places them on the table.

“Beer?” he asks.

I nod. Grimlet nods as well. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but what do I know?

I let out a sigh and relax. I sense there’s no danger here. Killian nods to the table, and I take a seat close to where Grimlet is perched. I help myself to bread and cheese and sit in silence for a minute.

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been hours since we were in Hell, and we escaped, and all was going to be well—and now it isn’t.

I finish the bread in silence and take a swallow of beer. “What do you know?” I ask.

“About what?” Laura snaps. She sounds almost belligerent. But then I look at all of them more closely, and I see the exhaustion hovering over them. And more—a recent pain shadows their eyes.

“Laura,” Killian says, his tone a warning. “It’s not his fault.” Then he turns to me. “I’m sorry. We lost one of our people the night before last. It’s still raw. And he was the second we lost this week. ”

“This is all of you?” I ask.

“No, Daniel and Kari are out at the portal...monitoring.” He runs a hand through his hair again.

“This is Laura,” he waves a hand at the woman, then points to the younger, blond guy, “and Jack.” Then he blows out a breath.

“Christ, I hope you’re telling the truth.

It would be...world changing. Unbelievable.

But it’s a lot to take in.” He takes a swig of beer.

“Please explain; tell us what’s happened. ”

I think about where to start. “What do you know about the other worlds? Valandria. Astrali?”

Killian drags out the chair opposite and sits down. “We knew nothing of them until Amber told us of their existence. We knew about Hell. That the shadowguard were coming from there, Khendril told us.”

Well, that gives me somewhere to start, anyway. “Khendril was my brother,” I say. “My half-brother. We share a father.” And he’s a fucking bastard. But that’s something else I won’t mention right now. It will no doubt come out in the conversation.

He sits back in his chair and stares at me. “Khendril saved my life. He was a good man. Amber told me he was dead. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. We hadn’t spoken in a while,” I continue. “He left our home world to look after Amber when I was a boy. I was unaware of where he’d gone for a long time.”

I take another drink of beer. Beside me, Grimlet is nibbling on a piece of bread. I don’t think he can decide whether he likes it or not. In the end, he spits it out, so obviously not. He tries a piece of cheese, and a grin spreads across his face .

I think about what to say next. How to make sense of everything that happened without taking the next two weeks to explain.

“Amber said she was a witch,” Killian says. “What about you? Can you do magic?”

I’m pretty sure I can’t. Selene gave me powers from Vortex.

I don’t think they include magic, just fire and dragons, but I’m not going to go into that either.

“I am the same race as Amber. We are Astrali. The women of our race are witches. The men are shapeshifters, like you. Except we are born that way—not bitten.”

“You can shift into a wolf?”

A wave of sadness washes over me when I think of Fury. He’s gone now. “I could. But my wolf is dead. Now I’m...something different.” I can feel the dragon almost chuckle deep inside me. But he’s hard to explain. “Amber is also Lucifer’s daughter.”

“As in the fucking devil?” Jack says.

“Yes. It was Amber’s destiny to one day go to Hell and destroy her father. She was brought up to do that, trained all her life—and yesterday...she did it.” That is a dramatic oversimplification of what actually happened.

I can see the doubt, disbelief, and shock in their faces.

“So it’s true?” Laura asks. “The shadowguard are no more?”

“Yes, it’s true. Amber not only destroyed Lucifer, but she destroyed Hell as well. It’s gone. And the shadowguard are all dead.”

I give them a few minutes to let that sink in.

Killian gets up, goes to the fridge, and hands out more beers. He sits back down. “So, what about Amber? Is she alive? Where is she? ”

“Yes, she’s alive. She’s on Astrali.”

“That’s your world, right? Where you come from?”

“Yes.”

“So why aren’t you there with her?”

Gods, it’s complicated. How much do I want to tell?

Part of me wants to say it’s none of their business.

Part of me wants to order them to help me.

That’s what I’m used to. I give orders, and they’re obeyed.

But I’m not sure that would work here. I could force them, but they would hardly be of much use. I need them to want to help.

“We got back to Valandria after Hell was destroyed, and we found out that—” I hesitate about mentioning my connection to Khronus, but I think I have to. “We found that my father had kidnapped Zayne and Josh to force Amber to give herself up to him.”

“Your father? Who’s your father?”

I give a little shrug. “He’s the king of the Astralis.”

Killian raises an eyebrow. “So that makes you a prince?”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” I say. “The important thing is—my father’s a ruthless bastard. And now he holds Amber, Zayne, and Josh.”

“So why didn’t you go with her? Couldn’t you put in a word with your father?”

“My father doesn’t believe in me any longer. He thinks—quite rightly—that my loyalties lie elsewhere. Amber went without me because she knows he’ll kill me on sight this time.” I feel the mating bond tighten around my heart. “I have to get her back. There are no other options. ”

“And now to the important bit,” Killian says. “What are you doing here? What do you want from us?”

I give him a shrug. “It was Amber’s idea. She said that now the shadowguard are no more, you might be interested in something else to do—that you could perhaps help me.”

“You’re a prince,” Jack says, almost sneering the word. “Don’t you have lots of people who can help you with your problems?”

“Right now, I don’t trust anyone in Astrali. Everyone fears my father. They won’t risk going against him.”

“But you think we can help?” Killian asks.

“I don’t know. But Amber believed you could.

I have to get back to Astrali, and I don’t know what I will face once I’m there.

Someone to watch my back would be good, and so here I am.

” They look skeptical, and I don’t blame them.

It’s a lot to take in. “Amber saved your world,” I say.

“She saved all our worlds, probably. Lucifer was growing in power. He would have defeated my father eventually. And all the worlds would have descended into darkness and chaos. You’re safe now because of Amber. ”

“And so you want us to walk straight back into danger?” Laura says.

I stare into her eyes. “Yes.”

Then I look at Killian for an answer.

“It’s not only my decision to make. And we have to be sure that the shadowguard really are no more. Give us some time.”

I don’t have time. “I can’t leave her there.

My father is evil. And I don’t know what he plans to do.

” It’s true—I don’t understand what his endgame is.

He’s king. He’s all- powerful. What does he actually want?

My time away from Astrali has opened my eyes to so many things.

I grew up believing everything he told us was the truth.

But now I know so much of it was lies. He lied about the shadowguard.

He lied about the origin of Lucifer. What else has he lied about?

There’s something going on in Astrali. Something dark.

And I need to get to the bottom of it. And then maybe—I can save Amber. Maybe I can save us all.

“I’ll give you till morning,” I say. “And then I need to know, one way or the other.”

Then I have to go home and face my father.

And if I face him alone, so be it.