Page 25 of The Eternal Mirror (Lucifer’s Mirror #3)

Khaos

I glare at the tightly laced entrance to the tent. Does she really believe that a little scrap of canvas will keep me out?

She’d refused to talk about it anymore. She'd grabbed Josh by the hand and said she was going to bed. Someone showed her to a tent, and I trailed behind like a disobedient puppy, with her casting narrow-eyed glances over her shoulder every few feet.

I’m well aware that she took Josh as protection—and she’s right. It was a clever move. I’m not going to confront her while the boy is there. He’s changed since I saw him last; there’s a brokenness, a fragility about him now. He’s been through so much. And that’s down to my father.

So I stretch out on the ground outside her tent and try to pretend that I’m not unraveling from the inside out .

She’s alive. And close. It should be enough. It’s not.

I don’t sleep.

I don’t blink.

I just stare.

We’re in the middle of the camp. It’s a familiar environment for me.

From the age of twelve, I spent much of my life in camps like this one.

The familiarity should be soothing, but instead, it jars.

It reminds me of who I was. Not evil, but maybe lazy, egotistical, and unbelievably naive.

I’d done my father’s dirty work, often fighting against people just like these, believing his lies.

I don’t blame them for locking me up when I arrived. I’d have done the same. Or worse.

So I shut out the sounds of the camp and listen. If I listen hard enough, I can hear her breathing. I can feel the beat of her heart through the mating bond. It pulses like stars in my blood, wrapping around my own heart.

I fight the despair that hovers on the edge of my consciousness. I never wanted love. I’ve always known, deep down, that love means pain.

And it breaks my heart that Amber is learning the same.

I remember being pleased when I found out about the mating bond—and that’s the understatement of the century.

I was fucking ecstatic. I’d been fighting the attraction so hard because the truth is, like Josh, I was also broken at my father’s hands.

I felt it wasn’t fair to expect her to care for something so damaged.

Then she told me about the bond, and suddenly everything made sense.

I thought maybe that meant it was safe to love—that we’d been brought together by the gods and nothing could come between us. How wrong can you be?

Fucking crappy gods. We’re just playthings.

Amber is trying to pretend the bond doesn’t exist, that if she ignores it, then it will somehow go away. But I know we can’t break it—except with both our deaths. And maybe not even with that. It will likely follow us into the afterlife, if there is such a thing.

Only the gods can sever this bond.

The worst part is...I do understand why she’s fighting so hard.

Love’s a weapon in the wrong hands.

The tent flutters slightly in the breeze. I catch a hint of her scent—stars and silver and storm.

She’s going to break what’s left of me, grind the shattered pieces into dust.

I catch a movement from behind and turn slowly, my hand sliding to the sword on the ground beside me.

But it’s only Grimlet. He shuffles toward me. He looks almost as broken as I feel, his wings drooping so they drag in the soil. He stops close to my shoulder. I don’t get up.

“Don’t let her go alone,” he says. “She needs us.”

Yeah. Because whatever she might think—she can’t do everything alone. “I won’t,” I answer.

I sit up and cross my legs, and Grimlet crawls into my lap.

“She’s like her mother,” he says. “And her father.”

“That’s pretty scary, considering who he was. ”

“He wasn’t always the dark lord. The Lady Ravenna would tell me stories of Lucifer before the fall. She fell in love with a good man.”

It’s hard to believe that the Lucifer I met was ever good. He’d been so steeped in evil and darkness that he would never be clean. And he knew it. In those last moments of his existence, when he realized what he’d become and what he could never get back.

We both fall silent and wait. She’ll have to come out eventually. And then we’ll finish our discussion.

Sleep is an impossibility, and I don’t even try. So I’m wide awake when a figure approaches me from the edge of the camp. I place Grimlet on the ground and get to my feet, hurrying forward.

And then she wraps me in her arms. We’ve never been a demonstrative family, and this might be the first hug she’s ever given me. Maybe her time away from the palace is changing her.

Sheela was the closest thing to a mother I ever had—but even back then, she was distant. I suspect she always hated my father, though she hid it well. But who could blame her? Both her mother and father were dead by my father’s hands.

But she never took it out on me.

Finally, she steps back, puts her hands on my shoulders, and stares into my eyes.

“You look...” She gives a little shake of her head, and a frown forms between her brows. “Okay. Well, at least you look better than when I last saw you. But there’s something different. Something has changed.”

Oh yeah. Lots of things have changed. “Fury is dead,” I say .

Shock flashes across her face. Unsurprising, as usually the death of your beast

results in the death of the man. “What? How?”

“Lucifer.”

“I’m sorry.” Her frown deepens as she studies me. “But there’s something else...something new.” Her eyes widen. “It’s the dragon—Amber told me about it.”

“Yes. I’ll show you sometime. But maybe not right now.” I study her back. “You’ve changed as well.”

I realize now that she always tried to blend into the background so she wouldn’t be noticed.

Not a bad plan if you spend your life in my father’s palace.

Now she’s dressed in pants, long boots, and a dark cloak over her shoulders, her long black hair in a plait over her shoulder.

She holds her head high. The strain is gone from her face, and she seems at peace with herself. “You look well,” I say.

“It’s amazing what a change in scenery can do.”

“And a change in company.”

“That too.”

There’s a noise behind us, and we both turn. The tent is being unlaced from the inside, and then Amber appears. I think it’s clear she’s had no more success sleeping than I have.

Her hair is tangled, and her eyes are shadowed. But when she sees Sheela, a smile curves her lips, and she steps forward to give my cousin a hug of her own.

I didn’t realize they were this close, but I’m glad.

“So, you joined us after all?” Sheela says .

Amber flicks a glance in my direction. “For a little while. Can we go somewhere and talk? There’s something I need to tell you.”

“Of course. I’ve been traveling all night. I could do with some food and something to drink.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She hooks her arm in Sheela’s, and they head off together toward the dining tent without giving me a second glance, leaving me and Grimlet to trail along behind them like unwanted afterthoughts.

Sheela obviously knows her way around the camp and manages to rummage up some bread and cheese, a jug of water, and another of wine.

I take a seat opposite Amber. I’m not hungry, but I pour a glass of wine, sit back in my chair, and sip it while I watch her.

She’s chewing on her bottom lip and frowning, but she cheers up a little when the food arrives.

She has the most amazing capacity to eat.

It truly impresses me. I guess all that magic takes energy.

She briefly catches my eye and then looks away. Shifty.

They eat in silence for a few minutes. Grimlet reaches out a claw and snatches a piece of cheese. Finally, Sheela pours herself and Amber a glass of wine and sits back.

“So,” she says, “what’s been happening?”

“Nasty soldiers locked up the prince,” Grimlet says between mouthfuls of cheese. “But Amber came and let him out.”

She looks at Amber. “I thought you weren’t ready to leave yet.”

“I wasn’t, but I had to get Josh and Zayne out of there. Khronus has been playing nice”—I snort at that, and she casts me a glance before continuing—“but I don’t trust him to stay that way. And there was always the chance he would use them to get to me.” She shrugs. “So we left.”

“I bet he’s pleased about that,” Sheela says.

“I doubt it. But I’ll find out when I go back.”

“You’re going back?” Sheela asks. “Is that wise?”

“Probably not, but I have to.” She looks at me again, and there’s a hint of apology in her face.

“I know it’s a risk, but there are things going on at the palace.

Khronus wants to be a true god, with all the powers of the First Gods, and the scary thing is—I think he might have a way to do it.

And if that happens, none of us will ever be safe. ”

“What’s he up to?” I ask.

“I don’t know exactly, but it has something to do with the Eternal Mirror. He believes that’s the key to getting his godly upgrade.”

“Is the Mirror even real?” Sheela asks. “And will he succeed?”

I suspect it is real. But no one knows where it is or what it looks like. It’s a myth from the old records—the source of creation. I can understand why my father would be interested.

“I don’t know,” Amber replies. “But—and this might be even scarier than him succeeding—part of the reason Khronus is so dangerous is that he doesn’t know—or care—what he’s meddling in.

Look at what he did with my father? He tried to make a pawn and ended up with an almost invincible enemy.

Who knows what harm he’ll do this time if he tries and fails. ”

“So we’re fucked either way,” I say.

“Probably. So we have to stop him. But there’s something else,” Amber says.

“Something I found down in the dungeons. There’s this place I noticed before that always felt off to me.

So, I went down and had a look. It’s warded with dark magic, but I found a way in and.

..” She hesitates. “It’s where Khronus has been keeping the mirror mages who disappeared.

Some of them are still there, imprisoned.

” She reaches across the table and takes Sheela’s hand.

“Your mother is there, Sheela. She’s alive. ”

The color drains from Sheela’s face and her glass drops from her hand, red wine spilling over the table. She shakes her head. “No. I don’t believe it.”

“I saw her. I talked to her.”

“All this time, she was there in the dungeons beneath my feet? And I never knew? I never even suspected. But why?”

“He’s siphoning off their magic. They’re all attached to this really creepy mirror, and their magic is being drained. It’s horrible.”

“You couldn’t get her out?”

“She wouldn’t come. She said Khronus had told her she would die if she was disconnected from the mirror. So I had to leave her and the others. I will find a way, I promise, but I had to get Josh to safety first.” She looks at me then. “So you see why I have to go back. I can’t leave them there.”

Horror fills my mind. I never knew Sheela’s mother. She disappeared long before I was born. And all that time, she's been in the dungeons, suffering unthinkable evil at the hands of my father. Wait a minute…

“Has it occurred to you that you are a mirror mage, and if you go back, you could find yourself in that dungeon, hooked up to that fucking mirror?” I ask .

Anger flares in her eyes. “Of course it’s occurred to me. But so far he hasn’t, and I can’t leave them. I can’t. If I can help them, I have to. Shit, I thought this was over. I’ve done my part, and I tell myself that, but still, I cannot leave them there if there is anything I can do.”

She swallows and takes a gulp of wine while she lets Sheela absorb the news. Then she frowns and turns to me. “When you were in the army, did you go after witches?”

A flicker of shame washes over me. “Only those who ran rather than register with the Council. I was following orders.” Even as the words slip out, I know how wrong they are.

But I was young, and he was my father. I run a hand through my hair.

I won’t try to defend myself because my actions are beyond defending.

“And you didn’t think to ask what was done to them?” She shakes her head. “I once read somewhere that all it takes for bad men to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”

The words bite deep, but I have no defense.

“Don’t be too hard on him,” Sheela says.

“For a long time, I was the same. I just kept my head down and got through my life. And you saw what that dungeon did to him in a month. When he was eleven, he was there for six months. Fury was hardly sane. He would have done anything to keep Fury out of there.”

“Don’t defend me,” I growl. “I know now that what I did was wrong. All I can do is try to do better in the future.”

“You’re a good man,” Sheela says, her tone fierce.

I don’t look at Amber. I don’t want to see the condemnation in her eyes .

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I know you’re a good man as well. I just feel so angry and helpless and...sorry for myself. Because I have to go back, and I don’t want to.”

I look at her then, and our gazes lock. For the first time, she lets her defenses down, and I can see into her soul. I know I won’t fight her anymore.

All the same, if she thinks she’s going back alone, then she’s fucking deluded.