Page 6 of The Eternal Mirror (Lucifer’s Mirror #3)

I eat fast because I have important things to do, but I eat a lot. And I can feel the strength flowing into me. That’s why I was feeling so pathetic—low blood sugar. Nothing to do with my life being a steaming pile of crap. Finally, I pop one last grape into my mouth, chew, swallow, and sit back.

At some point, while I was eating, Khronus took the seat a couple down from me.

He’s still watching me, a frown on his face.

And I study him back for a moment—there’s something so wrong about him, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.

He’s handsome but he makes my skin crawl, the feeling strange and familiar at the same time. I push my unease down deep inside.

“There’s a grape left if you want one,” I offer, waving a hand at the decimated table.

He ignores my offer. “So tell me, little girl, why are you so important? Why did Khendril ask my son to look out for you?” I feel I should point out that Khendril was also his son, but I’m guessing he doesn’t acknowledge half-breeds, and Khendril was a guardian.

“And why would Khaosti betray me over you? He chose you.” He bites out the words—obviously that rankled.

“I need to understand why.” I can sense his anger rising, and I consider telling him to chill out but decide against it. Anyway, he’s already talking again.

“Why can I not call your beast? I can feel it under your skin. No one has ever defied my magic. How can you—one so small and insignificant—withstand my call?”

I feel I should be insulted, but I’ve been called worse.

He stands abruptly and paces the space in front of me a couple of times.

“Tell me,” he says softly, “or I will make you watch as I force your brother to kill your other brother. The young one, so small and tender, a mere morsel for a basilisk. I wonder...how long do you think it would take a basilisk to finish a boy that size?”

Well, I always knew he was a bastard. So I try not to respond.

But inside me, the celestial fire flickers to life.

At last, a sign that it hasn’t deserted me completely.

Relief floods me. Because I’d like to burn the whole fucking palace down.

Except I’m sure Zayne and Josh are here somewhere, so maybe it’s not a sensible move, even if I could.

But two of us can make threats. “You do that, and I will burn this fucking palace down around your ears. Because right now, the fact that they are here somewhere is all that is stopping me.”

“Mere bravado,” he murmurs. “And not wise under the circumstances.”

I’d so like to prove him wrong. Instead, I close my eyes for a moment and search for my inner peace. Nope, not there. Then I sigh; threatening each other is getting us nowhere. But I need to see my brothers. I sigh again. “You want to know what I am? Well, here goes. I’m Lucifer’s daughter.”

Yeah, that got a reaction. I can see it in the way he goes instantly still.

“That’s not possible. He has been confined to Hell for five thousand years. He can’t be your father.” He stares at my face, his nostrils flaring. “And yet, you have his eyes. You found a way out of Hell?”

“Sort of. I was born in Hell, five thousand years ago. When I was only days old, my mother sent me forward in time through a mirror, entrusting me to the care of her sister, Hecate. She clearly decided Lucifer wasn’t prime father material.

” Another thing Khronus and Lucifer had in common: both were crappy fathers.

He’s staring at me now, but I can’t define what’s in his eyes. “Your mother was Ravenna? ”

“Yes, I gather you knew her at one point.” Yeah, stole her husband, turned him into a monster, and locked her in a tower.

“You are Ravenna’s daughter?”

Duh, if she’s my mother, then obviously, I’m her freaking daughter. But I don’t think he’s waiting for an answer. He sounds as though he doesn’t believe it. He’s clearly in shock. I mean, I suppose it is a little far-fetched, like being haunted by ghosts from the past.

“My mother told me—” Gods, was it only yesterday? “—that you cared for her once.” Well, what she actually said was Khronus had wanted her for himself. That was partly why he chose Lucifer for his little magical experiment.

What a tangled mess. A wave of hatred washes through me because it’s a tangled mess almost entirely of this man’s making. Bastard.

“She was supposed to be mine,” he growls. “She would have been my queen.”

“No, she wouldn’t have. She told me she didn’t like you.”

He grits his teeth but doesn’t respond. I can almost see the thoughts whirling in his head. Then he frowns. “She told you? When?”

“Yesterday, actually.”

He stumbles back and falls into one of the velvet chairs. “Ravenna is alive?”

A flicker of remembered pain stabs me in the chest; I knew her for such a short time.

“Er, no. That’s something else. She died.

” She’d been holding on to life just to see me again.

“Then I destroyed my father and all of Hell.” I get to my feet and step toward him.

It’s a measure of how much he clearly underestimates me that he allows me so close.

He doesn’t see me as any sort of threat.

But then I reach out to poke him in the chest, and my finger hits an invisible barrier.

That’s why he’s not afraid to let me close.

He’s shielded by some sort of magical wards.

“So you know what that means, buster. It means you owe me. Big time.”

“Tell me more. Explain this. How could you destroy Hell?”

“I’ll tell you what. Take me to my brothers, show me that they are alive and unharmed, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” As long as it’s something I want to tell him.

He regards me for a few more seconds, then nods. “Come then, daughter of Lucifer. Let’s see if your words are worth their lives.”