Page 19 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince (Omega Fairy Tales #4)

Chapter

Ten

Azurus

“ M isha!” I called after my love, trying to catch up to him. He’d run ahead, and within seconds, he was so far out of my reach. Mother had to be involved, but I couldn’t imagine why she would choose that moment, of all moments, to separate us.

Unless it was some sort of lesson for me.

I shouldn’t have kept the truth about my magic from my mate.

I shouldn’t have lied to him and told him not to worry.

I didn’t want him to ever have to worry about anything else again for the rest of his life, but that didn’t mean keeping him in ignorance of a serious problem was the right thing to do.

As hard as I ran after him, the distance between us only seemed to grow.

It sent panic through me. I needed to keep my mate safe.

That was the core of what it meant to be an alpha, especially a dragon alpha.

Whether I had magical abilities anymore or not, my first and only concern was to wrap Misha in my arms and stop the world from causing him any more harm than it already had.

And then Misha turned to look back at me. I could feel him. I could suddenly feel the fear and the doubt, but also the love and courage under that. It was as if our bond suddenly snapped into place and we were one.

But only for a moment.

As soon as I felt that sense of connection, a massive lightning bolt shot from the sky and struck the ground between us. In an instant, a shimmering wall of black glass rose up between us, completely cutting us off from each other.

“Misha!”

My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst as I sprinted the rest of the way to The Black Mirror. I was certain that was what now stood between me and my beloved. I’d heard plenty of legends about The Black Mirror, but none of them had conveyed how much of a force it actually was.

The mirror filled the entire, cavernous space between me and Misha.

It was more than just a reflection, although I could see myself and everything behind me superimposed over Misha’s shadowy shape and the other side of the cavern beyond him.

The mirror itself wasn’t a thin sheet of glass either.

It was thick. It had to be at least a foot thick and murky all the way through.

“No!”

I slammed my hands up against the dark glass, but there was no possible chance I could break it. It was freezing cold as well, colder even than ice, which I didn’t think was possible. I yanked my hands back, afraid they would burn if I left them there too long.

I took a step back and dug deep within myself, summoning every bit of remaining magic I might have, then raised my hands and pushed them at the mirror.

Surely, in a moment of desperation like this, Mother would somehow give me my powers back.

She was everything good and loving. She would enable me to save my omega.

But nothing happened. I tried again, grunting as I threw my hands forward, trying to break the glass, but it remained as cold and solid and forbidding as ever.

“No, no! Misha!”

On the other side of the glass, Misha looked small and terrified.

He hugged himself close, twisting and turning as he gazed around the cave where he was now trapped.

Even though the glass itself had a sickly yellowish tinge to the black, Misha appeared blue, like the space on the other side of the mirror was frigid and he was slowly freezing to death.

“Misha! I will help you!” I cried out, shrugging the pack off my back and searching inside for one of the weapons I’d brought with me or anything that might stand a chance of breaking through the thick mirror.

“Azurus?” Misha’s voice echoed, almost too quiet to hear. “Are you there? I can’t see you anymore? Azurus?”

My heart broke at the fear and pleading in my beloved’s voice.

“I’m right here, love,” I called out, taking the largest dagger I’d brought with me from my sack and charging at the glass. “I will save you, Misha. I will!”

I stabbed at the mirror as hard as I could.

My dagger shattered into dust that fell to the ground at my feet.

“No!” I called out, dropping the last handful of dust, then pounding against the glass again. “Misha, I will save you!”

Once again, the pain of touching the glass threw me back.

I stumbled a few steps, panting heavily and gazing at Misha on the other side of the barrier with wide eyes.

My omega was alone and afraid. He hunched in on himself, clearly in pain.

I could do nothing to reach him or break him free of his prison. It was a nightmare.

And then, worse still, a shadowy figure emerged from the darkness behind Misha. I knew at once who or what it was. It was the same cloaked figure of King Freslik that had accosted us on the path, and he wore a triumphant sneer, as if his moment of victory had come at last.

Misha

“Azurus, can you hear me?” I cried out, rushing toward the thick wall of glass that had risen between me and my alpha.

I wished I’d thought to ask more about The Black Mirror, what it was and what it did. It was more than just a mirror. I could see my reflection and the darkness behind me, yes, but the image of Azurus was also clear on the other side.

Only something wasn’t right about it. Yes, I could see Azurus, but I couldn’t feel him.

Not like I’d been feeling him for the last two days, as we’d tackled our quest. The image of Azurus on the other side of the glass was strange and foreign to me, whereas Azurus had become like the beat of my heart in the last few days.

He stood on the other side of the glass, staring at it with a sharp frown. It was like he was staring at me. He paced back and forth in front of the glass, shouting at it with words I couldn’t hear.

Just because I couldn’t hear them didn’t mean I couldn’t see the emotion behind those words.

Azurus was shouting at me. He was railing at me from the other side of the mirror, telling me this was all my fault, that I shouldn’t have run away from him.

He was telling me that I should have put my complete trust in him from the beginning and allowed him to take care of everything for me.

“I’m sorry!” I called out to the mirror, reaching for my beloved as if I could break through the glass to throw my arms around him. “I’m so sorry that I’m not the omega you wanted, that you deserve.”

Azurus stopped and crossed his arms, glowering at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said again, taking a step back from the mirror, my heart breaking. After everything we’d been through, it was as if my alpha didn’t want me at all.

If he rejected me and sought a different mate, would he get his magic back? Had I become nothing but an inconvenience to him now?

That thought was crushing, and I sank to sit on the cave floor, tears spilling down my face.

I hugged my knees and buried my face against my arms. Was this what it all came down to?

Was this how it ended? With me trapped in a prison that felt like I’d conjured myself while my fated mate shook his head at me in disappointment?

“Misha!”

I snapped my head up as Azurus’s plaintive cry sounded through the glass. The feeling that something was wrong returned. Azurus’s cry hadn’t come from the image of him, it echoed from somewhere else.

“Azurus?” I called out, scrambling to my feet again and studying my apparent beloved as he frowned and shook his head at me.

I sucked in a breath as the truth dawned on me.

The Azurus that I saw looking at me with so much disappointment wasn’t really my beloved.

He was a reflection. The thing in front of me was The Black Mirror , after all, not The Black Glass .

It was reflecting something back at me, something that probably came from my own mind or my own heart.

“You’re not real,” I told the false Azurus. “My mate would never look at me like that. He isn’t disappointed in me, he cares for me. He loves me like no one ever has before.”

Except Papa , a voice deep within me reminded me.

“Azurus!” I called out again, ignoring the figure that stood opposite me, glowering. “Are you there? I can’t see you anymore? Azurus?”

For a fraction of a second, the image I saw in the glass flickered. I caught sight of Azurus on the other side of the mirror, farther away, going through his pack. He looked terrified but determined.

Azurus was there, on the other side of the mirror, and he was fighting to save me.

But there was more on the other side of the mirror than just my beloved. I could see shadows creeping out of the high, stone walls that had grown up to enclose him. He wasn’t alone. Something was trying to get him.

I gasped and raced toward the mirror when the full truth hit me. Something evil was coming out of the shadows to hurt my beloved mate, and without his magic, he wouldn’t be able to stop it or save himself.

“Azurus!” I called out to him. “Watch out! There’s something in the shadows behind you!”

I lunged to bang on the glass, but to my shock, it was blisteringly hot. I cried out in pain as soon as my hands made contact with it, then stumbled backwards, panting and shaking my hands to dispel the burn.

The false image of Azurus had vanished, but that only meant that I could see the true Azurus as he tried to stab the glass with a dagger. The dagger dissolved into dust. Azurus’s expression was frantic as he raised his hands to pound on the glass, like I’d just done on my side.

Except that the moment my beloved touched the glass, it was as if he was blown backwards by a bruising force. He flew off his feet and landed hard on the dirt near his back, unmoving. The black forces of evil that hovered around him seemed to move closer, like they would smother him.

“Azurus, no!” I called out, raising my hands to pound on the glass again.