Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89023 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
I turn away from the mirrors and look at Lucia. “OK. Let’s go get my mirror. Are you ready?”
She nods. “I’m ready. What do we do? Hold hands or something?”
I have no clue, but I nod my head and take both her hands in mine anyway, if only for moral support. “Close your eyes and… I dunno, concentrate on me, I guess. I’ll do the rest.”
I think.
After she closes her eyes, I close mine too. And then I concentrate, thinking about where I last saw that mirror. It was in Ryet’s cabin. Ryet had just told me the truth about what I was, a vampire baby maker. And I was sick from drinking those vials on the counter. Despair. Loneliness. Regret. Contempt. Estrangement. Fear. Shame. Guilt. I was in bed and Ryet was taking care of me. I showed Ryet the mirror and then we both looked in to it. That’s how we traveled to Paul and Josep.
That was the day everything turned.
Suddenly I’m somewhere else. For a moment, it’s just darkness and I’m sick all over again as the horror begins to manifest right in front of me.
I’m on the bed inside the tower room of Paul’s lodge. Josep and Paul are on either side of me, drinking. Ryet is hovering over me in his demon form and we are…
But that’s not him. It’s the Darkness. And let’s just call it what it is. It’s evil. And the evil is putting a baby inside me.
When this was really happening I was in a library having a witty conversation with Ryet. It was his gift to me, I guess. So I would never have a memory of what happened.
But like everything else in my life, it was nothing but a trick.
I turn my back on the scene and look down at my hand. I’m holding the mirror because Ryet and I used it to fall into the bed with Paul and Josep, and that’s what I came for, so I close my eyes again and wish myself away.
When I open them Lucia is staring back at me, her face the incarnation of horror. She places a hand on my cheek. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about that.”
I pull my hands out of her grip and let out a breath. “Never mind that. I have this.” And I hold up the mirror. “Let’s go.”
I turn towards the closest mirror. I have no idea what I’m doing, but I don’t ask Lucia for help. She doesn’t know either and I’m just tired of everything right now. I’m tired of being used. I’m tired of being food. I’m tired of all of it.
But no one is coming to save me. If I want to find a way out of this, I’m just gonna have to do it myself. I walk right up to the mirror and hold up my Coyrah mirror so that I’m looking into a vast illusion of infinity. A mirror, inside a mirror, inside a mirror ad infinitum.
And then something weird happens. My eyes lock with the eyes of the first mirror image of myself and suddenly I’m somewhere else…
Ryet is on the floor of the cave where Josep lives. His wings are nothing but tattered feathers and his body is covered in bite marks.
Josep is yelling and when I look over to the right, I see him throw Echo’s limp and probably lifeless body against the cave wall. He’s tearing her to pieces.
Then he stops and I hold my breath.
Can he feel me?
Can he see me?
When he turns his head and those black pits for eyes lock on mine, I know he can.
He rushes towards me, mouth open, like I’m the next meal on the menu here.
But I fall backwards, out of the mirror, and land on the misty ground.
Lucia is next to me and we look at each other in horror.
“We’re too late,” I say. My heart filling up with sadness. “I’ve failed him. Ryet’s dead. He has to be dead. No one could survive that.”
But Lucia is shaking her head as she gets to her feet and grabs my arm, pulling me up with her. “You’re wrong. He’s immortal, Syrsee. He’s not dead. And if you don’t find your pieces and get your power he’s going to live in that state for all eternity. Now let’s go!”
She drags me back towards the mirror, and I recoil. “No, I don’t want to go back there.”
“Then you had better find yourself. Because we’re out of time.” And then she pushes me and I fall into the mirror.
I panic and frantically search for… something that will take me to a piece of myself. And, of course, I end up in the bedroom of a little girl sleeping in a crib.
Of course this would be the first piece. Of course. And even though I didn’t have a clue two seconds ago of how I would need to take this piece back, now that I’m here, looking down at the sleeping toddler, I absolutely understand.