Page 12 of The Other Side of the Mirror

“And then kidnapped me.”

Bash’s mouth fell open in exasperation. “I didn’t kidnap you?—”

“Sure.”

He stared at me, speechless for once. I let out a frustrated breath.

“If I click my heels three times, do I get to go home, Toto?”

The joke felt too breathy to land. Or did it even make sense to them?

Bash looked at me askance but seemed relieved I had resorted to sarcasm rather than outright anger and disbelief. Rivan let out a rumbling laugh.

“Youarehome,” Yael said, grinning. “And we’ve been waiting for you.”

* * *

Taking a deep breath, I eyed the three of them. “I have a few questions…”

Gathering my thoughts, I tapped my fingers nervously on my leg, like I was running scales on a piano. I stopped immediately when I saw Bash tilt his head at the movement, always watchful. Or just watching me.

Bash caught my eyes on him, and one side of his mouth quirked upwards. “Just a few?”

“I’m sure you do,” Yael added with another easy grin. It was immediately hard not to like her.

“Let’s start with how I got here,” I said irritably, still miffed at Bash’s actions, however unintentional the result. And the part where he had abducted me to anotherrealm.

As much as I felt like I should make them take me back home…what was waiting for me there anyway apart from Quinn? Besides, after finding myself in an actual faerie forest surrounded by pointy-eared warriors, I was slightly more willing to give credence to Bash’s insane story. Hope burned in my chest. Maybe I would finally find the answers I had long since given up on.

Bash shifted on his feet. “Through the mirror in your living room. It was already a gate…” There was a sudden knot in my chest that I couldn’t unravel. Bash paused, his eyes searching mine. “It wasn’t safe to linger any longer, and you were already unconscious, so I carried you through to where my friends were waiting for us.”

“Through the…what?” I wheezed.

No, no, no, no, no…that part couldn’t have been real.

My nails dug into the scar on my palm, and I saw Bash take in the movement, his brow furrowing. I realized my hands were trembling when he looked up at me with genuine concern.

“Our kind can travel through the looking glass. Not all mirrors are gates, though theycanbe…with the right magic.”

He said it simply, as though I should’ve already known. And maybe I should have—had always known since the moment I had escaped that fire almost exactly seven years ago.

“The night my family died—” My voice broke as my mother’s screams echoed in my head, as though summoned by the thought of their deaths.

Yael and Rivan leaned in, sharing an infuriatingly pitying look. Bash’s mouth tightened.

I blew out a long breath. “They said it was a gas leak that started the fire…but I swore there were people outside my house. My dad went to stop them, and my mom brought my brother and me to that mirror instead of the back door. She said she’d hold them off and told me and my brother to go. To leave her behind.”

The fire was so hot, so bright, the smoke tearing at my throat, my eyes, my lungs. I shut my eyes and a hazy image of that hooded figure floated to the forefront of my mind. The one the police, and my therapist, had convinced me I hallucinated…an embodiment of the flames that had taken them from me.

And suddenly I knew he was as real as the golem that had grabbed me.

“I was begging her to tell me what was going on, and she pushed me.” Unthinkingly, I rubbed the rose on my palm until I noticed three sets of sharp eyes focus on the unique burn mark. I clenched my hand into a fist. “She said to find Quinn, and that she loved me, and then…”

I was falling. Desperately thinking that I needed to get to Quinn’s. To get help so I could save them…

“She pushed you through the gate,” Rivan said, his voice gentle. “You merely have to imagine where you want to go, and step through.”

“I thought of Quinn’s house. No one could ever figure out how I showed up in her living room. They said I’d blocked out running there.” Realization burned through me, and I looked at Bash. “You said there were magical wards on my apartment though, right? I only moved there a month ago.”

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