Page 6 of More Than Meets the Eye

She pulled me behind her to the back room. “Okay, have you ever seen anything like that before? Is that a real person trapped inside a mirror, like Jed was in the statue? If so, we have to get him out.”

“Really? Imagine how much more unpleasant he’d be, live and in person.” I didn’t want to think about it.

“Jack! You’d be in a bad mood, too, if you’d been trapped inside a mirror for centuries! What does he even eat?”

Oh, no. My tender-hearted girlfriend was now imagining the poor old man starving to death, trapped inside a mirror. This was headed nowhere good.

“I’m sure it’s just a magical construct, not a real person. How could he be trapped inside a flat mirror?”

She looked doubtful. “Maybe it really is a portal to another dimension?”

“Or maybe you should take a pass on this one.”

“Oh, no! I can’t leave that with Joe Bob. What if he just tosses it into a dumpster or something? No, I’ll buy it on contingency, since I have no idea how to value it, and then I’ll call on some experts I know.”

Experts in nasty old guys trapped in magical mirrors?

Well, those leprechauns took a liking to her that one time.

When we walked back out into the store, Joe Bob was standing several feet away from the mirror, which was still raving at him.

I looked down at Mirror Dude again and gave him a warning frown, but this time, he scoffed.

I may need to work on my warning frowns.

“What’s the matter, kitty cat?Catgot your tongue? Need to cough up a hairball?”

“How does he know you’re a shifter?” Tess asked me, and I shrugged.

“I may have said something,” Joe Bob said timidly. “Sorry. He finagles things out of a person.”

“Okay, I’ll buy this on contingency,” Tess told Joe Bob, who perked up. “That means I don’t know how much it’s really worth, so I’ll give you an amount I’m sure I can afford. After I get an expert valuation or, even better, a sale, I’ll give you a percentage of the total.”

“Ha! Are you going to trust this woman? Did you know, in my day, we thought women with red hair were witches! Why, we used to?—”

Tess leaned over the mirror and spoke calmly but firmly. “Sir, I’d like to ask you to please be civil. I’m going to help you if you’re trapped in there, no matter what. But it would be nicer for all of us if you were … less unpleasant. My name is Tess Callahan, and I’m glad to meet you. This is Jack Shepherd. Will you please tell me your name?”

Mirror Dude’s mouth fell open mid-rant, and he froze in the glass like a computer screen sometimes freezes. I was tempted to tap on the glass and say, “Is this thing on?”

When he started talking again, I was glad I hadn’t, because he was actually … well, not pleasant. But less unpleasant. To be fair, thatwaswhat she’d asked.

“My name is Horatio Mercury, Miss Callahan,” he said with dignity.

Mercury. Really?

“Mercury? Really,” Tess said, delighted. “That’s fascinating, since, as I’m sure you must know?—”

He rolled his little mirror eyes. “Yes, mirrors are made with mercury. At least this one is. I’m trapped inside it. I’m notstupid, and if you think?—”

Horatio peered up at Tess and suddenly seemed to think better of what he was saying. “Sorry. Yes. I know.”

“I’d love it if we could talk about mirrors and history and anything else you want to talk about,” she said, and all three of us, tiger, wanna-be pawnshop robber, and mirror dude, could plainly see her sincerity.

Tess was a really good person. Which was why, with my past, I wasn’t sure I deserved her.

But I wasn’t about to let her go.

“That would be … welcome,” Horatio said. “But I’m tired now. We can talk later.”

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