Page 7 of Her Dark Reflection

My ruined face stared back at me from the rain-streaked glass. Shiny, puffy skin stretched over the left side of my face, mottled pink and white, pulling at the corner of my eye until it was narrowed and strange compared to the other. Scraggly patches of hair dripped along masses of scar tissue on the left of my scalp, little clumps that I hadn’t had the heart to shave off, though, looking at myself now, I should have.

I flinched away from the sight, but he took my chin in his cold fingers and held my gaze in place. ‘What would you do to have the power to seek revenge on those who hurt you, Rhiandra?’

What a stupid question. The men who’d hurt me had fled. I had no idea who they were, and the Lee Helse gendarmerie were not going to waste resources tracking down men who’d abused a maisera.

‘How do you know my real name?’ I asked quietly, looking at him in the mirror, my expression hard.

‘I know a great many things,’ he said softly, his voice a breeze brushing across my ear. ‘I know, for instance, how to return your face to you.’

A shiver ran across my scars, like tiny hands were ghosting over my skin, and as I blinked the rain from my eyes, my reflection shifted. My skin was creamy-white once again, my dark lashes returned, my hair thick and full, the bare patches gone. It was my face from before the attack, but different. I had been pretty enough, and, paired with an ability to charm, it had ensured my success at the suvoir, but I’d never been the sort of beautiful that would turn heads in the street.

But I was now.

My skin glowed, my eyes were luminous, my lips were plump and flushed with colour. My hair was darker, lusher. The sight made my throat dry with longing.

‘What is this? Magic?’ I asked, my voice hushed. If he could wield magic, then I had even more reason to be wary of him. Was he a purveyor of tricks, the kind sold in dark alleyways to desperate souls, the kind that would see us both burning on a pyre before the palace gates? Was he a druthi, trained by the Guild and in the employ of the king? Or, worse still, was he fall spawn, an unnatural creature from the depths of the Yawn? Whatever he was, this was like no magic I’d ever seen before. I knew of enchanted lotions that kept age at bay a little longer, but I’d never heard of anything that could create this kind of beauty.

‘You shouldn’t be wary of magic, not when it can do so much for you. You can have it all. Your face, your power, your revenge. I can give you everything you crave,’ he crooned.

I raised my fingers to my face and tentatively touched my skin. The bitter taste of disappointment slid down my throat as my fingertips told me what the mirror did not; I could still feel the ridges of my scars. Gently, he gripped my wrist and pulled my hand away. ‘It’s a simple glamour,’ he said. ‘But I can weave something strong enough to mask the texture of your skin as well.’

I turned away from the mirror to face him directly. ‘Why would you help me? What would it cost?’

He cocked his head, his strange eyes flashing. ‘All I ask in return is that you deliver something for me,’ he said, his tone casual as he reached into his pocket and pulled out something round and as red as a ruby. He placed it in my hand and I studied its glossy, perfect flesh.

‘An apple?’ I asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘You want me to deliver an apple?’ Desire tingled in my mouth as I held it, curling down into my stomach until I was salivating and almost desperate to bite into it. I didn’t much like apples, didn’t like their unrelenting flesh against my teeth, but the sight of this one had me thinking that an apple was the most divine fruit in all the land.

‘Three, actually.’ He took the apple back and tossed it back and forth. ‘I want you to deliver this one to the king.’

I snorted. This was ridiculous. ‘I think the king can procure his own apples.’

‘But this is not just any apple,’ he continued, rolling the apple to the tip of his finger, where it balanced perfectly, unnaturally invulnerable to the pull of gravity. ‘This one will make him fall hopelessly, desperately in love with you.’ My mouth fell open slightly and he laughed that ominous laugh again. ‘What do you say, Vixen? Would you like to be Brimordia’s new queen?’

An answeringyesresounded through me, gripping me in all the empty spaces where my old dreams used to live.Queen.But it was a deal that made no sense. ‘You would restore my face to meandmake me queen? What’s in it for you?’ I asked, and the laughter slipped from his face.

‘You don’t seem to realise what it is I’m offering you,’ he drawled, his eyes narrowed.

‘I know what you’re offering,’ I said evenly. ‘And I’m not stupid. I know you aren’t some fairy godmother bopping about granting wishes for the love of it. Are all three apples enchanted?’

Anger cracked across his face like a lightning strike, turning him otherworldly and strange. ‘Yes,’ he admitted, his voice low and harsh.

‘And what of the other two apples? What will their enchantments bring?’

‘That is none of your concern. You have my terms. You’ll have to accept them with the knowledge I’ve already given you.’

I chewed on this for a few moments, studying the man before me. Druthi, fall spawn, or whatever he was, a deal bound with magic was not to be entered into lightly. I sensed a world of entanglement attached to this deal that went far beyond a few apples, but the promise to be rid of my scars, to becomequeen,was seducing me with a power I knew I couldn’t resist.

‘I can tell you that the enchantments of the other two apples won’t be intended for you,’ he prodded, edging me closer to the teetering brim of a bargain that would send me plunging down, shattering everything left of my old life.

‘How would I even get the apple to the king?’ I was stalling for time, delaying the inevitable moment that I hoped I wouldn’t one day come to regret.

‘It’s a treaty renewal year. The palace is about to be flooded with dignitaries from the three kingdoms, and the royal family will be showing off Brimordia’s grand hospitality. The king’s chamberlain is sourcing entertainment, and you will be one of the selections.’

‘What if I’m not chosen?’

‘You will be. Do we have a deal?’ He held out his hand, and I chewed my lip. ‘There are other women who wouldn’t make me wait so long.’

I took a deep breath and took his hand. The grin of a snake spread slowly across his mouth like the creep of dusk at sunset. My hand prickled, then lanced with shooting pain that made me gasp, but he held on tight. The smell of gunpowder filled the air, and a bitter taste coated my tongue. Movement in the surface of my mother’s mirror attracted my gaze. The glass swam with shadow as a whirling, smoky darkness seemed to spring from the mouth of Draven’s reflection to encase our hands, though I saw nothing with my naked eye.

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