Page 98 of Unraveled
“I can do this. Please, let me try.” I pull the mirror from under my cloak and place it on the table. Nera stands, and her chair falls to the ground. I know I have only seconds to convince her before Ash or Finley run back in. “I can see the curse in mirrors, and I can capture it with my amulet.”
I take the aforementioned hairpin out of my pocket and set it on the table with a shaking hand. The darkness I met in the hybrid’s home dulled my red stone’s glow.
“Mirrors are the catalyst for the curse to travel, but I found I can trap it by using a magical artifact,” I say. “I accidentally captured a portion of Ash’s curse back in the hybrid house. Butbecause his curse is too large, it weakened the amulet. But yours is different. Yours should be a small copy of his.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw it in Eponde, in a reflection in a window. It’s much smaller.”
“How did you find the mirror?” Nera asks, and hope shines in her eyes. “Ash and Finley have been destroying them ever since we discovered how it spreads.”
“Finley’s niece gave it to me.”
Nera frowns at that, and for the first time since she arrived, that old spark of something flares behind her expression. “She shouldn’t have done that. If Ash hears about what she did...”
“It’s fine.” I swallow deeply and reach for the silver handle of the mirror, feeling my resolution settle in. “Let me help you. Ash won’t have his head in the right place to find a way out of this mess if he’s worried he’ll lose you. Isn’t that why he hasn’t left the castle in years?”
Shame churns in my stomach as I see Nera’s expression fall. I shouldn’t be playing with her guilt to get what I want. But I’m running out of time, and this opportunity is slipping through my fingers.
Nera hunches over and reaches for her untouched glass of water, drinking half in one go before she nods at me. “Alright, do you need me to do anything?”
“Nothing yet.” I stand and shrug off my cloak, draping it over the back of my chair. My stomach is bubbling, an obvious reminder of my locked power, and it reaches up my chest and neck. My body heats, and distantly, I can hear movement from the hall.
Holding the mirror in one hand, and my new amulet in the other, I go over all the things that could go very wrong.
One of them being that I have nearly zero control over my magic, other than being able to speak to my broken amulet. ButI know my power’s at its strongest when my emotions are high, and I can work with that.
Especially since Nera, one of my only friends, doesn’t have long before she fades away.
I take a deep breath and lift the mirror to catch Nera’s reflection. While to my eyes she looks like a sculpture made of white marble, the mirror shows her as that beautiful fae I saw in the hybrid house.
Her brows pinch with worry as she looks at me, clearly thinking this is the worst idea ever. The mirror is small enough that I can only see her, until I shift it slightly and catch the shapes of a creature made of nightmares. It holds onto her auburn tresses, and I watch the shadows elongate, forming a narrow face with sharp teeth and red eyes.
The curse snarls at me with a gaping hole for a mouth. The sound pierces the room, but Nera doesn’t flinch, which must mean she can’t hear it.
I don’t cower. Instead, I tighten my hold on my amulet and let out a slow breath. I’m afraid of the curse, but the monster should be more afraid of me and my magic.
I’m the one determining how much I let out.
I’m the one in control.
The pressure in my stomach loosens as I picture Alana, the head librarian, when she told us to never enter the forbidden area. I let that anger feed my power, and it flows freely through my veins.
The memory of Skylar as he loaded his pistol with lead and pointed it at Ash flashes through my mind. Then Irene, telling me the beast in the chamber looked just like the one who killed Father. I remember my father taking away my magic and memories. I’ve been manipulated throughout my entire adulthood.
This ismychoice, and with my temper fueling it, my power comes out in slow bursts. The glow that was previously contained to my fingers stretches up my arms.
I meet the curse’s gaze with a challenge. “Don’t be shy now. Come out.”
“Mia.” Nera’s voice shakes with fear. “What language is that? Who are you talking to?”
It’s easy to ignore her when the curse tilts its head. Surprised I can speak to it.
“She sees us,” it says, then unravels its clawlike hands from Nera’s hair and shifts away from her.
I glance away from the reflection and toward the space between Nera and me. It’s empty of monsters in the real realm, but when I look back at the silver surface, the curse is crawling toward me, trailing slimy strings of blackness over the rug.
I ready myself for its attack, calling on my amulet like I did that night in Hedrum. I ask it to trap the curse. Keep it away from me. The stone vibrates in my hand, fast like my heartbeats.
