Page 126 of The Eternal Mirror
Surprise flashes across his face.
“I want the illusion of freedom. Just for a while.”
He nods. “We can do that.”
He holds out his hand. I stare at it for a moment, and he frowns. “Taking my hand isn’t going to commit you to anything,” he says. “We’ve done more.”
At his words, an image of our bodies entwined fills my mind. I shut it down but slide my palm into his, and he pulls me up. The contact feels good, right. I’ve missed the feel of him—hard and warm. Together we walk out of the house and into the courtyard. We stop; he raises my hand to his mouth and kisses my palm. Heat flows through me, and for a moment, I sway toward him. Then I stiffen my spine.
“Let’s fly.”
I tug free and step back, feeling the shiver of magic run through me. I shift, and immediately my worries lessen. Maybe that’s the answer. I should just stay as an alicorn. It’s a little conspicuous, though, and I’m not sure the diet would suit me.
I spread my wings. Khaosti is still in human form, and I toss my head and stamp my hoof. Then I launch myself into the sky, flying toward the stars.
I feel him. The air around me is filled with the power of his great wings. He surges past me—vast and beautiful, a creature of dreams. He loops back, flying around me in circles. Then he’s under me and over me.
He’s playing.
I’ve never seen this side of Khaosti. A glimpse of what he might have been like if I hadn’t stolen his brother from him. I keep going up and up. Could I fly to the stars? I imagine just keeping going. Would the lack of oxygen kill me? Or are the stars where I ultimately belong?
Khaosti has slowed his speed now, so he’s flying alongside me. He casts me sideways glances out of the corner of his golden eyes.
And then I see it up ahead.
The silver rings, forever spiraling. No longer tethered to the void.
Maybe we could keep going, fly through the Eternal Mirror. What would we find on the other side?
A flash of silver emerges from the Mirror, sending a shockwave lashing across space. A bolt of magic slams into me sending me tumbling backward through the sky. A shiver of magic, and I’m back in human form, falling, plummeting towards the faraway ground.
I’m filled with light.
No fear.
I spread my arms and feel the cool air, the night, and the stars.
Then I’m caught in a tight grip.
Dragon claws. My fall stops abruptly, and I’m flying once again—if not under my own steam.
He carried me like this once before when we escaped from the destruction of Hell. I’d been so full of hope for the future that I hadn’t noticed how much it fucking hurts. Wrath needs a pedicure.
He drops me the last couple of feet to the ground, back in the courtyard in front of my father’s house. I stumble and fall to my knees. That wasn’t called for.
As I get to my feet and brush myself off, Wrath lands, and seconds later, Khaosti is back. He doesn’t look happy. I peer at him warily. What’s got him all riled up?
He stalks toward me, his jaw tense, his fists clenched at his sides. “What the fuck was that about?” he growls.
“What?” I genuinely have no clue what he’s talking about.
“You were falling, as if you didn’t give a fuck if you lived or died—and you just let it happen. Do you have any idea what that did to me?”
I shrug. “I would have shifted. I was just...” I trail off. What was I doing? Enjoying the free fall? Like jumping from a plane without a parachute and loving it?
“Sometimes I think you’ve got a fucking death wish.” He runs his hands through his hair. “Is that it? You want to die?”
“Of course I don’t want to die.” Not yet anyway. I’ve got things to do first, like take out Khronus or destroy the mirror. I realize then that while I don’t want to die, I’ve accepted the inevitability of it. And it doesn’t frighten me. Failure frightens me.
