Page 28 of The Eternal Mirror
But it wasn’t Khaosti I saw each time I closed my eyes. It was Khendril. Hecate. Lucifer. My mother. All the people I’ve lost. Though some of them, I never had in the first place.
Will it never end?
Anyway, I’m tired, and I’m grouchy.
Zayne glances at me warily. “So, what happens now?” he asks.
“How the fuck should I know?” I snap.
“You said a bad word,” Josh whispers.
I turn to him and ruffle his hair. “Sorry. I’m hungry.”
“You’re alwayshungry,” Josh says.
It’s true. I get up and wander to the window, pulling back the heavy curtains. I blink at the sun. I’ve never seen this place in daylight—I was beginning to think that maybe it existed in eternal nighttime. But not so. The sky is a clear cerulean blue, the sun almost white, and the towers of the palace glow in the sunlight. It’s beautiful. Hard to believe it hides such darkness.
I need to understand what Khronus wants from me.
I do know that for a long time, the mirror mages of Astrali have been forced to register with the Council, and that when they did, they were taken into custody and never seen again, like Sheela’s mother. And now there are no more left. So, maybe he’s looking for a mirror mage because he’s…what?
And what did he do with the witches who disappeared?
Will I also disappear?
I drop my eyes from the gleaming towers to the ground. We’re high up, and the people look small from here, scurrying about, doing their business.
At that moment, the door opens, and the same servant enters, wheeling a trolley. He places it in front of the table and takes away the tray from last night, now piled with our dirty dishes. At the door, he gives me what I presume is a meaningful look. Or I could be wrong, and he just has indigestion or something. But just in case I’m not wrong, I give a quick nod. Hopefully, that will get back to Sheela, and she’ll arrange this meeting, and I might find out a little more about what is going on here.
When the door closes behind him, I fall on the food. Standing beside the trolley and feeding my face, I glance up to find Zayne and Josh staring at me. “What?”
“Just that your capacity for food intake is truly amazing,” Zayne says. “The world might be ending but you still eat.” He gets to his feet and crosses the room to sit on the sofa next to the trolley. He puts a small amount of food on a plate and nibbles on it delicately.
Josh giggles. I am so glad to hear that sound that I don’t punch Zayne on the nose.
“Have you tried the mirror thing again?” Zayne asks.
“No, because the food is great, so I thought we could just stay here forever.” He sends me a narrow-eyed glare, and I shrug. “Of course I tried again. As soon as I woke up. Not happening. I’m guessing there are some sort of magical wards that are stopping me.”
“Crap. I would really like to get the fuck out of here.” A shiver runs through him. He’s probably reliving the beastmaster thing and the fact that he nearly ripped Josh into little pieces as a prelude to eating him. Yeah, we need to get out of here.
I eat some more. The grouchiness fades, though I’m still tired, and I head back to my bed, curling up and watching Zayne and Josh eat. I realize that the rage has faded as well or been pushed to the back of my mind. So far, we’re all alive and, at the moment, all in one piece.
And while this isn’t a beach in Hawaii, it’s also not a stinking dungeon under the palace. Things could be worse. I need to learn to count my goddamn blessings.
Instead, I close my eyes and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I jump as a hand shakes my shoulder.
“There’s someone here,” Zayne says, and I can hear the fear in his voice.
I roll onto my back and then push myself up. There’s a soldier standing in the doorway. One of Khronus’s bodyguards, I guess. Dressed in black armor and bristling with weapons.
“What?” I growl.
“The king requires your presence,” he says.
“Just me?”
