Page 12 of The Eternal Mirror
“My mother told me—” Gods, was it only yesterday? “—that you cared for her once.” Well, what she actually said was Khronus had wanted her for himself. That was partly why he chose Lucifer for his little magical experiment.
What a tangled mess. A wave of hatred washes through me because it’s a tangled mess almost entirely of this man’s making. Bastard.
“She was supposed to be mine,” he growls. “She would have been my queen.”
“No, she wouldn’t have. She told me she didn’t like you.”
He grits his teeth but doesn’t respond. I can almost see the thoughts whirling in his head. Then he frowns. “She told you? When?”
“Yesterday, actually.”
He stumbles back and falls into one of the velvet chairs. “Ravenna is alive?”
A flicker of remembered pain stabs me in the chest; I knew her for such a short time. “Er, no. That’s something else. She died.” She’d been holding on to life just to see me again. “Then I destroyedmy father and all of Hell.” I get to my feet and step toward him. It’s a measure of how much he clearly underestimates me that he allows me so close. He doesn’t see me as any sort of threat. But then I reach out to poke him in the chest, and my finger hits an invisible barrier. That’s why he’s not afraid to let me close. He’s shielded by some sort of magical wards. “So you know what that means, buster. It means you owe me. Big time.”
“Tell me more. Explain this. How couldyoudestroy Hell?”
“I’ll tell you what. Take me to my brothers, show me that they are alive and unharmed, and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” As long as it’s something I want to tell him.
He regards me for a few more seconds, then nods. “Come then, daughter of Lucifer. Let’s see if your words are worth their lives.”
Chapter 5
When He Tries to Teach Me a Lesson
“Ithink you’re lying,” Khronus says as we head toward the door. “But why tell me something so preposterous?” He gives me a sideways glance, his expression skeptical. “I presume you have no evidence that what you say is true.”
As we approach the door, he gives a flick of his hand, and it opens. Magic, but with a tinge of darkness. The only other person I’ve known who could use dark magic was my father. Not good company to be in.
“Well?” he says.
We leave the room, and guards fall in behind us as I think about how to answer him. The truth is, I don’t suppose I do have any proof.
I feel better from the food; I’m no longer all wobbly and pathetic, but my magic is still sluggish. I wish I knew more about how it worked, but I don’t think anyone has ever had magic like mine, so there’s no one to tell me. I have to learn as I go.
I shrug. “I’m not lying,” I say. “And no, I don’t have any evidence to prove what I say.” But he has to know something. He must have a reason for going to all this effort to get me here. “What do you know?” I ask. “I mean, I don’t get it. Why go to all this trouble to get me here?”
“I was curious as to why so many thought you were important. What does my son see in you? There must be more than is obvious from appearances.” Rude, or what? “Then my informants came to me with rumors of a girl who could shift into an alicorn. And you did defy my magic,” he muses. “No one has done that before.”
He stops and turns to look at me. “Are you truly a shifter? No other woman can shift, not since the goddess Selene. Maybe the rumors are wrong, and that’s why my power did not work on you. That would make sense.”
I stop as well. “It might to you, but it’s crap. I’m a shifter. And no, I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and I have magic. Or maybe it’s a side effect of the nasty little spell you did on my father.”
“You know about that?”
“Yeah, I know. That was something else my mother told me.” From his expression, that is not good news. But then, for over five thousand years, he’s kept the origins of Lucifer from his people. Maybe I shouldn’t have revealed that I know. Maybe he’ll decideit’s safer to shut me up permanently. Too late now. “Don’t worry,” I add. “I’m not about to go blabbing about it. I doubt anyone would believe me anyway. As you said—I have no proof.” I raise an eyebrow. “Now Khaosti, they might believe.”
His nostrils flare. “He knows this?”
“Of course. He was in Hell with me.”
Finally, he shrugs. “No matter. He will not survive long.”
That doesn’t sound good. But Khaos can look after himself. And Khronus is walking again. I do a little jog to catch up. I’m going to see Zayne and Josh, and so far we haven’t headed underground, so hopefully, they’re not locked up in the extremely smelly dungeons.
He’s silent for the rest of the way to wherever we’re going. I use the time to take note of the route just in case I need to find my way around this place at a later date. But so far, it’s just more of the same: white marble corridors and the occasional doorway.
Finally, we stop. Guards stand to attention as we approach, then open a set of double doors. They lead to what must be a sort of internal courtyard, open to the starry sky.
