Page 7 of The Eternal Mirror
I take a deep breath and look around me. The empty mirror frame. Thanouq frowning. The body of the girl lying in a pool of blood, the coppery tang heavy in the air. I never entirely trusted Winter; I have a suspicious nature, and in the end, she betrayed us. But I can’t blame her. This is one more thing to lay at my father’s feet.
I throw back my head and roar. Then pull back my fist and punch the wall. The sudden pain brings me back to myself. It stops the screaming.
“Are you done?” Thanouq asks.
I grit my teeth and then give a curt nod.
Claws scrabble up my body. I glance down as Grimlet crawls up and onto my shoulder. I almost shake him off, but then I remember Amber’s words: to be his friend.
Not much bigger than my fist, his skin has the appearance of dark, weathered stone, and his eyes glow amber. His bat-like wings are slightly too large for his body, and they droop despondently. His face is sharp and angular, with a scowl, and small fangs peek from his mouth. Curled horns sit atop his head, between long, pointed ears. His whip-like tail curls around my neck.
The gargoyle had been Amber’s mother’s friend, her only companion for more than five thousand years of torture in Hell. He lost her—hard to believe it was only hours ago—and now he’s lost Amber as well. I can’t bring myself to push him aside. He settles on my shoulder; claws tangled in my hair.
Amber is gone. But she’s alive; I would feel it if she was dead.
I have to decide what to do next. How to bring her back to me.
She told me to be her hero, not a sacrifice. And she’s right. Likely, my father would have killed me without a second thought if I had gone with her. This way, there’s a chance.
But I hate it. I fucking hate it.
I need to find a way to get her back, and to kill Khronus. I need to find his weakness. Does he have any? He’s ruled for over five thousand years. You don’t hold power for that long if you’re weak.
Maybe arrogance. He believes he can’t be beaten.
Amber also told me to get help. To go to Earth. A place called Glenhaven Cross.
I need to move, to do something, anything...
I take a step and sway. I realize that it’s not only shock. I’m exhausted, and I haven’t eaten since before we went to Hell. My wounds were healed when I shifted, but that didn’t fill my belly. I need to be strong. If I am going to defeat my father, I cannot afford any weaknesses of my own.
Thanouq is still standing in front of me. “Tell me what happened,” he says. “Where have you been? The dragon…how?”
My gaze flickers to him. Of course, he doesn’t know what happened in Hell. We hardly had time to speak at all before everything went to crap.
“Not here,” I say. “Food. And I’ll tell you.”
He nods. He raises a hand, and a soldier appears. “Take her away.” The man crosses to where Winter lies on the flagstone floor of the corridor, then scoops her up in his arms and carries her limp body in the direction of the healers, though she is past any help they can give her.
Thanouq turns and walks away, and I follow him to the kitchen where we shared so many meals. There’s a weird sense of normalcy about this, when nothing at all is normal.
She’s gone.
I know where the food is and help myself to bread and cheese, cold meat. I fill a plate and take it to the table. Thanouq sits opposite me and pours both of us wine from a jug, pushing a glass across to me. He lets me eat for thirty seconds, then asks, “Where have you been?”
“We’ve been to Hell.”
His features tighten, and he slams his glass to the table, so the wine spills over, dark red against the scrubbed wood. “You should have told us what you planned. It was wrong of you both to risk her life. She’s the only thing that stands between us and Lucifer’s armies.”
What the fuck does he know? “Lucifer is gone. Destroyed. And Hell is no more.”
He goes still. “How?”
I shrug. Does it matter? It’s finished. Past. All that matters now is getting Amber back and destroying my father. But he’s not going to leave this alone until he gets an answer. “Amber fulfilled her destiny. Her father is dead.”
The tension goes out of him, and his shoulders slump. Thanouq is the heir to the throne of Valandria, but he swore he would not take the crown until his world was at peace. I don’t think he actually believed that would ever happen. He’s known nothing but war all his life. “It’s over?” he says.
Of course, it’s not fucking over. But Lucifer is out of the picture. I’m sure my father will fill the space left by his absence. He’s steered clear of Valandria for thousands of years because he was too scared to face Lucifer—the devil he created. Now, I’m sure he’ll be backhere, expecting the population’s adulation for his godlike status. Asshole. I somehow can’t see Thanouq bowing down to my father. “Hardly over,” I reply. “But you no longer have to worry about Lucifer.”
