It cackled, but this time I ignored it and looked down. “Booker,” I hissed. Silver energy crackled across the top of the mirror like lightning.
He looked into my cupped hands, and a blinding smile lit up his face. He gripped my shoulder. “You can do this, Sky. Elyse told me to remind you that you were born to do this. You and King carry the soulmate birthmarks because this is your destiny. She said, don’t forget.”
Between her words and the echoes of Ego’s song, I felt my confidence returning. I could do this. Fuck my dad. Fuck this mimic. I would do this.
The mirror crackled again, sparks of purple and red shooting through the silver.
“Wow,” Booker murmured.
Looking from the mirror to the oversized replica of my dad, I began the transfer.
“What looks wrong,what sounds wrong
“Creature with no place to belong.”
“What are you doing,boy? You can’t harm me,” it said, swinging King again. I glanced with concern at my boyfriend, who had turned a little green, like being swung by the mimic was the worst swing carnival ride in existence.
“What looks wrong,what sounds wrong
“You don’t belong.
“What looks wrong, what sounds wrong
“I have built you a home where echoes stay strong.”
“No!”it screeched. Glancing up, I saw it reaching, stretching, trying to get even a finger tip through the slit.
Raising my voice, I continued,
“No further,no farther, no flesh to borrow
“Return to your echo, you being of sorrow
“What looks wrong, what sounds wrong
“This is your home
“Come home.”
I heldthe mirror up higher, and the creature shrieked again, lifting King higher toward the slit he’d created. “You might get me, but you won’t get your Dreamwalker.”
Ignoring its claims, I chanted with more conviction.
“You don’t belong here.
“Not in light, not in breath, not in form
“By mirror and flame, by sound and name
“Return to your echo and be gone.”
The thing shrank down,and as soon as it and King were the same size, my guy kicked out with his feet, shoving off its chest. He fell into a heap on the floor, and Patchy immediately jumped into his lap, licking at his face. The creatures screamed, trying to intimidate me, then Booker, but the shrinking process was too far underway, and it reached the size of a flea, making nothing more than squeaky noises.
Instead of realizing it was done, the mimic tried putting one last burst of speed into a flight for the still-open slit.
“Return to the echo chamber and be gone!” I thundered, putting every bit of intent and conviction I possessed into it. As it fell, I clapped the compact closed around its body.
“Holy shit, you got it,” King said, pushing up from the floor.
