***
Shade’s eyes flew open as she gasped, thrashing in her bed. It was still very dark, and it took a moment or two for her eyes to focus and readjust.
Am I alive or dead? Where am I? She felt panicked and couldn’t breathe, her chest arrested with a searing pain.
She reached over to the lamp, but without any light, she fumbled and sent the lamp smashing to the floor. The nightmare had left her with a dull, disorientating ache in her head. Just then, the room lit up around her like a blinding floodlight, making her pupils contract painfully.
She stopped fumbling and stared at the changed silver and crystal mirror. It was on fire, with blue flames dripping out like liquid molten rock. It crackled with white electricity and poured out of the rippling surface, down the table, and into the middle of the room. The pillar it formed shifted and morphed into a man.
Darren.
Run! Run now!
She screamed as the voices returned, panicked and jumbled in her mind. However, she soon realized no one could hear her through the solid rock walls. She pulled the blankets off but never made it out of the bed before he jumped on her. He pushed her down and smacked her face. His cold laugh rang in her ears as he snarled down at her, watching her squirm and kick helplessly.
His eyes were facets of blue, white light, blinding her even more as he pinned her under his legs and squeezed her arms so hard she felt them aching and burning in protest. There were surely bruises forming on her skin. He smacked her again so hard that stars flared in a sea of darkness. She almost blacked out, fighting to stay awake and tasting the iron flavor of blood in her mouth. The left side of her face felt on fire.
When her vision cleared, she took in the horror of Darren completely engulfed in fire. His blue flames roared around them, but nothing burned, as though his fire was cool to the touch. To Shade’s surprise, she wasn’t burning under his grip, giving her a renewed urge to struggle. His grip kept her in place while the room spun. She wondered briefly if he’d given her a concussion or something. Her stomach lurched with nausea, threatening to spill her dinner.
Blinking, she tried to focus. “Darren, let me go!” She coughed up a mouthful of blood and spit at the faery.
He snarled at her. “You pathetic mortal, I forgot how much you bleed and injure so easily. No true Fey would be so fragile. My apologies, of course. I do wonder, though, why you aren’t burning up into crumbly ash. I always did like to watch mortals turn into dust while I burnt them. I’m just a little bit sick like that.” He snickered and hopped off the bed, never letting his glare slip from her. “Show me what you’ve got, Shade. I want to know why you’re so special. What’s your secret? What is it that Jack won’t tell me?” His face morphed from mocking to angry as his fire was flickered in and out. The fire flashed rapidly, making the room pulse like a bright strobe, serving to disorientate her even more.
Shade tried to stand by grabbing the nightstand and pulling herself upright. She could barely balance on her shaky legs, which didn’t want to work at the moment. “There’s nothing special about me, Darren. I’m just a halfling. I’d think you’d have heard that by now. Really, there’s nothing else. I don’t really have any magic. I’m still learning. I swear I don’t know anything else!”
She stood and stepped toward Darren, but fumbled, tripping on her sluggish limbs. He caught her as she slipped and spun her around to where they faced the fiery mirror, still aglow. She stared at their reflections as her mind scrambled to find a way out of his embrace.
Darren smiled coldly as he yanked on her hair with one of his hands. His other arm encircled her chest, holding her arms tightly to her sides. Squeezing her even more, he nuzzled her neck and whispered into her ear. “What do you see, Shade? Don’t you like my fire? You see how insignificant you are? No human should be so special. I really don’t get why they chose you. You’re so fragile, weak, and pathetic. Why not choose a great faery warrior, like myself, for instance? You’re a tarnish to our race, and I think I will be doing us a great favor by getting rid of you.” His flames began to burn higher and licked the air around them, making it so his face no longer could be seen in the mirror.
Shade stared at her reflection. Her cheek had an angry red welt from his blows, and as the flames grew around her, she felt her panic rage. Soon, she began to see his face again as it grew more serious. He appeared deep in thought, pondering her reflection.
“Maybe we can have some fun first. You’re not so ugly. What do you think about that, love? Don’t you find me appealing?” He pulled her head back, making her gasp, her scalp stinging with pain. His nose grazed her cheek and earlobe, making her cringe at his touch. “This’ll be fun, no?”
He will never touch me, never.
Shade attempted to pull her head away from his hot breath. He laughed again and let up on his hold so she could see their reflections again. “Do you like my mirror? I placed it here just for you. Just so I could watch your every move. That’s my magic. It’s a special talent not a lot of Teleen possess, the gift of traveling through mirrors. I have the matching one in my room, so wherever I place this one, I can go, even into your locked chamber. What good did the locks do you now, Shade? No lock can keep me out. No door could close on me. It’ll be our little secret.” He laughed hard, his chest shaking behind her back.
He abruptly loosened his grip on her head for a moment, and Shade took advantage of his careless release. She shoved him back with her entire body weight, making him lose his balance for a moment, throwing him to the bed. She ran to the mirror and looked around for something to smash it. The dagger she’d left on the table gleamed as brightly as Darren’s fire. She laced her fingers around the hilt, squeezing it hard until her knuckles turned white. She swung her arm and shoved her strength into it, ramming the metal into the mirror. The crash echoed through the cave as it smashed into a thousand glittering shards.
“No! How did you know…what have you done?” Darren had just reached her and grabbed her free arm, yanking at Shade. His momentum came to a sudden stop as he was instantly pulled into the glass, along with a flash of lightning. The last glint of it blinded her and plunged the room into darkness.
Her eyes focused on the dim glow of the dagger as its light grew a bit stronger in the black room. She stared at the mirror shards, scattered and shimmering all over the room. They didn’t look unusual in any way; just plain mirror pieces glittering across the floor like diamonds. She limped toward the lamp on the floor, where it’d fallen earlier, jabbing her bare feet on the glass. Blood trailed her steps in smudges and drips from cuts stinging her flesh. Her legs, weak and shaky, began to drag under her. She fell to the floor by the bed and slipped into the developing darkness. The glow of her dagger faded into the dark, and the whole world with it.
Chapter Eight