“Were you part of the attack on my Abbae?”
“No. If I had been, you’d be dead or here with me.” He smiled, and there went the tingles again.
Agathe squeezed the mirror, the sharp edge digging into her flesh. “I’ve killed all the vhampirs who came after me.” They tended not to rise again once they lost their heads. Anything less, and they could heal.
“Impatient fools. Fear not, when I come, you won’t escape.”
“Says you. Perhaps, I’ll surprise you,” she said.
“Doubtful. Now, while this has been interesting, it’s time for me to go.”
“Go where?”
“Nowhere you can find. Nor will you look because you are about to forget we talked.”
She snorted. “That’s not going to happen.”
“It will because I can’t have you telling people about our chat. You will forget this conversation.”
Forget.
She blinked as the word vibrated inside her head, and the mirror went blank.
Forget.
The compulsion tried to nest inside her head. She tossed it out.
She wasn’t forgetting anything ever again.
Chapter Five
That night, she dreamed.
I snuck off while Agathe and my other mothers slept. I didn’t go far. Even I wasn’t so brazen as to go outside alone at night. But inside the Abbae where I was safe? What did I have to fear?
As to why I went wandering? I’d found something interesting on a dusty shelf in a room accessed by a chiseled hole. I wore gloves handling the wrapped bundle. I rarely removed them because I didn’t always have perfect control. Nothing like skinning my knee and grabbing hold of my mother for comfort to realize that I didn’t always keep a tight leash on my gift. Venna’s gray hair and rueful smile helped me learn, and I’d gotten better with age.
The leather wrap unfolded and revealed a mirror set in an ornate frame with a handle. Not a great mirror, though, given the fuzzy reflection.
I could see why we didn’t use it but wondered why my mothers hadn’t found some purpose for it. In a place like the Abbae, every item counted. For this blurry mirror... A platter, maybe?
I brought it to Venna. “Look what I found.”
“Where did you get that?” Her eyes opened wide.
“I found it in the catacombs, tucked away. I think it might make a good server. The surface is smooth. See?” I ran gloved fingers over it, and she turned white. Pale enough that I worried about her health.
She swallowed hard before saying, “Don’t touch it.”
“Is it dangerous?”
Mother Venna hesitated a moment before nodding.
“Dangerous how?” I asked, cocking my head and eyeing it differently. “What is it?”
“A mirror.”
“Not a very good one.” Even squinting, I couldn’t see myself.
“It is not a toy.” Venna actually snapped. “You shouldn’t be playing with it. It’s a good thing you were wearing gloves.”
“Is it magic?”
Mother Venna shrugged. “It is spelled and possibly treacherous.”
“Then why keep it?”
“Because what if there is a use for it someday?”
“What if today is that day?” I asked, still twisting the mirror, refracting light.
“It’s not. Now, stop playing with it.” She held out her hand. She expected me to hand it over after rousing a most intense curiosity.
“If you don’t want me touching it, then I’ll just put it back where I found it.”
Mother Venna, who looked barely older than me because of my magic, bit her lip. “Maybe Agathe was right and we should get rid of it.”
“I’ll throw it off the edge,” I offered.
She pressed her lips into a flat line. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
It almost crushed my teenage heart to hear that she didn’t trust me. She thought I’d keep the mirror and play with it.
She was right.
I loved my mothers, but I tired of the, “Don’t do this. Don’t do that.” My three mothers pecked at me about doing the right thing. For my own good. They ignored the fact that I was powerful. I didn’t have to fear the things they did.
“We’ll get rid of it together,” she declared.
That would make keeping it more difficult. How would I fool her?
It proved almost too easy in the end. As we reached the tree at the edge of the ledge, Mother Hiix emerged, hollering, “What are you and the brat doing out here? It’s almost nightfall.”
Mother Venna turned to reply. “Just taking out the trash.”
I shifted to a spot behind the trunk as Hiix yelled, “At this time of day? As I said, it’s getting close to nightfall.”
“Relax. The mist is still far below,” Venna argued.
Not really. I could sense it hovering mere handspans below the edge, circling the roots of the tree that curled over the side. I tucked the mirror under a knot in the tree’s trunk.
By the time Mother Venna turned to me, I had my hands clasped in front of me, waiting.
“Where is the mirror?” she asked.
“Gone.”
She frowned. “I didn’t see you throw it.”
I held out my hands. I wore breeches and a tunic. There was nowhere to hide it, but I spun to show her anyway, even lifting the hem of my shirt.
“You really got rid of it?”
“You said it was dangerous, so I threw it far.”
“Good. Let’s get inside before Hiix collapses in a fit.”
I followed, wishing I could have found a way to bring the mirror inside. I had to wait until the next day. It remained where I’d left it in the knot of the tree, and I hid it in my cloak when I returned with my bucket of leaves. Good for tea.
No one noticed anything.
I adjourned to my bed early that night then had to wait as my mothers settled down and interruption would be unlikely.
Breathing stalled as I let my bare fingers trail over the surface of the mirror. I could feel the tingle. The suck at my magic. I pushed slightly.
The surface cleared and showed a room, a chamber of mirrors—big and little. Some were only pieces but somehow adhered to the wall. No one was there, though.
What a strange thing to frighten my mothers.
Trying to understand, I began sneaking off to peek in the mirror at different times of day until I finally saw someone on the other side.
Chapter Six
Agathe woke suddenly, sweating and gasping for air. Years later, she still remembered the chill of finally seeing a face in that mirror. Not a vhampir, though. The man she saw bore a scar and had brilliant blue eyes. He possessed a commanding air. He’d stalked close, barking, “You, girl. Tell me your name.”
In a panic, she’d broken the connection. She’d meant to throw the mirror out, only to become addicted to it when a young man waited on the other side the next time she touched it.
A handsome boy, whose name she didn’t recall. Eventually, the Soraers caught her and Mother Agathe had gotten rid of the mirror. As a teenager, she’d been angry about it and stomped to her room. Even shouted at her mother that she hated her. She’d wished so many times that she could have lived those last weeks differently. Wished she’d never found that cursed mirror because she had no doubt that was what brought the King’s soldier not long after. Her foolishness had led to her mother’s death.