“What is this place?”
“My Hall of Mirrors.”
My shoulders leap as his voice brushes my ear. He starts to strut around the room, hands in his pockets, admiring the impressive collection.
“You think a couple dusty old mirrors are enough to make me change my mind and marry you?”
“It’s not the mirrors, love. It’s what they can do.”
My eyes meet his in the glass.
I don’t like this place. It feels like a demented funhouse. I turn to face Kylian, but he isn’t there. I whirl again, thinking I’ve caught him only to grasp the air.
“Stop that.”
“Oh, lighten up, darling, I’m just having a bit of fun.”
His cool breath hits my ear, and I turn, reaching out to make sureit’s not just another illusion. My hand lands on his tanned chest and I exhale.
He takes my shoulders and spins me around to face a long, narrow mirror with delicate silver leaves carved into the frame. The onyx glass is nearly opaque—so dark I can barely make out our forms as Kylian guides me closer.
Like the odd mirror in his room, the one before me begins to move, to melt. I stare, transfixed as it gels and swirls like fresh tar being stirred inside a bottomless vat.
It whispers to me.
“What is this?”
“Your future.” His fingers slide from my shoulders down the length of my arms. “Ourfuture.”
My gaze snaps to him, but his profile is fixed ahead, watching the scene forming inside the changing glass. I follow his stare and gasp at what I see.
“This is what happens when you accept your fate.”
The dark glass clears to an image of me seated on a glittering throne made of cured starlight. On my head is a crown of the same make, some material not of this world—something celestial and magnificent.
My strange orchid eyes glow with delight as I glance over at Kylian, looking devastating and proud on a throne of his own, his fingers twined with mine.
The scene changes again to reveal a long stretch of pink-sanded beach. My bare feet sink into the warm grains as a light, foamy tide brushes against my ankles. I look up to see two little boys no taller than my hip teetering toward me, kicking up water as they go. Their eyes are ocean-blue, lit with joy beneath tousled raven curls.
I gasp as Kylian enters the scene smiling, carrying another small boy on his shoulder. My hand slides over my belly, where a small bump stretches my fitted white dress.
Oh my god.
I clutch my mouth in horror, but it doesn’t stop the choked cry from slipping out.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The life we could have. You’re so happy.”
The boys throw their arms around my legs, looking up at me with adoration. Time slows as I tentatively reach down to pet their heads and?—
I canfeelthem. I tilt my lips up to Kylian’s face in the mirror, and he gives me a sweet, gentle kiss.
No, this can’t be right. Itcan’t.
“Thisis what happens when you try to run from your fate.”
The mirage of the foreign family shifts as the mirror melts, reconfiguring into something dark and horrific.
A battlefield.
