Nope. Not today, box. I was going to get my answer after all these years. I shoved it harder, and then it gave way with a loudcreakthat echoed down the hillside. A musty, metallic scent hit me—like dried blood and something I couldn’t quite place.
Inside lay an ornate gold table mirror with full sunbursts at the top and bottom and golden strands weaving down the frame. Clouds and winged horses had been carved into the top and bottom, flanking the sunbursts.
My attention slid to the dagger beside the mirror… and time seemed to freeze. It was a golden tri-sided spiral dagger with an elegant handle and ridged leather grip. I’d seen one similar to this before, when a horrible ex who’d been obsessed with knives had shown it to me. He’d called it a tri dagger and said it was the deadliest knife in the world and it would take three surgeons to stitch a man up if he were stabbed with one—if he could even be saved. Fuck, the guy had been creepy.
He’d disappeared after he’d showed up here and Aunt Maureen had hobbled out with her cane, threatening to put it where the sun didn’t shine.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes, and grief struck, hollowing me out deep inside. I missed her, and I'd be willing to have my car stolen again just to have her back. She was the only family I’d had in the world, and even though she’d been eccentric, grumpy, and stubborn and had refused to move, nomatter how many plans I’d made, she’d loved me as much as I loved her.
She’d been good to me. Fed me, clothed me, and always listened with tenderness and concern. When Mom and I hadn’t had anywhere to go, she’d given us a place to stay. And she'd taught me how to defend myself and how to fight as best she knew how.
When Mom died, there was never a question about who'd take care of me. My dad had vanished when I was a little kid, and I’d never really known him except that he abused her. I’d wanted to take care of Aunt Maureen, too, but she would have none of it, except for letting me teach her a few things about technology and a couple of moves I learned from getting into scraps and fights.
Now she was gone. She'd died peacefully in her sleep. I could be grateful for that at least.
I’d known something was wrong as soon as she hadn’t answered my morning text. The coroner said she hadn’t felt a thing.
It still hurt that she’d lied to me all those years ago and tried to convince me I hadn’t seen what I had. If she’d still been here, I’d have stolen something of hers to make my point and let her know how upset I was. Turnabouts were fair play.
The deadly blade shimmered like captured sunlight, catching my attention.
There were dark marks in the air above it though. Scowling, I kneeled, leaned closer, and gently reached forward. Though it looked as if the blade ended in a point, I realized that it actually was longer than it looked, the tip of the blade so fine that it could barely be seen almost half an inch past where it seemed to end. The dark traces looked like dried blood.
I shuddered. Something about this dagger unnerved me. It was like…it was watching me.
I set the dagger on the ground to the left of the hole, then removed the mirror with both hands.
A wave of energy passed over me, and my head spun. I jerked back, and the mirror expanded.
"What the hell?" The dizziness intensified.
A low humming buzz came out of the mirror, and something rippled out, like an energy wave.
The mirror grew again, pulsing with eerie silver-blue light. The glass rippled like water, but its surface frosted and turned dark blue instead of reflecting the rowan branches and darkening sky.
"Stop!" I shouted as if an inanimate object would listen.
I dropped the mirror onto the grass and upturned soil near the hole, but it didn't break. Instead, it knocked against the crowbar, flipping it upward. The metal tool landed across the mirror's frame, balancing precariously on the edge as the mirror pulsed and hummed.
Another spasm of energy shot out of the mirror, and it grew again, shoving up against my knee on one side and against the dagger to my right.
Yelping, I fell forward, my right hand landing directly on the spiral dagger’s blade.
"Shit!" White-hot pain seared my palm as the impossibly sharp edge sliced deep. Blood welled up immediately and spilled onto the mirror's surface, where it sizzled and disappeared.
I leaned forward and tried to touch the glass, but my hand passed through it, and I tumbled forward.
The world tilted, dissolved, and vanished. My scream echoed around me as I hurtled through endless darkness. Wind rushed past my ears, my stomach lurched into my throat, and then?—
THUD.
I slammed onto something hard and bitterly cold. Pain radiated through my shoulder and hip, and frost bit into mycheek where it pressed against stone. A metallic clatter rang out beside me as the crowbar landed inches from my head.
"Fuck," I wheezed, the impact having knocked the wind from my lungs. My cut hand throbbed, burning as if I'd set it on fire.
I pushed myself up onto my elbows, blinking to clear my vision.
What the actual fuck? Where the hell was I, because this wasdefinitelynot Crossville, Tennessee.
