My heart does something complicated as I watch the scene unfold. When mirror-me brushes past him, I swear I feel the ghost of that contact. But it’s what happens next that makes me sit up straighter.
A thread of silver light passes between us where the Ether touched him. Just for a heartbeat—a connection that glows like captured starlight.
I didn’t see that. Couldn’t have seen it.
“What the hell?” I whisper.
The image ripples again, and suddenly I’m looking at Thane alone in ruins. Cracked stone walls, pale light filtering through broken spaces. He’s kneeling before what looks like a scrying mirror, and silver mist is rising from its shattered edges—my Ether, somehow reaching across distance.
He’s pressing his hand to his chest, right over his heart, and his expression is completely unguarded. Stunned. Like his entire world just shifted and he doesn’t know which way is up anymore.
Like he’s just realized I’ve been here all along.
The scene fades, leaving me staring at my own reflection again. But now I look different—pupils dilated, breathing shallow. Like I’ve just seen something I wasn’t supposed to.
I set the mirror down, my hands not quite steady. “Okay. Either I’m having a breakdown, or you’re showing me things that actually happened.”
The sigils around the frame pulse once, faint but deliberate.
“Great. Of course you are.”
Against every instinct I have, I pick it up again. Because apparently I never learn.
This time, when the surface ripples, I’m looking at the sanctuary again. But wrong.
The main hall stretches out before me, its familiar curved walls and silver script. Except something’s off. The script still glows, but it feels hollow somehow, like an echo of warmth rather than warmth itself. And I’m there, but not me. This version stands frozen in the center while the boys reach for her with desperate hands.
Rhett, Jace, Gray, Theo, Wes, Thane—and others behind them, faces I can almost recognize—but their faces are twisted with something between hunger and panic. And she’s backing away from them, the Ether around her feet gone black as spilled ink.
Behind them all, barely visible in the shadows, stands someone I don’t recognize. Tall, watching, with an intensity that makes my skin prickle.
The other-me opens her mouth like she’s trying to speak, but no sound comes through the glass. The black Ether spreads outward from her feet, and everyone it touches—
I jerk the mirror away from my face, heart hammering against my ribs.
“Okay, that’s enough of that.”
I set it down more carefully this time, but I can’t stop staring at it. The frame glows faintly in the moonlight, keeping time with my pulse.
Outside, footsteps echo in the corridor—someone doing a final check before bed. The normalcy of it should be comforting. Instead, it makes me think of that other version of myself, reaching for something I couldn’t quite see.
I grab the blanket and pull it over my head like that’ll help. But even with my eyes closed, I can feel the mirror’s presence. Waiting. Watching.
Just another glamorous night in paradise,I think, borrowing my own sarcasm for comfort.
But it doesn’t help. My heart won’t stop racing, and every time I close my eyes, I see that other version of myself with the black Ether spreading around her feet. Not evil—just different. Wrong in a way I can’t name.
A faint scent drifts through the room—chamomile and something sweeter, like honey and vanilla. I sit up, frowning, and find a steaming mug on the nightstand beside the mirror.
It wasn’t there before. I’m sure of it.
The sanctuary, I realize. Paying attention to what I need before I know I need it, just like always.
I reach for the mug, careful not to touch the mirror, and wrap my hands around the warm ceramic. The tea tastes like comfort and safety, like being held when the world gets too sharp around the edges. Just how Wes usually makes it—sweet, careful, like he knows what I need before I do.
My pulse slows. The terror in my chest eases to something manageable.
“Thank you,” I whisper to the room, and the silver script on the walls pulses once, gentle as a heartbeat.
