“You're right; I'm sorry.” I grimaced. “I thought it would cause more trouble than it was worth.”
Kirill nodded and kissed my forehead to let me know I was forgiven.
“But my point is; if it showed you the truth before, this could be it again.”
“It showed us truth but in a vay to make us believe a lie,” Kirill argued. “It's tricky; ve cannot trust it.”
“But this makes sense,” I waved a hand at the image that had paused, focused on Qaus. “I don't think we should ignore it.”
“Ve vere already suspicious of Narcissus,” he reminded me.
“Now, we'll be even more wary,” I said grimly.
I looked back at the words written on Qaus' pad;The Godhunter will be pulled into the mirror soon. Get her to sacrifice herself, and you will gain her magic and be strong enough to escape.
Kirill pointed at the message. “It says to get you to sacrifice yourself, not kill you. Narcissus knew zat he'd have to trick you into taking your own life.”
“But how did Qaus know that?” I narrowed my stare at the Arab.
Kirill shrugged. “Research? Perhaps another god told him? Doesn't matter; Narcissus knew.”
“But he wasn't expecting all of us,” I said with soft menace. “Whoever set this up intended for me to get pulled in alone.”
“You said Re killed Qaus in zat future?”
“Yeah.” I stared at the Arabian God as his image finally faded away. “But Qaus wouldn't know that.”
“Maybe he senses something. He could feel it as instinct,” Kirill said. “You may have averted zat future but it left echoes of itself. Re if proof of zat.”
“Do you think Qaus could be the god who manipulated the Argentinian Gods into hunting me?”
“Could be.” Kirill nodded. “Somehow, he managed to trick Re into buying zat mirror. Zat vould take finesse; skill.”
“Or Qaus simply found out about the sale,” I muttered. “But the real question is; why did the Mirror show us this?”
“It can only be one reason; it vants us to kill Narcissus.”
“Better dead than escaped,” I murmured. “We're its backup plan. But if that's true, why try to kill us?”
“Priority must be to gain our magic to sustain itself,” Kirill mused. “And if zat doesn't vork...”
“It will use us to make sure Narcissus never leaves,” I finished.
“Ve have something it vants,” Kirill said with a devious look.
“And it has someone we want.” I nodded. “Give me back Trevor, Mirror. Then we'll see about Narcissus.”
A door appeared in the wall, and I grinned triumphantly at Kirill.
Chapter Eighteen
Never trust a mirror.
Kirill and I strode confidently down the steel corridors, believing the Mirror was leading us to Trevor. But all it had done was open a path; it hadn't really agreed to a bargain. Although, it did lead us to Trevor. Or him to us, rather.
Kirill and I stepped out of the hallway and into a bright, white room. It was so bright that I covered my eyes with my forearm until they adjusted. During my brief blindness, I was grabbed and shoved roughly about as I blinked in disorientation. I thrashed wildly as I heard Kirill growling, but I couldn't free myself. Then steel bands replaced the hands as I was strapped to a hard bed. Correction; an exam table. My feet were set in metal stirrups, my legs spread wide, and my clothes replaced with a baby blue, paper, hospital gown. A man dressed in scrubs with a paper mask covering the lower half of his face crouched between my thighs with a devious-looking device in his hand. The black handle had a long, metal tube attached to it and was hooked up to a large, whirring machine. I flailed about but the metal bands held me securely.
Kirill roared and beat against the bars of a cage nearby. He was on the verge of shifting. I could see the bones rippling beneath his skin, but he couldn't complete the transformation. The damn Mirror had to be holding him back.
