Runes scratched along the fractured edges of the frame pulsed a sickly indigo light. I hadn’t studied runes, though these appeared as old as the trees. Shadows writhed on the ground in front of the mirror, drawn toward the glass like bugs to a flame that would only burn them alive.
Tightening my grip on my dagger, I moved to the right, remaining within the sparse woods while slinking closer to the mirror from the side. It seemed to pull everything around it inward. Insects jolted and zapped when they hit the surface. Shadows from the trees whipped back and forth in the harsh, heated wind, also as drawn to the mirror’s lure as me. Even the sweltering air itself seemed to coast in that direction.
Leaving the woods, I picked my way through the deep, cloying grass, finally stepping in front of the mirror, though I remained far enough back to slash out if it attacked.
And why did I think it would do something like that?
A fissure gouged across the surface in a thick scar, but it appeared otherwise unmarred.
My own hazy reflection swam into view on the surface, and despite the hot air billowing around me, cold scraped its claws down my spine. It was me…except for the eyes. They glowed with an unsettling indigo light that matched the pulsation of the runes.
When a feral grin rose on the face, I gasped in a breath.
Iwas notgrinning.
But this was my reflection. Dressed in identical leathers. Gripping the same dagger in her right hand while her other dagger remained secure in its sheath. I lifted my left arm. So did my reflection. Hitched up one leg.
Same.
It moved in perfect symmetry to me, jerking a step forward when I did, shaking its head just so.
As ifmockingme.
“Stop it,” I hissed.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.The words skated across the meadow, smacking back at me.
My throat twitched. I took a step backward, my boot crushing dead leaves and sending a jagged, grating sound across the open area.
The thing in the mirror stepped forward along with me.
But while my hands remained at my sides, the other me shoved her hands against the inside of the glass as if testing its limits.
The air stretched taut. I could not take a deep breath.
The sharp electric hum grew louder, stabbing at my eardrums as shadows on the ground around me shifted, jettisoning back and forth, drowning in a turbulent, grassy sea.
The runes flared brighter.
Magic always had a rhythm, a predictable build to itscrescendo, but this was erratic, a desperate, coiled energy on the verge of snapping.
Then it did.
With a sound like splintering ice, jagged shards tore away from the mirror’s edges and slashed toward me. I dove, rolling to the side, and the breath of their flight sliced the air close enough above to pinch my skin. The shards burrowed into the side of an enormous ancient tree on the edge of the meadow. Leaping to a crouch, I whirled back toward the mirror and froze.
My reflection remained, but now its hands were shovingthroughthe glass. Its forearms emerged. The rest of its body strained to follow. It wrenched and slithered through the surface and slammed to the ground, rising slowly, creeping upward until it stood as straight as me.
Looking exactly like me.
While I remained motionless, it tilted its head. Its smile stretched wider, even more grotesque now, its glowing indigo eyes narrowing on me.
We circled each other, my boots jerking through the dry, brittle grass. It matched me, step for step, its movements lurching. Unnatural. My guts boiled as fear plunged through me.
The other me lunged.
I parried her swipe with my dagger, the clash of our weapons blazing through the woods. The impact jarred my arm, like I was striking myself. But that couldn’t be. I shook off the horrifying feeling.
When it lashed out again, this time with a fluid spin of its blade, I deflected the blow and gouged my other blade across the attacker's forearm.
