His face fell, sympathy flooding his features. “The talking mirror doesn’t lie. It can’t. It’s compelled to show whatever the owner orders it to show.”
“But the queen said she could make it lie.”
“You think the queen is trustworthy?”
“No.” I swallowed hard, my throat constricting. “Then they were my father and… my half brother?”
“I’m sorry, but yes.”
I took several deep breaths, thinking of the images in my mirror. All those years, Mom and Louis had let me believe he was my father. And all along, my biological father had been an Unseelie deserter who'd abandoned his own people. Had he even known about me?
But I couldn’t worry about that now. I had to get Darius out of here before it was too late. I sighed shakily and forced myself to concentrate on his other restraint, my tiny shadow already moving. It slipped around his remaining manacle with fluid grace and once again disappeared into the lock mechanism.
The seconds crawled by like hours. One heartbeat...two heartbeats…my lungs burned as I held my breath.
Another soft click shattered the silence.
Darius burst free completely, his chains clattering to the stone floor. “I’ll get you out of here,” he said fiercely,immediately moving to my restraints. He wrapped his hands around my manacles and yanked with all his supernatural strength, muscles straining.
The metal didn’t budge. If anything, the binding bracelets seemed to glow brighter, as if feeding off his efforts.
“You can’t, Darius.” Exhaustion weighed down every word. “I barely managed to get my pinky out of this bracelet. The magic is too strong—it’s designed specifically for me. There’s no way you can get me free.” I met his desperate eyes. “Leave while you still can.”
“No.” His jaw set stubbornly. “I’ll come back for you, I promise. My men?—”
“Your men?” Hope flickered again, fragile but growing.
“Yeah.” His silver eyes blazed with sudden fire. “There’s a small group of us that have banded together against the queen. We’ve been planning a rebellion for a while. I just have to get word to them, tell them where you are.”
The massive door creaked open with the groan of ancient hinges.
Panic exploded inside me like a bomb. “Go!” I whispered urgently. “Now!”
