I narrow my eyes. “What has gotten into you?”
The pain in his eyes is cracking like ice. Loud and sharp. Dangerous. But he doesn’t force himself forward. As I back up into a wall to put space between us, my foot hits something hard that rattles. Glancing down, I find dark chains. Chains ending in manacles that slip across the floor and disappear underneath the bed.
He’s a man. Perhaps one in desperate need for someone to warm his bed for the night.That’swhat this is. I can’t help the laugh bubbling up my throat. “I’m not interested in being your plaything, Cyrus. And if you thought even forsecondI would entertain it?—”
“Wait, Marcella, before you get ahead of yourself that isn’t?—”
“I have to go,” I blurt, hurrying for the door. Once I grab the handle I toss out, “I’m sorry if you misunderstood me coming to your room so late at night. It won’t happen again.”
“It’s for myself!” he calls behind me.
I pause, fingers still gripping the handle. Quite frankly it’s none of my business what sort of…interesting sexual activities he might occupy himself with.
But there’s something else in his voice.
I jerkily turn to look at him over my shoulder.
He’s standing in the firelight, hand flicking back to the manacles on the floor. “You know me better than anyone,” his voice wavers with an unfamiliar weakness.
“Then I suppose no one knows you at all,” I answer, then leave as quickly as I can, anxious to get back to my room.
Thirty-Six
- LYRA -
Three nights later.
“Alright, so just close your eyes again. Relax your body. And in the dark, I want you to try and search,” Marcella murmurs gently.
My hands are splayed across the bathroom mirror as I sit atop the counter. I’m staring at Marcella’s reflection, her dark eyes determined as she stands behind me.
“I’m scared,” I whisper.
The last few nights we’ve spent sitting cross-legged on the floor. But none of the sessions were successful, even after hours of trying.
Marcella advised that perhaps we try to slip into visions through a mirror. That as a little girl she used to read a book calledThe Mirror in Milltonwhere there were legends about mirrors amplifying magic. The vigorous training that Seers underwent at the Dragon Academy is a heavily guarded secret. Not even she or Devin would know what it entails. When I mention asking Cyrus, she looks away. Like it was a stupid idea to even consider.
So this was our best shot in the dark.
“I know you are. I’ll be right here the whole time.” She gently squeezes my shoulder, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “I won’t let anything happen to you, remember?” She lifts her other hand where we drew the blood oath.
Nodding I pull in a breath. Switching my attention to my own reflection. A chill runs down my spine, remembering how my reflection blinked out of sync. How at times the shadows within it shifted unnaturally.
Perhaps it was calling to me the whole time, and I just didn’t know it.
Shutting my eyes, I lean a bit farther into my palms on the cold glass. Focusing on the darkness as Marcella instructed, I search.
But it’s like stumbling in the darkness. Grasping for empty air.
Show me,I whisper.Show me the next trial.
Stillness.
I blow out a breath, trying not to be discouraged at another night of no progress. We’re running out of time until the second trial. It’s next week.
“You can do it, Lyra. I believe in you,” Marcella’s whisper is near my ear, yet sounds miles away.
I push harder through the black, demanding answers. But when it pushes me back that I lose a breath, I open my eyes. I’m still sitting atop the bathroom counter, but my reflection isn’t there. Neither is Marcella’s. It’s like the bathroom is completely empty.
