I turned to punch the men, but they weren’t there. They were only in the mirror, staring impassively as my life flashed before my eyes. One looked at me with Michelangelonian grace, blond curls hanging to his shoulders, icy blue eyes devoid of emotion. The other might have been a Spanish saint, dark expression unfeeling.
The last two faces I would ever see.
They’re in the mirror. It was the only piece of data I had.
The others shouted. They clapped. They did their best to intervene, but they didn’t know the battle I was facing, and I was out of time.
With my last burst of strength, I dove for the gap between Azrames’s legs and wrapped my fingers around the neck of the tequila bottle resting at his feet. I fought through the others as I hoisted it high and smashed it into Kirby’s mirror.
The plastic detached, tumbling into the space between my friends, but the glass did not break. I summoned every ounce of strength as I grappled for the hardware, wrapping my fingers around it only to smash it against any hard surface I could reach. Still, the glass did not break.
It was enough. They understood.
“The mirrors aren’t sealed!” Azrames shouted.
Their revelation didn’t give me any relief. My lungs burned. My ears popped. Darkness pressed in. I continued to bang it against the dashboard as hard as I could, unable to explain to Nia and Kirby what I was doing. I heard the glass crack, but the attackers continued to glare back at me from the broken portal.
A sharp pain exploded from my hand, but I was too dizzy to see the cut.
Azrames wrapped his arms around me, yanking me into the back seat as hard as he could. He dove forward with his spare hand shielding Nia’s eyes as Silas did the same for Kirby. In an instant, the mirrors shattered into a fine dust.
I sucked in a breath with painful strength. Kirby threw the Jeep into park, and all four doors burst open. My world spun on its axis, scarcely registering the heat, the scent of grass, the wooden buildings, or the tall, white chapel tagged in neon graffiti.
Azrames yanked me out of the car, pulling me onto the sidewalk as he demanded, “What happened?”
Silas joined us outside, eyes cast to the empty frames where the mirrors had been only moments before.
“Heaven happened.”
