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“Would you like to activate it?”

In answer, I twisted the mirror the way Phoebe had demonstrated.

I wasn’t sure what exactly I’d expected the mirror to do. Maybe the gemstone would glow the same as if Sloane had activated her own mirror? Instead, nothing happened at all. It looked just as innate as the minutes before. I glanced over at Callum with a frown.

“Give it just a moment,” he whispered.

As if it had been waiting for his voice, the glass rippled and then seemed to melt away, dripping into the bottom curve of the mirror’s frame. Sloane’s hazel eyes and slightly furrowed brow were suddenly there instead. The room behind her was a warm red stone, a tapestry of a large forest with a myriad of animals just behind her and taking up most of the wall. Her face brightened as her focus settled on me.

“Mimi! Oh my gosh, it really does work. They weren’t joking even a bit.” She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and then moved a bit, adjusting until she was laying on a settee of deep green. The change showed she was wearing a pink tunic with short sleeves and a high neckline without laces. “Those mages are so freaking cool. Fantasy FaceTime.”

Despite everything, my lips tipped up. “No guns or electricity, but iPhones. Or at least, almost iPhones. These probably don’t have planned obsolescence baked into them.”

Sloane laughed, and the sound had me wanting to sob and dance for joy in equal measures. She was so happy, more carefree than I’d seen her in a while. There was a low murmur that didn’t quite pick up, and she glanced to her left, her face softening even more even as a blush spread across her cheeks. Then a leg appeared in the frame, and Sloane was adjusting until she rested against it like a pillow.

“Apparently these are pretty rare,” Sloane said once she was settled. “The mirrors, I mean. Jacob had to get special permission from Nolan to release extra funding so we could have them commissioned. I hope I don’t accidentally drop it. You know how I tend to be with things like that.”

I did. She’d shattered two phones in one year during college due to some unfortunate circumstances in a couple of her dance classes.

“Just don’t try to do pointe with it nearby, and you should be fine.” I kept my voice as dry as I could manage.

She rolled her eyes and adjusted a bit more. Her hair fell away from her neck, revealing a half-moon scar similar to the one the seamster at the dress shop had.

“What happened?” I asked with true concern. I couldn’t help but worry.

Her cheeks flushed a deep scarlet as she traced the crescent mark. “Oh, it’s just part of the Freia rites.” Then she pursed her lips. “Do you call them that up there? I’m having a hard time keeping track of what’s a regional term and what’s more universal. Like how we would always call it a front yard but when we were in Maine they called it a dooryard.”

The man with her—logically, it must be Jacob—grunted. “A dooryard?”

Sloane tilted her head back. “What they called a front yard, the bit of area in front of the house that’s visible from the road.”

He grunted again, but his one was softer, more reflective. Sloane dropped her attention back to me.

“Or like soda and pop. Gosh, a soda would be so lovely right now. Any kind of fizzy drink, actually. Though the teas they have here are really good, too. Anyway, is that the term up there, Freia rites? For the marriage ceremony?”

I glanced over to Callum who simply nodded. “Yeah, it’s what they call it up here. It’s probably a more universal term.” Then I focused on her neck again. “So that thing is from the ceremony?”

The flush was back in an instant, trailing down her neck and disappearing under the neckline of her tunic.

“Yep.” She popped the ‘p’ the way she did when she didn’t want to continue the conversation.

I narrowed my gaze, trying to decide if I wanted to push her about it. What in the hell happened in the Freia rites that left her scarred? Would I end up with one too? I chanced a glance at Callum, but he only had a soft smile tilting his lips. Not a modicum of concern at all.

“Anyway,” Sloane said, very obviously moving on. Jacob laughed, the sound hearty and warm. It shook her a bit, but she only rolled her eyes. “I am not going to talk about that while you’re in the room. Not. Happening. Jacob.”

He only laughed harder.

“So am I going to get to meet him?” She raised her voice in a clear attempt to drown out Jacob’s amusement. “Or is he just going to stay a phantom in the background like some specter in a gothic novel?”

This time it was my laugh that was body-rattling.

Sloane pursed her lips. “That had better be a ‘yes, of course, sissy’ laugh and not a ‘your slightly prudish behavior despite being the romance reader between the two of us is still amusing to me’ laugh.”

“Do I get to meet Jacob?” I asked instead of just letting her see Callum. For the first time in days—weeks, really, since we were in Maine—I felt like I could just breathe and enjoy the moment. I wanted to bask in it. And having Sloane blush and laugh was an added benefit, too.

Without missing a beat, she tilted her mirror up until Jacob was fully in the frame, only her eyes still visible. He wore the same green sleeveless tunic he’d had on Magefall. His hair was braided in the same style, too, but the necklace and dagger were both gone. His eyes crinkled around the corners as he smiled broadly, stretching his arm to rest along the back of the settee.

“Nice to meet you again,” he said. His voice was hoarse and warm just like his laugh.