Maybe I could trust this part of myself after all.
Chapter 23
Nate
I’d been sitting on the edge of the guest bed for a while, turning a can of soda in my hands without opening it. The house was too quiet. Too still. Every creak made me think of the Mirror Realm like if I looked up fast enough, I’d catch the walls bending into glass again.
A soft knock at the door pulled me back. When I looked up, Jess was standing there in the hall. A blanket was wrapped around her shoulders, hair mussed from sleep, and the chain of her crow necklace caught the lamplight. She looked nothing like the girl who’d torn through the mirror storm to get me back and somehow even more dangerous to my heartbeat.
“Hey,” she said, voice low. “Can I come in?”
“Of course,” I answered, and she stepped inside.
“I just wanted to check on you,” she said. “You’ve been through a lot. And I wasn’t sure if you…” She trailed off, chewing her lip. “If you still?—”
“Still like you?” I said, because letting her twist herself into knots felt wrong.
Her head jerked up, startled.
“I’ve liked you for a long time, Jess. That didn’t change in there. If anything…” I let out a breath in a whoosh. “Knowing you came for me, that’s the part I’m not going to forget.”
Something in her shoulders loosened. She crossed the room and sat beside me, close enough that the blanket brushed my arm. Heat rushed through me so fast it almost made me dizzy.
“I didn’t know if I could do it,” she admitted. “The magic, I mean. I’ve been so scared of messing up. But leaving you there wasn’t an option.”
I couldn’t help it, I leaned in. She didn’t pull away. The kiss was slow, careful, like we were both making sure it was real. Her hand found mine and squeezed, grounding me in a way nothing else could.
When we pulled apart, I rested my forehead against hers. “I’m not going anywhere. “Her eyes lingered on mine like she was memorizing them. Then, Bianca’s voice called from down the hall, something about snack duty.
Jess laughed under her breath and stood, letting the blanket slip from her shoulders. I grabbed the bag of pretzels and the sodas from the nightstand, and we walked down the hall together to deliver them to Bianca.
As we passed her room’s corner, the hoodie-wrapped flamingo mirror leaned against the wall.
I could’ve sworn it shifted. Just slightly.
I told myself it was nothing.
I didn’t check.
Chapter 24
Etan
I stood in the gray half-light of my world, the air thick with the stillness that comes after a storm. Somewhere beyond the veil, Jess was home. Safe.
But not alone.
Through the shimmering distortion, I caught flashes of Jess moving about the room with Nate’s familiar shape in the background. The two of them were talking, close enough that I could see the tilt of her head when she smiled at him.
Then she reached out and touched his arm. Nate leaned closer and kissed her. Those kisses should have been mine.
I pressed my palm to the invisible barrier. It was cool against my skin, unyielding, like glass that would never break. The scene on the other side was hazy, but the connection between them was clear enough to burn.
She sent me back. I understood why, of course I did. It didn’t make the hollow in my chest any smaller, though.
My hand slipped away, the image already fading. Somewhere, the life I want—Jess’s laughter, her touch, her world—was unfolding without me. And I had no choice but to watch it from here, as I always had.
Chapter 25
