AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Coldness exploded in my chest and seeped into every corner of my body. Skin on my hands turned dark. Tentacles of black mist leaked from me, shaping into shards of onyx glass on the panther’s ear.
Phantom winced and hissed as if it hurt him. “It burns,” he said, scratching at the mass building on his ear. The dark…thing buried into his flesh, cutting him.
My pulse streamed so hard. A strangled cry poured from my lips. What had I done? Called on some dark magic? Where was this coming from?
Sea God, help me!
But He ignored my cries as He had done when I’d been imprisoned.
Despair settled around my neck like a noose. I had to do something, or I was going to make things worse. But I couldn’t think above the panic hooking its claws into me.
Phantom squeezed my hand tighter. “Snow.”
The lump on his ear swelled, spreading across the back of his neck, leaving the same trail of destruction.
“No!” I shrieked, willing it to cease.
Warmth flared in my chest and extended across my body, chasing away the ice. That same gray light, only a pinprick now, glowed on one finger. Slowly, the black glass stopped its growth, its color fading, turning milky at first, then clear like the first lot I’d created. It fused along the folds of Phantom’s ear, acting like stitches.
Phantom’s fingers traced the glass. “What is that? Salt?”
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking uncontrollably.
It looked like fragments of glass. From a mirror. Nyssa’s mirror. What the hell was happening to me? That blasted thing was doing something to me. Whispering to me. Making me think I was going crazy. Begging me to gaze into it…sharing my stepmother’s secrets with me. Now, it had blessed with me light and dark powers. Magic that terrified me to the core.
“Think you could do that for my arm?” he joked, holding it out.
No. After I’d seen what my power could do, I was determined never to use it again, lest I hurt anyone.
Teeny interrupted, grabbing Phantom under the arm and helping to lift him. “Come on, you two. Let’s get back to the resistance.”
Half of me wished Nyssa had never given the mirror to me, fearing what other terrifying feats it might enable me to do. Yet, the rest of me was grateful it had allowed me to save Phantom, and I yearned to discover more. Once we got back to the resistance, I was going to find out everything I could about the mirror.
***
Phantom lay asleep,resting in the hospital bed with me by his side in a chair. The nurses had picked away the glass fragments and replaced them with thick bandages. I was grateful to my magic for stopping his bleeding.
Shadow and Flare were in beds on the opposite side of the room, their feet and collars secured by chains and under constant guard by four resistance members.
After l’d left Shadow behind, the guilt had chewed at my insides like maggots consuming a rotten apple. Now, I could feel the weight of Shadow’s stare upon me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Had a part of him wanted to hunt me? Out of revenge for leading evil to his doorstep? Or had he done those things only because he’d been forced to do so?
“Why didn’t you tell me who you were?” Shadow’s voice strained with bitterness.
“No talking,” one of the guards barked at him.
Shadow wasn’t having any of it. “You could have warned me,” he said.
His words earned him a punch to the stomach from the guard, and Shadow groaned.
“We could have protected you,” he added through gritted teeth.
“Enough,” the guard barked, running his hand along his dagger, reminding the panther who was in charge.
But Shadow refused to back down, defiantly lifting his head and torso, stretching off the bed as far as the chains allowed until they clanked in resistance.
“I deserve answers,” Shadow said, his voice somewhat softer…desperate and regretful at the same time. “I could have saved my family and people.”
Guilt folded and weaved in my stomach.Must he remind me?Didn’t he know I thought about those things every day? That every time I closed my eyes, I saw his—theirfaces? Didn’t he realize that I’d wanted to go back and fight for them?
