“Ouch,” I mutter, climbing to my feet and watching as the doors swing open and make that stupid bing noise. Outside the doors is a forest full of thick trees and a dusty old pathway covered in roots and leaves in the middle. Magic is thick in the air as I step out of the lift. I turn around, but the lift is gone, leaving nothing but forest for as far as I can see, which isn’t too far in the dark. Birds tweet and make the leaves scuffle as they move around, and my eyes strain to see what might be hidden in the trees as I walk down the path, presuming I have to follow it.
Oddly, I don’t think I’m far from the city of the reapers or even that we have left the city at all, I think this is a shadow illusion. I’ve heard that the reapers torture their own, the ones who dare try to escape or kill. This place is made up of a serious amount of magic, usually by at least fifty reapers combined, and I have no clue how to get out of it without giving up all my secrets. That’s what this world is meant for. It’s a way of finding out who you are when everything is wrong and if you will fight when the world has gone to shit.
I run my fingers across the trees as I pass them, keeping myself as alert for danger as I can, but there really isn’t anything but a nice forest at the moment. The pathway gets narrower with every few steps until I get to an archway of vines with no end in sight. I peer down into it, feeling the magic is stronger down here than behind me.
“I hate magic sometimes,” I mutter as I lower myself to my knees and start crawling through the vines archway. The vines catch and snag in my hair as I crawl, teasing me to stop. The vines turn and change into sharp thorns as I crawl further. The thorns cut into my arms and hips, and I bite through the pain as I see a light at the end. One thorn slowly cuts across my neck as I get to the end and pull myself out into a clearing. Right in the middle of the clearing are seven mirrors in a line. The mirrors are framed with black metal, and each one has a different animal above it. Everything from a hawk to a wolf and even a dragon. Before I can get close to them, a low growling noise makes all the hairs on my neck stick up. I flick the whip out of the clip, letting the leather slap onto the ground as I turn around. In the thick bushes and trees are at least seven pairs of glowing gold eyes. Very slowly one of them steps out of the bushes, and I get a good look at the horrific creature.
It looks like a polar bear in some ways, but some of its fur is black, and big chunks are missing, just leaving rotting skin. It raises itself up on its back legs and lets out a long roar that shakes the very ground under my feet. Shit. I turn and run as fast as I can to the mirrors, but the bear is quicker than I am. Something hard hits me right in the middle of my back, and I fly forward, smacking my chin against the stone path on the ground. The sharp tang of blood fills my mouth as I roll onto my back as the bear lands on top of me. Instinctively, I pull my magic to me, purple shadows flickering around my body, and I scream. The shadows blast out of me in waves, crashing into the bear and bursting him to pieces. Blood pours down on me as I rise up, my feet leaving the ground, my power completely in control. I see nothing but blood as I raise the whip in my hand and laugh as five more bears run out of the bushes. The purple shadows spread down the whip, lighting it up as it becomes like an extension of myself.
I raise my hand and harshly whip the first bear. My power makes the whip cut through the bear like he is nothing. Two other bears get closer, and waves of my power leave me, smothering them and raising them into the air as they thrash about in my grip. They explode within moments, and when I look down, only one bear is left. He growls at me, and I move my hand to him, ready to kill him if I need to, but he surprises me. The bear slowly lowers its head and bows before walking backwards until I can’t see him anymore.
“Time to go back in the box,” I plead with my power, even as it resists, pushing me to just destroy everything around me. I grit my teeth, pulling back the shadows to me and gasping as the magic finally snaps back into my body, and I fall straight onto a pile of bear guts.
“Oh fuck no,” I mutter, rolling onto the flat stone and looking away from the dead shit all around me. After wiping the blood from my hand, I push back some of the loose locks of my hair and stare up at the mirrors. For some reason, the mirrors themselves scare me a lot more than the bears ever could do. I pick up my whip handle and drag it across the stone as I walk to the mirrors. I walk past each one, seeing nothing but my reflection until I come to the middle mirror. In this one is a woman that makes me fall to my knees.
My mother stands in the mirror, her body see-through like she isn’t real. But it is her alright. A longing I didn’t know I had fills my chest, making it hard to breathe as tears fall down my cheeks. This is my mother’s soul, and I don’t want to see it. Seeing her dead like this means she can’t be alive, she can’t be out there waiting for me to come and find her.
The truth hurts more.
Ryker’s clue comes back to me, like he is whispering it in my ear. “When you’re alone, look for the mirror that shows you nothing but the truth.”
And god damn it, this is the truth.
I stand up and place my hand on the glass mirror, wishing I could talk to her but knowing she is somewhere at peace now. I won’t ever find her, but I hope she is with me now. I hope she is watching me, guiding me somehow. I take three steps back, running my eyes over my mother’s soul one more time like I can imprint the memory of her before lifting my hand. I crash the whip into the glass, and instantly the glass shatters and so does the world around me until I’m standing in the lift alone.
And the doors open to a room which is just a plain room with glass walls all around and one scary ass, hot as fuck demi-god stood in the middle with his arms tightly crossed against his chest. I’m sure I see relief in his eyes when he sees me, but he quickly cools his expression. I’m sure he is just relieved I am still alive to save Poppy, if Poppy made it on her own.
“Congratulations, Daesyn,” he tells me. “You may go back to your rooms and enjoy your night off.”
“I’m going to sleep, thanks,” I say around a yawn. His lips twitch in amusement as I press the lift button and watch him.
“Is Poppy back yet?” I question.
“Yes, she survived,” he answers, and I sigh in relief. I step into the lift the second the doors open, and press the button for my floor.
“Tell Mossy to stop sneaking into my room and fucking with the shower settings, will you? I want a warm shower one time this week,” Finn demands of me. I just laugh as the doors close, and surprisingly I see him smile at me before the lift takes me away.
Chapter 16
“Poppy, out with it,” I state, looking at her over my steaming cup of coffee. The coffee is so good here I’m actually thinking about winning this damn academy and becoming queen so I can have this coffee for the rest of my long ass life. You know, if I wasn’t half Unseelie fae and they wouldn’t try to murder/enslave me. Always problems that get in the way of me and my coffee. Poppy lifts her eyes from her uneaten plate of pancakes and shakes her head. Since I got back last night, she hasn’t left her bedroom other than to use the bathroom, and she now looks like a zombie. I thought she would be happy that she survived a test on her own.
“What happened in your test?” she asks me.
“I’ll tell you if you eat,” I reply and add, “and you tell me what happened in yours.”
“Fine,” she grumbles and cuts her pancakes.
“I fought off a pack of bears that stunk. Then there were mirrors in a forest...and I had to destroy one,” I tell her, avoiding who I saw in the mirror. It wasn’t real. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. “What about you?”
“It was a forest, and I heard my parents screaming. I heard my sister screaming for her life. I battled a giant bird, who picked me up and threw me into a tree. I used shadow magic to hide me in the trees and climbed through them...but there were just mirrors,” her voice slowly drifts off. “And in one of the mirrors, my family were all dead, and in another I saw myself, wandering around lost, calling for help and crying. I broke that mirror as it’s the truth. I am lost and I am helpless.”
“Poppy, no you’re not,” I tell her. “And I don’t believe the mirror showed us the truth, and if it did, it showed only what we think is the truth in our souls. It mirrors us...that’s what strong magic does.”
“You think so?” she slowly asks.
“That illusion was so strong, it felt so real, and I felt drained afterwards. I believe the professors used our magic to set the real test,” I say, meaning every word. “Therefore the mirrors were a test against what our worst fear is. Yours is being weak, and mine is...”
“What is yours?” she asks me, but I avoid the question, looking down.
“Have you seen Mossy this morning?” I ask. He was in here when I came back yesterday, but this morning he has been missing. Sword appears right by my cup of coffee, appearing out of nowhere.
“Master Mossy has been leaving dog treats on Ryker’s pillows after I explained he joined you in the bath the other day and you were not happy,” Sword tells us. I chuckle. Dog treats? God damn, that monkey is funny.
“You had a bath with Ryker? The hellhound?” Poppy blurts out. “Is that why he helped us in Hell?”
“No, he came into my bathroom after Hell when I was in the bath, for a chat. Uninvited.” I clear that bit up. “And I have no clue why he helped us in Hell. He apparently is happy if we win.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Maybe he just wants to sleep with you,” Poppy says, her cheeks going red again.
“Do you have a boyfriend or had one?” I question.
She shakes her head. “Father was strict, but Laelia used to sneak out all the time. I know about guys. What about you?”
“I dated one guy for a bit. Well, he wasn’t just a guy. He was a succubus demon, and let me tell you, he was great in bed but shit at being in a relationship,” I tell her. “That was two years ago, and I’m desperately in need of a good—”
The lift doors slide open, making that binging noise, and Finn steps out. “Good morning.”
