Truth Seer Book Four, page 4
I backed away, paling.
If my attacks could repeat infinitely, I was freaking screwed. I’d tear this house down around my ears. Dammit, I needed to figure out what was going on here.
“I’ll break you. Whatever you are, I will break you,” my voice echoed from behind me.
I spun. Instinct told me to flatten myself. A smart move. A reflection of my attack from the kitchen lanced over my shoulder. It struck the staircase to my side, destroying the banister in a cloud of sparks and fire.
My attack appeared again from another direction and rocketed toward me.
I had no option. I needed to throw myself back down the corridor.
I glimpsed the main door.
I had to get out of the house. It was too dangerous.
But I reached the front door, and it threw me back. My groping fingers didn’t even touch the handle. Power coalesced over the wood, gathered, and thrust against my chest. It sent me hurtling so fast, I was lucky there were no walls behind me and the corridor was straight. If I’d struck anything – even a vase of soft flowers – it would’ve knocked me out.
Instead I had the time to change direction, call on my magic, and create a shield.
It protected me as I finally struck the floor and rolled.
I didn’t stay on my back long. I pounced to my feet as another reflection of my attack pinged over my left shoulder and struck the remains of the stair’s banister.
“I’ll break you. Whatever you are. I will break you,” my voice echoed. Again it pushed more emphasis into the word will than I had. It didn’t just vibrate. It blared an eternal promise.
I should just shut up. I definitely shouldn’t attack again. Every movement I made was reflected back at me.
This must be a version of a mirror spell. A compact, concentrated, pocket version of one. It wasn’t like the others I’d encountered. I couldn’t close my eyes and break it. It was almost like I’d wandered into a closed world or something.
No. I hadn’t wandered. I’d touched the damn mirror.
Everything came back to the original mirror in the bathroom. So I had to return to it. If I could reach it.
“I’ll break you. Whatever you are, I will break you,” my voice continued to ping around me as attacks lanced from left to right. Don’t ask me how I navigated down the short corridor toward the open bathroom door. I felt like a soldier in a crazy war zone. Attacks sliced from every direction, plaster, burning wood, and crackling magical lighting making it impossible to see through the smoke and dust.
I reached the door. At least I think I did. No. My knees didn’t strike tiles. Wrong direction. The door was behind me.
As I pivoted and threw myself toward it, I thought I saw a figure resolving through the smoke.
They looked like me – the same size, the same jeans. They were even open and unzipped.
A hand had grabbed me and pulled me into this spell. Squeezing my eyes shut for a microsecond, I realized the hand resembled mine.
I had a distinctive scar down my left thumb.
“What the—”
I glimpsed the open door and threw myself at it, but that figure reappeared. She threw her arms out wide.
With a grunt, I tackled her. It felt like wrapping your arms around a massive tower and trying to pull it from its foundations. My feet skidded, I knocked the breath from my lungs, and my shoulders shook.
My hair tumbled from my ponytail, splaying in front of my face and reducing my visibility further.
“Come on. Come on,” I roared. I squeezed my blood droplet. It didn’t matter. The figure I fought was stronger.
“Come on,” she repeated in my voice, but a singsong, merry version of it, “come on.” Irony dripped through her tone, danger too.
She grabbed me by the shoulders and hurled me into the bathroom. She spun me so fast, I struck the bath. If it weren’t for my droplet of blood, I would’ve cracked my head against the edge.
But last month when I’d fought Lord Omega, I’d freed my blood. I’d reached this point where I understood it wanted the freedom that came with truth.
It could now operate without my conscious control. It pulsed, creating a momentary shield that shot up over my body. It protected me as my head slammed against the enamel.
I slid off the bar. Less smoke-filled this room. It meant I clearly saw the figure as she turned around in the doorway.
It was me. Down to every detail. The open jeans, the zipped leather jacket, the loose hair. Just not the expression. If I’d ever showed sycophantic amusement like that, I would’ve stuck a paper bag over my face.
“Come on, come on,” she laughed at me.
She knelt then shot forward in a tackle. I scrambled backward, but she grabbed me by the hips and hurled me against the bath.
Again, my magic protected me. It couldn’t do that forever.
“Come on, come on,” she virtually sang now.
She grabbed my head and smashed it against the bath’s edge.
My magic shield was starting to shiver and break. I tried to elbow her. It didn’t work. Again she grabbed me and slammed my head against the bath. My face slid off the smooth enamel. My skull didn’t break. Yet.
One more time she slammed my head against the bath’s edge.
My teeth rattled. A little blood pushed from my nose. My magic could only do so much for me—
“Come on—” she began.
“Fine.”
I wasn’t conceding defeat.
Nowhere near.
If she was a reflection, I could defeat her. But not by fighting her directly.
The mirror was still on the wall behind her. I should’ve tried harder to fight it. Sure, some cold spell protected it. I was a truth seer, dammit. I’d fought Lord Omega and countless other magical creatures. When you backed me into a corner, I didn’t just fight. I often destroyed the corner too.
I roared.
The reflection smashed my head down onto the bath again, this time breaking it. A fissure ran down the thick, clawed-foot, enameled monstrosity, cracking it to pieces.
They thumped onto the floor, revealing sharp, jagged edges.
My reflection smiled dangerously. She couldn’t crush my head against the bath – she could slit my throat on its sides, though.
She grabbed me by the skull.
I couldn’t look at her expression. It’d be baked into my brain forever more. I’d see it every time I looked at my reflection.
If I ever faced another mirror again.
I knew just what to do with them. I rediverted the power from my blood drop, destroying the shield. I had seconds.
The mirror was right behind me.
Squeeze. I gave the attack everything I could, funneling my mind into my magic and begging it to help me.
A shockwave blasted out. It struck the mirror.
My reflection froze. She was not destroyed. She barely even slowed down. A second later, she shook it off and grabbed my throat with both hands, deciding to strangle me instead.
Stars escaped through my vision, tinnitus hammering my ears.
She squeezed and squeezed. At this rate, even if she didn’t kill me, a stroke or complications would. I felt my throat closing off.
But before my gaze became too blurry, I focused on the mirror.
Everything. I just thought of that word, clearing my mind, a simple task considering death beckoned.
Everything. I just needed to give my blood everything. It was less of a conscious act – more permission.
I trusted it. And what sits at truth’s foundations but trust?
As everything went black, another droplet of blood spun from my palm, joining the last. They circled one another like atoms.
They joined their attack and struck the mirror.
Something cracked.
Energy blasted out.
My reflection had a chance to sneer. Then surprise gripped her eyes, opening them wide.
The magic disappeared, and she shivered, breaking into a thousand glass fragments that struck the floor, vibrated, and scattered.
I gasped and fell against the bath. Somehow it wasn’t cracked anymore.
Bethany shot over.
I was covered in soot. I transferred it all over the bath and tiles as I struggled to stand. I battled for breath. My heaving chest bounced in and out.
“Harper?” Bethany screamed loud enough the block would hear.
Vince’s thundering footfall snapped out a second later. I’d locked the door. It didn’t mean much when a vamp was involved.
He elbowed it open. He didn’t even use his knee or shoulder. The door crumpled.
Vince shot close, fear gripping him. Anger joined it a moment later.
He saw my throat. I didn’t need to touch it to know bruises covered it.
Dangerous inflammation would be gripping my windpipe.
He gently pulled me to my feet as a surprised Samantha appeared in the doorway. Seconds later, the lady stepped stiffly into view. “What are you doing—” she stopped.
Her expression didn’t register much for a few seconds.
I’d clearly been attacked. Her mirror was cracked. Something untoward was happening. Yet she looked blank like she lacked the program to respond.
Vince knew exactly what to do. Tension gripped his teeth. His vamp fangs flashed dangerously. “What happened to her in your house?” he snapped.
The lady blinked again like a robot coming back online. “This is not my doing, Head of the Council.”
“What happened, Harper?” His voice changed. I could melt into it. Maybe it wanted to melt into me. Actual concern filled his eyes.
It might take your whole life to find someone who feels like that for you. When you do, don’t let them go. My desperate fingers certainly wouldn’t release his sleeves. They gripped them hard. “I don’t know. I looked in the mirror. I realized there was some kind of delay. I touched it.” I gulped, voice croaky, throat hard, “and it pulled me into some version of a mirror spell. It was like a pocket. It had my reflection. It attacked me.” I had to stop speaking. I coughed. I couldn’t breathe—
Until Vince locked his tender grip around my wrist. “I’m going to touch your throat. I will not squeeze, I promise.”
I faced him. Did he need to add the words I promise? Of course not. With Vince, I knew he’d never hurt me.
As promised, he touched my throat lightly, his thumb sliding down the flesh. I shivered then breathed more easily.
The lady still stood in the doorway like she didn’t know what to do. Then something dawned on her. “This attack was meant for me, wasn’t it? If you’re little underling hadn’t taken it, I’d be dead. Have my attackers already infiltrated my house?” she roared.
Vince looked at the lady with an unsheathed glower. He might be diplomatic most of the time. The lady had crossed the line.
“If the mirror hadn’t attacked this truth seer here, I’d be dead. Vince, what will you do about this?” she demanded.
“Protect this truth seer here. The Council will investigate this immediately. You have another house. I suggest you go there,” he snapped.
The lady bristled, but fear contracted her brow. She clearly knew when to leave for her own good.
She wasted no time. Grasping Samantha hard by the elbow, she pulled her toward the door.
Vince, still staring at me with genuine compassion, grabbed his phone from his pocket. He called his people, demanding five trackers arrive in portals presently. They did, and bursts of magic crackled out on the lawn.
“Harper, I’m so sorry. I had no idea this would happen—”
I reached out and grasped his elbow. Speaking might be hard. I still smiled. “I know. You would never want me to get hurt. And honestly… I could’ve gotten more hurt.” It was a joke. Or half one. I laughed. A mistake given my throat’s condition. I coughed again.
He pulled me closer. His arm brushed mine. His gaze did more. It slid lovingly down my body. This wasn’t lust. This was its deeper, far more important cousin. I mightn’t have ever kissed Vince. Why did we feel like we had a connection that mattered more?
He pulled me from the house. He faced two of the trackers outside. The other three raced past him, searching for clues inside.
“Investigate this place thoroughly. I will call more people to protect the lady. Do not let anything happen to her.” Vince’s voice growled low.
Was that a warning for himself? He’d just told the trackers to investigate this place. It’d be up to Vince to keep the lady safe.
As Vince carefully led me to his car, I turned over my shoulder to see the lady sitting in the back of a luxury stretch limo. Samantha was backing it out of the house’s garage.
The lady did not look my way. She didn’t look at anything. She stared directly ahead, dead-eyed. She fingered her triple string of pearls, the only movement she was apparently capable of.
“Harper, get in the car. It’s about to snow,” Vince said.
He led me to the passenger side and helped me get in.
Bethany settled in my lap. When the door was closed, she rumbled, “Harper, you’re lucky, but that’s insane. You got out by the skin of your teeth.”
“Lucky?” Vince snapped. “If she were lucky, the spell wouldn’t have kidnapped her in the first place. Why did you touch the mirror, Harper?”
I glanced at him, wondering if this was a prelude to a reprimand. I shrugged when I realized I didn’t care. “Because there was a spell, Vince. And I guess I acted without thinking.”
“Harper, I thought you were over that.” Disappointment ripped through his tone.
Bethany rose to my defense. “She touched it because you would’ve touched it, because Lux would’ve touched it, because any competent magical practitioner would’ve touched it. It’s not curiosity that kills the cat. It’s ineptitude and doing nothing. Vince Strathgordon, we are currently in a very tricky situation. You might’ve lied earlier and said things are going well. They aren’t. Lord Omega has gone to ground. He still intends to take the city over. And mark my words, he’ll still be gathering forbidden practitioners. If this case isn’t related to him, I’ll eat my heart. And yes, for a dead soul shard, I don’t have one. An empty threat. My point remains. Harper acted because she has to, because she is expected to, because she’s contracted to. You’re the one who made her sign a deal in the first place.”
Bethany had just downloaded that insult so fast, the air vibrated with it.
Vince stared dead ahead then winced. “I’m sorry. It’s just—” He cut his gaze toward me. His eyes slid down my injuries.
I palpated my neck and winced. “I’m not gonna have a stroke or anything, am I? Magic can stop that, can’t it?” This wasn’t the first time something had tried to strangle me or the first time Vince had soothed these precise worries.
He shook his head. “With proper magical medical attention, you’ll be fine. Harper… I’m sorry again.”
I looked at him with an unfiltered gaze and meant it. “Vince, it’s not your problem.”
I meant to say fault.
He bristled. “Problem? How are you not my problem?” The energy around him changed. He was about to launch into a fight. But he sighed, grabbed the steering wheel, and almost gouged a hole in it with his short thumbnails. “I have a thousand problems right now, Harper. And though it might seem that I’ve been ignoring you, I haven’t been. It’s just…”
I waited for him to fill in the just. I stood on tenterhooks, my heart this roaring, beating lump in my hands. It was just what? I meant more to him?
… How much more?
I slid my fingers down my throat again and thought of my reflection. Which made me think of a different kind of reflection.
Once, Vince Strathgordon had been engaged to a truth seer. She’d bled out in his arms. And in many ways, I was just a reflection of her. Vince might appear to be into me. His attraction may only be because I reminded him of his old lover.
We drifted into silence.
“This, Harper, is where you ask more about that spell,” Bethany gave me five minutes before snapping that.
I straightened. “It’s just a kind of mirror spell, right? We already know they’re Lord Omega’s preferred method of attack.”
“Vince, was that just a mirror spell?” Bethany pushed.
Vince’s cheeks twitched. “No. It’s something a lot more alarming than that.”
I hated the way his voice dropped and vibrated. I straightened, expression crumpled in pain. “Ah… guys? What am I missing?”
“It takes a hell of a lot of magic to create what you faced back there. It was a reflection spell. A certain kind of mirror spell, true, but a far more dangerous one,” Vince’s voice dropped off a cliff into oblivion.
Did I need his reminder? No. I’d wandered through multiple mirror spells without my reflections ever attacking me. Now I was out of that crazy experience, my mind could replay every dangerous blow. It was a miracle I’d survived. Statistically, I should’ve died.
And if I had died… Vince would never have found me.
Cold dread coiled around my stomach. “It’s done though, right? I mean the spell is spent… isn’t it? It’s not coming back,” I tried, reaching the question I cared about most. My voice shot up, my tension and fear clear.
Vince worryingly drummed his feet in the footwell and said nothing.
Beth shook. “Harper, when is this world ever that simple? If Lord Omega has discovered how to create reflection spells, he will use them again. That is a certainty, not a suggestion. Be prepared. Take on board your lessons from this time, and Harper, ensure I remain by your side. I’m your partner for a reason.”
I sighed, sank into my seat, grabbed her, held her, and nodded.
Chapter 5
I flicked my hair from my face as I kicked my legs back and forth on the makeup table. I shouldn’t be sitting on it. Louisa had assured me it could take my weight. It could take a demon’s weight. And they were fabulously dense things.
She finished applying her own makeup then frowned at me. “You sure you don’t want some concealer?” She pointed at the patina of obvious bruises covering my throat.
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