Page 75 of The Unweaver

She winced. The hands he’d been praising for their artistry an hour before were now atrocities. “You don’t understand—”

“We had to bury my Lorena in a closed casket so her mum wouldn’t see how you defiled her.” Guy stepped forward, electricity sparking off him, and lowered his voice. “Sooner or later, Mal will see you for the monster you are. And when that day comes, I’ll fry you myself.”

“The handprints were mine, but I didn’t kill—”

Guy unleashed a volley of electricity she barely ducked in time. She shoved the heel of her palm into his broken nose, and he fell back against the wall with a curse, blood spouting.

“I’ll put my rotten hands on you next if you don’t back the hell off.”

A motion behind her drew her attention. Ravi, fear etched onto his features, was eyeing her like the abomination she was. He gave her a wide berth as he slipped through the doors.

Tears pricked her eyes. She’d take Guy’s open hostility over Ravi’s silent reproach any day. Trembling, she dashed out of the club’s confines and back to the Witch’s Cap tower where no one could see her fall apart.

Chapter 20. Sweet Torment

Aman was shouting.

Dreamlike, Cora spun on her heel and saw Felix charging down the abandoned hotel’s hallway. Fleeing, she tripped on the frayed rug and nearly fell to her knees.

Cor-a, taunted a voice as she ran.

Felix was close and gaining on her. His arms swung out and grabbed her, then he was on top of her. She clawed his face. Clawed until there was nothing but a skull draped in torn flesh and blood dripping into her screaming mouth.

Cor-a...

Pushing off Felix’s lifeless body, Cora struggled to her feet and staggered away. A monster with an ugly jumper blocked her path. She stuttered to a halt before colliding with it. Shadows prowled closer and took the shape of her nightmares, chasing her into a thick fog. Embodiments of the deaths she’d foretold. Corpses she’d reanimated. Deaths she couldn’t escape. No matter how fast or far she ran, they would catch her.

Cor-a…

Through the fog she ran towards a distant wraith. Teddy turned to nothingness as her arms passed through him. Dissolving, he groaned in an awful voice,You killed me, Cora dear. You killed me.

Dashing away, she looked behind to see if the apparitions pursued, but the fog had swallowed them. She slammed into a hard, flat surface and stumbled back, craning her neck up and up at the three enormous mirrors towering over her.

Each mirror reflected a different nightmare of herself. From left to right, she shot her face off, laid in a pool of cancerous tar, and carved her own heart out.

A door opened behind her, spilling in a shaft of light. The silhouette of a man emerged.

Blinking in amazement, she turned back to see if the man was real. Malachy, wearing trousers and rolled up shirtsleeves, stared wide-eyed at the mirrors behind her.

The mirrors rippled like a pond, bringing new twisted reflections.

The right mirror drew her gaze. A tawny goddess with cat’s eyes, a mane of golden hair, and an eight-pointed star emblazoned above her heart stared back.

In the left mirror was a strangely familiar man. With two mismatched halves roughly sewn together, he was not whole. His dark pince-nez glasses flashed, and in the lenses, Cora glimpsed two men wrestling in a frozen tundra while the Doomsday Watch ticked like a bomb.

In the center was the silhouette of a woman with mirror-like eyes, draped in a blank canvas upon which flashing images were projected too quickly for them to register.She reached through the mirror and caressed Cora’s face with a long claw.

Cor-a...

Malachy roped an arm around her waist and yanked her back against him. The mirrors rippled, and their own reflections appeared in the beveled mirrors of a vanity table cluttered with jars and bottles. Fear was doused by an awareness of his warm, hard body surrounding her.

“My eyes.” Staring at his reflection, Malachy touched their corners in wonder. “They’re blue again.” His gaze dropped to her willowy figure clad in a silk chemise. His arm tightened around her, and she leaned back into him.

“Why did you tell everyone my secret, Malachy?”

His eyes rose to hers in the mirror, blue as a summer sky and full of longing. “Oh,mo chroí. You’re safe with me now. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Haven’t you done enough penance for being born?”

“I’m a monster,” she whispered.

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