Page 127 of Wrath

And when I reopened my eyes, I was alone in the tent.

FORTY-FOUR

DAIR

At first, I was aware of darkness.

Only darkness.

And then a lance of fire streaked across my vision, and I found myself staring at…me. My reflection.

What. The. Fuck?

I clumsily spun my chair in a circle, only to see mirrors in every direction, surrounding me. Nerves pinballed around in my stomach, and my hands turned clammy.

Was this the trial?

Where was Z?

Panic for my mate set in, overriding every other emotion, and I searched for a pathway amongst the mirrors. It needed to be large enough for my damn chair to fit through.

“Z! Where are you?” My heart threw itself against my rib cage like a battering ram.

I couldn’t believe what I had said to her. That wasn’t me—at least, I didn’t think it was. But maybe a part of me had been holding on to all of these emotions for much longer than Ithought. Maybe a part of me always believed that I was “less of a man” because of my physical disability.

“Z!”

Nothing shattered the veil of silence.

Not Z’s voice. Not the chirping of a cricket. Not the song of a bird. Nothing.

Where the fuck was I?

I tilted my head back to get a better understanding of my surroundings, but all I could see above was inky darkness. There was no end that I could see, only a fathomless void that stretched on and on and on.

Ignoring the queasy pull of fear, I turned my attention to the mirrors.

Each one stood about six feet tall with elaborate filigree edges. They formed a tight circle around me, making movement impossible.

Wait… What the…?

I squinted at the mirror directly in front of me, noticing something I hadn’t seen earlier.

The reflection—my reflection—was standing.

“How does it feel to be useless?” my reflection taunted. “You’ll never be able to stand at Z’s side. Not the way you are now.” His upper lip curled as he sneered down at me. “You’re nothing.”

“Shut up.” Tension knotted the muscles of my shoulders.

“You’re useless to the team even with two working legs,” my reflection continued, a smirk on his lips. “Everybody else offers something to the group, except for you. Do you really want to be known as the ‘nice one’?”

“Shut up.” Anger vibrated inside of me, blanketed by decades of self-control.

I’d dealt with my sadistic father and brothers for years. I could deal with this—with him.

“She’s going to leave you one day,” he continued. “She doesn’t want half a man. Don’t you want to be like me? What if there was a way to get your legs back? What if all you had to do was sacrifice the legs of someone else? It’s only fair, right? Maybe you could make Devlin sit in the chair for a few months?—”

“SHUT UP!” Heat rocketed through my body, scalding razor blades slicing at my skin.

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