Page 30 of The Sapphire Dragon Prince
“Misha!”
I snapped my head up as Azurus’s plaintive cry sounded through the glass. The feeling that something was wrong returned. Azurus’s cry hadn’t come from the image of him, it echoed from somewhere else.
“Azurus?” I called out, scrambling to my feet again and studying my apparent beloved as he frowned and shook his head at me.
I sucked in a breath as the truth dawned on me. The Azurus that I saw looking at me with so much disappointment wasn’t really my beloved. He was a reflection. The thing in front of me was The BlackMirror, after all, not The BlackGlass. It was reflecting something back at me, something that probably came from my own mind or my own heart.
“You’re not real,” I told the false Azurus. “My mate would never look at me like that. He isn’t disappointed in me, he cares for me. He loves me like no one ever has before.”
Except Papa, a voice deep within me reminded me.
“Azurus!” I called out again, ignoring the figure that stood opposite me, glowering. “Are you there? I can’t see you anymore? Azurus?”
For a fraction of a second, the image I saw in the glass flickered. I caught sight of Azurus on the other side of the mirror, farther away, going through his pack. He looked terrified but determined.
Azurus was there, on the other side of the mirror, and he was fighting to save me.
But there was more on the other side of the mirror than just my beloved. I could see shadows creeping out of the high, stone walls that had grown up to enclose him. He wasn’t alone. Something was trying to get him.
I gasped and raced toward the mirror when the full truth hit me. Something evil was coming out of the shadows to hurt my beloved mate, and without his magic, he wouldn’t be able to stop it or save himself.
“Azurus!” I called out to him. “Watch out! There’s something in the shadows behind you!”
I lunged to bang on the glass, but to my shock, it was blisteringly hot. I cried out in pain as soon as my hands made contact with it, then stumbled backwards, panting and shaking my hands to dispel the burn.
The false image of Azurus had vanished, but that only meant that I could see the true Azurus as he tried to stab the glass with a dagger. The dagger dissolved into dust. Azurus’s expression was frantic as he raised his hands to pound on the glass, like I’d just done on my side.
Except that the moment my beloved touched the glass, it was as if he was blown backwards by a bruising force. He flew off his feet and landed hard on the dirt near his back, unmoving. The black forces of evil that hovered around him seemed to move closer, like they would smother him.
“Azurus, no!” I called out, raising my hands to pound on the glass again.
I stopped myself at the last second. I couldn’t touch the glass, but I had to get through in order to save my beloved. Azurus needed me. Without magic, he was as helpless as I was. But Azurus wasn’t used to being helpless. His crumpled, slow-moving form was proof of that. I could almost hear him groaning in pain as he tried to get up but failed.
“Hold on, Azurus!” I called out, dancing one way then the other as I searched the glass wall for any sign of weakness. “Hold on! I’m coming for you!”
All I had to do was figure out a way to get through the glass and I could race to Azurus and rescue him. I had a first aid kit in my pack, and with any luck, that would contain something that could heal my beloved.
I took a few steps back and started to swing the pack off my back, but the bone-chilling voice of my father stopped me.
“You’ll never be able to save him,” Father said, a sneer in his voice. “You’re nothing. You’re a useless, stupid omega. What makes you think you are good for anything other than breeding and suckling disgusting babies?”
I swallowed hard, letting the pack drop to the ground as I turned to face my father. I’d heard every one of his insults before, more times than I could count. My father’s views on omegas were well-known.
“Go away,” I said, screwing my face up for a moment and trying to reach for whatever courage I had within me. “Go away! You’re not real!”
“Of course I’m real,” my father sneered. “I’m the most real thing in your world. I made you, and I can destroy you.”
I shook my head, raising my hands to cover my ears for a moment, even though it felt foolish. “My father, King Freslik, is real,” I said, opening my eyes and staring at the apparition. “He is an evil man who spreads hate wherever he goes. He has made my life and the lives of my brothers a living nightmare. He is responsible for my papa’s death. I will always bear the scars of the vile things he did and caused to be done to me, but you are not him.”
“That’s what you think,” the specter of my father said. “But this is the magical world. How do you know I didn’t find another doorway into this world? How do you know I haven’t had access to magic all along? How else do you think I’ve become so powerful that I could imprison my own sons and no one would question me?”
I sucked in a breath and stumbled back. He was right. How did I know? My brothers and I had entered the magical world through a concealed doorway, so what was to say our father hadn’t done the same? What if he’d discovered the door under Rumi’s bed? What if he’d somehow hurt or even killed Rumi and Obi and snuck into the magical world so that he could steal all the magic here and use it to ruin everything?
“No!” I shouted, gripping the sides of my head again for a moment. “I refuse to believe that you are powerful enough to reach this world. You aren’t powerful at all, you’re just a bully who torments his own, vulnerable, omega sons because you cannot stand up against anyone else.”
“How dare you say such a thing to me?” my father demanded. “No one speaks to me like that. I will see you punished.”
He stepped toward me with one fist raised.
