Page 9 of Hex Appeal
“Understatement of the year. It’s not just about Nate, either. The longer a mirror creature remains outside, the more unstable the veil gets. That’s when other things start slipping through. Things nastier than Etan.”
I groaned, flopping back on my bed. “So, if I don’t send him back soon, I lose Nate forever and unleash a bunch of supernatural horrors on Hallowell Bay. Perfect. No pressure.”
“Oh, there’s pressure,” Raven said. “One week. Baba Yaga wasn’t kidding. If you blow it, the Council will strip your magic and toss you in jail faster than you can say ‘oops.’”
I stared at the ceiling. “Great. My first almost-boyfriend is an existential threat.”
Raven hopped closer, lowering his voice. “Jess, whatever feelings you think you’re catching for him, forget them. He’s not Nate. He’s an echo wearing Nate’s face.”
I didn’t answer, because deep down, I knew he was right.
The problem was echoes shouldn’t have smiles that made your heart do somersaults, or reflections that lingered a second too long after you’d looked away.
Chapter 5
Etan
She’d walked away without looking back, but I could still feel the weight of her gaze like it was stitched into my skin. A few minutes later, I was in the cafeteria with a tray of fries in front of me.
The fries were perfect. Not the limp, lukewarm kind I’d glimpsed a hundred times through mirrors, but perfect, hot enough to sting my fingers, crisp edges giving way to soft, salty insides. I chewed slowly, letting the oil and salt coat my tongue.
This was what the Mirror Realm never got right: taste. Warmth. Even the heat of the fries was intoxicating, steam curling into my face, salt clinging stubbornly to my skin. On the other side, food looked the same but tasted like memory: thin, hollow, gone the second you tried to hold on to it. Here, every bite fought to stay, rich and loud in my mouth. I let the salt melt slowly on my tongue, savoring it until the last grain was gone.
Around me, the cafeteria was a chorus of sound and scent. Trays clattered, someone laughed too loud by the vending machines, and the tang of ketchup and apple juice hung in the air. It all pressed in on me like sunlight after too many years in shadow.
I could get used to it.
A girl I didn’t know brushed past, offering a shy smile. I gave her one back, slow, sexy. I felt the air between us spark, just faintly. Her pupils widened. My reflection in the metal napkin dispenser smiled too, though it lingered a fraction of a second longer than I did.
Control was easy here. A tilt of my head, a well-placed word, and people leaned closer. Teachers smiled. Strangers laughed at things I hadn’t really meant to be funny. Every reaction fed something in me, filled a hollow I hadn’t realized was so deep.
Jess was different, though. Jess saw me. Not just the face, his face, but me. I could feel it in the way her eyes narrowed even as her pulse sped up. She didn’t want to want me, and that made me want her more. Worse, when I crossed back into the Mirror Realm, her laugh lingered. It didn’t belong in that grey place, but it followed me anyway, soft as static in the silence. I hated that I noticed.
Through the mirror, you watch life through glass and feel nothing but the ache of not touching. Here, I could touch everything. Taste everything. Steal everything.
Why would I ever give that up? Especially when the girl who could send me back was already under my skin.
Chapter 6
Jess
“All right, apprentice,” Raven said the next afternoon, pacing across my desk like a tiny, winged drill sergeant. “If we’re going to get Nate back, you need to understand how to work with mirror magic. And more importantly, how not to get yourself devoured by it.”
I eyed the object in his claws. “That’s a hand mirror shaped like a flamingo.”
“Yes. You can thank Bianca for donating it to the cause.”
I squinted. “Did she say why she had it?”
“No, and frankly, I’m afraid to know.”
Raven set the mirror on the desk between us. The flamingo’s rhinestone eyes caught the light, sending little prisms onto my walls.
“Rule number one, never trust what you see in a mirror during a spell. Reflections lie. They tell you what you want to see, or what you’re afraid to see.”
Raven was mid-lecture when a squirrel launched itself onto my windowsill, holding what looked like a hot dog. It froze, eyes wide like it had just walked into the wrong class. Then, it started eating while maintaining eye contact with both of us. Once it was done, it chittered at us like we’d done something wrong, then darted off.
Raven muttered, “I don’t trust mammals with hands.”
