Page 24 of The Midwinter Mirror
“No.” I shake my head so hard it hurts. “No! That’s insane.”
“It’s the truth.”
I don’t believe it—but if he’s right, I wouldn’t, would I? I mean, if there is a spell that stops me from believing in spells, then I’mnever going to believe it… A sort of catch-22. I think my head is going to explode.
I pull my hand free from Zayne and move away. I need to think, and Zayne touching me is not conducive to logical thoughts.
So, Zayne can shift into a monster and fly.Nope.
The children disappeared through a mirror at Silvergate.Nope.
Someone put a spell on me.Nope. Nope. Nopety-fucking-nope.
I try to ignore the voice in my head. But the pressure is building again.
Then I go still as something else occurs to me. Horror floods me, and I turn back to stare at Zayne.
“What is it?” he asks.
“If I believe you, then I’ve been lying to myself my whole life. And not just to myself. That day, when your mum died, I saw something…someone…and I lied because I knew it couldn’t be real.”
He looks away for a moment, then back. But there’s no anger in his eyes. “What did you see, Holly?”
I close my eyes for a moment, and an image flashes in my mind. “A man. No, not a man, some sort of half-man, half-horse, with great horns, and he just…vanished.” I swallow. “The Hunter. He couldn’t have been real.” Except… “Oh, God, I let you down, Zayne—back then. Maybe your dad would never have—” I break off. I can’t say it.
“Killed himself? Maybe not. But I think he would have. He loved my mum so much. He didn’t want to go on without her. And don’t you see—if there is a spell on you, then it’s not your fault.”
“It’s horrible.” At the same time, I almost cave in at the relief flooding me. I’ve carried the guilt for years. What if it’s not my fault?
“Yeah,” he says. “But believe me, I’ve seen worse. I’ve seen some seriously fucked-up things happen through magic.”
“But you might have stayed if I hadn’t lied. I know I let you down.”
“Again. Maybe. But the truth is—I needed to leave this place. I would likely have ended up just like my dad if I’d stayed. So, it turned out for the best.”
Then I think of what he said. “Where have you been, Zayne? Where did you see this magic?”
He doesn’t answer for a minute, and then he shrugs. He looks around. There’s a bale of hay in the corner, and he crosses to it, sits down, and pats the space beside him. “Come and sit down, princess.”
“Am I going to need to?”
“Probably. Let’s just say even without a spell, you might find this a little hard to believe.”
I walk slowly over to him, sink down onto the hay bale, and clasp my hands in my lap. “Go on.”
“So a few months ago, my foster sister, Amber, found out she wasn’t…from here. Turns out she’s from another world called Astrali, and also…” he hesitates. He shrugs again. “There’s no easy way to say this—she’s Lucifer’s daughter.”
“Seriously? As in the devil?” He was right about one thing—it’s definitely hard to believe.
“Yeah. But you don’t have to worry about him.”
“Believe me, the devil is the last thing I’m worried about right now. But why shouldn’t I worry?”
“Amber killed him and destroyed Hell. Anyway, to cut a long story short—you can travel to other worlds through these mirrors that are made by special witches like Amber. Except allthe special witches are gone now. It’s still possible to go through the existing mirrors if you know the spell, but there will be no more new ones.”
I have suspended all disbelief by this point. “So where did your…basilisk come from?”
“He was always there, deep down, but then I was bitten by this really fucking nasty creature, and that made me into a shifter. Anyway, Josh and I have been living in this other world—”
