Of Glass and Glamour

by Chanda Hahn

  “Kill, kill, kill,” the voice commanded again.

  “Stop it. That’s enough.”

  “Obey me,” Allemar whispered through the mirror.

  The hair on the back of my neck rose as I felt the power of his compulsion through the mirror. He was an extremely powerful sorcerer. I grabbed the brass fire poker and swung it with all my might, shattering the mirror. When the glass broke, the voice disappeared and I was left standing amidst a mess of broken shards.

  My hands trembled as I kneeled down to pick up the pieces. My finger slipped, and I cut myself on the glass. A drop of my blood soaked into the mirror, and I saw an image of a woman with red hair in the glass before it disappeared.

  “Meri?” I held up the glass, but she never reappeared. Maybe it was just my imagination.

  Taking most of the glass, I dumped it in the ash pail for the fireplace and went back to cleaning up the rest of the pieces. Among the shards I found a glowing key. I tossed it into the ash pail as well. Then I remembered my mother.

  She hadn’t made a sound since I came back. I ran to the cage and saw that part of the shawl I had thrown over the cage had slipped off and left her in full view of the enchanted mirror.

  The bird was sprawled on the bottom of the cage, her eyes rolled back in her head. I could see her heart racing under the thin feathers. I stood back and tried to cast a spell to open the lock on the cage.

  “Incendium.” There was a poof of smoke.

  “Lochen.” The lock shook but didn’t unlatch.

  I needed the counterspell. I had seen Aspen weave it once in the air, but I didn’t have the mind to remember those kinds of spells.

  In a moment of panic, I rushed back to the broken shard and pinched a drop of my blood on the glass. It glowed and hummed, and I prayed that Rosalie was near a mirror.

  “Rosalie,” I called out. The glass pulsed, and I saw my sister pick up the mirror.

  Her face was fuller, and her dark black hair was styled to cover her cheek, hiding her scars.

  “Eden, is that you?” Rosalie asked.

  I lost it. I began to cry. “Oh, Rose, I messed up. In so many ways.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she stiffly said, “Tell me.”

  “I found my mother. She’s alive but trapped in the body of a puca in an enchanted cage.”

  “All cages have a key,” Rosalie said. “You need to find the key.”

  “Yes, but she has a band, the same one that bound your powers.”

  She blinked, and her head dropped as she battled her own memories of being imprisoned. “I see.”

  “I don’t remember the counterspell.”

  Rosalie became very still as she thought. “Eden, that counterspell is extremely dangerous.”

  “I know.”

  “One wrong word, one wrong finger weave, and it recoils back on you. Killing you.”

  I swallowed. “That I did not know.” Maybe I wasn’t as confident as I thought. “Can you come? Maybe if you come here you can cast the counterspell and free my mother.”

  “Eden, I can’t,” she said softly.

  “Please, Rosalie. I need you. I’m nothing without your strength. My thoughts are always jumbled and frayed. I can’t focus, and ever since you left, I feel like the center of my world is spinning and I’m going to lose control.”

  Rosalie listened to my ramblings like an older sister should. “Eden. Eden, my darling sister in spirit, I love you. Listen to me. You don’t need me. You have all you need. Your life will not spiral out of control. You just have to find your center.”

  “Rosalie, please just come. Use a traveling spell. I’ve become very good at using the fireplace. You can just pop over here and do the counterspell and then go back to wherever it is you’ve decided to hide.” I knew I sounded desperate.

  “Eden.” Her voice became soft, and a smile fell on her face, lighting it up. “I can’t. It is too dangerous for me to travel right now. And I wouldn’t dare to be the one to try the counterspell in my condition.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said numbly.

  The mirror moved as Rosalie set it on a table and backed away. I could see that she was in a very small cottage, and when she stepped back, I could also see that she was very, very pregnant.

  She rubbed her hands over her protruding belly and then came back to the mirror. “As you can see, I have found the center of my world. And I would do anything to protect her.”

  “Her?” I gasped.

  “Her.” She nodded. “So, I can’t be the one to do the counterspell. If I mess up, it is two lives that I’m risking.”

  “I understand.” I did. I truly did and let the tears of happiness flow for my older sister and my niece.

  “But I will walk you through it step by step. Just remember, whatever I show you, you have to reverse it in the mirror. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  The next candle mark was grueling, partly because I had to learn the counterspell out of order, so as not to cast it accidentally, and the other was because I couldn’t focus because I was watching my mother slowly die.

  When I believed that I had perfected the counterspell, I was still left with one problem. I didn’t have the key to the cage.

  “Bring the mirror to the lock please,” Rosalie said. My fingers fumbled with the glass, and I held it up so she could see the lock more carefully. “It just needs an enchanted item more powerful than the lock to shorten it out.”

  “Where do I get that?” I asked.

  “You’ll have to figure it out.”

  “I don’t know if I have time.”

  “Make the time,” Rosalie said. “You are stronger than you believe.”

  I hung up with my sister and looked back at my mother. Her breathing had become more ragged, and she didn’t seem to be getting any better. In fact, she looked worse.

  “Oh!” I began to panic and pace up and down my small room. “Key. I need a key or a way to—” My eyes fell on the key I tossed in the bucket. The one that had fallen from inside the mirror when I shattered it. I wonder if…?

  Allemar had mentioned freedom. I wondered if he was referring not to himself but to my mother. Was this the key? I picked up the key and carefully took it over to the cage. With a deep breath, I pressed key into the lock, closed my eyes, turned, and waited for the explosion.

  A click as the lock unlocked... and then nothing.

  I swung open the door and reached in to pull the now barely breathing bird out of the cage.

  “Okay, Mother, you gave me up to save me. Now I’m going to do my best to repay you, and I'm going to try and not kill us both in the process. Okay?”

  She didn’t say anything.

  Not having my chalk, I reached back for a charred piece of wood from the fireplace and began to write out the counterspell. One day, I would be confident enough to weave it in my head. But today was not that day. When I was sure that it was in the right order, I quickly breathed the words under my breath and waited.

  A flash of light blinded me, and power hit me so hard in the chest it sent me spiraling through the air to land on my bed before I rolled off the other side and to the floor.

  Coughing, I got to my knees and peeked over the top of the mattress. Feathers, feathers everywhere, on the bed, floor, and floating down from the ceiling. And in the middle of the floor where my mother had been was nothing but a flash of white char.

  “No!” I moaned. I failed again and killed my mother. I buried my face into the mattress and wailed. The wailing continued until I could hardly breathe, and when I decided I didn’t need to breathe anymore. I passed out, sliding off the bed and onto the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Eden!” a familiar voice said as someone shook me awake. “Eden, wake up.”

  I curled up on my side and tried to ignore the annoying voice. “Eden, what did you do?”

  Slowly coming awake, I saw Dorian hovering over me.

  “Go away,” I mumbled and feebly tried to push him
away.

  “No, you need to get up now.” He lifted me up off the floor and wrapped his arms around me. When he did, I saw my room and the feathers, and then I remembered what happened. My spirit broke.

  “No, I need to lie back down.” I pushed away from him and tried to hide from the evidence of what I had done.

  “Eden.” Dorian’s voice became low. “If you don’t get up right now, I’m going to kiss you.”

  The floor instantly became my enemy as I leaped up and tried to scramble across the bed and to the other side, putting as much distance as possible between us. “You stay over there.” I pointed to the far side of the bed.

  “I will, but you have to explain what in the world happened here.” He looked around, and I took in my room from his perspective.

  It looked really bad. Broken mirror with pieces still scattered across the room, furniture toppled over, the remains of my botched spell, and not to mention the feathers. The black feathers that looked like black snow over my room.

  He came and stood over my handiwork and then shrugged his shoulders. “Were you summoning something?”

  “No,” I pouted. “I was trying to free my mother from a binding spell.” I pointed to a cage.

  “Your mother was in that cage?” He looked like he didn’t believe me.

  “Long story. But it backfired and instead I... I... k-killed her.” My lower lip began to tremble, and I turned to hide my mortification and pain. I would not cry in front of him.

  “Aw, sparrow.” Dorian came and wrapped those long arms around me, and I felt safe and whole. Then I remembered what I had promised Evander. I would marry him and needed to stay away from Dorian. It pained me to step out of his embrace, and I saw the look on Dorian’s face. He was hurt.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I can’t.”

  “Why?” he asked. “Is it because of Evander?”

  I nodded.

  “So, this is how it’s going to be. You’ve made your choice,” he said softly.

  “Choice?” I scoffed. “There was no choice. You don’t say no when the prince of Candor asks you to marry him.”

  “You could have said no.”

  “Why?” I turned and glared at Dorian. “Why should I?”

  He looked perplexed. “I mean, I thought that we—that you and I….”

  “What did we have, Dorian? Because I’m confused at what it is exactly. You kissed me. But we both know that’s how you play the game, how you get your secrets. You seduce women. You seduced Adelle. I’m just another one of your conquests. So how should I expect anything different when I’ve only seen one side of you?”

  Dorian wouldn’t make eye contact with me. He stood in the middle of the room while I scolded him, letting my anger rake across him as I tried to hurt him with words, because I was hurting deep inside.

  “I never tried to hide who I am from you. I collect secrets and, yes, I seduce women to get them. But you were different than the others.” He looked up, and I fell into those deep pools of blue.

  “I know. I’m odd,” I interrupted.

  “No. There’s more—”

  “I’m just another one of your girls you flirt with.” I ticked off my fingers. “What about Sisa, Adelle, Nessa? I do not want my name on that list.”

  “You know nothing of my past or Sisa,” he growled.

  “And you know nothing of me or my past... or my future.”

  “I could have, if you let me.” He reached up to brush his knuckles down my cheek, but I turned away and he got air.

  “Never once did you declare your feelings for me. So, I had one choice. When the prince asked, I said yes.”

  “Are you saying that you would have married me if I asked?” He seemed perplexed by the idea.

  “No.” I stepped close and leaned up onto my tiptoes as I ran my fingers over the button on his jacket. “Because you would have never asked,” I whispered into his ear. I stepped back, my hand sliding into the folds of my skirt, the button I stole tucked in my fingers.

  His head dropped, and his hands balled into fists. “Is it because he is the crown prince?” He looked up at me, and his eyes looked misty. “Are you only marrying him because he is the prince?”

  “I have been fighting my fate since I came. Since I first heard it,” I admitted. “It has been foretold that I would be queen.”

  “Answer me one more thing. Do you love him?” he asked, his eyes dark and stormy as he watched me closely.

  “I… I don’t know.”

  Dorian’s eyes glittered dangerously. “You paused.” He laughed darkly. “There’s more than one way to become queen, and it doesn’t involve marrying Evander.” He rushed toward me and planted his lips on mine.

  “Dorian, stop. It is done. I gave my word. I will marry him tomorrow.”

  “It’s not done. Nothing is said and done. Unless I’m dead.” He turned on his heel and headed for the door.

  “He said you would do this!” I called out, and he paused. “Evander said you would try and take what is his.”

  Dorian’s eyes glittered with anger. “He’s wrong. You were never his, and I’m going to prove it.”

  “Stop it!” I cried out in frustration and stomped my foot. “I am not a prize to be fought over.”

  Dorian shook his head. His voice became a low growl. “It is not I who takes things from him. It is Evander who steals things from me. And I won’t let that happen again.”

  “Dorian. Please, just stop whatever you are planning on doing.”

  “You should have just let those daggers find their mark,” he said, and I gasped.

  “How could you say something like that?”

  “Because he is not a good person.”

  My face curled up in disgust at what he was saying. He had mentioned before about usurping Evander; now he was talking treason. “And neither are you,” I snarled.

  “I never pretended I was.” Dorian shrugged.

  “I’m going to report you to the guards. You will end up in prison.”

  His face turned ugly. “Now you sound like a queen.” He turned to leave the room but paused and looked back at me thoughtfully. “By the way. I have to ask. How did you know?”

  “How did I know what?” I snapped.

  “How did you know that the two girls were going to kill Evander?”

  “Because of your warning,” I said.

  His eyebrows rose up, and he shook his head. “What warning?”

  “You mouthed the word ‘sister’ to me. I ran with that.”

  “The two girls were sisters?”

  “Yes. You didn’t know?”

  “No, no one did, but you knew?”

  “Yes, I had met them the other day in the market and helped one of them with dresses to come.”

  Dorian’s face became stony.

  “But I had no idea they were going to try and kill Evander.”

  “I didn’t either,” he admitted.

  “Then what in the heavens were you trying to tell me in the ballroom?” I yelled.

  Dorian’s hand dropped from the door, and he looked sick. “I thought you knew already. That you had heard the news from the house elves.”

  “What news?”

  “They apprehended a woman trying to sneak into the palace. She used magic to try and break free, so they’ve imprisoned her below.”

  “And?” I said angrily.

  He looked at the ground and then back up at me. “It may already be too late. I tried to tell you.”

  “Dorian, for the love of all that is holy, if you don’t spit it out, I may fry your tongue on a spit and feed it to the dogs.”

  “It’s your sister.”

  “My sister?” I felt faint. Dizzy. “How can you be sure?”

  “Because she was asking for you by name. No one else knows she is your sister. I was able to get a message to her that, to keep you safe, she mustn't let your heritage be known.”

  “Where is she?”

  “You
can’t go to her,” Dorian said. “You must let her be. If the king finds out that you are her sister, there will be nothing anyone can do to save you.”

  My mind was frantic. I rushed past Dorian, pushing him out of the room, and headed down the hall. I didn’t know where to go, so I just started running.

  “Eden.” Dorian raced after me and grabbed my wrist. “Stop it.”

  “No. No. I have to save her. It’s my fault she is here. I called her on the mirror. If I didn’t call, then she wouldn’t be here.” I began to panic.

  “Calm down.”

  “I can’t calm down. I can’t have another death on my conscience. Everywhere I go there is death. I caused this.”

  “No, you didn’t.” He grabbed both sides of my face. “Listen. I will take care of it. It will take some time, though. Do you understand? Do you trust me?”

  My head nodded between his palms.

  “Good girl. Now go back to your room.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t. I won’t go back there. I can’t go back to that mess where I murdered my mother.”

  He let out a loud sigh before waving my servant, Cristin as she passed by.

  “Yes, sir?” She paused and smiled at him.

  “Take her to my room while her room is cleaned. Do you know where that is?”

  Her smile lit up, and she gave a knowing smile. “Why of course I do.”

  “Good, go with her.” Dorian released my face and nudged me toward Cristin.

  I watched as he rushed off down the hallway, and I wanted to go with him.

  “Come along, Miss Eden,” Cristin said and began to walk up a flight of stairs to the third floor.

  “I didn’t know he had a room up here,” I muttered. “I thought he lived in the basement with the house elves.”

  “That would be silly,” Cristin said simply but didn’t elaborate. On the third floor, we passed the royal suites and then stopped at a door that led to one of the towers in the palace.

  She opened the door, and I was met with curved stone steps. Cristin didn’t follow me up the stairs, which opened up to a sizable study containing a long wooden table covered with books and half burned candles, bookcases overfilled with books, journals, and scrolls. Rolls of parchment were stacked on the table, and he looked to be in the middle of studying. I picked up a few of the books and noticed they were on fae—elves in particular and their magic. There were glass jars filled with paint and another with paint brushes. Through the study, there was another room, and I peeked in to see his bed. All the curtains had been pulled closed. I went to open the window, and when I did, I revealed a floor-to-ceiling mural behind me.