His muscles relaxed, and he leaned against me, catching his breath. Another long kiss, drawing out the pleasure. When he pulled away, he stared into my eyes.
“Ava, you have made me thoroughly undone in every possible way. I am returning to my kingdom a ruined man. But with you, I don’t think I have a choice. You’re a command I can’t refuse.”
“And yet, we’re never going to see each other again.”
He heaved a sigh. “That’s to keep you alive.”
I swallowed hard. “The curse doesn’t work here. How do you know it will work in the human realm?”
“Because there would be only one way to test it, changeling. I died for you once, and I would do it again…I’d rip through the realms to get to you again. But I will not put you at risk.”
Our bodies glowed with morning dew, and we slumped against each other, muscles limp. He reached up for the side of my face and kissed me again, softly. A worshipful kiss.
We had to leave now before it was too late, before they found us, but neither of us seemed to want to be the first to let go.
35
AVA
Pearly, coral dawn streaked the sky.
Torin picked up his sword, and I pulled on my damp dress, squeezing some of the water out of it. As I did, I felt the distant vibrations of hooves pounding through the forest trails.
My heart sped up, and I smoothed out my dress, the fabric still stained from other people’s blood. “Torin.” I tried to make my voice sound calm and even. “You have to go now. We have to go now.”
He turned back to me for just a moment, then pressed his forehead against mine. One last kiss, a brush of lips against mine.
“They’re coming, Torin.”
He couldn’t meet my eyes anymore as he turned away from me and back to the mirror. Framed by silvery coils, it hung above the empty forge. Torin touched the glass with his fingertips. He inhaled a deep, shaky breath, his voice hoarse. The moment he finished saying Faerie, silvery light exploded around him, so bright I could hardly see. I shielded my eyes. Magic vibrated over my skin, sizzling in the droplets of river water on my body.
When I opened my eyes again, Torin was gone, sword and all.
I stared at where he’d just been, feeling like my chest had hollowed out. My emotions flitted between relief that he was safe and barbed emptiness at his absence.
A tear rolled down my cheek, and I wiped it away with my palm. Why did it feel so hard to breathe?
With a shaking breath, I stepped closer to the mirror and swallowed.
The thing was, I couldn’t have Torin entirely in control of whether I could come to Faerie again, could I? He was hell-bent on self-sacrifice to atone for what he’d done to Moria’s sister. I trusted him with almost everything, but I didn’t trust the man to look after himself properly.
Here before me was a magical tool that could open the realms, that could create portals between worlds. I couldn’t just leave it here. So I clenched my teeth, and I punched the glass in the lower left corner.
As soon as the pain shot through my knuckles and the shards cut my skin, I realized the stupidity of not picking up a rock to break the mirror instead. But what was done was done. A crack splintered the mirror in the left corner, and I pulled off a triangular shard.
Now, the vibrations of the oncoming soldiers were growing louder, closer. I held the fragmented mirror in my hand, and I stared into the remains of the looking glass on the wall. The magical surface shimmered and rippled.
With a racing heart, I called out the name of my city. Pale light erupted around me, and I felt myself falling, gripping tightly to the shard of the mirror as I tumbled through a void. I landed hard, two bare feet on the pavement. I may have put my dress back on, but I’d left the stolen shoes back in the Court of Shadows.
I staggered, trying to get my balance, and my ears rang with a strange rushing sound. A cool breeze whipped over me.
Disoriented, I blinked, looking around.
I stood in the center of town by the bus station. Dawn was breaking over my city. A bus rolled out of the terminal, starting and stopping, releasing little black clouds of exhaust.
Newspapers tumbled across the street, buffeted by the wind. How did the magical Unseelie mirror choose this bus station? I suppose it was the center of town, and it was our main public transportation.
My thoughts trailed off.
An elderly woman with plastic bags on her feet was pushing a shopping cart full of cabbages in my direction. She scowled at me, then muttered, “We don’t need your kind around here.”
I reached up to touch my horns and found they still jutted from my head. At least I didn’t have the wings out.