16. Conall
Conall
She's handling this better than I expected, being human.
Humans aren't exactly known for their tolerances.
She was clearly thrown when we first got to town, but as people have come and gone from Shipton's, she's gotten more used to the most common features.
Horns, tails, pointed ears, claws, sharp teeth.
Every so often, someone comes in with something she hasn't seen yet, and she has a hard time not gawking.
She's standing in front of a shelf full of jams and small enchantments, lips slightly parted, watching a patron look over some goods.
I ignore the way the sight of her sends heat tugging low and slip behind her, bending until my mouth is close to her ear.
"If you stare long enough at a unicorn, you'll turn to stone. "
She jerks, breath hitching, and rounds on me. She glances back at Lawrence. His pale white skin, light pink eyes, and shimmering silver horn mark him as a rare albino unicorn. "Would I really turn to stone?" she whispers.
I smirk. "No." She swats me on the arm. "If you're going to be here for a while, you need to learn to be less gullible, Freckles."
"Forgive me for not knowing all the ins and outs of monster humor," she deadpans.
Amy helps Lawrence pick out horn polish. Ivy stops in front of the round mirror hanging on the display wall. I watch as she looks from side to side.
"Trying to figure it out?" I ask.
"Yeah. Why does it look so right, but so…
.wrong?" I step up behind her and gently turn her so she's facing me, away from the mirror.
I twist a few curls and gently pin them back with a clip from the hair section.
Her big brown eyes meet mine. I nudge back to face the mirror and she gasps, reaching up for the clip.
I placed the clip on the right side of her hair.
She reaches up with her right hand. But, instead of being the mirror image the reflection also raises its right arm.
"It's a dopple." I explain. "Not your reflection." Suddenly the woman in the glass who looks like Ivy smiles walks back into the mirror shop reflected in the mirror, away from us.
Ivy turns, looking up at me with large eyes. "It lives in the mirror?"
"Most dopple's do. This one lives in this mirror."
"Fuck, I'm never going to be able to face my reflection again."
Laz walks in with that too-casual air about him. He looks mostly the same. Wizards and witches have very humanoid features. His eyes, however, are a more vibrant blue than humans, as though electricity crackles behind them.
"There's going to be a town meeting tonight about the situation." His gaze cuts to Ivy, and I step forward without really thinking about it, angling myself between them. Laz's eyebrow cocks, but he doesn't say anything.
"The situation with my aunt's spell?" she asks.
Laz nods. "That and the situation with you living here. It's unprecedented. Full mortals don't live on the island." My hound stirs, not liking how Laz is phrasing this.
"It's not like it's her fault, Laz," Amy points out. He swipes a hand over his face. He has dark circles under his eyes, and his skin looks pale. More worn out than I've ever seen him. It occurs to me that he built the original wards, and I can't know how their disruption has affected him.
"I know it's not your fault," he says to Ivy. "But I'm a mayor, not a king. The residents have never had to deal with a human on this island. They need a say in how this is handled."
Ivy nods, but I still don't like it. This feels like an ambush, and I don't need it on top of everything else already trying to get to her. The violent monsters are one thing, but an angry city council is a whole different kind of monster.