Chapter 28
Lessia
Lessia placed a hand on the tall mirror in the small room they’d been given at the inn.
It was dusty, and the golden frame, which must have shone when it was new, carried cracks and rifts, whispering of the mirror’s long life.
Ever since the Lakes of Mirrors, she had avoided reflective surfaces, especially since she’d caught a glimpse of herself on Korina and noted how hollow her eye sockets were, how dull her skin and hair, and how her lips kept breaking from their dryness.
But something about this one was different. Lessia moved a finger to trace one of the longer slits, following it, weaving down the side of the mirror as Merrick stepped up behind her.
She smiled as he pushed her hair to the side and kissed her neck, his nose trailing up her sensitive skin in the way that always had her shiver.
“You tired?” Merrick murmured against her ear, but she shook her head, his touch, as always, waking her up—even if it had been a long day.
They’d ridden since dawn, only stopping once to eat quickly, until the mare—one of the fastest breeds in Vastala—had slowed her steps, and they’d found a small village surrounded by beautiful tall trees with a pool of glittering water in the middle of the square.
She’d stared at it longingly, feeling both dusty and exhausted from the long ride, and Merrick had assured her they could come back but that first they needed to ensure the horse was cared for and that they had somewhere to sleep.
Lessia’s eyes followed Merrick’s long fingers in the mirror as they slipped into her neckline, pulling at her tunic so he could plant more kisses along her shoulders, making a thrill of heat shoot from deep in her core.
A low moan slipped out when his other hand moved across her stomach, fingers slowly moving down toward the ache between her legs.
She couldn’t stop staring at Merrick admiring her skin before each kiss, how his fingers moved steadily and assuredly, but with no rush, as if he wanted to remember every moment.
“You’re so beautiful,” she blurted out, and he lifted his head, a small smile playing across his full lips as he rested his chin on her shoulder.
He was beautiful. Silver hair glowing softly in the fire burning behind them. Skin perhaps as dusty as her own but still perfect, soft and hard at the same time, with the muscles she couldn’t get enough of playing beneath. Eyes that glittered from the silver swirls dancing in them.
“You’re the one who’s beautiful,” Merrick rasped. “Look at yourself.”
Lessia did as he asked, and meeting her own eyes in the mirror, she stilled.
They looked so…
It was as if they’d liquefied somehow. Like a burning fire melting them into pure gold, but with red flames sparkling within.
“What—” She took a step closer to the mirror, and the background changed.
Merrick still stood behind her, his clothing the same, but…
They were on the island she’d grown up on—she could clearly make out the snaking path, the lush bushes, and the trees lining it.
The cottage stood proudly farther up the hill, exactly like it had when she’d met Solana there.
This time, too, it called for her, and she nearly took another step before she realized she couldn’t.
It was only a mirror, and she couldn’t walk into the glass.
“What is going on?” Lessia moved her eyes to Merrick, who only smiled at her.
“Just keep looking,” he whispered. “Look at us.”
Frowning now, she continued staring into the place she’d once called home, and it was as if the mirror needed her to focus because the background shifted again.
They now stood upon the cliffs that Lessia and Frelina had played and sunned themselves on as children, the white stone sparkling in the sunlight that she could feel across her skin.
And at their feet…
Five young girls with golden-brown hair and eyes as dark as the night sky but filled with stars that whirled when the children looked up at Lessia and Merrick. They played with a few shells, throwing them across the water like Lessia had used to do to make them bounce on the surface.
“Who?” She didn’t really need to ask, and Merrick knew it because he just nodded for her to continue looking, so much love radiating from his body that it felt like it might choke her.
These must be their girls. These were the children she’d wished for when tattooing his skin. But five of them? And five who looked identical?
The longer she surveyed them… the more a fierce protectiveness—a fiery love—burst through her, and her limbs twitched in response, something in her burning to keep these girls safe.
Lessia looked at her own eyes again, and the fire that had raged in them seemed to burn hotter. Red and gold tangled within them, and her eyes widened when something thundered behind them, a roar that sounded like nothing she’d ever heard before.
As she looked up once more, Lessia’s every sense surged.
Spheres of flame fell from the sky, peppering the hill behind them and splitting the ground open, forcing a crack like the one in the mirror to divide the island into two.
Lessia could only watch as one side was set aflame, the trees and bushes shriveling up so quickly that the black dust they left behind swirled across the water now separating the two parts.
Another bellow shook the ground, and drops of sweat formed across her forehead when the hill on which her home had stood opened to a maw of heated liquid, spewing from the top and rolling down the hill, right toward—
Lessia screamed when she realized one of the young girls had been trapped on the other side, running for her life from the burning orbs, the dust covering every inch of her face until she was entirely unrecognizable.
Her hair was now raven, and her eyes reflected the green and brown of the earth—and whatever the hot liquid was now rushing down the hill.
“No!” Lessia screamed when the girl seemed to take the wrong path, getting trapped between a rising cliff and the scorching liquefied fire coming at her.
“Lessia.” She looked up at Merrick, but he was as calm as ever. “Lessia,” he pleaded again.
But she couldn’t respond. Not when the world around them began to melt. Not when she didn’t understand what was happening.
“Lessia.”
Her knees buckled.
“Lessia!”
Lessia’s eyes flew open, and she gasped when she once again stared into Merrick’s dark ones.
“You’re having a nightmare,” Merrick whispered, his arms pulling her to his chest. “It’s all right. I am here.”
She blinked at him before moving her gaze around the bright space, over the lanterns Merrick had lit and placed along the walls.
They were in the room at the inn. Outside the small window, the starry sky still hung, the open pane letting in a cool breeze. There were no roars of nature, only the sounds of people milling about, of water rippling. From somewhere a soft tune found its way into the night.
She wiped at her damp forehead before turning back to him, laying her head on his chest as she looked up at him, wishing for her racing heart to mimic his low thumping beats.
“It was a nightmare,” Merrick echoed, his words hushed. “You wanted to sleep before we went out to eat and clean up.”
“It was only a dream?” Lessia whispered.
She could still smell the smoke—the strange, pungent smell of the liquid that had spilled out of the hill.
Merrick stared at her, his eyes moving between hers. “Did it not feel like it?”
She shook her head. “No.”
It hadn’t felt like a dream at all. She wasn’t a stranger to nightmares—had stayed up for far too many nights because of them—but this… whatever that had been?
“I don’t know what it was, but it was no dream.”
Merrick studied her for a moment. “Then it was no dream. Will you tell me about it?”
Lessia nodded, and as she recounted everything, even the children—although she hesitated for a few moments because she didn’t want Merrick’s gaze to fill with more sorrow than it already held when he thought she wasn’t looking—he only nodded, his features shifting with every bit of information as if he was taking it all in and evaluating every detail.
As she finished, she eyed him back, wondering if he’d think her crazy. But Merrick only leaned down to press his lips against hers, his hands moving to her cheeks to angle her so he could deepen the kiss when she responded.
As he pulled back, Merrick threw a quick look out the window before returning his eyes to hers. “There is someone… I don’t know if he is still alive. But we could try to visit him on the way. I’ve… I’ve been wondering lately how much he knows.”
“Who?” Lessia asked as she sat up, her hands pressing into the soft mattress.
“He’s my old commander,” Merrick responded as he also got up, taking the jacket he’d left on the chair beside the bed and pulling it on.
“He… When we were at the Lakes of Mirrors, Preysaih called me Guardian of Death. That’s what my old commander used to call me as well.
I’ve… I’ve never heard anyone else do it.
I don’t know if it’s just a strange coincidence, but it’s the only thing I can think of connected to this. ”
“The mirrors. You think it’s something about the mirrors,” Lessia breathed, and Merrick nodded, his features hard—but not because of her.
She hadn’t missed that he’d also avoided reflections lately.
Like Raine had for a long time.
She pushed off the bed and came up beside Merrick, and he dragged her to him.
Wrapping his arms around her, he whispered, “If my commander is still alive, he’ll be a day’s ride from here.
From there, we have one more day before we reach the shore where I have a ship waiting.
There is also a small town there—one I actually liked when we camped at it—and that’s where I was hoping… ”
“I still want to marry you, Merrick.” Lessia made sure there wasn’t an ounce of the unease still residing within her from whatever had just happened when she slept. “We can do it tonight. Right here. If you want.”
He gave her a blinding smile—one of the ones she’d seen only a handful of times—and it forced out any lingering sense of worry or fear.
“Not here. This town is… quite high-spirited.” Merrick kissed her again. “But we can celebrate our engagement.”
There was something mischievous in his eyes. When he turned away, she wanted—needed—to see that look again, and she slipped a hand into his as he opened the door.
“So that ship that’s waiting for us…” Lessia eyed him, noting the smile he was trying to bury. “Did you steal that as well?”
Merrick winked at her. Actually winked.
“Perhaps.”