Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The mirror
nik
The Veil along the Oscuro border had never felt so fragile. Two days. That was all Sapphire had been in Lucius, and already I was patrolling like a man waiting to be hunted.
Every shift of wind gave the illusion of wings cutting through a tear. Every flicker of shadow looked like a Thorn slipping through, ready to drag me back and gut me for taking what they thought belonged to them.
I wasn’t paranoid. I was prepared. I had to be when it came to Snake.
River finally cornered me about it—said I’d been acting “wired,” which was his polite way of saying “What is wrong with you and why are you being weird?”
So I told him everything. Oscuro. Sapphire. The fighting. The almost-being caught by Thorns.
He was annoyed that I didn't take him to Oscuro with me.
Which only confirmed what I already knew: if I went back in, and I needed him, he’d follow without question.
We were halfway along the tree line when the Veil shivered. Not a breeze, or trick of light. A tear.
“Left,” I muttered, already moving.
River didn’t hesitate. He pulled his horse in beside me as we moved between the trees.
Dark shapes peeled out of the Veil, wrong in the way most things from Oscuro were wrong. Thorns slipped through. Three of them, their forms blending with the shadows like they were allergic to the light.
It was the third haunting we’d seen this week.
River spotted them too, both of us reaching for the blades at our hips. The crack of a twig under my horse's hoof had all three heads snapping our way, but the look that flashed across their faces wasn’t one of fear but of challenge.
Instead of slipping back through the Veil, they took off towards The Grey.
River flicked his gaze towards me. “Do you think they're scouting?”
“No,” I murmured, eyes tracking the one at the rear. “They’re searching.”
And then we moved.
It wasn’t long before the smallest female Thorn turned and ran back towards the Veil.
Behind me, River swore. “One’s heading back!”
I risked a second glance, she was the wiser of the three. We caught the other two before they got far. Easy to do when on horseback.
I leapt from my mount, landing with a thud and met one of the Thorns blade to blade. He lunged towards me, teeth barred and eyes wide. I ducked just as the sound of his blade sliced through the air.
River pivoted hard as the second Thorn came at him. He caught it mid-strike, steel ringing, boots digging into the dirt as he held it there.
I surged forwards, snapping my focus into place. The male slashed his blade towards me again, almost catching my side, but I darted to the right and drove forwards, slamming my elbow into his jaw.
He reeled, eyes rolling back, and I took the opening, hooking his leg, driving it down into the ground.
He hissed, writing beneath me as I slammed his knee into his chest.
A few paces away, River forced his Thorn back step by step, blade relentless. The Thorn spat onto the ground, crimson blood dripping from his jaw before he twisted, and then bolted back through the shimmering Veil.
With my blade to the male's throat, I pressed harder. “Looks like you’re on the wrong side of the Veil.
The male stilled, then slowly, he smiled. “Snake knows.”
My grip tightened. “Knows what? That his days are numbered?”
His grin grew wider. “You should be more careful with what you steal.”
I huffed a laugh, digging my knee into his chest with more weight. “I didn’t steal anything.”
A soft, awful laugh escaped between his chapped lips. “Didn’t you?” His head tilted, eyes glinting with something that looked too much like knowing. “As soon as she crosses the Veil, we’ll be waiting.”
She?
Then it all made sense.
Sapphire. She had to be who the Thorn was referring to. There was no one else they would care about. Nothing and no one else I had taken . . .
A cold drop slid straight through my gut, heavy and sickening.
Two days was all it had taken for Snake to discover Sapphire was no longer in Oscuro. How he knew was lost on me, but I didn’t have the patience to ask.
I leaned down a little closer. “If she chooses to stay in Lucius, then your so-called king will never lay his cold, weak hands on her.”
The Thorn huffed a laugh. “Oh, but she is destined for the darkness.” His smile widened. “And when Snake gets his hands on her—”
Heat barrelled its way through my body as I pressed my blade across the male's throat hard enough to break skin. A bead of crimson bled down the side of his neck.
“Finish the sentence,” I whispered.
Bracken snapping underfoot announced River’s arrival. I didn’t need to look up to know he stood near.
The Thorn briefly winced before bravely continuing. “He’ll enjoy breaking her.”
Something inside me shifted. I could feel it spreading up my spine like wildfire. That old familiar feeling of having all this anger and nowhere to put it.
“And her pretty little friend,” he added, almost lazily. “The one in The Grey. Meeka, isn’t it?”
The blood in my veins went cold.
He strained upwards, his throat pressing into the blade. “You can’t watch her all the time.”
I couldn’t stop myself then. I hit him.
My fist slammed into its face, snapping its head sideways.
He laughed.
I hit it again.
And again.
Each strike harder than the last—bone giving, pale skin tearing, crimson blood spraying across my hands. He tried to speak, but I didn’t let him. I drove his head into the ground, over and over, until there was nothing left of its smile—nothing left of his voice—
“Nik!”
Hands grabbed me, yanking me back.
I fought it, breath ragged, vision red—but River held on, dragging me off the ruined Thorn. “That’s enough,” he snapped. “It’s done.”
I stilled.
The Thorn lay crumpled, twitching once before going still.
River shoved him with his boot, then grabbed what remained, dragged him across the forest floor and forced his body back through the tear.
Silence fell between us. For a moment, all I could hear was my own pulse—loud and violent. My chest heaved with adrenaline as I forced air back into my lungs.
Rivers' hazel eyes fell on me. “What was that?”
I shrugged before sheathing my blade. “What was what?”
“You lost control.”
I let out a quiet breath through my nose. “It was just a Thorn.”
River folded his arms across his chest. “It was bait.”
My jaw tightened. “It was running its mouth.”
“And you listened.” River stepped closer, not aggressive—just steady. “They baited you, Nik. And you took it.”
I held his stare, something hot still simmering under my skin. “You heard what it said.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“And it wanted you exactly where you ended up.” His voice stayed even. “Rage-blind. Reckless. Not thinking.”
My hands flexed at my sides, still sticky with drying blood.
River sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. “They want to bring the darkness out of you. To make a spectacle. To prove that you’re not who you say you are.”
I glanced at him then.
“Don’t let them,” he added.
I held my tongue. Not because I was speechless, but because I was afraid of what I might say. When the wave of heat subsided, only then did I speak. “I can’t let them near Sapphire.”
River dipped his head. “I know.”
Knowing they knew, sent a shiver down my spine. I paced in a circle, running a hand over my face. “They said—” I cut myself off, teeth grinding. “They’re watching. Waiting.”
River’s expression shifted, something more guarded settling in. “Then we deal with that.”
“That’s not something you just deal with.” The words came out sharper than I meant. “I can’t be in two places at once. I can’t watch—”
“I know,” he cut in, firm but not raised. “But tearing apart the next Thorn that opens its mouth about Sapphire won’t fix that. Your rage doesn’t hurt them in the way you think it does. There is a difference between anger and strength, Nik.”
My chest tightened. The words sounded all too familiar. Sapphire had said as much that day at the bakery. Not to mention the king's words too.
“You think I don’t get it?” River continued, quieter now. “You care about her. That’s not the problem.”
“Feels like it is.”
“It’s not.” He held my gaze. “The problem is what they can do with that.”
I looked past him, back towards the Veil—smooth now, like nothing had happened.
“We plan, and we watch, but we don’t panic,” River murmured.
“You make it sound so simple,” I said, then shoved the toe of my boot into the soil.
When I looked at him again, he shook his head. “It’s not. But we’re in this together, and we will do whatever it takes to keep both Meeka and Sapphire safe.”
River was right, he was always right when it came to the anger that rippled under my skin. It had been there ever since my mother passed when I was a young boy in The Grey. I knew his wisdom came from a place of respect and care for me, I just didn’t always know how to put it into practice.
But if Snake truly knew that Sapphire was with me, he’d do whatever he could within his power to use her against me. There was no way he’d forgotten what happened on that battlefield a year ago, and there was also no way I was letting my guard down, now that he knew.
As long as Sapphire was in Lucius, she was safe, but now I needed to add Meeka to the list of those I needed to keep an eye on.
~~~~~
The journey back home from the compound seemed to take forever. Every Lightner and their dog stopped to say hello. I should have flown the entire distance, but decided to walk the last part to calm my restless thoughts.
I’d left a note on the kitchen counter letting Sapphire know when I’d be returning. But part of me was afraid to open the door, because there was a high chance that she’d taken off while I was away.
The other part of me held onto all that was good in the hopes that she’d stayed.
She was still so fragile, and coming into this place couldn’t be easy for her.
Every time I glanced at her, I just wanted to take her into my arms and hold her close.
I wanted to show her that the world still held kindness, that, always, she had a safe place to rest her head when she needed to lay down.