Heart of Vengeance (Alice Worth #6) - Lisa Edmonds Page 0,46
be fine. I have complete faith in you.”
I smiled wryly. “Thanks.”
Malcolm didn’t return my smile. His good-bye with Liam hadn’t gone much better than their earlier conversation. At least their final words to each other had been kind and not angry. I hated to see him hurting.
He guessed what I was thinking. “Stop blaming yourself,” he said testily. “Liam and I will work it out when we get back, or it wasn’t meant to be. I’m never going to be content to haunt the bordello, nice and safe from the dangers of the world. I’m an action-adventure ghost. Like you, I want to save lives and make the world a better place than I found it, one fight at a time. So let’s go kick it in the ass.”
“Wow, that’s right up there with King Théoden rallying his soldiers for the big battle in The Return of the King,” I said, getting to my feet. “Well done.”
“You are such a smart-ass.” But he was smiling.
I hadn’t heard a door open or close, but suddenly Valas and Matthias emerged from the shadows on the far side of the room. He escorted her to the chair that faced the mirror and took up a position to her right.
Less than twenty-four hours had passed since I’d seen her, but Valas appeared markedly unwell. Though her dress covered her from chin to feet and the long sleeves hid her arms, I spotted a discoloration on the back of her right hand. I couldn’t be certain because of the low light, but I thought I saw another near her jaw. Was she decaying? If so, why?
I decided it would be to my advantage to not let on that I’d noticed the marks. Always better to let the other person believe they’d fooled you.
“I’m about ready to leave,” I told her. “All the spellwork is complete. I’m just waiting on midnight.”
Valas clasped her hands in her lap, her elbows resting on the arms of the chair. The pose hid her discolored hand. “Have you all you need for the journey?”
“I have the basics, yes. I won’t know what else I’ll need until I get there. Other than what little Adam could tell us about conditions in the Broken World, everything’s a big unknown. There’ll be a lot of flying by the seat of my pants.”
“It is fortunate then that you excel at that form of flight.” Her dark gaze met mine. “Time is of the essence. You must retrieve the scroll and return as soon as possible.”
“And stop Mariela from invoking the Furies. I get it. I’ll hurry.” I glanced at my watch—a non-digital, self-winding model I hoped would survive the trip. “Speaking of which, we’re T-minus two minutes. Time to get ready.”
I pulled the red silk cover from the mirror. I’d already drawn the necessary spellwork on its surface, but had been forced to cover it when the vertigo-inducing reflections made my stomach churn and my skin crawl. Though the glass seemed to show only a reflection of the room, the image was like a chasm: infinitely deep and dark. It pulled at me like a magnet. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to take two steps back.
I hadn’t traveled by mirror since leaving my grandfather’s compound, and his mirror had been far less powerful than this one. This mirror was very, very old. Judging by the power I sensed radiating from its glass, it had seen many journeys and a lot of blood. That meant I was almost guaranteed to end up at my destination. On the downside, I would probably encounter echoes of past travelers along the way, and those echoes were not likely to let me pass unnoticed or unscathed.
I checked the leather cuffs on my wrists to ensure they were buckled tightly. Each had a half-dozen crystals secured between the layers of leather. Most were healing spells. Two crystals were for Malcolm—one in each cuff. Both were heavily warded to protect him from detection and a wide range of dangers, including the journey.
“Ready to go?” I asked Malcolm. “All aboard the Mirror Express. Next stop, the Broken World.”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He grinned. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
“On the other side,” I confirmed. “Contain.”
Malcolm vanished. One of the crystals in the cuff on my right wrist buzzed reassuringly with his presence.
I put on my backpack and fastened the straps across my upper chest and around my waist. I checked my watch. Thirty seconds to midnight.