keeping tabs on me. Why?”
I swore the shade snickered. “I am not privy to say. Nor do I care why.”
Prick.
Shades had the personality of a slug. “Where is he? Is he okay?”
“See for yourself, demon huntress.”
What did it mean by see for myself? I wasn’t given the opportunity to ask. The shade slunk out from under the sweeping tree and took off, flying from shadow to shadow like a raven at night. Such a dark contrast to the snow-veiled thicket.
I gave chase, half afraid it would disappear on me as the one the other day had. They didn’t seem to be creatures of many words.
The shade came upon the small frozen pond Travis, Chase, and I used to ice skate on, and as I slid to a stop, the shade lunged into the pond, vanishing under the dark depths of the ice. I dropped down to my knees at the edge, staring into the glassy surface that sparkled under the January sun.
What the hell? What was this thing up to? How did this help me? Answer any of my questions? Did the thing expect me to crack the ice and dive in after it?
Hell, no.
I didn’t have a death wish, and I wasn’t about to bring myself to the brink of death either in hopes of inducing a vision of Ashor.
I wasn’t that desperate… yet.
But as all of this was tumbling through my head and I was cursing the shade to all five courts of Hell, I noticed my reflection. Aqua eyes gleamed brightly in the icy mirror, my cheeks flushed with color, but there was something unusual about it. Something that made me look deeper.
I drew closer to the surface of the pond, my gaze focused on my own eyes and nothing else. From the center of my irises, I spotted flecks of violet, like glittering stars. Those purple dots reminded me so much of someone. It couldn’t be, could it? Then the strangest thing happened. I had a sense of falling, as if I’d tumbled into a black hole, and when I blinked, it was no longer my face reflecting back at me.
“Ashor?” I murmured.
At the sound of his name, those unforgettable eyes became clearer, as did his remarkable face. It was as if I was peering through a looking glass. My eyes drank in the sight of him, the sharp angles of his cheeks, the whorl of tattoos that climbed up the side of his neck, dipping over his shoulder and into his shirt. If I closed my eyes, I could see exactly what he looked like shirtless, exactly where each demon mark was, including the scars. He was even more breathtaking than I remembered, both in dreams and memories. His face was cast partially in shadows, but they only added to his allure. A phantom breeze wafted the scent of the sea at midnight.
Ashor was every inch a dark prince.
And he was mine.
“Did you miss me, luv?” A shiver skirted down my spine at the sound of his smooth voice, like liquid starlight. It was followed by a wave of familiar coolness that settled into my blood. I missed that chill of night.
“I didn’t think I would ever see you again. How? How is this possible?” I asked the question softly inside my head, still not trusting this was real. I lifted a hand to touch the side of his cheek, but my fingers only brushed up against thick ice. The shade’s words came back to me. See for yourself, it had said.
Ashor’s eyes consumed my face, lingering over my lips before returning to my eyes. “Our reflections are a gateway to the soul, and since our souls are tied together, regardless of what world we live in, it creates a mirror between us.”
The world around me became nothing but background noise. “It’s like I’m seeing you through your eyes.”
“Precisely. I’m seeing you through your reflection, just as you see me through mine.”
Talk about a mindfuck. I wasn’t even going to begin to try and understand. “You’re okay?”
His eyes darkened. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
A knot twisted in my stomach. “I—” I stopped myself from revealing what I had seen in the dream. I wasn’t sure why, but perhaps it was because I still wasn’t convinced it was real. From the reflection in the mirror he stood in front of, I recognized the lavish furnishings. He was in his bedroom at Brimstone, not locked up in the dungeons as he’d been in my dream. “I’m still pissed