Mirror of Embers (Book 1)

t w e n t y - s i x

✧ Kam ✧

MY MIND ROARS, MY FEAR THREATENS TO CONSUME ME. Ember's head is laying limply against my chest. Her arm hangs down. Also limp.

My heart pounds in my chest. It feels like it'll explode. I can't seem to calm down. Awful thing after awful thing keeps happening. And it's all happening to Ember. Ember. Ember. The man said she had tried to—

No. Stop it.

She didn't. She's fine. She's alive.

I take a deep, shuddering breath.

"She's fine," I whip my head to the voice. To Faune. Ember's twin sister. Who somehow managed to pop up. I have no clue how she's here but she saved Ember. She brought her memories back and saved her. I can bark at her later and ask her every question, but right now I'm more concerned about Ember. "She passed out. She's drained, she needs to sleep it off."

I somehow manage to nod my head, even though my head can't seem to shut up. I look down at Ember. She's got blood soaked in her hair and on the sides of her ears. Her cheeks are damp from her tears, and hair sticks to her forehead from sweat. How did it go this far? How did this happen to her?

I walk back out of the bathroom and to her bed. Lawrence is still standing in the same spot, but he's staring at the projection, the moon projection. His gaze is intense. His brows pinched together. He's staring at someone. I open my mouth. "What—"

Ember stirs in my arms. All thoughts of Lawrence are gone, my gaze snaps to the girl in my arms. She nuzzles herself closer up against me. A groan slips from her lips. "Where is she hurting?" Faune asks, suddenly beside me. I don't have the time to be surprised that I didn't sense her presence, not with my hurt mate in my arms. I walk Ember and myself over to her bed and let her down gently. I lay her down and smooth the hair away from her face. My heart constricts at the sight of her. I've never seen her so . . . Vulnerable before. It sets me on edge. I feel like tearing out all my hair and throwing things around the room.

I bite back my anger and turn to the projection. I now have to deal with this problem. My gaze is hard, sending vicious looks to everyone I can see. Including my cousin and the man with white hair. "You need to start talking, right now." I grind out.

The man with white hair narrows his eyes at me. "I am not permitted to tell you anything, Kamolinn. I have to be going, anyway."

Landon and the gigantic blonde shoot their gaze to the man. "You need to take us there." Landon tells him. Something catches my eye to the right. A blonde head. Two blonde heads. Faune is kneeling beside Ember, placing two fingers at her throat. Feeling for her pulse. Lawrence stands with his arms crossed at the edge of the bed. Glaring at the projection. At a certain individual in particular. That individual glares right back.

Faune tsks from my right. I jerk my head to her. "What's wrong?" I sit down beside Ember and study her features. Her beautiful face looks calm, for once. No trace of worry or stress sits on her features. Faune takes Ember's head in her hands. A faint glow appears under her palms. "Her pulse is weak." She whispers. I scrunch my brows together. Why is she whispering—

"What is going on?" The gigantic blonde demands.

Ah. That was why. "Is she all right?"

Rage flies through me. I level him a dark look. Darkness seeps out of me like an open pore. "Does she look fucking all right?" I bark, my words spew with poison. Vile, vile, poison.

"Watch it, Faerie." The blonde warns. I grin maliciously at him. I cock my head to the side. Poison continues to flow through my very blood. It curls around my magic and urges it forward. Toward the gargantuan blonde glaring at me from across the projection.