Heart of Ashes

Mirror Mirror

Evelyn poked her head into Caine's room and looked around, the coast was clear. She wasn't sure whether or not she was allowed to be there - probably not, for what she was doing - but rather safe than sorry. She crept across the room and pulled the unmarked book out. The bookcase swung open with a soft click and a little sigh. She cringed at the sound then remembered that she was the only one in the room. She stepped into the library and was immediately startled by a loud cry above her. She jumped and looked up to stare into one of the raven's black eyes. She couldn't believe Caine let it free in his library. Much less that he'd sent it to deliver her dream ward.

She glared at the bird, "Shut up, I'm not in the mood for your whining."

Tara did as she was told but followed Evelyn around the library, hopping from shelf to shelf. Evelyn went to the back-left corner of the library and she saw something - whether it was actually a mirror or not was yet to be established - with a grey cloth draped over it, or maybe it was white and just covered in dust. Tara perched on top of it and gave her a look that said "And just how do you plan on getting this down there?"

"I'm working on it!" she snapped, annoyed that her actions were being judged and questioned by a raven. She snapped her fingers, "Anthony! Where the hell is he?"

Her hand flew to her hip, in search of a pocket, then she remembered she was wearing a dress. She crept back into Caine's room, in search of his cellphone.

"Please be here, please be here, please be here," she mumbled to herself.

She was in luck, a sleek, black thing on his dresser reflected the light and caught her eye. She jerked her arm downwards in triumph and went to retrieve it. She pressed the button on the side and frowned when she saw he had a passcode. What was it? She typed in the most basic one she knew. 1;2;3;4. Wrong. She typed in another random number. Wrong. She swore. Then she gave it one last try, her birth date. To her amazement, the phone unlocked. She smiled and began typing in Anthony's number.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up," she urged as the phone rang.

He answered, "Caine?"

"It's Evelyn," she said.

"Evie?" he responded, surprise evident in his tone, "Where are you?"

"I'm in Caine's room," she whispered into the phone, "I need your help."

He was in the ballroom somewhere, she hadn't seen him but she could here the sounds of music and conversation, "Why are you whispering? What's going on?"

"There's no time to explain," she said, "just hurry okay."

She didn't give him time to respond. She hung up and darted back into the library so no one would find her.

***

Caine stared out the bars of his cell. The stone underneath him was getting a little too hard for his liking and he was bored. He'd been sitting there for almost an hour with absolutely nothing to do. He tried to recall how many had been in that cell before him, he couldn't. He could, however, recall how many had died there. He felt the binding spell surrounding him. It was just strong enough to hold him, for a while anyway. He could smell the blood on his clothes and immediately regretted attacking the guards outside the vault. He wasn't remorseful or anything like that, he only regretted it because it made him feel even hungrier. He winced as another hunger pang shot through his stomach. There was sweet blow all to distract him from it.

He sighed and rested his head against the wall, closing his eyes to slip into his thoughts. He wasn't there long though because he heard a faint click, from somewhere outside the cell. He so hoped that it was someone bringing him sustenance. There was another click, then a scrape then a loud bang and a string of muttered curses.