The Thief

thing I’ve stumbled across in years. Years! I finally found something that might connect me to my mom and you want to take it away from me? I won’t let you!” The glass around my limbs burst apart, skittering fragments across the stone floor. They tumbled into grains of sand and lay still.

Rhys took a few steps back, eyes wide. A narrow, analytic look quickly replaced his confusion. “I’m not taking it away,” he said gruffly.

“You tried to trap me.” I folded my arms, still indignant but easing off the ledge. I couldn’t believe I’d exploded like that. And...exploded the glass. I think.

“I don’t know you, I was being cautious,” he said, but I was pretty sure he was just covering his tracks. “I just want you to answer my question. What are you?”

I sighed, deflating. “Just a normal girl.”

“Not possible,” he said flatly. “There are only a handful of normal people in that school, and after what you just did...you’re definitely not one of them.”

He reached inside his jacket and pulled out my mother’s journal. Instinctively I reached for it and he held it higher, giving me an icy warning look. “You carry this around,” he said, “and you expect me to believe you’re just another human?”

“I don’t know, alright?” I blurted, everything tumbling out. “Please, I need it back, it’s all I have of hers. I only just found it, I followed the map to the mirror that got me into the Tower, I didn’t know it was yours, please just let me have the journal back!”

He regarded me narrowly. “No.”

My whole countenance crumpled. “It was my mother’s,” I murmured. “Please, it’s all I have of hers.”

His expression became a bare fraction less stern. “And your mother,” he said. “What was she?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I seriously don’t know anymore.”

“Hmph,” he said gruffly. “Well you’re either a very good liar or you’re woefully ignorant. Either is dangerous. Something like this isn’t safe with you,” he said, brandishing the journal. “Anyone could take it. No, I’m keeping it.”

Tears welled up. What could I do? Mom, I’m sorry. I messed up.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Rhys said quickly. “I’ll keep it here, In Between.”

“Huh?” I said, swiping my eyes with the back of my hand.

“Or the Tower, whatever you called it,” he said. “You can come look at it here, if you follow the rules.”

He left me no choice. I nodded. “What are the rules?”

“You tell absolutely no one about this place, about anything here, and most of all you do not tell anyone about me and my research here. You can’t take anything outside the mirror - not a book, not a cushion, not anything - that you didn’t bring in yourself. I don’t need anything dissolving when you try to take it back into the real world.”

“The real world?” I repeated.

He sighed, and sat stiffly in a chair opposite me. “You really have no idea where you are, do you?”

“I went through a mirror,” I stated.

“And?”

“And that’s it.” I sniffled. At least the tears had subsided. Maybe the freak mood swings were over.

He rested his hands on the chair’s armrests, regarding me with his unnaturally pale eyes. It was like getting stared down by a glacier. I cringed under his scrutiny. I had to look like a wreck after all that. He looked just as intentionally disheveled as ever.

“You didn’t go through a mirror,” he said at last.

“I’m pretty sure I did.”

His eyes relayed a rebuke. “You went in a mirror. You didn’t go through it. We’re inside the mirror.”

“What, really?” I gaped.

“Technically, nothing here really exists,” he stated. “Nothing but what you bring in...everything else is some kind of illusion.”

I blinked. “So...this couch...” I ran my hands over the soft, threadbare cover.

“Not real,” he said flatly.

“That is insane!” I said, bouncing slightly on the fake couch, testing it out.

Rhys rolled his eyes. “There’s no way you could fake that kind of stupidity.”

“Excuse me?” I snapped. This guy was pushing all my buttons, and with a vengeance.

“Listen, June - ”

“Jul.”

“Jul. Whatever. Look, this is all clearly way beyond your ken - ”

“My ken?” I laughed. “Who talks like that? Beyond my ken?”

His look soured. “Some people have vocabularies.”

“Some people were born in the seventeenth century,” I laughed.

He colored slightly. “Look, just because you don’t know the word - ”

My newfound confidence rose. “Oh, I know the word. I know you’re trying to talk down to me by using words you think I don’t know. Well I’ve got news for you. Words have been my only friends for almost sixteen years, so you’re going to have a hard time coming up with a vocabulary that I find intimidating. Alright?”

He regarded me narrowly. “You don’t act like this at school. What kind of game are you playing?”

I ran my hands through my hair, suddenly concerned. “I - I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s like...all the voices in my head vanish. Something about this place is...” Clarity. The mirror’s interior filled me with clarity. “Do you feel um, different in here at all?”

A conflicted look crossed his face. “Of course I do, what kind of a question is that?”

“A question! You seem to know stuff, so help me out already! Why is my brain going haywire?”

His mouth twisted. “This place is a sort of a dimensional fold between the two worlds on either side of the mirror. There’s our side, the Oncelands, and the other side, the Afterlands. Where we are right now is In Between. There’s not a whole lot of data on it because making a mirror like this is nearly impossible, even by a Mirrormaker, and those are already rare to begin with. This mirror was made by my uncle Soren,” he said, his chin raising. “That makes it more mine than yours, by the way. It was lost over thirty years ago, but I found it here, in this orchard. I’d take it away with me but it won’t budge,” he said sullenly. “I think it’s spelled in place.” He gave me a sudden harsh look. “If you tell anyone it’s here you’re dead.”

I laughed nervously. “Who would believe me?”

“More than you’d think, in this town,” he grumbled. “The humans who run the school would give a lot to get their hands on an artifact of this magnitude. Havenwood has a long history with magic and old connections to the Afterlands - that’s probably why they chose this town as the location for the school. The Umino Corporation has a strong interest in magic, and the school figures into that. I’m just not sure how yet. All I can tell for certain is that they’ve been working hard to keep the roster full of fae and ferals - and the rare human bloodlines with the capacity for magic.” He regarded me distrust. “Like you.”

“Fae and ferals?” I asked. “What are those?”

“Fae are like humans, only better,” he said haughtily. “They have the power to manipulate the world around them, or the perceptions of others - abilities vary from person to person. Ferals are an inferior, animalistic species with powers that pertain to their own forms - things like strength or speed or transformation. The trick is, magic isn’t supposed to work on this side of the mirror, only in the Afterlands - but about a hundred years ago, it slowly started trickling back. It’s gotten stronger in the last two decades, and no one knows why. Only that there are children being born with powers that haven’t been seen in generations, and the Umino Corporation wants to corral them here at Havenwood.”

“So everyone at school has...powers?” I said hesitantly.

“No. It’s hard to tell which is which until they turn sixteen. That’s when most fae and feral abilities manifest. If you don’t gain any...that means you’re human and they find an excuse to expel you. They accept most of the local kids carte blanche at first, just because this area has a history of being settled by suspicious characters. They don’t want to miss any potentials. But let’s face it, if Hayley and Mac Dupree are anything but human, I’m a time traveling chimney sweep.” He opened a nearby book and flipped the pages to a particular passage. “But you’re a Graham, at minimum...so you’re stuck. Here,” he said, pushing the book towards me. He stood and disappeared