“Don’t go,” Katia whispered as she reached forward. Just as her fingertips made contact with the cool glass of the mirror, the image vanished, leaving her alone and shaking. As her heart rate slowed, a profound sense of loss washed over her. Turning on the stool with her back to the mirror, Katia leaned her elbows onto her knees and dropped her face into her hands. An icy chill moved through her that seeped down to her bones. Her eyes burned as tears formed and slowly leaked out, they slithered in frosty tracks down her cheeks. A loud sob wrenched free from her throat. It felt like someone was reaching into her chest and squeezing her heart.
The image of that ghostly face was burned into her mind. She’d seen the tangled mass of black hair surrounding a thin, pale face, the dark eyebrows arching over tell-tale mismatched eyes of green and blue. He was real. Her brother was real; he was alive somewhere in Halja suffering who knew what horrors while she sat safely tucked away in this apartment. Guilt assailed her as her tears began to pour.
The bedroom door suddenly crashed open, the frame splintering. Katia’s head snapped up to see Luc standing in the doorway, wild-eyed with panic and concern.
“What happened?” he shouted, eyes roaming over Katia’s body looking for injuries.
The shock of Luc’s arrival on the heels of the soul-shaking image in the mirror had rendered Katia speechless. She sat mutely, staring up at Luc’s handsome face. He approached her slowly.
“Katia, are you all right? What happened?” He asked softly as he crouched down in front of her. He sucked in a sharp breath as he looked at her. “Holy Halja, Katia, your tears are frozen.” He reached out to touch her face, but drew back at the last second, his hand dropping awkwardly back down to his side.
“I’m so cold,” Katia whispered, a shiver moved through her.
Luc looked uncomfortable, as though he wanted to help, but didn’t know how. “What can I do?” he asked.
Katia lifted her eyes and stared straight into Luc's. “I saw him. He’s here.”
“Who’s here?” Luc asked, looking around, but seeing no intruder.
“My brother…in the mirror. I don’t know how...” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “He’s just like me…but backwards…” she trailed off.
Luc frowned. “What do you mean backwards?”
“Hold me.” She said, ignoring his question. Her eyes had crystallized with ice, the blue and green like frosted gemstones.
Luc knelt in front of her completely torn. He wanted to reach out and touch her, and he wanted to run as far as possible in the opposite direction, to debauch her and save her all at once. He felt his moral compass swinging wildly between the two poles. He was being stretched and was certain he would snap from the tension inside himself. Her lips and the fine veins under her skin were slowly turning blue, standing out in stark contrast to her pallor. Her icy eyes were mesmerizing, and her breath puffed out in small white clouds.
Luc’s hands itched to reach out and share his warmth, but his mind balked at the idea, terrified of infecting her with his darkness as he had at the motel. The past few days had been torture. All he wanted was to hold her again, to feel the fire when they touched. Keeping his distance was a knife to the heart.
“What can I do?” Luc repeated, gazing into her eyes that shimmered like crushed diamonds.
He watched with trepidation as she reached a shivering hand toward his face and cupped his cheek lightly. He gasped at the shocking coldness. The contrast between the softness of her skin and the biting cold caused his will to finally break. He needed to hold her more than he needed his next breath. Luc grabbed Katia and pulled her down into his lap, gliding his hand up her spine and grabbing a fistful of her glorious hair. Without a second thought he leaned into her and meshed their lips, the iciness of her skin made him shiver. Katia sighed, her cool breath trekking over his skin, igniting little sparks that danced over his lips. Luc dragged her body tighter against his own. He groaned as her full weight came to rest flush against him. Nothing should feel this good, he thought to himself.
One delicate hand slid up his chest and came to rest on the bare skin of his neck. He licked at the seam of her chilly lips, urging her to let him in. The moment they parted, he slid inside and their tongues tangled, his warmth against her chill. His other hand travelled down her back to cup her ass, pulling her tighter against himself as she straddled him. Softness to hardness. She moaned as he arched up, rubbing against her. Katia speared her hand through the hair at the nape of Luc’s neck, raking her nails along his scalp and sending more of those erotic shocks skipping through his body. Luc felt moisture on his cheek. Ending the kiss, he pulled away and looked into Katia’s eyes. Her icy
