Raven looked at her friend’s reflection in the mirror. “You really didn’t know this?”
“I’ll add it to the list.”
“Gabby, I seriously think you two need to spend time together. Vertical. Not horizontal. And talk. Really talk. Luke’s shifting has to do with the full moon, the dark moon, and crossroads involving clan decisions.”
Gabby raked a hand through her hair. “Crossroads and crossbreeds. With the choices facing us, Luke could shift around the clock if he wanted. Still, you’re right. We’ve only had bits and pieces of time because of this demon thing.”
“And that brings me to the second reason I came upstairs.” Raven hooked her hands onto Gabrielle’s shoulders and turned her toward the bedroom door, and the hall bathroom. “Capiria want us at the chateau asap. The guys are back. There’s news. Aiden will hold a meeting to let us know what they found. There are no stupid questions in this fight. The more we brainstorm, the better we strategize.”
Gabrielle chewed on her lip. Like Tanya said, Luke would sense something was up the moment she walked through the great room door. As head of the Sentinel Brotherhood, Aiden would have a lot to say before she and Luke could steal five minutes to talk. She needed to get to him before the briefing began.
“Wait for me before heading to the chateau. I only need ten minutes to get cleaned up. Aiden won’t start if you’re not there, Ray, and I need you to stall him so I can talk to Luke before anyone else.”
Raven nodded. “Fine, but don’t dilly dally primping.”
Gabby headed for the bathroom, anxiety chasing any lingering vertigo away. “Ray—” She stopped halfway through the door. “Could you call the kitchen for a large grapefruit juice and two croissants with butter and strawberry jam?” she asked, sheepishly. “I’m starving.”
“You hate grapefruit juice.”
“I know.” Gabby let a hand slip to her belly. “Strange. It’s all I want. The tarter the better.”
“I’ll get it myself, sourpuss.”
With a laugh, Gabrielle went into the bathroom and closed the door. For the first time since those blue lines showed in the test oval, she was hopeful.
Raven was as intuitive as she, even more so now that she had come into her own. If Ray said Luke would be okay with her news, then she believed it.
Turning on the tap, she washed and dried her face, before reaching for her toothbrush and the mint gel toothpaste.
“Ugh.” She gagged, spitting a mouthful of foam into the sink. “Damn toothpaste tastes like hair.” Rinsing her mouth completely, she stood with the tap running and her hands in cold water, waiting for the nausea to quell.
“Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of pregnancy,” she muttered.
In that moment, the water turned icy, and the air around her chilled so her breath puffed in white clouds. Pulling her hands back from the tap, she watched ice crackle on the rim of the faucet, forming thin icicles along the edge of the sink.
“What the—”
The porcelain cracked, splintering the one-piece sink and up the backsplash to the bathroom mirror. Gabrielle stepped back, every hair on her body on end.
The mirror fogged, and then lacy crystals spread across its surface narrowing her viewpoint. Hands pressed against the frosted glass, as eyes peered from the encroaching ice. Red eyes. Searching. Scanning.
“Frozen Fuck! RAY!” Gabrielle’s mind raced through Capiria’s warning.
“Mirrors are portals, ladies. They are the playthings of the spirit plane.” The old witch’s voice echoed at the back of her mind.
“In spiritu demons will piggyback lingering spirits, using stolen energy to enthrall a potential host. Do not engage. The moment you use your magic to retaliate, then can seize the connection.”
What do we do, then?
Smash the mirror.
Gabrielle’s teeth chattered hard enough to break enamel. She lifted her hands only to see her fingers red, swollen, and cracked.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled every ounce of calm she could muster, and screamed for Raven on last time. The door banged open, but Raven stopped short in the threshold.
“Holy Freeze Frame! Gabby!”
“I…I…ca…can’t bend mmmy fingers. I can’t gr…grip. Break th...the mmmirror!”
Raven scanned the bathroom, stopping at the freestanding toilet paper holder. Gripping it like a baseball bat, she pushed Gabby behind her and then swung the heavy oiled brass against the mirror.
The silvered glass imploded, sucking the icy air and shattered slivers into the void.
“Fuck!” Raven grabbed Gabby, and rushed for the door as the mirror’s metal frame groaned, bending and folding in on itself until it dropped with a thud.
The force gouged a chunk of porcelain from the vanity, but the moment it hit, the tap ran undisturbed, and Gabby’s hands were once again smooth and soft.
Her knees buckled, but Raven caught her around her waist. “How soon after you closed the bathroom door did things get weird?”
“After I washed my face and brushed my teeth.”
“That was fast. We need to let the others know. ASAP.”
Gabrielle straightened, taking a moment to recover. “Okay, but—” she hesitated. “That was no hallucination. That was a psychic phishing expedition. Maybe talking to Luke should wait until after we tell the others what happened.”
“Once the sentinels find out, you’ll never get a moment alone with Luke. If I know Aiden, he’ll post his men outside every door, their senses as sharp as their fangs. You need to talk to Luke before all hell breaks loose. I’d send my senses out to gauge who and what sent that probe, but I’m guessing it wasn’t aimed at anyone in particular. It was exactly what
