Before I could ask exactly what she meant by being prepared, a sharp pain sliced through my right side. I cried out, clutching my side as the pain sank deeper.
What the hell was that?
“Violet!” Doc started toward me.
“No!” Prudence shouted at him. “You cannot cross the ward, Medium! You are not a slayer!”
Cooper grabbed Doc and hauled him back into the hall, but still in view.
I slumped in the chair, the stabbing pain in my side spreading up to my shoulder. Sweet fuck! It felt as if the lidérc was clawing its way out of my body. My eyes watered as I stared at Doc, fighting to catch my breath through the pain.
Doc struggled in Cooper’s hold, trying to slip free. “Damn it, Coop. Let go!”
Cooper shoved him against the wall. “Stand down! You can’t go in there, Nyce. Let Prudence do this.”
Harvey—or rather Prudence—grabbed me by the shoulders and set me back upright. “Hold onto it, Violet. The lidérc knows there are two of us here now and will try to escape, but you cannot let it go until I tell you. Do you understand?”
Her words registered in spite of the multiple stabs of searing agony now tearing through my right side. “Yes,” I cried in between gasps.
“Hold the mirror upright!” she ordered.
Tears streaming down my face as the claws dug deeper, twisting toward my spine, I clenched every muscle I had and stared at Harvey’s reflection.
“Medium,” Prudence said. “Open the channel as I showed you this morning.”
The ripping sensation shifted higher. It felt as if my skin was being torn away layer by layer from the inside. I convulsed in pain, making the chair creak. I focused on breathing, going back to my baby birthing training, while holding the mirror still. “Hurry!” I whispered.
“And then what?” Doc asked Prudence. I could hear the anguish in his voice.
“Hold it open until I tell you to close it.”
I stared into Harvey’s blue eyes. What if Prudence screwed up and let it latch onto him? “Prudence, maybe this is too risky for Harvey.”
“He is safe. Now stop wasting your breath and focus!”
I screamed as something gouged me deep inside. An intense cramp similar to the contractions when I was giving birth tore through me, only higher, near my ribs. “Fuck!” I screamed, bearing down until it eased enough for me to breathe again.
“Look at me,” she shouted.
I did. Something was going on with Harvey’s eyes—they were glowing white. As I stared, the light became blinding, making me squint.
“Now let go of it, Violet,” she said.
My body started to tremble from holding onto the pain so tightly. The glow radiating from her now filled the whole mirror, reflecting straight at me, lighting me up like a spotlight. I squinted, trying to see her through the light.
A roaring sound filled my head, making my ears ache. “How?” I hollered over the commotion.
“You know how,” she yelled, but it sounded far away.
I did?
“Focus!”
Centering my thoughts on the pain, I felt it tighten inside of me until it compacted into a lump in my sternum. Then I felt it rising up through my throat.
I tried to swallow and couldn’t, coughing instead. In the mirror, I saw a cloud of black smoke puff from my mouth. But in reality, there was no smoke coming from me at all.
What the … ? My chest tickled again, spurring a round of coughing. In the reflection, more black smoke trickled out through my lips and my nose.
“Now, Violet!” Prudence yelled. “Your medium can’t hold it open much longer.”
I drew in a deep breath and then concentrated and coughed hard from deep in my lungs.
A trail of smoke and shadow swirled out of my throat, spinning in the mirror.
“Again!”
I coughed hard again and again and again, until no more smoke and shadow came out.
In the mirror, the lidérc swirled and shifted, struggling in a small, invisible cage. I saw the swirling silver light again, and then the face of Ottó Sugarloaf, who had brought the parasite over from his homeland more than a century ago. His face shifted, turning into that of a young girl and then a guy with a dark, shaggy beard.
“Medium, close it now!” Prudence yelled.
In a blink, the swirl of smoke and shadow disappeared.
Harvey’s eyes were back to pale blue in the mirror.
“Where’d it go?” I whispered to his reflection.
“It is held captive by the mirror,” Prudence’s voice answered. She was still at the helm, apparently.
“Forever?”
Harvey shook his head. “The mirror cannot hold it for long. You need to deliver the lidérc to Masterson as soon as possible. His cage is much stronger and built for this purpose.”
I lowered the mirror and looked toward the doorway. Doc sat on the floor. His head was resting against the doorframe, his eyes closed. My mace lay at his feet. Cooper was missing in action.
“You okay?” I asked Doc.
He opened his eyes and turned his head in my direction. He looked wrung out and worn thin. “I’m going to need a pacemaker after today, Killer. How about you?”
I rolled my shoulders, wiggled my fingers, and tipped my head side to side. “As good as new. Where’s Cooper?”
He pointed his thumb in the other direction. “He went to peek in on the IT guy who came to see why the cameras are all down throughout the building.” At my wrinkled brow, he added, “Coop shut them down as soon as we got here so nobody would know we were here.”
“We are going to need to get out of here quick then.”
He nodded and held out his hand. “How about you come and help this old man to his feet?”
I looked over my shoulder. “Can I cross the ward with the mirror now, Prudence?”
“How in hell’s bells should I
