“What in the hell was that, Prudence?” I yelled at the ceiling. “Was that another one of your asshole projections?”
“Astral projection,” Cornelius corrected.
“Whatever!” I paced in front of the table, still wiping my hands off on my sweater. “Answer me, Prudence. What was I looking at?”
Harvey glanced up from wiping off his spilled milk with his handkerchief. “She must have seen a ghost,” he said to Doc, who was staring down into the mirror.
“What did you see, Parker?” Cooper asked, looking back and forth between Zelda and me.
“I saw my reflection, only I was covered in blood and my face was peeling off and then my eye fell out and dangled next to my nose.”
Doc cringed, lowering the mirror, while Cooper made shark fins out of his hair, turning his back on us and undoubtedly this whole mess.
Harvey reached for the last flattened honeybun, while his cheeks were stuffed with the one he was still chewing.
“Really?” I snapped at him. “You want to keep eating after hearing that?” My stomach was a churning cauldron of gut-ache.
“Don’t start chompin’ at me just because you’re wound up tighter than a two-dollar watch.”
“Sorry, Harvey.” I really was. I didn’t mean to take things out on him. I wrung my hands together, trying to forget the repulsive sight I’d seen in that mirror. Whose bright idea was it to hand that blasted thing down to me? I wouldn’t mind taking my mace to it and scattering the pieces to the ends of the earth, too.
Cornelius watched me, his mouth twisted. “Are you sure it was your bloody face in that looking glass?”
Before I could answer him, Zelda spoke. “Prudence says that what you saw in the mirror wasn’t you.”
Cornelius let out a satisfied harrumph. “I knew it.”
I crossed my arms. “You know what, you two? That thing I saw …” I sputtered for a moment, then took a breath and continued. “It not being me doesn’t give me much comfort.”
“If it wasn’t Violet in the mirror,” Doc said, “then who was she seeing?”
“Or what?” Cooper added.
“Prudence suspects that what you saw is a remnant of something captured long ago. An entity that might or might not still be alive and trapped in there.”
I took the mirror from Doc and held it up toward Zelda. “How about Prudence looks into it herself while saying its name and gives me a more definite answer?”
Zelda shied away from it, shielding her face with her hands. “No! She says that the danger is too great for her to even touch it, even through me, let alone peer deeper into it like you did without protecting herself first. Mirrors such as yours can be deadly. She’d prefer to shatter it if given the choice.”
That reminded me of Mr. Black, and how Aunt Zoe had warned him not to touch the mirror. A glance in Doc’s direction told me he was probably remembering that same moment in Aunt Zoe’s workshop.
Doc took the mirror back from me. “Can this mirror help Violet catch the lidérc or not?”
Zelda closed her eyes for several heartbeats, although my heart was still jackhammering, so it might not have been that long.
“Prudence remembers you, Medium,” Zelda said to Doc. “She would like to show you something if you’ll allow it.”
“No,” I said, stepping in front of Doc, shielding him from Prudence even though I didn’t know where she was floating.
“Violet,” he touched my shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“No, Doc. I told you I can’t handle her doing that puppet thing to you again.” I leaned into him, feeling his warmth at my back, my gaze darting here and there around the room. Where was she hiding, damn it. “Prudence, enough of these games! Show yourself.”
“Prudence wants the medium to lie down on the couch.” Zelda’s eyes were still closed. “She says he needs to be relaxed for her to continue.”
“I don’t like this,” I grumbled, wringing my hands together. “Prudence, you better not hurt one hair on his head.”
Harvey stood and shuffled aside, stuffing the last honeybun in his mouth and then offering Doc his place on the couch. There were crumbs scattered here and there on the leather cushions.
“Doc, don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm. “I can catch the lidérc without the mirror. We’ll figure out some other way.”
He set the mirror on the coffee table and took me by the shoulders, his dark eyes holding mine. “Killer, you have to trust Prudence this time.”
I shook my head. “She’s going to do something that’s going to fuck with your head—and then mine.”
“Of course she is. That’s why we’re here. Did you think I came along just for the smashed honeybuns?” A small grin crept onto his lips. “Although watching Harvey peel them off your butt was something I won’t forget for a long time.”
I groaned.
He chuckled. “Now kiss me and let’s get this over with.”
I looped my arms around his neck, kissing him good and plenty while keeping my fingers crossed behind his back so that the next time I locked lips with him Prudence didn’t join in the fun and make me lose my mind.
“Come on, you two,” Cooper snapped barely a second after our lips touched. “Nyce is not going off to war. Enough of this PDA shit.”
I lowered onto my heels and wrinkled my nose at Doc. “I think Cooper is allergic to romance.”
He smiled. “Someone better warn Natalie not to waste money on any lingerie.”
Harvey hooted. “She could make a sexy number out of artillery belts and camouflage.”
“I’ve seen ladies’ unmentionables with bull’s-eyes on the front and back, depending on your preference,” Cornelius joined in, rising from the couch. When I gaped at him, he gave me one of his crooked smiles. “Don’t forget, I spent many years in Las Vegas. I often think of that delightful town as an exotic human zoo worthy of much study. An anthropological fantasyland, if you will.”
“Coop can always use more target practice,” Harvey said, snickering. “Last time we went
