“The child you dropped into the precipice was not the child at all. It was a reflection of the child. It is your child and there is the possibility it inherited the same ability of all Miragians. To create reflections of itself. You drew out its reflection and dropped it into the precipice. The real child never left your arms.”
I wet my lips with my tongue. He was right. No link with Krial had survived much more than a few minutes after he’d absorbed its youth. I had no idea if Krial could sense the baby was still alive out there or not. I had no choice and had to take the chance.
Krial stood over me, clutching the child close to his chest, and peered down with his black eyes. There wasn’t a hint of compassion in them.
“Here’s what I’m going to do,” he said. “The child will be destroyed and I will draw what life remains from the girl. You will watch what your disloyalty has brought upon your loved ones. You will learn. And if I am in a merciful mood, I might allow you to continue serving me. If not, I will chain you up and force you to live every day alongside me, into infinity. I will reverse-Reave you and keep you alive so you might remember and be a reminder to your brothers and sisters. You will remember this day, and all the others you betrayed me and weep.”
He turned on his heel and carried the baby back to the chair.
I rose to my knees.
“Master!” I begged. “Please don’t do this! I beg you! Please! Punish me. Not the girl. Not the baby. Punish me. I deserve it.”
Krial fell into his chair and hugged the baby closer.
“I have made my decision,” he said, turning his head away and waving his hand.
Tus stood over me.
“You should have used the black pill,” he said softly. “I warned you.”
I reached out a hand for Harper. Her eyes were swollen with fear and her lips quivered. I held her tight and felt that ball of pulsing golden light in the center of my chest.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her.
“You tried,” Harper said. “You couldn’t have done any more than you did.”
Krial had handed down the worst punishment I could imagine. It was painful enough to have to watch our baby die, for his lifeforce to be drained like a vial of medicine, but to see dear sweet Harper, the woman I had given my heart to, succumb to the same fate…
Overwhelming anger came over me, far stronger than any I had felt before. The sensation was dark as midnight and I knew right then, I was capable of anything.
Anything.
A red mist descended over my eyes and I drew heavily from that golden light, the source of my species’ ability. A tiny worm of love wriggled across its surface and I seized it. A threat connected to the love I shared with Harper.
Tus grabbed Harper and yanked her from me. I lost my hold on her hand as she flailed and fought against Tus’s powerful grip. He dragged her over to Krial, who would draw every last fiber of strength from her.
“No!” I bellowed.
Tus shut his eyes, a look of intense dismay etched into his features.
The rage overwhelmed me and, with hot tears in my eyes, I screamed. In a single blink, half a dozen reflections dotted the room. Perfect replicas of me, each one roaring at the top of their voices.
Annas snorted and shook her head.
“They’re only reflections. They can’t hurt us.”
But I felt their solidity, the same way when I joined with Harper during our time together in my cell.
They drew their blades and, with none of the guards taking them seriously, buried their blades in each of the guards and one in Krial.
They clutched their hands to their necks and, gasping shock, their eyes bulged at the reflections that stabbed them.
Krial released his grip on Harper and bolted to his feet.
At the same time, Tus lost his grip on Harper, who bolted forward, reacting even faster than the others, and snatched the babe as it fell.
She turned and bolted for the distant door. There was little she could do to protect herself from these creatures in the room.
Only I could.
Annas and Rarr clamped a hand over the gashes in their necks and released me.
I skirted back, forcing a little distance between myself and the others.
Krial was the greatest threat. The others would instinctively move to protect him before coming after me. It was how we’d been taught.
The two reflections closest to Krial hacked at him with their blades.
Krial staggered back against the onslaught.
The other reflections couldn’t hope to move faster than my siblings, so I had them hurl their blades at Krial’s retreating back.
One knife missed. The other caught him in his upper thigh.
Krial staggered and collapsed beneath his weakened leg.
Annas hacked at a reflection, knocking him to the ground, beheading him with a single swing of her sword.
Rarr hacked the legs out from beneath his would-be assassin.
Tus was there to stab the remaining two reflections in the back and take them down with ease.
Krial was bleeding, weak, as he crawled along the floor.
The dead reflections winked out of existence.
More, I thought. I need more.
Another blink and three reflections fell from the ceiling, landing on the backs of Tus, Annas, and Rarr, stabbing and hacking.
Tus hurled his opponent from his shoulders and bolted toward me.
“Get Trayem!” he bellowed. “Get him and the others go with him!”
I swung a line of reflections up before me, a wall of stabbing knives.
The trouble with having so many reflections was control. They each required attention to maintain. I opted to force them to attack in the same movement. I only expected one to make contact with their targets.
It was a
