The Mirror (Completed)

ELEVEN

"And what would you suggest, Duke?" Kyril asks, his voice deep, as if some animistic growl. "Tear the surface of Iduna apart until we find this traitor?"

The Duke shakes his head, looking to me as my skin pales. "We trace back to Heka's first movements. Lady Candice was taught by Heka as well as several children from her pack when Heka first arrived. We should go back to Lady Candice's pack and see if those children like Lady Candice would be able to help us."

No. King Kyril will be the one to decapitate me before the sun could even set when he finds out what I am and who I am the daughter of. There are no others like me and there is no pack from which I am from. These men cannot know it. I have an idea of where my father is but venturing there without proper transportation or even a sense of direction or defense means I would be dead before I would get close to my father. I had hoped that I would split with the King and his men after this day, to get a horse and money for the voyage I would take back to some made up pack. I would be gone by the end of the day towards my father had things gone planned.

"Lady Candice, how would your pack feel about a visit from their King?" Kyril asks, meeting my gaze as I try not to look like a deer in the headlights. "We leave in the morning for Lady Candice's pack and to trace this savage down." I want to shake my head and say no, but that would me walking to the sword to cut off my head. Taking in a deep breath, I nod my head, only, as I look to the trackers realizing a long journey than expected is underway, I look to the mirror. Unlike the King or anyone before who had looked into this mirror, I do not see a reflection of myself to reflect on and question my ways, but I see a portal right back into my father's office. And there, standing before the mirror as she sits at my father's desk, my mother has a bottle of vodka at her side, a pen in her hand, and her hair a mess as she works frantically.

So close. So close yet so far away. My eyes become drawn into the portal as I see in one of her hands a compass, one with Arabic on the sides, my mother screaming at the top of her lungs as she throws the alcohol at the other side of the room, crashing as I want to go back to her, reach out, comfort her and tell her that father thinks she is here now and that he wants her to come and find him.

"Lady Candice?" I snap back to the reality I am now faced with, meeting the stare of the King of his men begin to exit the Temple, the Duke about to leave as King Kyril and I are left alone in the Temple. "Are you coming?" I nod, looking back to the mirror as the King begins to walk for the entrance. My mother is on her feet now, pacing around the room as tears stream down her face. Is it selfish of me to stay here while she can barely keep herself sane back home? If I left Iduna and went home, to mend the relationship I have with my mother, to tell her of the world of Iduna and that father is alive, we could come back here one day together to find my father, to find the missing puzzle of our family. It could work, but that would mean I would have to give up right now and go back home to the mess my mother has become. But I must face the harsh truth that if I follow the King out of the Temple he will expect me to show him and his men my pack which I have no idea where to even start with that. I could die in the next few hours or days, but if I return home with my mother right now, I could live another day, be with my mother, and one day return with her back here to find the man that left our lives and we still have hope will return.

Looking over my shoulder to see the King gone, I take in a shaky breath, throwing the fur cloak off my shoulders as I stand in the Temple with a dress and dagger in my hands as I know my mother will think my attire very odd. Undoing the braids my hair is pinned up in, I take a step towards the mirror, closing my eyes as I accept the plan I shall now follow through with. My father has lived this long without his family, he can live another day or month without us. Just as I reach out my hand and feel the liquid mirror, a force runs into my body, knocking me down as the dagger in my hand skids across the floor.

My eyes shoot open to see the King holding me down, one of his hands holding mine over my head as I try and push him off, unable to as he looks closer at me, face close to mine as his lips brush my cheek. "Another human to enter Iduna, how peculiar," he comments, a sly tone to his voice as my heart pounds in my chest. "Another human I would have no trouble killing right now, but the gods must have some sick sense of humor, do you not agree."

"Get off me you monster," I snap, raising my head up as I bite into the King's neck, trying to do him and form of harm. The King only growls, straddling me as he pulls his face away, his free hand reaching up to his neck. Pulling his hand back and looking to the blood present, his darkening eyes move to mine.

"The moment you walked into my palace I knew what you were, but your angelic face and the fact that we are somehow mates got the best of me and I allowed instinct to take charge. I cannot simply disregard the fact that you are human, but that fact that you are my mate, Candice, is the sole reason for why you will never go near this mirror again."

I get one hand free, my fist colliding with his jaw as I am loose, springing for the dagger Duke Gravon gifted me just hours ago. The hilt in my hand as my fingers wrap around the cold metal and I take a large swing, pointing the dagger right at the King as he is crocheted over still where I left him, hand feeling around the location of his jaw that I hit. "Let me go and I will never give you harm again," I inform, rising to my feet as the King does the same. "I do not intent to harm you, but if that is what I must do to return to my home, then you bet I will harm you."

"I would not dare allow a day to go by without you by my side, Candice, and I would destroy the heavens to do so," Kyril growls, standing before the mirror and me as my heartbeat runs faster than ever before. "Why are you trying to find Heka? Was your journey here unplanned? Was finding me unplanned? Or are you not just some random human that happens to be from his world?" I hold my head high, looking to the mirror to see my mother once again, inspecting a piece of my father's collections upon a bookshelf.

My jaw is clenched as I try and think of how to respond. "He is nothing to me but a fellow human," I snap, taking a step forward as I recall my footing from my years of fencing back home. My dagger raised, and my knees bent, I look my opponent in the eye, taking in a steady breath as I am ready to fight this werewolf and god knows what else. "Now pick up your sword and let us settle this." I know he will not fight me, I am not foolish. He will not harm me because he believes us to be soulmates. I on the other hand...that word means nothing to me. The King draws his sword like I expected, acting all high and mighty as he drops his cloak to the floor and raises his sword. His sword may be longer than mine, but I know I was a goddamn good fencer back when I did it. Just as I take my first step towards him in attack mode, the King turns around, facing the mirror as he raises his sword.

"No," I scream, dropping my dagger as I jump onto his back, grabbing his sword as I fling it from his hands, my arms around his neck as I hook my legs around his waist, using my momentum to bring us both crashing into the floor. My shoulder takes the fall, pain erupting in my shoulder and back as the King turns around, pinning me down once more, his fingers running through my hair as he cocks his head to the side and offers me a sly smile. "Please do not break it," I plead, knowing he will not give me mercy, but I use my phrase as a chance to stretch out the time, raising my head as I land it hard against his own. As he releases me, I run for the mirror, my fingertips just brushing the fabrication of the portal back to my home, only for my body to be thrown across the hall.

My body collides with the opposite wall from the mirror, my screams filling the air as I fall to my knees, watching as Kyril's fist collide with the mirror, the glass shattering into millions of tiny pieces, unable to ever be put back together. Tears stream down my face as Kyril looks over his shoulder to me, his eyes black as he stands in the shadows of the room, blood on his fists, and a darkness drawn to him.

I can never go home...and he could not be happier.