Affair with the Devil

f wind and a faint glow surrounding us as the world blurred into a streak of shadows and l

ddenly as it had beg

round me was cool, almost freezing, and I could see my breath in the d

ing was impossibly high, disappearing into the shadows above, and the floor beneath our feet was cold and damp, like the s

pulse with a faint, eerie glow. The surface of the mirror itself was smooth and polished, but th

ching in my throat as I saw m

e, almost translucent. Her expression was twisted with something I couldn't quite place, something like hun

I whispered, tak

This is the Mirror of Souls," he said quietly. "It shows

art racing. "That's no

ssion unreadable. "The mirror doesn't li

he haunting reflection. "I don't unde

ore you can embrace what you are, you must confront the truth. The da

pounding in my ears. "No,

d. "You've felt it, haven't you? The pull. The shadow that'

eyes filled with something I didn't want to acknowledge. And yet, deep down, I knew Damian was right. I had felt i

d, my voice trembling

anding in his eyes. "Because you were born to walk between worlds. You've al

s stinging my eyes. "

ow that you're here, you have a choice. You ca

race the darkness? The part of me that I had spent my en

spered, my voice

closer. "But you don't have to

strange kind of warmth, a promise of something more. Despite everything, the terror, the c

w," I admitted,

trand of hair from my face. "You don't

f darkness, of shadows and secrets? And yet, a part of me already did. A part of me had tru

ing a shaky breath. "

o that our eyes met. "Look into the mirror," he said s

woman, the shadowy figures looming behind her, it terrified me. But I had come this far.

I turned to face t

t me, her eyes dark and empty, her expression twisted with s

darkness, the shadow that had always been there, lurking just benea

ed that truth, the refl

the shadows behind her, behind me, began to recede. The woman

rashing over me. I had faced the dar

rought me back to the present.

t something had shifted inside me. I felt,

d, my voice steadi

ng with approval, "we move forward.