Except that when Rachel had spun to face me, the reflection hadn’t moved.
Rachel sent another disintegration ray at me; without looking I knocked it away. Her reflection was watching me from over Rachel’s shoulder.
“Die already!” Rachel shouted at me. When I didn’t answer, she paused. She followed my gaze, turned with a frown. She looked at her reflection; the mirror Rachel looked at me. The real Rachel turned back. “And look at me when I’m killing you!”
I stared back at Rachel, the chill inside me growing. She doesn’t see it.
The mirror Rachel turned away, her gaze lingering, then began walking, heading for my reflection.
Instinctively I backed away. My reflection moved sideways, matching me, but the mirror Rachel was advancing faster and faster. “What the hell is wrong with him?” I heard the real Rachel say.
“It’s Elsewhere.” There was a frantic edge to Shireen’s voice. “Something’s here. Alex, get us out! Please!”
Elsewhere is dangerous. Anne and Luna and I can use it because we’re careful and disciplined. Every crack inside your mind, every part of yourself that you can’t face, is a vulnerability. And by that measure, Rachel was about as bad a candidate for Elsewhere as you could get. So my plan had been to bring her here, then simply wait for her to self-destruct.
All of a sudden, it was occurring to me that bringing the most mentally damaged person I knew into a place shaped by thought might not have been a good idea.
Rachel’s reflection lunged for mine. I flinched, half expecting to feel the impact, but didn’t. Rachel’s reflection slid around mine and yanked my knife from its sheath.
My hand went instinctively for the same knife, and closed on empty air.
Rachel tried again to disintegrate me. I was so distracted I barely managed to deflect it. I had no idea what was going on anymore. I’m used to knowing how to handle threats, but I didn’t know how to handle this.
Dimly, I was aware of Rachel talking to Shireen. “Is he even paying attention?”
“I told you, something’s here! You have to get out!”
The mirror Rachel looked at me through the glass. Our eyes met and a secretive smile touched her lips; she held up my knife, the blade glinting in the light. Then she turned her gaze towards Rachel.
“Hey,” Rachel called to the jinn. “How about you do something useful for once and—”
The mirror Rachel lifted the knife out in front of her, clasped in a double-handed grip, blade down, and drove it into her own stomach.
Rachel’s words cut off in a scream. She doubled over, clutching her belly, then looked up at me in pain and shock. There was blood on her fingers.
The mirror Rachel drove the blade into her stomach again and again. Each time she wrenched the knife out, it left a bleeding wound, but she didn’t react. For all the pain she showed, she might have been stabbing a plank of wood. Her eyes were locked onto her counterpart. The real Rachel cried out and staggered as the knife went in.
“Stop it!” Shireen screamed at me. “Stop it!”
“I’m not doing anything,” I snapped.
The mirror Rachel looked at her original, head tilted, and drove the dagger into her thigh. Rachel screamed again as her leg gave way beneath her. She collapsed to the stone floor.
“Make it stop!” Shireen yelled at me. She looked around wildly, then her gaze turned towards her reflection. “Rachel!” she called. “The mirror! It’s the mirror!”
Rachel twisted around from where she lay. Within the mirror, Rachel’s reflection looked back at her. Something seemed to alter in Elsewhere, the surroundings changing with a click, and Rachel’s eyes widened as she finally saw what I did.
The two Rachels looked at each other through the mirror. The mirror Rachel smiled.
Rachel’s face twisted in rage. She sent another disintegration ray into the mirror, then when that didn’t work, lashed it with a whip of sea-green energy. She followed that up with a water blast, then a spray of acid, then some sort of cutting effect I didn’t recognise. Spell after spell hit the mirror, each of them powerful enough to kill a man in an instant.
The mirror soaked them all up. Rachel might as well have been hitting thin air.
The light from the last spell faded to reveal Rachel’s reflection standing on the other side of the mirror, untouched. She was still smiling. She lifted up my knife, turning the blade to show the blood on it.
The anger in Rachel’s eyes began to turn to fear.
“Alex!” Shireen shouted. “Make it stop!”
“I told you,” I said, not looking at her. I couldn’t take my eyes off Rachel. “It’s not me.”
“Then open a gate! Take her out of Elsewhere! You can do that, I know you can!”
The mirror Rachel looked down at Rachel, then opened her mouth very wide, her jaw gaping.
“No,” Rachel muttered. She held up a hand, sea-green light glowing around it, but there was nothing to strike at. All of her deadly battle-magic was useless. The light around her hand winked out.
The mirror Rachel reached into her open mouth with her free hand. She gripped her tongue between thumb and forefinger.
“No,” Rachel said, her voice rising. “No!”
The mirror Rachel raised my knife. Metal glinted as she pointed it down towards her mouth.
“Shireen!” Rachel screamed.
“Alex!” Shireen screamed desperately. “Please!”
I hesitated, looking at Rachel. Just for a second I felt the urge to help.
Then I thought about what had happened only last month, when Crystal had controlled my body and forced me to beat Anne until Anne had snapped. I remembered how I’d been left on the floor, crippled and helpless, just as Rachel was now, and how Rachel had laughed at my tears, her eyes bright with happiness.
The urge to help died.
The mirror Rachel brought the knife down, stabbing through her tongue and pinning it to the floor of her mouth.
Rachel gave a horrible choking scream. The mirror Rachel dragged the knife out, blood welling up. Rachel clutched her face and threw her head from side to side in agony, red droplets spattering on the floor.
“Rachel!” Shireen screamed and ran to Rachel’s side. She tried to pick Rachel up, cradle her in her arms, but Rachel thrashed wildly, hitting Shireen in the face and knocking her flat. Rachel managed to pull herself up onto one knee, looked up at the mirror to see that her reflection was still standing. The lower half of her reflection’s face was a mask of blood, but its eyes were still fixed on Rachel.
It was holding my knife against its neck.
Rachel stared back at her image, then slowly, she turned to face me. The bloody mess of her jaw matched the image behind her. Her eyes met mine, and for once there was no anger there, only fear. She tried to speak through her mangled tongue but the words were incomprehensible.
I was still looking into Rachel’s eyes when her reflection cut her throat.
A horrible wound opened up across Rachel’s neck, starting below one ear and going all the way around to the other, the skin slicing and tearing like a paper bag. Blood spurted from the arteries, and the trachea gaped open. Rachel convulsed and collapsed, making a wet gargling sound.
“NO!” Shireen screamed. Again she ran to Rachel’s side and again she was knocked away. Rachel was thrashing wildly, blood spurting out to pool around her. Shireen looked around desperately and ran to me. “Help her!” she screamed. She beat at my chest with her fists. “Alex, you bastard! Do something!”
I looked back at Shireen coldly and stood my ground.
Rachel died slowly and horribly. She thrashed and clawed, but as the blood gushed out, her movements became slow and sluggish. At last her hands clutched at the stone a final time and then went still. Her head fell to one side and her eyes began to glaze. Her chest rose and fell more and more slowly until it stopped.