Evan would be on the second floor, checking the bathroom. The problem with the second floor was that my short skirmish had destroyed just about every reflective surface. Only a couple of small picture frames remained, as well as the mirror in the bathroom.
I didn’t want it to come that close to the wire. If she confronted Evan and I there, I wasn’t positive I could protect Evan and the mirror at the same time.
“Jeremy!” she shrieked, as she reached the second floor.
She was staying low, moving on all fours with about the same ease and speed that I might move on two. Muscles stood tense in her arms and legs, her eyes bloodshot. At this height, I couldn’t quite reach her. I’d miss like I had before. I wasn’t sure I could get ahead of her to hit her the next time either.
The closest thing, apparently, that Jeremy had to soldiers.
But even if she was flexible, there were limitations. Her body bent more easily, but it still moved like a human did.
Crawling, she couldn’t look up.
I got ahead of her, gripped the hyena, and plunged it through the glass.
My arm bent. I shoved, pushing the frame away from the wall.
Letting it fall.
I held the blade out, and felt it make contact with something.
I wasn’t able to retract my arm before I was shunted off to the nearest location.
The maenad lay on her side, both hands on her ankle. I’d raked the back of her calf and her ankle, slicing them.
Meaning I’d very nearly missed.
Evan left the bathroom. A small hand-compact shed light.
“They’re coming!” the wounded maenad screamed.
“Higher,” I said.
Evan flew higher. The area in the compact’s reflection grew wider.
I skipped over, running to keep up, fighting to stay within the compact’s area as Evan swerved.
“Free Rose, free the others, or uncover the mirror in there,” I said. “Hold off on the traps until I say, unless you don’t see any other option. If you can, get close to Jeremy, give me the word, I’ll stab.”
“‘Kay,” Evan told me. “Stabby mirror.”
I would have felt more confident if he didn’t nearly clip a wall as he said it.
They’d cleared all the reflective surfaces on the third floor. Even the windows on either side of the hallway were broken or covered, as far as I could tell.
All I had was the mirror Evan held.
My way was clear, but Evan wasn’t so lucky. When he flew to one side, I had to adjust.
When he flew lower, passing through the doorway, the amount of floor space I had shrank to maybe four feet across.
Then, just as quick, he soared higher. The image reflected in the compact mirror was a bird’s eye view of the library. I saw tracts of detail, and areas of nothingness where surfaces weren’t captured in the mirror.
“You can’t expect to win,” Jeremy called out.
“I can’t stand by while you go after my friends!”
“The same friends who locked you out?” he asked. “Who left you to rot?”
“Extenuating circumstances!” I called out. I positioned myself more or less where I thought he was.
“One word, and I can end this,” he said. “What can you do?”
“One word, and I can end this,” I retorted.
“Gone,” I heard Evan’s voice from far away.
“What?” I asked.
“Gone,” he said. “Crap, crap, crap!”
“What’s gone?”
“The stuff!”
My view was only of the empty library. My window into the real world was a good twenty feet overhead, a circle about as wide as my palm.
Sounds and estimation were my only insights.
“Plan C!” Evan shouted.
Plan C?
Then he swooped, swaying a little as he fought to maintain his balance, and I knew.
Regardless of what happened, when I broke the mirror, I’d get shunted elsewhere. My ability to act here would cease.
I held the Hyena in both hands, eyes trained on the little circle that was shedding light.
It swept toward me.
“Now!” Evan called out. The voice sounded weird.
Not Evan. It was Jeremy’s voice.
The little compact broke, and my footing disappeared with it.
At the same time, light flared, another reflection opening up.
I was shunted, dumped onto another patch of light.
I picked myself up.
I could see a pizza slice of the library, one quarter of it, bookshelves.
When I turned around, I could see the source of the reflection. The full-length mirror.
Reflected, I could make out Rose, still in the chair by the desk, Jeremy, and my friends, with a satyr and maenad standing nearby. The satyr was holding a leather thong. A sling.
I had an idea of what had happened.
A rather bleary-looking Ty picked Evan up gingerly.
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Ty said.
“Good,” I said. “Guess you got me, priest.”
“Yes,” Jeremy said. “You got my attention.”
I had a bad feeling I couldn’t place.
Stepping closer to the mirror, I could make out the mark on the floor.
They’d moved the full-length mirror, placing it in the circle he’d started to make for Evan.
He’d then broken the one mirror that held me while they removed the cloth, moving me to the nearest available surface, the one inside the circle. Maybe he’d closed it after. Maybe he hadn’t needed to.
I’d been bound the same way Conquest had.
“How did you know how the mirror thing worked?” I asked. “You shouldn’t-”
“I told him,” Rose said.
I stared.
“I had a plan, Blake,” she said. “Those three know it. Evan knows it, even if he doesn’t always get it.”
“He doesn’t like the idea of using monsters,” Ty said.
“Monsters?” I asked.
“I set up a dead man’s switch,” Rose said. “Me and Barbatorem. If I die, he’s going to get out. While you were breaking windows downstairs, I was talking with Jeremy. It’s not a victory on either side, but it’s-”
“Grounds for negotiation,” Jeremy said. He looked displeased. “I’ll leave you be while I look after the two I sent downstairs.”
He left the room.
Rose waited for him to go.
“If he had to walk away, it would be a loss,” Rose said. “As it stands, I’m giving up some things, and he’s leaving me and the others alone. The house doesn’t have barriers, so it’ll be tough at first, but… we’re okay. We were going to be okay from the start.”
“What was the deal?” I asked.
“You,” she said. “I gave him what he needed to bind you, told them how to disarm the traps Evan knew about. At the end of the day, they only want things to be manageable. I made them pay me for it, in a roundabout way. Deflected their first move. They also wanted me to agree to certain terms of war. I’ve accepted this time.”
“But you’re using a demon? You’re tainted by Conquest, Rose,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “They know. Do you think we’ve been sitting on our hands, while I slowly went crazy? We discussed it, we talked it over. We have all these books, you don’t think we have a way to break Conquest’s hold? We decided to keep it. It’s a power source. So long as I’m sure to spend it regularly, he doesn’t get too much of a grip on me.”