I got two very surprised looks.
And Ty said Evan wasn’t capable of facial expressions.
“Awesome,” Evan said.
“Gotta admit, I’m curious now,” Ty said.
“You liked Isadora,” I said.
“I like new, whatever it is, if it’s entertainment or food or girls.” Ty said. “Mermaid is new, as girls go.”
“She’s a bogeyman mermaid,” I said. “It’s not what you’re imagining, I’m almost positive.”
He shrugged.
“Evan folded, I raised, by the way,” I said.
“Call. Annnd… damn it.”
“I’m worried about how she’s managing, as part of all this.”
“In the lake, in winter, you mean?” Ty asked.
“The Drains are harsher than that,” I said. “And types like she and I are tougher than you’d think. Not that I want to push that toughness. Seems like it’s Blake that takes all the grief, and the stuff from the Drains that gets stronger.”
“I can ask Rose if there’s any problem with you getting a book on bogeymen,” Ty said. “I’d like to stop you being in here from being bad for you, if nothing else.”
He dealt out the next set of cards.
Come on, I thought.
Evan folded.
Ty and I put our money in.
The cards were flipped over, one by one.
“Raise,” Ty said.
Fuck.
“Fold,” I said.
I remained absolutely still to hide my agitation.
Three wins.
That was all I needed. Three wins. A toehold, some leverage with the spirits that managed everything, so I could maybe convince Ty to give me something I needed.
Freedom was one option, but felt a little forced.
A better option would be to get information. To glean a little something about who I was and why they had me in here.
Except, Ty was better than I was.
I lost the next hand.
We broke even in the next.
I lost the one after.
He was paying attention now.
“Fold,” Evan said, sounding a little bored.
“Again,” Ty commented.
He won the hand.
Leaving me out of money.
“Can I give him my money?” Evan asked. “I’m gonna fly around the house and see if there’s any trouble.”
“Wards we put up should alert us if there is.”
“Unless it’s a witch hunter,” Evan said.
“I’m thinking you two are in collusion,” Ty said. “And something tells me it’s a bad idea to let that happen. Go fly, Ev. But I think we’re done with poker for now.”
Evan gave me a look, then flew away.
“He was really yours,” Ty said.
“Hm?”
“He’s loyal, and I can see the connection between you two, even now.”
“Maybe, yeah,” I said.
He paused, then said. “There’s… I don’t remember you. I’m not even like Alexis, feeling like there’s some Blake-shaped hole in her memories. I’m sorry if it sounds harsh when I say it, but things make sense, with you gone.”
“I wasn’t real, as far as I can tell,” I said. “But I’m suspicious someone was. Maybe someone the lawyers acquired, or another family member, or… I don’t know. I feel like it was based on something. That, or it was a really clever piece of work, putting together a lot of reality wholesale, and I don’t even want to go within ten miles of whatever’s capable of doing something like that.”
“It isn’t how demons or diabolists operate,” Ty commented. “Creating anything.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Which goes back to sacrifice. Welcome to the thoughts that have plagued me for the last eight or so hours.”
“But whatever the case was,” Ty said, “We had mutual memories before. And those memories were altered. Like I said, Alexis feels the absence.”
“We were friends,” I said. “But we weren’t as close as Alexis and I were. If you’re looking for a Blake-shaped hole in your memories, you might want to look at your work. I remember helping you set up. I gave you feedback. I was one of the first people you went to when you’d started a new kind of thing and wanted to just share everything you were doing.”
“I’ve been feeling an itch, like I really want to talk to someone about the magic stuff,” he said. “Maybe that’s the Blake-shaped hole.”
I heard a knock at the door.
Ty turned his head. “Rose.”
“I can think of five ways what you’re doing right now is a bad idea,” she said.
“Are you going to order me not to?” he asked.
“I don’t do the orders thing. Slippery slope with big C in my head.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Did we wake you? Sorry.”
“The bird did. Everyone’s up now. Just checking, so I know, are you still a bit hung over?”
“Yeah,” Ty said.
“Everyone else is too, Evan excepted. How are you, Blake?” she asked.
“No hang over, and I’m better, after having some company. You’ve got to at least leave me with a book, the next time you leave me in solitary. I’ll lose my mind.”
“We’ll see,” she said. “A novel or two, maybe, nothing magic.”
“How does that even work?” Ty asked. “I don’t see the cards or the book reflected, and they’re right in front of the mirror.”
I had a glimmer of an idea as to how, and I’d practiced a bit, but I was evasive all the same.
“I could say you’ve just answered your own question,” I said.
“You could, but will you?” he asked, smiling a bit.
“No,” I said. “I’ll just ask why, if you profess to know what I am, and you know how to contrive to bind me, you don’t know anything about this part of how the mirror realm works.”
“I think I know,” Rose said. “Don’t worry about it, Blake. Solitude aside, how are you?”
“He’s falling apart, he says,” Ty commented.
“Stress,” I commented, “Being isolated from those things that make me me.”
“You’ll have to deal,” she said. “Crepes for breakfast, Ty?”
“We have fruit?”
“I bought stuff on the way back from the late meeting yesterday.”
“Cool,” he said. He stood and stretched.
“Can I get a recap on the conversation thus far with Blake?”
“You’re doing that paranoid overlord thing again,” he said.
“For my peace of mind,” she said. “Please.”
“Yeah,” he said.
I closed my eyes.
I’d trained for it, in the course of interacting with Lefty. Shifting the focus of my awareness. Letting other things wash over and around me.
The trick, however, was to avoid interfering with the circle. That would be a nightmare.
I did what I could to make it so I didn’t have any influence or impact on this mirror world, except to devote my focus to the circle, pushing against it.
My presence pushed other influences out of the mirror world. I imagined, as the effect went, it avoided realities like Ty carrying a book across the room, and dragging it through my midsection. For a vestige, if I was a vestige, simple interference like that was dangerous.
There was something of a melancholy feeling in my chest as I opened my eyes. The knowledge that Rose hadn’t been able to pick this up, it pointed to the simple fact that she was real and I wasn’t.