Polina’s heart stopped as Logan’s face disappeared from the lucubratus. The way the reflection had frozen, then cracked, she was sure he’d shattered the mirror and with it, her heart. He’d ended it. The worst part was he hadn’t given her a chance to explain or apologize. He hadn’t believed her feelings were real.
She staggered backward. The crushing realization that once again she’d been left, abandoned by a human, plowed through her. Her mind raced. The room of reflections, the seat of her power, returned everything she was sending out. A million visions of Logan came back to her in the diamond-like facets of the room: the way he looked at her the first time they’d met, their first kiss, the night they spent together.
A large fragment of mirror directly in front of her replayed the night she’d come to him on his balcony. He’d wanted so badly to prove to her that he was not a fragile human. As her tears turned to silver, carving trails down her cheeks and staining her shirt, no part of her thought of him as fragile. If anything, he was dangerous. He’d ruined her. She collapsed to her knees.
“My lady?” Hildegard soared into the room and landed on the floor in front of her. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” Polina rasped. “Again. It happened again! They leave. They always leave.” She spread her hands. “Five hundred years, Hildie. Am I not worthy of love? Will I never know what it is to be truly loved?”
The wise old owl hopped closer. “Of course you are worthy. And you are already loved. I love you. It’s not the romantic type you were hoping for, but it is real and it is forever.”
Polina let out a deep sob and cupped her familiar’s feathery face. “I love you too, sweet bird.”
Hildegard sighed. “You took a risk. You gave him your heart and it didn’t work out.”
Liquid metal spilled from Polina’s stained cheeks. “Yes.”
“But life goes on.”
“Yes, it does,” she whispered. “Mine goes on forever. And suddenly, forever seems longer than it did before.”
“I am sorry, my lady. And I do hate to push, but the hour grows late. You must start the potion to protect the humans right away. There’s no time.”
Polina wiped her face, absorbing the liquid metal through her skin, and forced herself to stand. Her stomach churned, but she closed her eyes and centered herself. With a slow swipe of her wand, Logan’s image disappeared from the mirrors around her. She cleared her throat.
“Let us begin. We have work to do.”