The mirror cracked.
Not like glass breaking.
Like a door unlocking.
A jagged line split down the center, and darkness leaked out—slow and thick—like ink bleeding through paper.
Reyon stumbled backward. "Nope. Absolutely not. We are NOT letting the haunted face-stealing mirror spawn a new roommate."
Seren didn't laugh.
Her eyes were glowing—wide, terrified.
"It's not a mirror anymore," she whispered. "It's a mouth."
Kai stepped forward, Shadowsteel threading with gold, the new Anchor Resonance humming under his skin like a second heartbeat.
"Everyone behind me."
Lina's flame flickered in her palms—gold, then an ugly tremor of black.
She swallowed hard.
"Don't let it touch you," she said, voice shaking. "It said—"
"The next time you touch him… you won't get him back."
The mimic's words echoed in her skull.
Kai glanced back at her, eyes still softly gold-lit.
"I'm not going anywhere."
The mirror split wider.
A hand emerged.
Not a human hand.
A hand made of shadow with the shape of fingers, dripping darkness that evaporated before it hit the floor.
Then an arm.
Then a shoulder.
And then a face—
Kai's face.
But wrong.
No eyes. No pupils. No whites.
Just smooth shadow where eyes should be, like someone had erased them.
It stepped out of the mirror with a sound like wet paper tearing.
Seren made a broken sound in her throat.
"That's… a Veilbound mirror-mimic. A high one."
Reyon's voice cracked. "High one? Like… boss-level?"
Seren nodded shakily. "It doesn't copy bodies. It copies truth. It becomes whatever you believe most."
The mimic-Kai tilted its head in perfect imitation of Kai's calmness.
Its voice was Kai's voice too.
Soft. Controlled. Familiar.
"Lina."
Lina's chest seized.
Kai snapped, "Do NOT say her name."
The mimic smiled with a mouth that was almost human.
"It's already written inside her."
The room pulsed.
Every mirror around them flickered to life at once.
Not showing reflections—
Showing scenes.
Moments.
Possibilities.
Lies shaped like memories.
A mirror showed Lina holding the Veilbound mask again.
Another showed Kai kneeling in front of the Council, chains on his wrists.
Another showed Seren crying over a body she couldn't identify.
Another—
showed Reyon laughing, but the laugh was wrong… like it belonged to someone else wearing his face.
Reyon stared at it and swallowed hard.
"Okay. Cool. Love that. My reflection is doing villain monologues now."
Seren grabbed his sleeve. "Don't look too long. The mirrors rewrite you if you let them."
Lina's flame flared as she stared at a mirror that showed her in black fire, whispering to the entity beneath the academy like they were old friends.
"No," Lina whispered. "That's not me."
The mirror-Lina turned slowly.
And smiled.
"Not yet."
Lina's stomach dropped.
Kai shifted closer to her.
His presence steadied her—like gravity.
The mimic-Kai noticed.
Its head tilted.
"You think he anchors you," it whispered.
Kai's Shadowsteel rose higher. "I do."
The mimic stepped forward—
and the entire floor shuddered.
Runes lit under its feet, webbing across the Mirror Library like a net.
The trap-room was sealing.
Reyon shouted, "Oh GREAT, the floor is angry too!"
Kai didn't look away from the mimic.
"What do you want?"
The mimic's mouth curled.
"The same thing you want."
It lifted one shadow-hand and pointed at Lina.
"Her."
Lina flinched.
Kai snarled, shadow and gold flaring. "You don't get her."
The mimic's voice softened—dangerously.
"You already gave her to us once."
Lina's breath caught.
A memory tried to surface—something cold, a corridor, a hand guiding—
—but it slipped away.
Like a fish sliding through her fingers.
Lina blinked hard, panic rising.
"No… I— I knew— I was thinking something—"
Seren's eyes snapped to Lina.
"Lina. What did you forget?"
Lina tried to answer.
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
She couldn't remember what she'd been about to say.
The horror hit her like ice water.
"I… I lost it," Lina whispered. "I lost the thought."
Kai's gaze sharpened instantly.
"The cost," he breathed.
Her Seventh Flame.
Taking memory—quietly, cruelly—at the worst possible time.
The mimic-Kai stepped closer, voice syrup-smooth.
"It's starting, Little Flame. Soon you won't remember why you loved him."
Kai's jaw clenched so hard it looked like it might crack.
Reyon hurled an illusion knife straight at the mimic's chest.
It hit—
and didn't vanish like illusions usually do.
It stuck.
A real cut opened across the mimic's shoulder, shadow bleeding like smoke.
Reyon stared at his own hand, horrified.
"Uh… guys? My illusions just became… physical?"
Seren's voice shook.
"The Mirror Library makes lies real."
Kai's eyes widened.
"So if Reyon believes something hard enough—"
"It can become true," Seren finished, terrified.
The mimic-Kai turned slowly toward Reyon.
"And if I convince you… you will make me unstoppable."
Reyon took a step back, pale.
"Okay, cool, I'm not thinking ANYTHING anymore— I'm turning my brain off—"
The mimic laughed softly.
Then it lunged.
Not at Reyon.
At Lina.
Kai moved instantly—
Shadowsteel snapped outward like a living shield.
But the mimic didn't strike her body.
It reached for her chest.
For the Ninth Tear sigil.
For her flame.
Lina screamed as cold pressure wrapped around her heart.
Kai slammed into the mimic, Anchor Resonance flaring.
The gold-threaded Shadowsteel wrapped Lina like a tether, yanking her back—
—saving her.
But Kai's face twisted in pain.
The Anchor was pulling at him too.
Holding Lina's mind in place.
Keeping her from slipping into memory loss.
At a cost.
His knees buckled.
Lina grabbed his arm.
"Kai!"
He forced out, "I can hold you… but not forever."
The mimic tilted its head.
"How sweet," it whispered. "He'll save your mind… and die for it."
Lina's flame flared.
A mirror behind her showed Kai turning to ash again.
Her breath hitched.
Fear surged—
and the Mirror Library fed on it.
The mirrors brightened.
Cracks formed in more glass.
More doors trying to open.
Seren shouted, "Everyone stop thinking worst-case thoughts! STOP FEEDING IT!"
Reyon clapped his hands over his eyes. "I'M TRYING— MY BRAIN IS A TRAUMA FACTORY!"
Lina's vision swam.
Another memory tore loose.
She saw a hand—Kai's hand—holding hers in the fire.
Then nothing.
A blank.
Her own name flickered.
She grabbed her head.
"I— I can't— I'm—"
Kai grabbed her wrist, voice fierce.
"Lina. Stay with me. Say your name."
She swallowed, trembling.
"Lina… Veris."
"Again."
"Lina Veris."
"Good." His voice softened. "Now say mine."
Her throat tightened.
"Kai… Rhen."
The Anchor Resonance pulsed.
It caught her drifting mind and pulled it back like a rope.
Kai winced, blood blooming at the corner of his mouth.
Lina froze.
"You're taking it," she whispered. "You're taking the cost."
Kai gave her a grim half-smile.
"Seems fair. You've been taking hits for me since the ward."
The mimic-Kai glided closer.
"One more touch," it whispered. "Do it again. Touch him again, Lina."
Lina's flame trembled.
The warning echoed in her skull:
You won't get him back.
Kai shook his head at her, subtle, urgent.
"Don't."
But Lina looked at him—really looked—
and saw the truth:
If she didn't anchor him back, the library would.
The mimic would.
The prophecy would.
She stepped forward, hands shaking, flame flickering gold-black-gold.
"Kai," she whispered.
His eyes widened.
"Lina, no—"
"I'm choosing," she said softly. "Not prophecy. Not mirrors. Me."
And she did the one thing the mimic promised would ruin everything—
Lina reached up and touched Kai's face.
A simple touch.
Warm fingers against his cheek.
And the Mirror Library screamed.
Every mirror cracked at once.
Gold light blasted from the point of contact.
Kai gasped as the Anchor Resonance surged—mutating, expanding—
binding to her flame like a vow rewritten in fire.
The mimic-Kai recoiled, shadows ripping away from its form like skin tearing.
"No—" it hissed. "Stop—!"
Lina's flame turned pure gold.
For the first time in chapters, no black.
No corruption.
Just Lina.
Kai's eyes flashed gold-white—
and he grabbed her hand, locking it in place like he was afraid she'd disappear.
"Lina," he breathed, voice shaking.
"I'm here."
The library shook harder.
A final mirror at the far end didn't crack.
It opened.
A doorway of glass.
And from inside it, a voice whispered—soft and delighted:
"Good.Now I can take him."
Lina's blood ran cold.
Kai's grip tightened.
Reyon shouted, "GUYS— WE HAVE A NEW PROBLEM—!"
And the mirror-door began pulling Kai's shadow toward it… like a tide dragging him out of his own body.
To be Continued© Kishtika., 2025
All rights reserved.