For a moment, Katherine and Celia stared at Nico in shock. Throughout the story, Celia's hold on Nico's hand had tightened into a sweaty grip across the girl's knuckles, and only at the end did she realize it and let go.
"I'm sorry," Celia said. "Did I hurt you?"
"No," Nico said under her breath.
Her gaze was fixed on the intricate design of the parquet flooring before Katherine's feet next to the solon sofa, but her mind's eye still dwelled over the contents of her story. Her face was a mask of repressed emotions, with tracks of tears still visible under watery eyes.
Katherine got up from the sofa, placed her hands on Nico's shoulders, and crouched down at eye-level with Nico, breaking her introspective gaze. She said, "Are you okay?"
"No," Nico said, then stood up from her chair and extended her arms over her head, stretching her back and shoulders after sitting the whole time. She took a few deep breaths, and she seemed a little better for it. She looked at the two Hearn sisters, new tears welling in her eyes and trailing down her cheeks, and said, "I feel like hell."
And at her looks and at her words, both sisters got up and hugged Nico, wrapping their arms around her in sisterly commiseration.
"I didn't mean for you to relive that," Katherine said, and sighed. "If I'd have known it was like that, I wouldn't have pressed you to go further." Then she sucked in breath, feeling something horrible lurching in the pit of her stomach, unclasping her arms from Nico and looking anxiously into nothing.
"What's wrong?" Celia said, but her sister didn't reply. "Kathy, what's going on?"
"I can't track Maddy's location."
"WHAT! I thought you said you had mirrors all over this place!"
"I do," Katherine said, summoning a large mirror in front of her and peering into the reflection for Madison's location, "but I can't sense Maddy anywhere! Shit," she cursed. "Someone's tapped into the mirrors!"
Celia and Nico traded fearful looks.
Celia grabbed onto Nico's hand. "Do you think it's Rancaster?"
"It has to be."
"Then I'll get her," Celia said.
"No, you won't!" Katherine said.
"But Maddy's—"
"No mean no, Celia. I can't have you teleport, willy-nilly, where I can't find you—especially with that Rancaster bastard out there!"
"But I can use my blood seal and—"
"I'm not letting you, damn it!" Katherine yelled, grabbing Celia’s hand in an iron grip. "You used it already today; if you use it again, you might die!"
"What do you expect me to do then?" Celia said. "Let Maddy die?"
"No, just . . . God, let me think!"
"Guys!" Nico said, and both sisters looked back at her. "I can help you out, okay?"
"How?" Katherine said. "I can't locate her through the mirrors."
"Just let me handle it," Nico said.
"Are you sure?" Celia said.
Nico saw the concern on Celia's face, so she leaned closer and kissed her lips and then her eyes, then took one of Celia's hands and pressed it on the center of her chest, shocking Katherine into dropping her jaw. At this, a knowing smile pursed Nico's lips as she began to float from the ground and fade away into nothing. "My eyes are now your eyes. When I locate her, you'll know." And she disappeared through the ceiling, but her voice resounded through the library as clear as day:
Don't worry. You'll see her when I find her.
Madison was dumbfounded, turning back to the broken mirror only to find it in pristine condition. Immediately, she took a double take but saw nobody behind her like before, and turned back to the mirror. No cracks anywhere on the reflection, no dried blood seeping through the cracks, not even fingerprint smudges after she had run her fingers across one of the larger shards.
She looked at her other hand and still saw blood on her fingers, so she raised her fingertips to the surface of the mirror and was about to touch it, but stopped short. Something in the back of her mind raised the hairs on her neck.
She backed away from the mirror and gulped, and her red hair began to float and flutter from her shoulders.
She turned one way, then the other.
The carpet in the hallway to the left showed no sign of foot traffic, but the carpet in the hallway to the right showed only a minuscule amount of wear, as though someone (like Katherine) had walked that way often enough to warrant some interest.
Then Katherine's naughty room flashed through Madison's mind, and she turned to go that direction where the naughty toys and dvd's were secreted away, when she looked back again at the other end of the hallway.
The girl with bobbed hair was standing there.
Madison drew in breath and said, "Who are you? How did you—" But the girl turned and walked into the left side of the hallway ("Hey, get back here!"). So she ran after her, rounding the corner and expecting to see that strange girl just ahead—
And halted in her tracks.
The strange girl was there, all right, but with her was that man in the white suit.
Madison folded her hands into fists, glaring at the man, and said, "What are you doing here?"
"I tried to find the proper entrance, believe me," Rancaster said, "but it seems there's no front door."
"Get out of here—now!"
"And void my invitation?" he said, and all at once, the reflections in the hallway mirrors blackened into inky pools. "That wouldn't be very punctual of me now, would it? Bambina," he said to the strange girl, "take care of this bitch for me."
Quick as a flash, the 'bambina' manifested two semiautomatic pistols in both hands and aimed and—
Madison cursed, bolting out of the path of bullets, rounding the corner and sprinting back down the hallway along rows of inky mirrors and locked doors, seeking the next turn at an intersecting hallway, wondering why Katherine wasn't here yet . . . And praying that her sisters would come and aid her.
Then Madison halted at the three-way intersection of hallways and crouched down, placing her palm flat on the carpet, sending out dozens of seals along the hallway before her like land mines over the carpeting and booby traps on the walls and mirrors.
Soon after, the 'bambina' bolted around the corner at the other end of the hall ("Careful now,” Rancaster said. “She's a tricky one.") but stopped short of crossing into Madison's traps, so she raised her guns at the redhead before her.
While Madson cursed when she realized she had underestimated the range between herself and the 'bambina,' putting herself at a disadvantage, saying, "Kathy, Celia, where the hell are you?"
Shots fired, and bullets whizzed towards Madison at mach two, cutting through the air before she could hear the gun blasts, just moments from carving through her flesh, when a circle of roses appeared below Madison's feet, and Celia appeared a nanosecond later and blinked her sister out of sight—
And into the library one floor below, both girls shaken and breathing hard in front of an anxious Nico and Katherine.
"Christ," Madison breathed. "Why'd you have to cut it so damn close? Any closer, and I'd be a goner!"
"At least you're here, Maddy," Katherine said.
"Yeah, I'm here," she said, "but how come it took you so long?"
"I wasn't able to locate you through my mirrors."
"We had to rely on Nico to find you," Celia added.
At this, Madison turned and faced Nico in shock, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders. "You? You found me?"
"It took longer than I thought," Nico said. "I had to look through most of the hallways, but I don't think they found me out. At least, I hope not."
Silence followed Nico's words, as each girl deliberated on the next action to take, especially Katherine. She separated herself from the girls and stood apart, rolling the pros and cons of her next actions through her head, her face stern and her eyes steely and her breathing calm and controlled. Yet something within her swarmed and raged like a sea in a tempest, flooding the library with an awful chill, shuddering the space from the ceiling to the floor and shaking the furniture and the books on the shelves, and giving her companions goosebumps.
At this, Madison walked up to her on tenuous feet and said, "What are you thinking?"
Katherine made up her mind and said, "Celia, take Nico and Mara out of here. Maddy and I will handle it."
"But you just said—"
"This is my dream world," she said. "He can control my mirrors, but he doesn't control me. I'll make sure he knows who he's messing with. Nobody fucks with my family and gets away with it!"
Both sisters flinched at her use of f-bombs.
Celia complied and took Nico's hand, summoning a seal beneath her feet and saying, "I hope you know what you're doing, Kathy. Be careful," and blinked Nico and herself out of sight—
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And into Katherine's boudoir, where she summoned another seal below their feet encompassing herself, Nico and Mara on the bed, and blinked out of sight again.
But the spell couldn't complete its circuit and dropped them back inside the boudoir. Celia's face now fluttered with dread, as she released another spell encompassing all three girls and blinking them out of sight, only to have them reappear back in the boudoir. That's when Celia came to a horrible conclusion.
"Shit!" she said.
"What's wrong?" Nico said.
"I can't get you out of here,” Celia said, her mind racing for more options, one of which impressed itself on her more and more despite what Katherine said. "Fuck, I have no choice! Stay here," she told Nico. "I need to let my sisters know."
And with that, Celia threw another seal below her feet and blinked out of sight.
Nico sat on Mara’s bedside and stayed silent for a moment, looking at her sister still lying asleep. She said, “I hope you wake up soon,” and reached out and held her hand and waited for Celia’s return and occupied herself with looking at the contents of the room again, until she noticed the reflection of the one-way mirror next to the vanity blackening into a swirling mass of energy. Nico got up and pressed her hand against the reflection and jerked her hand away as fragments of Rancaster’s life flashed through her mind.
She then looked back at Mara’s bloody clothes.
Meanwhile, Celia appeared back in the library just as Katherine and Madison were walking through the doorway and heading towards the stairs.
"Wait!" she yelled.
Both sisters doubled back and spotted her, and Katherine said, "Why are you back here? Didn't I tell you to get out of here?"
"I can't get out," Celia said. "Something's blocking me!"
Katherine cursed, summoned another large mirror in front of her and peered into the murky one-way reflection inside her boudoir, and cursed yet again. "I can't believe this! The bastard tapped this one, too." She then placed her hand against the reflection and sensed the mirrors in the house contaminated with Rancaster's influence. "He's got this whole place covered already. He's got to every mirror except mine." She then sighed, knowing what she had to do next was going to be a painful act for her, and said, "Maddy, place your hand over mine on this mirror."
And Madison did so. "What are you planning?"
"To blow up every mirror in this house."
"Are you crazy?"
"Every mirror except mine," she said. "Mine stays whole. Can you do that for me?"
"I'll try, but . . ." she said. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"
"I'm sure."
So she placed her hand over Katherine's, synching up with Katherine's mind, and placed her seals over all the mirrors in the hallways above them, as well as the mirrors on the floor they were in, but hesitated over the one-way mirror leading into the boudoir where Nico and Mara were. "Including the one in your private bedroom?"
"That, too."
So she did so, saying, "You know this will hurt you, right?"
"I know. Just do it already!"
With that, Madison released her spell and exploded every mirror in the house, shaking the place to its foundations, rattling the bookshelves and furniture in the library, and loosening the flooring beneath their feet.
And with the explosion, Katherine winced and felt the concussive blasts of all the mirrors breaking into shards and digging into her chest in a vicious grip over her heart. She became dizzy and winded, nearly fainting, buckling her legs under the stress and falling to her knees and vomiting onto the floor under wave after wave of nausea.
Her sisters came to her aid, Celia and Madison grabbing both of her arms and dragging her limp body towards the couch, easing her onto the cushions.
"Are you okay?" Celia said.
"I'll be fine. Just give me a sec," she said, taking several deep breaths to steady herself, then lifting herself on tenuous feet. Both of her sisters held onto her, and she asked them to help her get to the mirror that now had a clear view into the boudoir and expanded its dimensions to fit all three of them inside it. Then all three walked through it—
And into the boudoir, where they found Nico in her underwear frantically undressing Mara on the bed, pulling the blood-stained shirt over her sister's shoulders and revealing her bra and bare stomach and panties. All three Hearn sisters gaped and stared, wide-eyed, at the scene before them.
"What are you doing?" Celia said.
Nico looked at the shocked faces of Celia, Madison, and Katherine and blushed, saying, "It's not what it looks like. I'm just changing into her clothes, that's all."
"Why?" Madison added. "Because that's kind of creepy, you know."
Nico gave her a death-glare, making the older girl flinch, and said, "I'm doing it, so if Rancaster gets here, he'll have to deal with me to get to Mara. So there!"
"Okay, okay, we get it," Madison said. "Don't get your tits up, geez!"
Celia and Madison then took Katherine to the vanity table, where Celia wiped away the remaining shards of glass from the table top and the seat pan, before easing her onto the chair for her to sit and rest. Katherine slouched in the chair, viewing the mirrorless backing that used to be her vanity mirror, then placed her head into her arms over the desk, refusing to let her sisters see her tears—to see her so weak and vulnerable.
Celia said, "You sure you'll be okay, Kathy?"
"I'll be fine," she said. "Just give me a minute."
After pulling Mara's shirt over herself, Nico paused at the sight of Katherine crying onto the vanity table. "What happened?"
"She asked me to break all the mirrors in this place," Madison said. "It's not something I'd do, unless it's an emergency."
"What do you mean?"
"Kathy has an affinity with mirrors," Celia said. "It's a rare skill among magic users, so she's very good at using them, and she knows it, too, but it has its downsides."
Nico thought about it and said, "You mean, like, vanity?"
"That's the one," Madison said, "but it's more like confidence. Kathy's mirrors reflect her will power, so breaking a lot of them at once will bring her down a few notches."
Katherine slammed her fist on the desk, shaking all three girls from their discussion, and said, "I can hear you! Stop harping on the obvious, okay? It's pissing me off!"
Celia, Madison and Nico clammed up and backed away from her, all three seeing a dark red aura emanating from Katherine's body.
Nico grabbed Madison's arm and whispered, "I've heard of mood swings, but that's crazy!"
"I know, trust me," she whispered. "My mood swings are nothing compared to hers."
"Does she always get this mad?" Nico asked.
"Not often, thank God."
That's when the room turned drafty and cold, a swirl of energy emanating from the epicenter that was Katherine's corner of woe. When she lifted her head off the tabletop and wiped tears away with her sleeve, then slowly turned to face them in her chair, she froze them where they stood with an icy glare, till they each turned white and trembled on wobbly legs.
"Don't . . . talk . . . behind . . . my back," Katherine said like a strict schoolmarm lording over three delinquents, "unless . . . you want . . . to die!"
At this, the girls gulped and kept nodding their heads till she finally stopped her murderous stare, all three breathing in relief as though coming up for air from a deep dive.
When Katherine settled her emotions, she took another deep breath and breathed out the remnants of her anger. "I'm really sorry, guys. I didn't mean to explode you like that."
"That's okay, Kathy," Madison said, edging towards her elder sister and placing a comforting hand over her shoulder. "Just get some rest, okay? That last spell took a lot out of you."
"But I—"
"You need to rest, okay?" Celia said, coming up beside Madison and placing her own hand on Katherine's other shoulder. "I know you're used to giving out orders, but you're only human. You need to take a break some time."
And before Katherine protested, Nico came forward in between Madison and Celia and added, "We all need rest, Ms. Hearn. Let's hole up in this room for a while, and I'll keep a lookout for the time being."
At her formality, Katherine deflated somewhat and sighed. "I guess you're right. Till I get my strength back, I'm not much use, anyway. But Nico," she said, turning around and facing the girl, "please, just call me by my first name. Same thing with my sisters, too. None of us are strangers here."
"Okay," she said, keeping her gaze to the floor.
Katherine eyed Nico. She seemed so distant all of the sudden, as if she was trying to keep something inside from collapsing in on itself, a desperate strength on the edge of breaking into a waterfall of tears. So Katherine got up from her chair and hugged Nico close to her, saying, "It's okay. You don't have to keep it bottled up. Just let it all out, okay? Just let it out."
At her words, something inside Nico released like an overflowing dam, and her wide-eyed expression of being caught in a moment of weakness now melted into fits of crying over the dead and the hell Mara experienced to the edge of her plight. She let all that baggage out in a cascade of regret, as she fell to pieces in Katherine's embrace and cried into her shirt.
All the while, Celia and Madison looked on in wonderment and followed suit, wrapping their arms around both girls in commiseration. Even at her weakest, Katherine proved herself their pillar of strength, their rock amidst the storm, their shield against the sword.
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