Chapter 134 Who Are You?
Kira’s POV
The second my eyes locked on the mirror, the world cracked open.
There he was…standing right behind my reflection like he’d crawled straight out of the nightmare and into the glass.
The man with the black rose burned into his back…the black rose that is identical to mine.
Arrows were still jutting from his shoulder, his side, his chest. Blood poured down his naked skin in thick, glossy rivers, pooling at his feet.
His face…God, his face…was twisted in agony so deep it didn’t even look human anymore. Eyes wide and black, mouth stretched in a silent scream that suddenly tore out loud enough to rattle the mirror.
“COME FIND ME, CHILD!”
I screamed with him. Our voices slammed together…mine high and broken, his raw and dying…and the sound bounced off the tiles like it wanted to shatter every bone in my body.
His lips moved again, slower this time, begging through the blood bubbling on them.
“Come… find me… Angela… please…”
Angela? My mother? What?
I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t breathe…couldn’t even think over the rapid beating of my heart.
My scream kept ripping out even as the image started to flicker, his body jerking like the arrows were being ripped back out one by one. He was in so much pain it felt like my own chest was splitting open.
The bathroom door exploded open behind me just then.
“Princess! Are you okay?!” Victoria’s voice cut through the chaos.
I spun away from the mirror, scrambling backward until my spine slammed into the cold corner of the shower stall.
I slid down to the floor, knees to my chest, hands clamped over my ears so hard my skull throbbed. I wasn’t seeing him anymore…but I could still hear him. That endless, wet scream of pure torment, like he was begging for death to finally take him. It looped in my head, louder and louder, even though the room was dead silent.
Victoria’s bare feet slapped across the tiles. She scanned the huge bathroom like a soldier…eyes darting behind the glass shower door, under the sink, even up at the ceiling…ready to fight whatever invisible monster she thought was in here with me.
When she found nothing, she snatched a thick white towel off the rack, dropped to her knees in front of me, and wrapped it around my shaking body like a shield.
“Princess Abby, what’s wrong? Talk to me…What happened? You're trembling so much.”
I couldn’t stop the tears. My finger shot toward the mirror, trembling so badly it looked like I was pointing at a ghost.
“He’s there,” I choked out, voice cracking. “The man…the one with the arrows…he’s there. I saw him. He’s screaming at me. He’s telling me to come find him.”
Victoria’s head whipped toward the mirror. She stared hard for three full seconds, then turned back, eyes soft but steady. “There’s no one there, princess. Just us. Just the mirror.”
She leaned down until we were eye-level, her hands gentle on my shoulders. “Princess… What happened? What got you trembling like this? You’re the same girl who almost took my head off and turned me into your personal maid for bullying you, remember? The fierce one. The princess who has learnt not to scare easily. So what the hell is scaring you right now?”
I sniffed hard, the shaking in my arms slowing just a little.
I knew exactly what she was doing…trying to hype me up, poke at my pride so that I’ll snap out of it.
It didn’t totally work… but it sounded so stupidly funny in the middle of all this that a tiny, broken laugh hiccupped out of me. The screaming in my head faded to a whisper.
Victoria smiled, small and fierce. “There she is. You’re fine. I’d personally fight anyone…anything…that dares scare you. Now come on, hurry up and shower. I’ve got a surprise for you after. Something you’re going to absolutely adore.”
I sniffed again, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. “What is it?”
She stood up, still smiling. “Bath first. Then you come out and see.”
I scoffed, pulling the towel tighter. “I’m not a little kid, Victoria. You can’t just dangle a reward and trick me into doing what you want.”
She winked, already turning toward the door. “What if it’s a reward that’s actually worth it?”
Before I could argue, she stretched out her hand. I took it. She pulled me up like I weighed nothing, then quickly arranged the shampoo, the body wash, even laid out a fresh towel and robe on the marble counter.
“Go on, shower. I’ll pack your bag for the trip home. Your surprise is waiting right on the other side of that door when you’re done.”
The second the door clicked shut behind her, curiosity hit me like a drug.
I stepped under the spray before I could even think about it…hot water blasting down, steam filling the room instantly.
Inside my head I kept telling myself it wasn’t because of the surprise. Nope. I just needed to shower. That’s all. Totally normal.
But the water was perfect…scalding in the best way, melting the ice that had settled in my bones.
The aromatherapy body wash smelled like lavender and something warm and woody, and every scrub of it pushed the nightmare tremors further away. I exhaled so long it felt like I’d been holding my breath since I woke up.
My mind drifted anyway.
That man…who the hell was he? Why did he have the exact same black rose burned into his skin that I did?
Could he be…my father? The pregnant woman running through the woods…I never saw her face, but the way she protected her belly and how he called out to Angela minutes ago…could that have been my mother?
Does that mean my real father is still alive? And he’s a werewolf too? Then where is he? Why has he been hiding all this time?
He told me to come find him. How? Where do I even start? I don’t know his name. I don’t know where he’s from. I don’t know anything.
I thought about asking someone. Leah had said Adrian was our biggest ally… but in the dream it was him…the younger version of him…standing on that ridge, bow in hand, loosing the arrow that tore through the man’s chest. He was the one chasing the pregnant woman. If that woman really was my mother…and the man my father…
No. I can’t tell Adrian. I can’t trust him with this. He can never find out. What if he finishes what he started in the forest and kills me? What if we are sworn enemies or something?
Calm down, Kira. You’re doing too much. I said to myself.
So who, then should I confide in? Liana? Or do I just do this myself?
I shut the water off, heart racing again for a whole new reason.
Victoria’s surprise…and whatever came after it…suddenly felt like the only thing standing between me and the answers I was terrified to chase.