Chapter 18 Chapter 18

Chapter 18 Chapter 18
Vivian
After a while of contemplating, I looked this way and that way again. It didn’t look like anyone was watching nearby, and I didn’t feel that strange, prickling in my skin.

I was scared yes, but the fact that I’d stuck her for a lifetime scared the shit out of me the more.

I wasn’t used to this life. The life of seeing monsters grappling over my life, and two aristocrat who pretended to care while I was a stumbling block in their way.

I was used to a more simplier life of reading history books and explaining artifacts to museum visitors, not… this.

And then there was Elena, who needed my help. My money to take care of her hospital bills. Who will help her life if I was stuck here? What would become of her?

All of that, alongside the upcoming masquerade ball I was supposed to plan and be a part of plagued me.

With that fuel of passion, I squatted and picked up the key, dusting the sand off it. Nothing happened. I looked around me in the darkness of the moonlight, just to be sure.

Nothing. Just a soft rustle of leaves of tress distant. I pushed the doors open.

The air inside was ancient, the scent of damp earth and old incense hitting me first. I descended the stone steps, breath hitching as I got to the central chamber.

There, leaning against the tomb of the first Duke of Northbrook, was the mirror.

It’s surface wasn’t reflecting the room, and that made my chest tightening as excitement bloomed within me.

I watched the violent, purple swirl on the surface of the mirror, showing flashes of a world with tall glass buildings and the hum of electricity.

My world.

“Vivian.”

I jumped, whirling around as a lump appeared in my throat. Adrian was standing in the shadows of the archway, watching me.

He wasn’t in his wolf form, but his composure didn’t look like the duke’s either. He looked disheveled, shirt open, eyes glowing with a faint, residual silver.

What was he doing here?

Wait, did he know I was going to show up and purposely left the key in the dirt? Or was he just following me?

No, this had to be some kind of mistake.

But it wasn’t, because the Duke stood there, looking like something far less of a Duke.

He looked like a struggling man who had dealt with so many evils that life had thrown at him, but needed an anchor to keep him in the way.

To steady him.

To stand by his side.

I glanced back at the violent swirl at the mirror, seeing the glimpse of skyscrapers and busy streets and the noisy chatter of contemporary seriousness.

My desire stretched, ached and cried for the need to go back.

But at the same time, the need to help this wounded man echoed in my chest.

Pulling.

Tugging.

“You found it,” his voice came through after a moment of silence.

I backed away towards the mirror. “You left the key,” I accused. “After everything you said. Why leave the way open?”

Adrian stepped out of the shadows into the light, the purple swirl behind me casting a faint shade of purple over his exhausted face that screamed longing.

“I saw you face the other night, Vivian,” he said.

“When you touched me… I felt the man I used to be. That man, if I must put, cannot keep you here against your will. You must choose to stay or leave. Not even if it meant losing his soul.”

He approached me, stopping just feet away.

The chemistry between us grew into an electric charge, making me conflicted.

That pull I felt the day I arrived here came again, pulling so strong that I felt weak in the knees, even as I root my feet against the floor.

“The blood moon is so close,” he added. “If you can wait until then, touching the glass sends you home. But if you touch it now, without the alignment of the blood moon, it will shatter, and you will be lost in the void between.”

I looked between him and the mirror, having mixed feelings. What if he was lying again, just to keep me away from the mirror? He’d done it before, not once, not twice.

I wanted to be with him, but I had responsibilities, and those responsibilities aren’t going to solve themselves. They needed me. Elena needed me. My cat, Gisele, needed me.

I have to go. I need to.

Some good were a necessary evil. It may require some painful sacrifice, but it doesn’t undermine the need for it thereof. I had to go.

I shook my head at Adrian. “I have to go, Adrian. I don’t belong here. I am a historian. I’m supposed to study the past, not be drown in it.”

“Then go,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “But you must know that each night I spend here, in this darkness, I shall spend looking at this mirror, searching for the ghost of the woman who ever saw the beast and didn’t scream.”

Another glance at the mirror, and the internal conflict within me stretched, pulled.

It was almost like a pain in the chest. I wanted the safety and assurance of the future, but I also wanted to be with this man.

I wanted to love this monster, whose ferocious love made the love of the twenty-first century romance look like a pale pretense.

“Adrian, I uh—”

The echo of footfall in the distance from the stairs above made me stiffen. Adrian’s gaze looked in the direction of his gaze, and I followed.

The approaching figure looked like an aristocrat, and my mind played with the image.

“Stay with me,” Adrian called.

I shook my head. I can’t miss this chance to leave, now that I had the chance.

I leaped for the mirror, and I was swallowed by a swirling purple darkness. And then I heard a loud, metallic explosion.