Page 103 of How Does It Feel?

That’s how it felt when Mendax touched me, when he looked at me with three different shades of light blue eyes. I saw—no felt—what I meant to him.

He was the bad guy, I reminded myself for the trillionth time, but it didn’t matter.

I craved him every bit as much as he seemed to be lost to me.

But soon, it wouldn’t matter.

Hot tears fell from my eyes, lost in the sea of bath water as they dropped.

I had to leave here and see my family. Not my Willow Springs family, but my real family, and once I left this realm, I would never see Mendax again.

I climbed out of the cold tub. As I collected the fluffy black towel from the counter, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

Cold, red-rimmed eyes stared back at me with the sharpness of a dagger.

My wet hair hung in blonde clumps down my shoulders and back as water dripped from the ends, hitting the dark floor with small tip-taps.

I wiped the remaining tears from my face with the back of my hand and stared at my naked body in the mirror. Envy for Mendax overflowed with such angered fervor that I was surprised my skin hadn’t turned green. He didn’t have to hide any part of himself from anyone. He wore his darkness like a crown.

My eyes darkened with the hate and resentment I started to feel.

His people loved him for being him. An entire hidden world loved him for his darkness. He never had to fight being what he was, not once.

The liquid in the mirror rippled, and my mind instantly flashed back to Mendax’s body pressed deliciously behind me as he had held my hand to the mirror. The searing pain that followed as the mirror that hated humans had burned my skin.

My head lolled to the side as I looked into the very same mirror now. The tight corners of my mouth pulled into a devilish smirk.

I lifted the mirror from its mount on the wall, the metallic liquid angrily rippling as I carried it to the now empty tub. I threw it in as hard as I could with a cruel smile.

The gold frame shook but remained intact as bits of the mirror shattered, sharp triangles and silver pools of liquid.

I grabbed one of the beautiful black candles from its holder on the wall behind me and prowled over to the dresser. I began to unscrew the silvery metal knob I had eyed since first entering this bathroom.

Still naked, I unscrewed one of the hollow knobs and smiled.

I walked over to the iron wall sconce that held the beautiful black candles and slowly scraped a bit of rust from the sconce into the hollow dresser knob.

Practically gallivanting back, I held the silvery metal knob—now loaded with magnesium—under the gold faucet.

I scraped the open edges of the metal knob against the gold of the faucet. It took patience, but all I had to do was look into the broken shards and pools of the mirror that had hurt me, and again, perseverance filled me.

The last bits of metal from the knob itself, having been scraped off by the faucet, fell into itself as the knob acted like a small cup. I covered the top with my thumb and shook the magnesium and iron oxide together before setting the cap-like knob on the mirror with a heinous smile I couldn’t control.

I picked up the black towel. My body was already dry so I quickly tossed on the large black tunic Mendax had left for me. His scent cascaded over my body with the cotton, and my nipples pebbled. He may as well have licked me all over with the way it made me feel to wear his shirt.

My hand grabbed the black candle, and I lit the towel.

I spared one last look into a broken shard of glass, wiping the dark look from my face and replacing it with the familiar, sweet smile. I threw the flame-licked towel onto the dresser cap and mirror that rested in the tub together and walked out of the bathroom feeling a sense of peace.

The bathroom exploded, bursting into giant white flames that licked at the walls of the bedroom.

I wiped off my smile and steadied my eyes as I greeted the shocked faces of four guards that had shoved themselves through the door. Their surprised eyes scanned me before they hung their mouths at the white flames coming from the fallen bathroom door. They couldn’t speak as they looked back at me in shock.

Thermite bombs would do that to you.

“I think you might need a new mirror.”

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