Glass Souls (Reflection Book 1)

by Clairisa Campbell

  He looked at me and he read my face. I wasn’t going to change my mind and I think he saw that.

  “Okay, I’ll see if there’s a steed nearby.”

  As if it was fated, at the edge of the dome Lucci whinnied to get our attention. Loic looked to her, then to me. pointing his chin down breaking eye contact with me.

  “yhw era uoy gnigaruocne siht iccul?” He sighed. Lucci snorted and he begrudgingly petted her snout. “Yeah I know.” It was like they were having a full conversation. Whether he was or not nothing changed his face. He was not on board with this, but he did it anyway. He stood helping me to my feet. I was wet, but everything was still together. All limbs intact, status of sanity pending…`

  Loic turned and did something out of my view, a flash of light lit up his outline for a second and then turned to throw a cloak over my head. I could guess he pulled them from a mirror he had.

  “Let’s go.”

  He hopped onto Lucci’s back and lifted me up behind him. Then he grabbed on to her mane. I clutched Loic’s waist. We galloped into the Light Weaver’s woods, the farmhouse was near some woods, but I didn’t think it was all the weaver’s woods until now. It all started looking the same. The way there was quiet. the moonlight lit our path brightly, being bright enough that very few shadows stretched further then the object it originated from. I couldn’t see any formless unlike last time. We got to the swamp and there was still no sign of any formless. The door to the hut was open. Had they expected me?

  Loic hopped off and helped me off. He caught me, trying to keep my dress out of the mud.

  Then he dropped me off at the Light Weaver’s steps.

  “Loic...”

  “Rayne before you say anything, is this something you can tell me about? I want to help you.”

  “I’d love to.” I stopped, I did want to, but I also didn’t want to hurt him. “There’s something, keeping me from doing that though. I don’t understand why but.” I didn’t want to hurt him.

  Loic stood silent. He pulled me closer to him and brushed my wet hair back away from my face.

  “Rayne.”

  “Please don’t ask me to tell you.” I blurted, halting his speech. “Loic I don’t know why it happens but if I get you involved In this you might get hurt.” I bit my lip as I finished my sentence.

  “I just want…”

  “I know you want to protect me but putting yourself at risk on purpose isn’t protecting anyone. Chase already got hurt once trying to help me with this. That was bad enough. I tried to tell Isha as well and the words were stolen away, something is keeping me from sharing the burden on this one and I don’t want to find out what’ll happen to you. So please don’t ask me to hurt you. Please.”

  He was silent throughout my rant, not breaking eye contact with me. He brushed his wet hair back and hugged me tight against him.

  “I’ll stay here then. Whatever it is… if it’s meant for you, I will let you take care of it. Just yell if you need my help.”

  “Okay.” He kissed me before I got to say anything else. I felt the slight tremble in his arms as his grip tightened. I felt my stomach turn. I wanted to cry but I bit my lip and held it in. I wished he could be involved, I wanted him to hold me the whole way down. I needed him to go with me, but if he would go the weavers might have thrown him out anyway. I swallowed back my tears and looked at him. He let me go and stepped back away from the entrance.

  Following the stairs down expecting the endless hallway I was met with an unexpectedly bright room. The wooden hall was lit by strands of light the covered each wall and the ceiling. All of the strands led to a single door. Not knowing how long the travel would be I held my breath and opened the door only to find myself in the central room where the three weavers were waiting for me.

  “Ah, so this is what you look like Miss Higgins.” The center woman spoke, turning my way sort of looking at me whit fully sealed eyes.

  “Y-yes...” I stammered.

  “It was a risk to come here like that. That lucky for you the moon is bright and Formless avoid its light. Unlucky that it appears you have gotten close to it.” The woman approached me as she spoke.

  “I... I saw it... The Night Mirror.”

  “Yes, this is troublesome, but this is not knowledge you are ready for yet.” She stopped in her tracks.

  “What about the voice I keep hearing in between? Is it Kaarinna? Am I hearing her and what does she mean? What is it I am supposed to do?” I tried to get as many questions out as I could.

  “Nothing.” The woman said, her voice echoing through the room.

  “Nothing? Really?” I felt annoyance growing in my tone.

  “Until Krad is no longer a threat, you are to do nothing but stay far away from here and away from the shadows. The boy was a fool bringing you here. Go back.”

  “But I need answers!” I got closer to them needing answers.

  “You are not ready. Go back!” She warned.

  Was I supposed to just ignore what happened to me at the lake?

  “Why can’t you tell me?” I kept getting closer until I was almost within my arm’s length of the women.

  “She will, once it’s safe.”

  “That’s not helpful!” I clenched my fists and tried to keep ‘eye’ contact with the trio.

  I stepped back, not meaning to yell.

  “You are frustrated, yes. But in time you will learn.”

  “But what do I do?” My frustration began to melt as I felt tears running down my face.

  “Keep getting stronger. A test of might is first. Then there will be a test of heart Followed by a test of soul. These moments pass, and you will understand.” They were calm, unmoving.

  “I need to understand now.” People would get hurt if I couldn’t figure this out, I needed to know.

  “There are things you must learn and an order to which you learn them. Don’t linger here. Learn.”

  Don’t linger, learn.

  That stayed in my head. Before I could do anything, a light surrounded me. I blinked landing in Loic’s arms.

  “Rayne?”

  “Nothing. No answers at all. Damn it!”

  He seemed surprised at my reaction, his eyes were wide, and he kept looking from me to the hut. I’d bet he was trying to figure out how I got here. He readjusted his stance to account for holding me. Loic took me to solid ground and set me down and I paced around him.

  “Rayne calm down. Can you explain this?”

  “I can’t! That’s the problem. If I talk to either you or Chase, I lose the words or worse, you get hurt.” I continued to ramble about things I had already told him before I went in.

  “Hurt?” Loic tried to get me to focus on him. “Rayne it’s okay calm down. It will be okay.”

  “That’s not—Loic what am I supposed to do?” I pressed my hand to my chest. “The Mirror Stone—Rakesh already knows about it. Now I have to do something that I don’t understand. No one will tell me about it, and I can’t figure it out with what I know. Why is everyone expecting anything from me? Why was I starting to think I can handle this?”

  Loic came up and hugged me from behind, pinning my hands to my sides and keeping me from pacing. My breathing was heavy. I wanted to pull away and keep going on my rant, but he wouldn’t let me. I was partly grateful for that.

  “Rayne. No one really understands what’s going on, okay? We aren’t supposed to know everything about what we have to do.”

  “But not everyone is expected to save two worlds. Alone.”

  “You’re not alone. Sure, we can’t know why you have the stone or what you are supposed to do about it, but you will never be alone. Even if you are the only one left from this war, you have Juliet and your family. You’ll never be alone. I don’t intend on leaving you alone either. If it comes down to a situation where fighting goes badly, I’ll make sure you have someone with you.” He held my face still as he looked at me, holding a smile to ke
ep me calm.

  “Loic…” I felt like crying again.

  “You are not alone in this. Just tell me what you can. Any punishments the universe has to dish out to me for knowing what you know, bring it on.” His smile morphed into a smirk.

  He would be willing to face any pain Kaarina gave him? The backlash had nearly blinded Chase. How could I even tell Loic? I only had a few scattered notes on this. What would happen if I showed him those notes? I felt a weak thump in my heart and began to calm down. This wasn’t because of the stone, was this because of Loic trying to help? I leaned my head against him, and I could hear his heartbeat and those thumps helped me calm down. I couldn’t panic about this. The important matter was Rakesh. The Light Weavers said once he was no longer a threat, then I could learn what I needed to know.

  “Loic. I think this might be better discussed after Rakesh is gone.”

  “Are you sure, Rayne?”

  “That’s what they said. I would learn what I needed to know after that. So, let’s focus on that.”

  He didn’t seem convinced, but he hugged me tighter.

  “You scared me; you know that.”

  “I know, I was terrified.”

  “I’m sorry. Bringing you here wasn’t a great idea. I wanted to spend your birthday with you as you. It wouldn’t be the same if you were in Luna’s body.”

  Relief filled me at his words. “I’m sorry. All this destiny stuff ruined your master plan.”

  “Ruined? Rayne, I got to share a magical dance with the most beautiful woman I know. My plan is far from ruined.”

  He wiped the dripping makeup from my face with his sleeve and smiled at me.

  “That woman’s under all this glitter. I’m sure of it.”

  I tapped his head, and he started to laugh.

  “Let’s get you home. You’re soaked to the bone.”

  “Yeah, let’s go home.” I smiled back to him as he carried me back to where Lucci was grazing.

  I held onto him tightly, just as intended to until the end of the war.

  As I intended to for the rest of my days.

  SIXTEEN

  ♦

  Kidnapped

  I WOKE UP BACK in my apartment, and Loic was waiting for me flipping through a magazine on the couch. Going through the mirror to get home last night was tiring. How did they do this every day? I passed out as soon as we had gotten back. If he hadn’t reminded me that I was soaked, I would have just fallen asleep in the dress. Instead, I had forced myself to stay awake long enough to change. I sat up, rubbing my eyes only to see makeup running down my hand from my cheek, so I cleaned that up and got a hot shower before sitting for breakfast.

  The water had never felt so good. I still felt the chill from the lake water. Being completely surrounded in dark ice-cold water, I would never forget that, id add it to the list of sensations I’ve felt that were etched into my mind until the day I died.

  Cold, dark water, with the only warmth being Lilly pads dragging me under.

  Poison Formless tar that burned every sense I had…

  And Loic’s warmth…

  At least one thing on the list was pleasant…that was my silver lining.

  I finished up and saw the bathroom hamper was already full. That made me feel better, Loic had already gotten a shower as well. He jumped into the water after me, I would have felt horrible if he had to suffer the same cold I felt. After my shower I made food and got ready for class. Loic always joined me until we reached the building even when we didn’t have near death experiences.

  "Is everything okay?" Loic asked, putting the magazine on my desk.

  "It's fine. Don't worry." I answered him. “Let’s head out, I don’t want to be late.”

  “Alright, just pace yourself, last night was a bit rough.” He shrugged. Tucking his hands in his pockets as he stood off the couch. “Are you sure you’re okay? You were soaked through last night; you shivered the entire time you slept.”

  Did he keep an eye on me all night? That explained why he looked so tired. And that explained the mass of empty coffee cups in my sink. He must have felt guilty about what happened, so he stayed up the whole time.

  “I wouldn’t worry so much, I’ll be spending my day in lectures.” I chucked a bit hoping that would be easy as I made it sound. “and you’ll be there.” I winked back at him and he gave me a slight smile.

  "I'll be close by. Don’t want to be escorted out by campus security. I'll stay invisible until you're done with class. That'll avoid unwanted attention." He followed behind me as I opened the door and stepped outside.

  "I'm sure you'd blend in. You can pass as a college student." I turned to look at him as I reached the bottom of the outside stairs.

  "Nah, I'd rather not." He shook his head and closed his eyes.

  "Fine, but it would be cool for you to be in my class." There was some disappointment in my voice, but I knew it wouldn’t change anything.

  "No way, art isn't my thing." He laughed, waving a hand in front of him and signaling that I should turn around.

  “Oh, come on, I've heard your wit. I’m sure you have at least a little poet in you.” I joked. I listened to him and faced forward as we continued towards the school. He sped up and was at my side shooting me a narrow sideways look.

  “You can't be serious, Rayne.” The sideways look locked in place holding my attention.

  “I’m kind of half serious. But you do live in Italy. You had to have been at least curious about some form of art.” I nudged him hoping he would actually give me an answer instead of dodging me.

  “Well, when I was younger, I did write a little.” Aha! He cracked! Information that was interesting and not combat based, I needed to know more.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, Chase said I wasn’t half bad. My mother said Dad used to write, so I tried it out for a few years. I bet Chase has the bits stored somewhere.”

  “What made you stop?” I had a feeling that I knew why already.

  “We were fighting a war. I turned eighteen and realized I didn't have the time for that kind of thing. I had to fight. Chase couldn't do it forever. Not in the condition he was in.” He looked sad about it, considering what he had gone through up to this point I didn’t blame him.

  “That’s a shame. I would have loved to read your work someday.” I held on to his arm and smiled up at him. He returned the smile and looked up to the sky as he continued.

  “Well, it wasn’t really a good fit anyway. I could get an idea out, but I could never finish it. It wasn’t my thing although mom always liked my ideas. She had a knack for storytelling herself. Perhaps that’s what drew my folks together. Her encouragement always made me happy.”

  I could tell this brought back fond memories of her. I felt bad that he was so young without her. As well as he turned out I was sure she’d be proud of him, if not a bit worried.

  "Well then, what is your thing?"

  "I guess combat. That's all I know really." He shrugged again and moved his arm and took my hand holding it firmly.

  "You are good at it. Maybe military?" as much as I didn’t really want any other excuse for him to go running off to fight then he already had.

  “Oh god no. I’ve tasted the military life. I wouldn’t do that again.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose and shook his head slightly.

  “Why is that?”

  “You’ve only seen Chase as the tired old man. You’ve never seen him as a military leader. Trust me, you don’t want to. The guy used to be strict.”

  “Really? He seems so harmless.” I could buy that he was strict, but he couldn’t have been that bad.

  “A few of the scars I have are from his training exercises.”

  I really found that hard to believe. But I guess I’ve heard of similar cases.

  “Well, it must have worked. You’re still good at it.”

  “Hopefully you can surpass me one day.” He laughed, patting me
on the head with his free hand.

  “Now that’s a joke.” I laughed with him.

  “That’s true. I won’t put you through that kind of training.” He got that big goofy grin that adorned his face a lot of the time.

  He smiled at me and let go of my hand as we got closer to the school and the other students began to show up.

  "You'd better go." He urged, falling behind. He waited and I saw his aura gather in his hands.

  "Alright see you later Loic." I smiled at him and he leaned over to me.

  "Yeah, later." He gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and then vanished, and I went to class.

  ~

  My first few classes were normal, but when I got to the class I shared with Juliet, she wasn't there. Worry filled me. It wasn't like her to be late. Her friend, Marco, sat beside us. He shifted his jet-black hair away from his eyes and shifted his lean shoulders, adjusting his dark jacket. He looked native Italian but with just a sprinkle of American goth. He glanced at me with his emerald green eyes, that narrowed when he spotted my approach to the courtyard.

  “Hey America, have you seen Juliet today?”

  He was a nice guy, polite enough when Juli was around, but I hated when he called me that.

  “No, actually. I was just going to ask if you've seen her.”

  He shook his head and that made me worried. He muttered in Italian, asking where she could be.

  As far as I knew Marco was semi-steady with Juliet, at least as of a few weeks ago. They would spend at least the class breaks together every day. He must have been out here expecting her to show, so if they hadn't been together today something was off.

  The lecture ended. I tried to text her but got no response. This was the strangest thing. She practically shared a blood supply with her phone. It was extremely rare that she’d ever miss a chance to chat with someone.

  I approached the professor, asking if he had seen Juliet. It seemed my Italian was competent enough for him to look my way.