by R. L. Austin
The only way she was going to free her uncle and get him inside the mirror was with help. Tyler!
***
Mansel was still stuck to the doorknob when Emily returned with Tyler. He was carrying the same baseball bat he’d used before.
Tyler gave Mansel a humorless smile and tapped the bat against his palm. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
Mansel curled his lip. “Likewise.”
Emily remained business-like as she handed Tyler the amulet and lifted the mirror over her uncle’s head. “Okay, are you ready? We’ll do this just like we discussed.”
Tyler hefted the bat and gave a nod. “Yep, let’s do this.”
Emily lowered the mirror over her uncle until his head and torso had disappeared. When the mirror reached Mansel’s waist and rested on his hands, which were still clutching the doorknob, she gave Tyler a nod. He touched the amulet to Mansel’s hands, setting them free.
Emily tried to lower the mirror to the floor, but Mansel made a quick grab for the triad. He succeeded in getting a grip on it, but instead of trying to pull it away from her, he released it. Emily felt her grip on the mirror start to slip, so she quickly lowered it to the floor, putting her uncle completely inside the mirror.
Emily was shaking from her uncle’s near escape, but tried to sound calm. “I’m so glad that’s over!”
Tyler stared at the mirror, as if he expected Mansel to jump out again. “I thought for sure he was going to fight. I wonder why he let go like that.”
Emily shook her head while she thought about it. “I don’t know.” She picked up the mirror and leaned it against the wall, expecting to see her image, but the mirror had become clear, like a window pane. Her uncle was standing on the other side looking back at her with an arrogant smirk.
Surprised, Emily took a step back in alarm.
“Holy shit!” Tyler appeared beside her with his bat held ready. When Mansel didn’t move, Tyler leaned close and whispered, “Um, why is he smiling like that?”
Emily didn’t know why her uncle would be happy about being trapped in a mirror. Then she remembered the blue triangle in the sole of his shoe. “Oh, no!”
“What?”
“I know why he’s smiling.”
“You do? Why?”
“He’s smiling because he’s not trapped.”
Tyler glanced down at her hand. “But you’ve got the triad.”
“It’s not the only one. Not anymore. He’s got a mini triad in his shoe, but it works only a few times without a recharge. That’s why he grabbed the triad. He needed to recharge it. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”
“When did he get his own triad?”
“He had it before we caught him, but he was saving it for an emergency, like escaping from jail.” Emily gave Tyler a quick explanation of how her uncle had escaped from jail and entered the house through a mirror. When she finished, she noticed that Mansel had put his hand against his side of the mirror.
Tyler also noticed and he hefted the bat again. “Come on out, if you think you’re man enough.”
Mansel gave a dismissive wave before he used a finger to write the word raw across the glass. Emily recognized the red smears as blood, and the letters were backwards. When Mansel was through, he looked at Emily and nodded with an air of certainty.
Tyler pointed at the mirror with his bat. “Raw? What does he mean by that?”
Emily suppressed a shudder and pressed herself against him, enjoying the comfort of his presence. “It doesn’t say raw, it says war.”
“Oh, now I see.” He put an arm around her shoulders. “What war is he talking about?”
Emily snuggled even closer, happy to have someone she could depend on. “The one he just declared.”
***
The next day Emily and Tyler collected every mirror in the house and placed them in the large metal box behind the chimney. When they were all inside, Emily closed the heavy lid with a deep thunk. Tyler handed her the padlock she had brought from the chest in her uncle’s study, the one with no keyhole because it worked by magic. She slipped the lock through the hasp and said, “Close,” to lock it.
“There! No one can open this box except me, and uncle Mansel can’t use these mirrors.”
“He can use a mirror that’s not in the box,” Tyler reminded her.
Emily thought about the random appearance of mirrors in the other dimension, and seeing a view of Paris through one of them. “Yeah, but it’s going to take him a while. He doesn’t have the watch, so he’s got to be in the right place at the right time to use one of those mirrors that appear and disappear. If and when he does make it out, he could end up anywhere. I hope it’s very far away.”
“Me too.”
“And I hope it gives me the time I need.”
Tyler lifted an eyebrow, and his blue eyes sparkled with interest. “Need for what?”
Emily gave him a tight-lipped smile. “To learn how to fight a war that uses magic. And to learn how to force my uncle to tell me what I need to know if he does come back.”
“What’s that?”
“My uncle told me something…something important, before I came to get you.” She had to stop and collect herself before she could continue. “He said that someone I know is trapped in a mirror. He may have been lying. In fact, he probably was, but I can’t stop thinking about it, and I’ve got to find out the truth.”
“Who is it?”
Emily took a deep breath before she said, “My grandmother.”
Tyler rocked back in surprise. “I thought you said…”
She knew what he was going to say, and she didn’t want to hear the words, so she raised her hands. “I know what I said, but that was before my uncle told me she was trapped in a mirror.”
“Wow! Then she could be alive.”
“It’s possible, I suppose. He might have been lying, but I can’t take that chance. I’ll search every mirror, if that’s what it takes to find the truth.”
Tyler wrapped his arms around her. “Not without me, you’re not.”
“Thanks, but—”
“Wait! Before you say anything, I’ve got something to give you.” Tyler let go and frantically dug in his pocket. “Got it.” When he held out his fist, it was shaking with obvious nervousness.
Emily wasn’t sure what was going on, and was just beginning to feel the first fluttering of nerves when he opened his hand to expose a silver ring in his open palm.
“I was gonna wait until tomorrow to give you this, but since I’m here, I might as well do it now.” His paused and swallowed to stop his voice from quivering, but he bravely pressed on. “I was hoping you’d wear this so everybody will know you’re my…well, my girlfriend. You know, officially.”
It took every ounce of control for Emily not to blather like an idiot as she accepted the ring and put it on. The fit was perfect. “Tyler, I…I…” She tried to tell him how happy she was, but her brain wouldn’t put words together.
Tyler saved her from making a fool of her self by putting his lips to hers.
When the kiss ended, Emily gave up the idea of saying anything. She held on to Tyler, breathed in his clean scent, and enjoyed the idea that she had a boyfriend, officially.
***
It was after midnight when Emily crawled into bed. She stared at her new ring and thought about all the things that had happened since leaving New York. She hated San Francisco at first, living with her uncle and his odd rules, thinking she was going insane when she heard voices in the mirrors, and being forced to see a therapist. But it turned out she wasn’t crazy, the voices were real, and she had inherited special powers that could only be described as magic. She had used those powers to save Tyler and Nick, to rescue her parents, and to defeat her uncle when he tried to stop her. Those were accomplishments to be proud of. She also had a boyfriend she was crazy about.
Emily smiled when she thought of Tyler. It was great to have someone she trusted, someone she could
count on, because, despite the incident with Ben, she still wanted to help the people trapped in the mirrors. Her uncle was also out there, somewhere, and she was certain he would return. She was also determined to find her grandmother.
As she reached over to turn off the light, she mumbled, “I’ll find you, Grandma, and I’m going to start looking today.”