Page 16 of Tears for a Broken Sky

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My hand hovered in the air. Breath caught.

“Elira?” Caelen’s voice broke through softly, concern creeping in. “What is it?”

I blinked.

Thorne was gone.

The mirror was still. Empty, save for me. Pale and shaking in a gown too heavy for the bones beneath it.

“I...” I swallowed. “Sorry. I thought I saw...never mind.”

But the shaking didn’t stop. Even after he was gone.

And this time, I didn’t look back.

Chapter 5

Thorne

Pain doesn’t wake you here.

You just… surface.

Like something half-dead dragging itself out of black water.

The Mirror Room was quiet today. Was it today? Tomorrow?

I didn’t know. What was time?

It was too quiet.

I couldn’t feel my heartbeat anymore. Couldn’t remember if I still had one. Was I alive? Was I dead?

The reflections stirred, as they always did. Sometimes they showed me as I was. Sometimes as I used to be. And sometimes they lied.

But this time…

This time I saw her.

Elira.

She stood in a hall I didn’t recognize. Dressed in silver, blue, and shadow. Pale and silent and so achingly real.

I staggered toward the glass, hands shaking.

“Elle,” I breathed.

She turned. Not toward me—but the mirror. Her fingers lifted. She reached out—

And for a single heartbeat, I could feel it.

Like her touch passed through the glass and landed in my chest.

I pressed my hand to the mirror. The cold bit into me. But I didn’t care.

“She’s alive,” I whispered. “Elle…”

Then her image flickered—once.

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