Page 94 of A Shade of Myself
A huge fluffy rug appeared under a group of tourists coming back to the hotel for the night.
“Just having some fun.” He pulled a mulish face like I was being unreasonable. “If I was serious, you wouldn’t have known it was an illusion either. Now, answer my question. How do you know she didn’t mean it literally?”
“Because—” Aurora had always lived in the shadow of her twin, but even so, she wasn’t capable of something this heinous. Was she? “When did you cast the illusion on them?”
“Three years ago.” He paused, smiling like a prosecuting attorney about to slam-dunk a case. “Right after the actual Giselle was accepted into the Ishikawa Ballet Company.”
Oh my God. Rory had stolen Giselle’s dream and co-opted it for herself. I clenched the scythe even tighter, gripped by a hot rush of anger. If Mrs. Mueller had believed in Rory as much as her sister, or if even one teacher had intervened and placed the twins on the same dance path, this tragedy could have been avoided.
He held out his glass. “Do you need a drink? You seem rather agitated.”
I pushed it away because there was one thing that didn’t jibe with his explanation. “If Giselle, I mean my client, the real Aurora, did that, she wouldn’t have hired me to find out why she felt so unsettled. She wouldn’t have begged me to find her sister if this was what she wanted to begin with.”
His eyes twinkled as he swished the liquor in his glass around, the ice cubes softly clinking together. “You’re assuming I intended my illusion to remain seamless when driving them mad is such a fun side effect.”
The handle of my scythe bit into my skin and I loosened my grip. “Them? You’re pulling this ‘side effect’”—I did the quotes—“on both women?”
“I couldn’t simply switch them. That would have been too complicated for even my illusion magic to sustain. Aurora became Giselle, so I had to put Giselle into a new life, extracting her from her old one. That comes with certain side effects.”
Her bitten nails, her fragile state. “What does she think is going on?”
“That she’s a beautiful woman with an adoring, wealthy fiancé who keeps her grounded when she has her little episodes where she believes she’s a ballet dancer.” He tapped his head. “Mental health is so important.”
“Thanks for so conveniently laying all of it out,” I said sarcastically.
“Why should I deny it? It’s not like you can rectify the situation, and I’m rather proud of my work. There were a lot of pieces to manage on this one.” Everyone in the lobby suddenly had a horse head, be they in hotel uniforms or fancy dress.
This was all a big joke to him.
I swung my scythe, then yelped and threw the hissing snake I held across the room.
A heartbeat later, there was no snake, no scythe, just me standing in the middle of the lobby being frowned at by people with normal human features.
“A for effort,” the demon said.
I sat down, seething. There had to be a way to get the jump on him.
“I learned something very important from our last encounter,” the demon said.
“Yeah, what was that?”
“Your weakness. The only reason you broke my spell that fast was because of your strong bond with your child. Interfere in my affairs and your daughter’s quick death will be a mercy you beg for.” He stood up. “And I don’t mean an illusion. Salut.” Raising his glass in cheers, he strolled back to the party.
