The Glass Magician

She hated how the gun trembled in her grip.

Grath did not seem amused. “I’ll track down your blond friend like I promised. Delilah Berget, isn’t it?”

Ceony tried very hard not to glance at the oval mirror by the doors.

Reaching behind him, Grath pulled two short daggers from his belt, their blades made of thick, frosted glass. They looked like carved ice. He brought one to his lips and kissed it.

“I’ll cut off her toes first,” he said, taking a small step forward, sliding his boot across the dirt floor. “Then her fingers, her ears. I’ll pull her teeth one by one, then her tongue. And when she can’t scream anymore, I’ll—”

“Stop it!” Ceony shouted. “It doesn’t matter! I’ll stop you, and Delilah will be fine!”

“Oh, she might be, but what about the others?” Grath asked. “You don’t know much about Saraj, do you? He’s a mad dog, the kind that kills for fun, not for food. He’ll go after your friend, and Patrice Aviosky, and Emery Thane. He even blew up the Dartford Paper Mill just to flush you out.

“But he won’t stop there,” he continued. “With him, it’s always a game. I already know who’s on his list. Ernest John Twill, Rhonda Montgomery Twill . . .”

Every muscle in Ceony’s body tensed, distorting her aim. Those were her parents’ names.

Grath didn’t stop. “Zina Ann, Marshall Ernest, and Margo Penelope. It is Penelope, isn’t it?”

Ceony’s mouth dried to desert. Airy tears stung her eyes. Her hands perspired around the gun. He knows my family’s names. How does he know their names?!

“Don’t you see, pet?” Grath asked, taking another sliding step forward. “I’m Saraj’s leash. If something happens to me, he’ll be let loose on the world—”

Grath moved so swiftly he blurred, a swathe of peach, black, and light. His blade whistled through the air, and suddenly Ceony’s pistol jerked from her clammy hands, hitting the ground some eight paces behind her. One of Grath’s daggers landed beside it.

Ceony’s heart dropped to her heels. She bolted for the oval mirror.

“Oh no,” Grath growled, and his heavy footsteps pursued her like a locomotive, boots smashing into the ground hard enough to shake it. Ceony shrieked and grabbed a handful of spells, throwing them behind her without even stopping to see what they were.

“Breathe!” she cried.

Three paper birds came to life, and one Burst spell fell to the ground, useless.

The birds sailed for Grath, but he pushed through the paper creations without even pausing.

“Delilah!” Ceony screamed as she neared the mirror. Its surface rippled, but Grath’s giant hand grabbed Ceony’s wrist and yanked her back.

For a quarter of a second Ceony flew, the barn spinning. Then she collided with the dirt, and a cloud of dust swelled up around her, stinging her eyes and coating her tongue. She coughed and pushed herself up, her right shoulder protesting.

Grath picked up the oval mirror. “Cute,” he said. “Shatter.”

Under the Gaffer’s light touch, the mirror broke into hundreds of pieces, falling to the ground like frozen rain. Amid the ringing of so many shards, Ceony heard Delilah scream her name.

Panting, Ceony stared wide-eyed at her ruined means of escape. But she still had the glider. If she could only reach the glider—

Grath switched his dagger to his right hand and charged.

Ceony pulled a paper rhombus from her bag and shouted, “Burst!”

The spell hovered between them, quivering wildly. Ceony ran to the back of the barn before it exploded in a firework of white and yellow. Some of its ashes curled around her, repelled by the shield chain.

Grath had vanished, leaving the path to the doors clear.

Ceony ran, but as she moved, a tall mirror to her right rippled and Grath passed through it. His huge arms swung for her like massive crab claws. Ceony ducked, half-tripping, and kicked him hard in the shin. She scrambled against the loose dirt on the floor and sprinted for the door, leaving the Gaffer cursing behind her.

She had almost reached the doors when another circular mirror rippled, and Grath stepped out. He said something Ceony couldn’t hear, and suddenly every mirror in the barn rippled. A copy of Grath stepped out from all of them. Soon dozens of Grath Cobalts surrounded her, some huge and menacing, some only a few inches high, hovering before the tiny mirrors that lined the wall.

Ceony stepped back, blinking sweat from her eyes. The copies of Grath had a slightly airy look to them, almost like a story illusion. But which one was real? And could the illusions hurt her?

“Don’t run, pet,” all the Graths said in unison, a songless choir.

She had one Burst spell left. Best to try the Grath closest to the door.

“Burst!” she cried, flinging the spell toward a mirror with an iron-cast frame, the one the first Grath had stepped through. She backtracked and called, “Move!”