Snow's White | ✓

36. Mirror, Mirror, On the Ground

"Lucas, get out of here," Keir said, his voice hoarse. Lucas felt tears fill his eyes as his ears heard his lover's voice for the first time in months, only for it to be so weak and broken. 

"I can't," Lucas replied, his heart swelling as he saw the silk in front of Keir's eyes grow dark with tears. "I won't abandon you again."

"Oh, how wonderfully touching," Eleona drawled sarcastically, her taloned hand reaching up to Keir's neck, nails digging into his skin. Lucas growled as Keir's lips twisted into a grimace, pain shooting up his neck. "Keir, dear. You know what people like this are like? If they can leave you once, leaving you again is so much easier the second time around."

"Lucas, leave," Keir said, voice shaking as he struggled against the witch's grip. "You'll die." Lucas gripped his sword tighter, the hilt slipping as his palms dripped with sweat, both with dread at what was soon to come and with the heat of the flames licking at his boots. His armour felt so heavy, so constricting, the metal heating like a furnace as the fire circled around him. 

"I won't," Lucas said firmly, Keir shaking as he shook his head. 

"How he can see you as fair is beyond even my understanding," Eleona said bitterly, fingers leaving Keir's neck as she stretched her arm to the side, her serpent sliding around her arm in languid loops. Gripping its head in her hand, the serpent whipped its tail around, shaking as it solidified, not into a cane or a staff, but a black sword, ruby eyes gleaming at the hilt. Keir heard two blades clashing and Eleona's wild laugh, his heart thumping violently. 

"Stop," Keir cried, using all his strength, weakened by Eleona's potions, to pull himself off the throne. His body hit the ground, unaware of how high he was, his palms stinging as he scraped them roughly on the stone ground. Keir flinched as a flame lapped at his shin, burning through the black silk. Keir felt weakness flow through him again, his head aching as his body slumped. Metallic clangs rang throughout the throne room, Keir forcing his body up with shaking arms, dragging his body across the heated stone ground. His hands clawed at the tie around his eyes, the fabric stubbornly hanging on, his fingers too clunky to pull it down as he shook.

"Lucas," Keir called, moving towards the sound of Eleona's laugh and Lucas's laboured grunts. A large crash resonated through Keir, stone debris showering him as his ears rung, unable to locate Lucas's voice. Moving forward blinding, calling out Lucas's name with unmasked desperation, Keir's hands suddenly met a wall, his hands shakily pulling himself up as he leaned against the stone, gasping for air as he tried to locate the sound of the fight again. 

"Lucas!" Keir yelled, his voice cracking as smoke filled his lungs. "Lucas!"

"Keir!" 

Keir's head whipped towards the sound, relief a momentary feeling as his ears stopped ringing. 

"Lucas!"

As the flames continued to rise and rise, Keir tried to shuffle his body towards Lucas's voice, but his muscles barely twitched as he could only manage to pull himself with the support of the wall. As he pulled himself weakly across, his hands met cold metal, his brows furrowing as he gripped it. The metal was unnaturally cold compared to the walls, scalding hot as they baked under the flames. Fingers frantically touching the cold surface, Keir felt his palm flatten against a smooth, glass surface that hummed as he pressed against it. 

Mirror.

"Mirror mirror, on the wall," Keir choked, smoke sucking out the moisture from his lungs. "Show us how to defeat the witch, once and for all."

Keir gasped as he felt the mirror soften under his fingers, his hand burning as his head burst with pain, as if someone had pulled his skull apart to shove something inside his brain. Keir's remaining eye opened as an image flooded his mind, the fabric around his face falling.