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“Alice?” Finding my legs again, I moved closer to the mirror, watching as her smirk widened into a smile. “You’re — but how?”

She shrugged, her shoulders lifting high to her ears before relaxing. “I have no idea.” Her brow furrowed and she paused to chew the inside of her cheek. “I heard your voice say ostende mihi, and I followed it here. This weird portal popped up and when I touched it, you appeared. What were you trying to do?”

“A recall spell, using—” I broke off, unsure how to phrase it. Licking my lips, I glanced at my ash-covered hands, avoiding her eyes.

“My blood?” She asked.

I blinked, my hand pausing at the tap before meeting her gaze again. “You remember what happened?” I asked, turning on the water to wash the soot from my skin. The bar of soap rolled in my hands, raising gray bubbles over its surface.

“Most of it.” Alice’s eyes lowered as she internalized, recalling the events. “Footsteps at the front porch then a loud crash.”

Not finding a towel after rinsing, I swiped my hands, back and front, across the pockets of my jeans to dry them. “They kicked the door in.”

“Yeah, that’s what Scott figured. He left to find out.” Head tilting as she remembered it by sound, Alice blew out a hard breath before continuing. “Big scuffle. Boots thumping on the floor and lots of body blows and grunts. The whole house shook. I heard the crash of the table and — my orb!” Her eyes flew open. “Did they break my orb?”

I nodded. “Yeah. It’s gone. The coils were crushed too.”

“Bastards!” Alice growled. For a moment, she was a flash of her old, grumpy self. I laughed — I couldn’t help it.

“It’s not funny! Do you know how much that rig cost me?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just—” I paused, backing towards the toilet before sitting on the closed lid. Alice’s scowl shifted to meet my eyes. “It’s a relief to see you alive. I thought for sure you were…you know.”

“A goner. Yeah, I know.” A hard frown turned her lips. “How is Scott and what about Mira?”

“Dislocated shoulder and a broken arm.” I raised a hand to placate her when she opened her mouth to speak. “Don’t worry. He’ll be okay.”

“He didn’t have his sword, did he?”

I scanned my own memories. The last time I saw him with it was while he stared down the cadaverina in my basement. “No. He must have left it in the truck.”

Alice gave a rueful chuckle. “I bet he regrets that now.”

I buried my head in my hands and sighed before rubbing fingertips against my eyes in rough circles. The massage felt better than it should have. A hard, deep yawn threatened to unhinge my jaw — sitting had made my wariness worse.

Slouching against the tank, I held my hands wide. “I have no idea where Mira is — that’s why I’m here. I tried to do a location spell on her beads,” I said, pointing to the bracelet around my left wrist, “but I got nothing. I was hoping your memories would be able to give me some clue.”

“I only touched the one that stabbed me.” The distant stare returned as concentration wrinkled her brow. “Something was wrong with him.”

“You told me he was enthralled.”

“Yeah. For most part, I hate touching people because of the residual impressions I get — little glimpses of their lives. A lot is nothing I care to see, but all of that was gone with him. Total void.”

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