Chapter 15 · No Exit in the Mirror

The red threads withdrew from Eli with a wet sound.

They slid out of his chest one by one, dragging strips of darkness behind them. Eli folded forward, one hand catching the edge of the stone threshold before his knees struck the floor. Blood spotted his shirt, but the wounds beneath it were already closing, the skin pulling together as if invisible fingers were stitching him from the inside.

Maeve reached for him.

Orla caught her wrist.

“Don’t.”

“He’s hurt.”

“He’s alive.” Orla’s fingers tightened. Her sleeve was torn from shoulder to elbow, and a thin line of blood ran from her temple into the hollow beside her nose. “There’s a difference in this place.”

Across the red-lit corridor, Henry Bell smiled with someone else’s mouth.

“First act complete,” he announced.

His blue seal had burned away. In its place, both eyes glowed like windows behind which a fire had been waiting for centuries.

Maeve stared at him. “You said that before.”

“An opening line may be repeated.”

“Not if the audience hates it.”

Henry’s smile twitched.

Behind him, the red door stood open. Beyond it waited a darkness so complete that Maeve could feel it looking back.