CHAPTER 37

I stumbled over my footing, refusing to believe what I saw before me. Erix hadn’t lied. For a moment, I thought he had. How could he have shown such an expression yet reveal such happy news? Was it his jealousy or bitterness taking physical form across his expression?

I would have berated him, but I had no time.

Instead, I ran. Ran through the foreign hallways and rooms. I ran back to him . To Duncan.

He stood at the end of the corridor, haloed with moonlight which swelled in through the grand window at his back.

“Tell me I’m dreaming,” I said, taking careful steps forward. I feared I would rush and shatter the illusion I dared hope was real before me.

“I heard you calling for me,” Duncan replied, his words slurred, voice weak. “Then, when I woke, you weren’t there beside me.”

Duncan raised and spread his arms, beckoning me to him. One moment I walked cautiously, the next, I barrelled into his hard chest.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” I said, unsure if I was apologising for causing him pain now or what my action had caused when I opened the gate. His hand traced my back, and the other cupped the back of my head as I melted into him.

Duncan held me close, refusing to let go. “I never wish to hear those words leave your mouth again.”

His skin was both hot and damp to the touch. He was slick with sweat, his breathing ragged. I was partially aware of the wound. It still leaked into the bandage around his waist, but his arms held me in place, soundlessly refusing to ever let me go again.

“You should be in bed!” I gasped, voice muffled in the moist flesh of his chest.

“Perhaps, but I came to find you.”

A sigh escaped me. It spoke of my exhaustion, the cry of my soul as Duncan’s physical presence finally sank in.

“I’m here,” I replied. “ You are here with me.”

“Yes,” Duncan replied slowly, drawing the lonely word out. “I certainly am.”

Reluctantly, I pulled back. His eyes were hooded with shadows. The hair across his pinched forehead was clumped in sweat-damp strands. I reached out and brushed them from his forehead, only to feel just how warm he was to the touch.

“You look like shit warmed up. Let me get you back into bed before Elinor’s healers blame me for your escape,” I said, threading his arm over my shoulder. I instantly felt him drop his weight onto me.

“Sounds delicious,” Duncan joked, eyes fluttering with heavy exhaustion. “However, I cannot promise my performance will be any good. You may be very disappointed.”

My chest warmed with his attempt at a joke. I looked up at him, unable to do anything but beam with a smile as he pathetically winked at me.

“How about you focus on getting better first,” I said.

“Oh,” he moaned, rolling his tired eyes. “Killjoy.”

I half encouraged and half dragged Duncan to walk back to his room. It was as though he was drunk on fever, laughing to himself as if unseen spirits whispered jokes into his ears.

All my worries faded with each step into the room. I glanced behind me to see if Erix was still there, but he was not. For a moment, I felt a pang of something painful in my chest, but it soon dissipated when I looked back to Duncan at my side.

Something caught my eye. A flickering of burning fire, glowing crimson. Frowning, I glanced at the strange light. There were no candles burning here, no light visible but the silver of the moon and the stars attempting to glow in competition.

But there was a mirror.

Duncan didn’t seem to notice, continuing his focus forward to the promise of rest.

Over Duncan’s shoulder, I glanced into the mirror reflection, which showed the misplaced light I’d seen moments before. And in it was a reflection so horrific, it skinned the flesh from my body.

I blinked, wanting to rid myself of what I saw. Wishing it would change and the cruel trick my mind played would go away.

It didn’t, nor could I look away.

I stared at a body made of molten flesh. I propped it up with my shoulder, my arm wrapped around its sizzling, cracked flesh. Ram-curled horns like a crown atop a hairless head. Hooves thudded in time with Duncan’s footfall, except the reflection showed prints of flame and rot left in its wake.

Soon enough, the mirror passed, leaving the glimpse of the demon behind me. My eyes bore into the brick of the castle wall as I focused on the child-like singing Duncan was lost to.

It took a second for my mind to slow down and shield me from the fear threatening to drown me. Then his words became clear. Each one stabbed into my chest, over and over.

“I am here. I am here. I am here .”

No. I refused to believe it. My happiness slipped through my hold like sand through parted fingers.

Duwar. In the reflection, I had my arm wrapped around the demon god. The same one I had seen in the mirror in Lockinge, the same one which had poisoned every reflection in the room of mirrors Aldrick had constructed within this very castle.

This was different, so very different.

Duwar didn’t stand at our sides, following us like a starving hound. He stood in place of Duncan. He was…

No.

No.

“Robin?” Duncan said my name in question. It had sway over me, the way he said it drew me back out of my mind. “Do you see something you don’t like?”

My stiff neck ached as I turned to look at him in the flesh. Deep green eyes waited for me. His mouth parted, lips lined with a thin trail of spit. Duncan no longer sang, but the glazed look in his eyes told me he was still not completely here.

I couldn’t reply, dared not make a sound for fear this would all be real.

“Is something the matter?” he asked again, voice deepening with worry.

We had stopped walking, the door to his room only a stretch away.

A storm built in my stomach, twisting it into knots. I felt bile slither up the back of my throat, threatening to burst out of me.

“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Should there be?”

For a moment, Duncan’s gaze cleared. He straightened slightly, removing his weight from me as he peeled back. Then he kissed me. Pressed his sodden, heavy lips into mine. Our teeth almost clashed with the urgency. I tried to pull back, but his fingers encased my wrist and squeezed.

I wondered if he sensed my hesitation when he pulled away. I bit down on the insides of my cheeks as he regarded me down the line of his nose. If I didn’t cause pain, I would have faltered beneath his stare.

“I am just so happy to be here,” he said. No. It wasn’t Duncan who spoke. “And it is you I have to thank.”

A cold tear of ice rolled down my spine. I felt it run across every inch of my skin, spreading across my body in a wave of goosebumps.

“Come now, Robin,” he said through a smirk. “Help me back into bed. I am going to need my rest.”

I didn’t refuse Duncan. I couldn’t. Except, I knew without a doubt that it wasn’t Duncan who spoke to me now. This was the demon god, Duwar. The reflection confirmed my greatest fears.

Duwar had made it through the gate.

The gate that had been closed, the keys destroyed alongside it.

And yet Duwar was here, before me, encased in the flesh of the man I loved.