Reckless (Mirrorworld 1)

"Answer her, Clara," Jacob said.

"Yes," she stuttered. "Yes. I love him."

Clara's shadow became once again nothing but a shadow, and the Fairy smiled.

"Good. Then you surely want to wake him up. All you have to do is kiss him."

Clara cast a pleading glance at Jacob.

"No! he wanted to say. Don't do it! But his tongue no longer obeyed him. His lips were numb, as if the Fairy had sealed them, and he could but watch helplessly as she took Clara's arm and gently led her to Will's side.

"Look at him!" she said. "If you don't wake him, he'll just lie like that forever, neither dead nor alive, until even his soul has turned to dust in his withered body."

Clara wanted to turn away, but the Fairy held her.

"Is that love?" Jacob heard her whisper. "To betray him like that, just because his skin is no longer as soft as yours? Let him go."

Clara lifted her hand and stroked Will's stone face.

The Dark Fairy let go of her arm and stepped back with a smile.

"Put all your love in that kiss!" she said. "You will see; it doesn't die as easily as you think."

And Clara closed her eyes as though she wanted to forget Will's petrified face, and she kissed him.

39

Awoken

For a moment, Jacob hoped against all reason that the person stirring in the neighboring cell was still his brother. But Clara's face quickly set him straight. She stumbled over the hem of her dress as she backed away, and the look she gave Jacob was so full of despair it even made him forget his own pain.

His brother was gone.

Any trace of human skin had vanished, and he was nothing but breathing stone, his familiar body now cast in jade like a dead insect in amber.

Goyl.

Will didn't see Jacob or Clara as he rose from the sandstone bench on which he had lain. His eyes sought only one face — that of the Fairy. Jacob felt the pain tear through all those protective shells he had fastened around his heart for so many years. It was, once again, just as raw and defenseless as he had last felt as a child in his father's deserted study, and, as then, there was no comfort, just love. And pain.

"Will?" Clara whispered her brother's name like that of a dead man. She took a step toward him, but the Fairy stepped into her path.

"Let him go," she said.

The guards opened the cell, and the Fairy led Will out.

"Come with me," she said to him. "It's time to wake up. You've slept far too long."

Clara looked after them until they disappeared down the dark corridor. Then she turned to Jacob. Blame, anguish, guilt turned her eyes as dark as the Fairy's. What have I done? they asked him. Why did you not stop me? Didn't you promise to protect him?

Or maybe he was just reading his own thoughts into her glance.

* * * * *

"Shall we shoot this one?" asked one of the guards, pointing his rifle at Jacob.

Hentzau drew the pistol they had taken from Jacob. He opened the chamber, scrutinizing it like the core of some strange fruit.

"This is an interesting weapon," he said. "Where did you get it?"