Mirrorlight by Jill Myles Read Free Book Online Page A

at the old woman, thinking hard. He had appeared when she’d been crying the first time, but the second? Third? She couldn’t remember. “Strong emotion?” Mabel nodded, still chewing on the soggy chicken wing. “Magic is always attracted to such things.”
    Magic? Oh lord, now she was as crazy as the old woman. Cora put her spoon down in her bowl and smiled. “You’re humoring me, aren’t you? I probably just imagined the whole thing.”
    The old woman’s eyes were shrewd as they watched Cora. “What do you have to lose, girl?”
    “My mind?”
    “That’s cute,” Muffin said. “You think you still have it.” She had a point.

    #

    Cora returned to the mirror after Muffin left, wrapping her robe tight around her body and thinking about what the old woman had said. Was she going crazy in this big house by herself? Granted, time alone in the castle was preferable to spending time alone in her apartment back at home, but she couldn’t help but wonder at what she had seen in the mirror, or if it was simply another dream that she hadn’t been able to sort from reality.
    Muffin had believed her. Well, sort of. She hadn’t argued with Cora when she said she’d seen a man in the mirror and touched him. But then again, Muffin was a few fries short of a Happy Meal herself. Was it a good thing if one crazy person thought another was normal?
    The old woman had suggested that Cora try and pull Aric back to her with strong emotion. It didn’t seem like the worst idea in the world.
    So Cora pulled her chair back close to the mirror and sat down again, thinking hard.
    What would incite strong emotion? She knew she’d been sad over his fate before, but that sadness had gone away, leaving behind curiosity—a much milder sort of emotion. She wasn’t overly happy or sad…she wasn’t anything at the moment except nervous. Nervous that Aric wouldn’t come back.
    She wanted him to be real. And she really wanted to touch him again.
    Just thinking about it made her skin shiver with want, and she got up from the chair and paced restlessly. Her robe flapped as she walked, and she tugged it closed, thinking.
    She’d been almost naked the last time he’d shown up, hadn’t she? Fresh out of the shower? Well, she’d get naked again. Cora stripped off her robe and pajamas without a second thought and tossed them onto the bed. It was cool in the room, though, so after a moment of shivering, she pulled the light satiny robe over her shoulders again and sat back down in the chair, feeling a twinge of anxiety.
    She needed a big burst of emotion, but what? She stared at her reflection in the mirror, watching the rise and fall of her naked breasts, and then paused. A thought occurred to her, followed quickly by another nervous tremor. No way. She shouldn’t.
    She couldn’t. He might be watching.
    But…if she couldn’t get him to show up…it wouldn’t matter, would it? This could prove once and for all if he would arrive or not.
    Slowly, hesitantly, her desire to see him won over her shyness.
    Her hand slid to the curls of her sex. Cora took a deep breath, pictured Aric, and then brushed her fingers over her flesh, sliding one between the soft folds. She was already wet, just thinking about doing this for him. Thinking about him touching her like this.
    Her fingertip glided over the damp seam and then dipped downward, stroking over the sensitive flesh. A soft hiss escaped between her teeth as a tremor of pleasure rocked through her.
    Cora grew bolder. Her robe fell to her elbows, pooling there in a satiny fall. One leg lifted and she tossed it over the arm of the chair, spreading her thighs wide. Both hands now slid to her sex, wet with need. Thinking of the man she’d seen in the mirror, she parted the lips of her pussy and used one finger to lightly dance along the wetness, circling her clit. Her reflection stared back at her, sleepy eyed with desire and she bit her lip as her fingers grazed her clit again, thinking of the