The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician Trilogy #2)(40)

“But he won’t stop there,” he continued. “With him, it’s always a game. I already know who’s on his list. Ernest John Twill, Rhonda Montgomery Twill . . .”

Every muscle in Ceony’s body tensed, distorting her aim. Those were her parents’ names.

Grath didn’t stop. “Zina Ann, Marshall Ernest, and Margo Penelope. It is Penelope, isn’t it?”

Ceony’s mouth dried to desert. Airy tears stung her eyes. Her hands perspired around the gun. He knows my family’s names. How does he know their names?!

“Don’t you see, pet?” Grath asked, taking another sliding step forward. “I’m Saraj’s leash. If something happens to me, he’ll be let loose on the world—”

Grath moved so swiftly he blurred, a swathe of peach, black, and light. His blade whistled through the air, and suddenly Ceony’s pistol jerked from her clammy hands, hitting the ground some eight paces behind her. One of Grath’s daggers landed beside it.

Ceony’s heart dropped to her heels. She bolted for the oval mirror.

“Oh no,” Grath growled, and his heavy footsteps pursued her like a locomotive, boots smashing into the ground hard enough to shake it. Ceony shrieked and grabbed a handful of spells, throwing them behind her without even stopping to see what they were.

“Breathe!” she cried.

Three paper birds came to life, and one Burst spell fell to the ground, useless.

The birds sailed for Grath, but he pushed through the paper creations without even pausing.

“Delilah!” Ceony screamed as she neared the mirror. Its surface rippled, but Grath’s giant hand grabbed Ceony’s wrist and yanked her back.

For a quarter of a second Ceony flew, the barn spinning. Then she collided with the dirt, and a cloud of dust swelled up around her, stinging her eyes and coating her tongue. She coughed and pushed herself up, her right shoulder protesting.

Grath picked up the oval mirror. “Cute,” he said. “Shatter.”

Under the Gaffer’s light touch, the mirror broke into hundreds of pieces, falling to the ground like frozen rain. Amid the ringing of so many shards, Ceony heard Delilah scream her name.

Panting, Ceony stared wide-eyed at her ruined means of escape. But she still had the glider. If she could only reach the glider—

Grath switched his dagger to his right hand and charged.

Ceony pulled a paper rhombus from her bag and shouted, “Burst!”

The spell hovered between them, quivering wildly. Ceony ran to the back of the barn before it exploded in a firework of white and yellow. Some of its ashes curled around her, repelled by the shield chain.

Grath had vanished, leaving the path to the doors clear.

Ceony ran, but as she moved, a tall mirror to her right rippled and Grath passed through it. His huge arms swung for her like massive crab claws. Ceony ducked, half-tripping, and kicked him hard in the shin. She scrambled against the loose dirt on the floor and sprinted for the door, leaving the Gaffer cursing behind her.

She had almost reached the doors when another circular mirror rippled, and Grath stepped out. He said something Ceony couldn’t hear, and suddenly every mirror in the barn rippled. A copy of Grath stepped out from all of them. Soon dozens of Grath Cobalts surrounded her, some huge and menacing, some only a few inches high, hovering before the tiny mirrors that lined the wall.

Ceony stepped back, blinking sweat from her eyes. The copies of Grath had a slightly airy look to them, almost like a story illusion. But which one was real? And could the illusions hurt her?

“Don’t run, pet,” all the Graths said in unison, a songless choir.

She had one Burst spell left. Best to try the Grath closest to the door.

“Burst!” she cried, flinging the spell toward a mirror with an iron-cast frame, the one the first Grath had stepped through. She backtracked and called, “Move!”

The Burst spell exploded, its light reflecting through the enchanted mirrors, incinerating the Gaffer’s copies of himself.

Ceony ducked down, and the real Grath emerged from another mirror on the east side of the barn. He threw his dagger right at Ceony—

And it ripped through paper.

Grath, now unarmed, watched with a pale expression as Ceony’s paper doll—now torn from nose to collar—lost its color and drifted to the ground. The Mobility spell she’d placed on the doll earlier had brought it into the barn with Ceony’s second command.

The real Ceony stood and rushed for the doors, her hand searching for her bag, her eyes whipping between two other mirrors.

Grath transported to the one on the left, but Ceony pulled her Ripple spell free. Grath charged, a human bull.

“Ripple!” Ceony commanded the spell as its jellyfish-like folds cascaded downward.

The air around her warped, not unlike the glass of a mirror before transport. Grath wavered in his charge, but not enough. He reached Ceony, pulled back his right fist, and swung.

A sound like thunder echoed through Ceony’s skull, followed by wide streaks of lightning. She landed on the ground hard, the impact jarring up through her tailbone.

Fire burst from her left cheek, just below her eye. The rafters spun around her, this way and that, unsure of their direction.

Then she felt thick fingers ripping the shield chain from her torso. The barn spun harder as one of his hands circled her neck and the other gripped the front of her blouse, hoisting her up. He slammed her against the wall just beside the doors. Splinters dug into her back, and bits of dust sprinkled her shoulders.