Chapter 212: Trap

Drusilla’s POV

The blonde woman took another slow, hesitant step closer to where I sat on the damp stone bench.

She held the heavy silver key tightly in her trembling fingers, the cold metal glinting under the weak, dancing light of the wall torch.

Her sharp green eyes searched every single line of my face, desperately trying to read my thoughts, trying to decide if she was currently making a massive, irreversible mistake.

I kept my expression completely calm, radiating a false sense of pure innocence and absolute weakness.

I let my shoulders slump forward, pretending to be drained of energy so she would think I was no longer a threat.

The trick worked perfectly on her. She slowly leaned down and slipped the key into the heavy iron lock.

With a sharp, metallic click, she successfully unlocked one of my bound hands.

The heavy iron cuff fell away from my flesh, hitting the damp stone floor with a dull, echoing clank.

My right wrist was free. I slowly lifted my arm, flexing my stiff fingers in the cool air to get the blood flowing through my veins again after hours of being pinned to the wall.

"What happens next?" the woman asked, her voice coming out in a quiet, anxious whisper as she stared at my free hand.

"How exactly can I stop this from happening?"

I looked directly into her green eyes, letting all the fake warmth instantly vanish from my face.

A slow, mocking smile spread across my lips.

"The only real way to make it stop," I whispered, leaning my face closer to hers, "is by dying right now."

The woman’s eyebrows pulled together, her expression instantly shifting into confusion.

"What..."

Before she could even finish processing the word, I violently raised my free right hand, unleashing a sudden wave of raw, kinetic magic straight from my palms.

The blast hit her squarely in the chest. She flew backward through the empty air of the cell, her body slamming heavily against the solid stone wall with a sickening thud.

The impact knocked the air out of her lungs, and she instantly collapsed onto the damp floor in a limp, motionless heap, unconscious.

I let out a loud, mocking laugh that echoed off the slimy walls of the dungeon.

"What a dummy."

I bent down over her quiet form, easily picking up the silver key from where it had dropped out of her limp hand.

I wasted no time sliding it into the remaining lock, quickly releasing my left hand from the wall.

Free at last.

I closed my eyes tightly, clearing my mind of the throbbing headache and focusing entirely on my dark magic.

I began to chant the old spell, the heavy words coming to my lips with total ease now that my magical channels were no longer being blocked by the iron.

A glowing portal started to form out of thin air right in front of me, starting as a small spark before growing wider and wider.

I smirked, then ran full speed toward the center of the spinning vortex, ready to escape this pathetic prison forever.

Instead of passing through the portal, my face slammed violently into a solid, unyielding surface.

It felt like hitting a brick wall. The sudden impact sent a sharp jolt of pain through my nose, and I stumbled backward blindly, losing my balance entirely before falling hard onto the wet ground.

I grunted, rubbing my sore face as I quickly looked up to see what had blocked my path.

The portal was completely gone. In its exact place stood a massive, towering glass mirror that hadn’t been there a few seconds ago.

I scrambled to my feet, my heart skipping a beat as I wildly looked around the dark room.

Torin was standing just a few feet to my left, his pale face looking tense as his eyes glowed with a bright, unnatural light.

Azura and Rhydor were standing right beside him, their expressions cold and dangerous as they watched me.

And right next to them stood another woman I had never seen before. She had long brown hair, sharp blue eyes, and the raw power currently radiating off her body was so immense that it made the air in the room feel incredibly heavy.

A cold sweat broke out across my neck. How on earth are they all down here right now?

I turned to see the woman I knocked out, but no one was there.

What...

I quickly raised my right hand, opening my mouth to cast a deadly curse to blast them all backward.

The brown-haired woman didn’t even blink. She simply flicked her wrist in a casual, effortless movement.

A thick, glowing white chain appeared out of thin air, wrapping itself tightly around my torso and pinning my arms securely to my sides before I could finish a single syllable of my spell.

The magic held me completely fast, burning against my skin.

"Now, Torin," the brown-haired woman said, her voice calm and level.

Torin stepped forward, his glowing eyes locking onto my face as he raised his hands.

He began to chant a series of strange words that I did not recognize, his voice carrying a heavy weight that shook the stones beneath our feet.

I lowered my eyes, a wave of pure horror washing over me as I looked down at my own limbs.

My very soul was actively separating from the physical body I was inhabiting.

I could feel my spiritual hands moving around in the air, but Isadora’s actual flesh-and-blood body was no longer responding to my commands.

I frantically tried to push my soul back down into her chest, fighting to maintain my grip on her form, but it simply did not work.

The invisible tether was fraying.

Torin kept chanting without stopping, his voice growing rougher with every passing second.

A dark line of blood began to drip slowly from his nose, showing the massive toll the magic was taking on his physical form.

He was weakening rapidly, his knees shaking until he suddenly stumbled forward. Azura and Rhydor moved instantly, catching his shoulders and holding him upright before he could hit the floor.

He looked up at me through bleary eyes, trying his best to continue the spell, but his voice finally failed him.

He couldn’t keep going.

I let out a breathless smile, thinking I had just won the battle.

Then, the strange brown-haired woman spoke.

She uttered a single, sharp word that cut through the silence of the cell like a blade.

An incredibly heavy, violent pull suddenly yanked at my soul from the inside out.

The force of her magic was significantly stronger than Torin’s attempt, carrying a dark authority that I couldn’t resist.

I screamed out in pure agony, my spiritual hands clawing wildly at the air as I tried to force my way back into the warm comfort of the physical body.

She spoke a second word, her tone completely unyielding, and then she slowly closed her eyes.

I felt my soul floating completely free of the earth.

I looked down from above, watching as Isadora’s empty body collapsed onto the damp stone floor in a completely limp, unconscious heap.

The mysterious woman opened her eyes once more. They were now glowing with a brilliant, blinding light that matched Torin’s power perfectly.

Then my floating soul was pulled backward through the air, moving directly toward the massive mirror standing in the center of the cell.

I tried to fight against the invisible current, thrashing my arms and screaming at the top of my lungs, but my dark magic was useless in this spiritual form.

The regular rules of reality no longer applied.

The mirror was actively sucking me into its glass surface like a powerful force, and then the world went completely white.

A second later, the blinding light vanished, and I fell forward violently, landing face first onto a hard, polished floor.

I gasped for air, my lungs expanding as I realized I was still breathing, still fully alive and conscious.

But the cool, damp smell of the dungeon was entirely gone. I wasn’t in the underground cell anymore.

I slowly pushed myself up onto my hands and knees, wiping a layer of cold sweat from my forehead as I looked up to see where the magic had dropped me.

Mirrors. There were mirrors

everywhere I looked.

Towering walls made entirely of smooth, reflective glass surrounded me on all four sides.

The ceiling above my head was a massive sheet of mirrors, and even the floor beneath my hands was made of the same reflecting material.

Everywhere I turned my head, I saw my own angry, disheveled reflection staring back at me a thousand times over, repeating my movements in every single direction.

I scrambled to my feet, a wild panic finally breaking through my calm mask.

I ran full speed toward one of the glass walls, throwing my hands out to push my way through the barrier to escape.

My palms slammed hard against the cold surface. It was exactly like hitting a solid concrete wall, and the force of the bounce sent me tumbling backward onto the reflective floor.

I quickly got back up and tried another mirror to my left, throwing my shoulder against the glass.

The same thing happened, leaving my arm aching and bruised.

I tried a third mirror, then a fourth, and another, and another, running around the room in a frantic, desperate circle.

I blasted the glass with every single dark spell I knew, but the magic simply bounced off the reflective surface, disappearing into the white void.

Everywhere I turned my body, there was only myself staring back at me with wide, terrified eyes.

There was no door, no window, and no way out. I was completely trapped inside a world of my own image.

The exhaustion finally took over, and I fell heavily to my knees in the center of the infinite room.

I tilted my head back toward the mirrored ceiling and let out a loud, piercing scream.

It was a scream of pure rage that echoed endlessly through the glass walls, bouncing back to mock me over and over again in the silence.