Frost Burned

didn’t like it that she was still obediently following orders, although this time, he thought, Tad hadn’t meant it like that. Tad would know that giving Adam or Asil orders, under these circumstances, might be a bad idea, and so he’d told Mercy.
    Mercy touched the door after Adam shut it. “There’s some kind of magic,” she said.
    “Protections,” Tad agreed, without turning from the mirror. “Useful to keep out ghosts and spies.”
    He knocked three times on the mirror, and said,
    Spiegel spieg’le finde,Vaters Bild und Stimme,
    in der Tiefe Deiner Sinne, seiner Worte seiner Form,
    meiner Worte meiner Form, führe, leite, führ’ zusammen,
    deiner Wahrheit Bindeglied,
    verbinde unsere Wirklichkeiten,
    Wesen und Natur im Lied!
    “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,” Asil murmured when Tad quit speaking.
    “Shh,” said Tad. “This isn’t that mirror. That mirror broke, and good riddance to it. Let’s not give this one ideas, please.”
    Adam couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.
    After a few minutes, during which the mirror did nothing more interesting than reflect everyone present back at it, Asil started to look at the toys on the shelves, though he kept his hands to himself. It gave him an excuse to keep his back to Adam, which Adam appreciated.
    Mercy bent down to get a better look at the books—most of them were German and old. But Adam noticed that there were a couple of newer mysteries, too—and what looked like a complete
Doc Savage
series, numbered one through ninety-six, in paperback. Mercy reached out to touch one old book, and Adam’s instincts made him block her hand. “It’s not smart to touch a grumpy old fae’s things,” he said.
    “It wants me to touch it,” she explained earnestly.
    “All the more reason not to do it,” Adam told her, keeping a hold on her hand.
    A compliant prisoner, he thought, has to do whatever she is told by who—or whatever—tells her to do something. He wondered if that ghost would have given her trouble if she had been able to exert her will. He glanced at the mirror, but there was still nothing more interesting than their reflections in it. “Tad, what’s the holdup?”
    “Shh,” the young man said. “Not so loud. Someone on the other side of the mirror might overhear. He’ll come as soon as he can.”
    “There’s a lot of metal in here for a fae’s den,” murmured Asil. “And enough magic to make my nose itch.”
    “Zee is a metalsmith,” Mercy explained, leaning against Adam. Like Asil, she spoke quietly. “Iron-kissed. Siebolt Adelbertsmiter.”
    “The Dark Smith of Drontheim?” Asil was suddenly a lot more tense, his voice half-strangled.
    “That’s right,” said Tad, looking away from the mirror because Asil was more interesting. At least that was why Adam was looking at him. Fortunately, the other wolf was looking at Tad.
    “Your father is Loan Maclibhuin, the Dark Smith of Drontheim?” Asil turned to Adam, averting his eyes at the last minute. “Are you sure you want to contact Maclibhuin? Do you know what he is?”
    “He’s mellowed with age,” Mercy assured Asil before Adam could say anything. She sounded like herself. “No more killing people because they annoy him. No more making crazy weapons that will inevitably cause more problems than they solve because he had a bad day and wanted to destroy a civilization or two.”
    Tad snorted. “He likes Mercy. He’ll help us.”
    Suddenly exhausted, as much by keeping a tight rein on himself as by the events of the past few days, Adam sat down on the rug and pulled Mercy onto his lap, where she couldn’t get into trouble.
    When Mercy squeaked in surprise—though she didn’t fight him—he said, “No telling how long it will take the old fae to answer. No sense for you to stand the whole time. Your knee is bothering you.” He’d noticed that she was keeping her weight off it.
    “Car wreck, then that step,” she said, relaxing against him. “But it’s my cheekbone that really hurts. Falling from Sylvia’s apartment didn’t help.”
    “Wait a moment,” Tad said, and left them in the attic by themselves as he ran downstairs for something, closing the door behind him.
    “He left us alone in the heart of his father’s power,” said Asil.
    “That’s because I would kill you before I allowed you to do anything,” Adam assured him with an easy voice. “Tad knows that we stand with him, Mercy and I. And if you think this is the center of Zee’s