Mirrorlight by Jill Myles Page A

silver-ish metal decorated in old symbols. It looked positively ancient, the glass slightly wavy and dark as she examined her reflection. One hand went to her cheek. “I look like hell,” she said aloud.
    The silence was deafening, but at the same time, the hair on the back of her neck prickled, and she glanced over her shoulder. No one stood in the doorway.
    Cora smiled to herself at that, and turned away from the mirror. She hadn’t been in the house longer than a few minutes and she’d already scared herself. It’s just an old house , she reprimanded herself. And it will be such fun to live here for the next few weeks…you’ve always wanted to stay in a castle, remember?
    She’d just never really thought that she’d have to stay by herself. Then again, she was free to explore to her heart’s content and not have to worry about a single other person.
    Cheered at that, Cora began to whistle as she headed off to find a shower.

    #

    Something woke Cora in the middle of an exhausted sleep. She blinked awake at once, staring into the dark unfamiliar room. Had she heard a thump? Something from outside the small window in the corner of her room? She sat up in bed, rubbing a hand across her face. Perhaps a bad dream? She’d been having a sexy one, actually—one that she hadn’t wanted to wake up from. A dream about a man that had dark eyes and wild, thick hair and great shoulders. Definitely not anyone she knew.
    Her sleep-blurred eyes could not find anything out of ordinary in the room, and whatever the sound was, it did not repeat. With a yawn, Cora turned over in bed and pulled the covers close to her chest, her eyes sliding shut.
    Just before they did, she noticed that the mirror shimmered. She opened her eyes and squinted at it, wondering where the illumination was coming from. The mirror’s light disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and she saw the figure of a large man standing in the full-sized glass.
    Her entire body froze in fear. It’s a shadow , she told herself. A trick of the light . But then the shadow moved, ever so slightly, and she could make out a figure. A hand raised, as if skimming the surface of the mirror.
    Trying to reach through the mirror…
    With a scream choking in her throat, Cora jerked her blankets around her body and shot out of the room.

Chapter Two
    She didn’t sleep for the rest of the night. Who could? Every time she closed her eyes for a second, she imagined the shadow trying to reach through the mirror, and her entire body quaked with chills.
    Of course a place like this had ghosts. It made perfect sense. Stonewood Abbey was at least six hundred years old. Maybe even eight hundred. It stood to reason that at some point over eight hundred years, someone had died unhappily and left a spirit behind. Of course, that didn’t mean that she had to stay here and house sit with a ghost, either. She’d write Aunt Martha, tell her thanks-but-no-thanks and get the hell out of dodge.
    Now that the sun was peeking through the windows, however, a bit of her courage returned. She’d spent the entire evening camped out on the sofa in the foyer, utterly terrified, every light in the room switched on. Exhausted but brave with the sun at her back, Cora picked up her blankets and headed back to the room, her body stiff with fear.
    The door to her room was still shut from the night before. With shaking fingers, Cora turned the knob as quietly as possible, trying not to make noise. The door slid open a crack and she peered inside.
    Her room seemed quiet. Normal. The sun even shone through her small window, illuminating a patch of light on her bed. Nothing felt creepy. The mirror was just a mirror. She didn’t know whether or not to feel relieved or stupid that there’d been no signs of an intruder, supernatural or otherwise. A bad dream , she told herself. It had been a bad dream and she’d imagined it. Relieved, she pulled out her suitcase and began to change clothes.
    A knock sounded