Quicksilver - Amanda Quick [46]
She met his eyes in the mirrors. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m afraid that there are some talents with an affinity for mirrors who would find this room thrilling to the senses. I suspect Hollister was one of them.”
He raised his brows. “Something to do with the stimulating effects of the mirrors, do you mean?”
“Yes.” She walked slowly around the room, heightening her senses very cautiously. “Mirrors reflect energy from across the spectrum. Those of us who work glasslight are especially sensitive to that reflected energy. Indeed, one of the difficulties in reading the afterimages in looking glasses is dealing with the reflections. When mirrors are arranged as they are in this chamber, to create an infinity of reflections, the effects can be quite . . . dramatic.”
“When it comes to the laws of para-physics, glass is always unpredictable.”
“Trust me, there is no need to remind me of that fact. I have been dealing with glasslight since I turned thirteen.”
“Yes, of course. My apologies for the lecture. What do you mean when you say that the effects are dramatic?”
She looked at the endlessly repeating scene in the mirrors. “Some glasslight-talents might find that their powers were enhanced by the reflected energy in this chamber.”
The dangerous heat in Owen’s eyes burned hotter. “Permanently enhanced?”
“No,” she said. “The effects would last only while one was inside the mirrored space. But the sensation could be quite exhilarating, I suppose, at least for some talents. The effects would act like a powerful drug on the senses. And if one were inclined toward some dark obsession, as Hollister obviously was . . .” She let the sentence fade.
Owen looked thoughtful. “In other words, this chamber would have acted like an intoxicating elixir on Hollister’s senses while he committed murder.”
“Yes. Once the afterimages were burned into the mirrors, he could come down here to experience them again and again before they began to fade. You told me that some killers return to the scenes of their crimes to savor the energy that is left in the vicinity of the murders. I think the effects of the mirrors in this room would be similar for a murderer who was also a glasslight-talent.”
“And when the images did start to dim?”
She swallowed hard. “He was no doubt driven to kill again. Like any drug, he would crave more and more of the stimulation he got from the mirrors.”
“Each time he killed, he would have burned yet more layers of afterimages into the looking glasses.”
“Yes.”
She did not say anything else. There was no need. When she met Owen’s eyes again in one of the mirrors, she knew that he understood.
“Raising your talent in this chamber will be like walking into hell,” he said.
She sighed. “It is never easy looking into mirrors that have witnessed death. I have seen some terrible things in looking glasses. But this chamber is different.”
“Because more than one woman died here?”
“In part, yes.” She thought about the first wildly disorienting sensations that had struck her elevated senses like shocks of lightning when she had awakened in the bed next to Hollister’s body. “But there is something else involved here, something I do not understand. Perhaps when I start to read the glasslight it will become clear.”
Owen came up to stand behind her. He put one powerful hand on her shoulder. “You need not do this, Virginia. I can learn a great deal here on my own.”
“Of course I must read these mirrors. We need all the information we can get from this place. But before I begin, tell me what you see in this chamber.”
Energy flared when Owen elevated his talent. He looked around slowly, taking in the bed and the table with a measuring expression.
“I didn’t have time to take a good look the other night,” he said. “But now I see that murder was done in this room, not once but on several occasions.” He walked to the bed. “The victims all died here.”
“What of the killer?” she asked.
“His energy is all over this chamber, but the darkest currents are concentrated near