Lynn Combs

“If you look back far enough,” her grandmother used to say, “you can see more than just yourself.”

When historian Emily Carter inherits her grandmother’s estate, she expects dust, echoes, and memories—not a mirror that looks back with more than her own reflection. Behind its silvered glass waits a man from another century—James Harrington, elegant, haunted, and as real as the heartbeat that stumbles whenever he meets her gaze.

Each night, the mirror pulls Emily deeper into his world of candlelight and secrets, where the past is alive and one woman’s fate hangs in the balance. But the more she tries to rewrite history, the more the mirror demands in return.

Because love may bridge time—but every reflection has its price.

This Story took Third Place in the Everything But The Kitchen Sink Contest at the 2025 OCW (Ozarks Creative Writers) Conference.