Chapter 107 Bahira
Chapter One Hundred and Seven: Bahira
Nox and I gather ceramic crucibles and place them over the flame to begin heating up, while Max, Daje, and Elora use their magic to move the frame onto a steel table set nearby.
Its height is well past Nox’s own, perhaps even reaching Kai’s.
I nearly sigh at the thought of the shifter king, the memory of him always flashing at the most inconvenient of times.
“In a few hours, I will have to return to the palace so the council does not get suspicious,” Nox says, now leaning back fully against the wall next to Max, looking unsteady. Is it possible he looks even worse than last night? “And I have a meeting with Haylee and Kallin to attend.”
At the sound of her name, I clench my jaw, my reaction visible enough to draw Daje’s attention. His gaze bounces from me to Nox and even to Max before returning to mine, his brows drawn together. “What is it?”
“At Nox’s coronation, your father announced that Haylee and Nox were engaged.”
Daje’s mouth drops open, then closes, then drops open again. “What?” he asks at the same time Elora shouts, “That bitch!” Max’s deep chuckle reverberates out.
“It’s not worth discussing, as there will be no marriage.
Your father knows this, but I suspect he thinks if he harasses me enough, I will eventually give in.
” I think of my brother’s confession last night, of the exhaustion that lingers around him like a fog.
His dulled gray eyes meet mine as he gives a slight shake of his head, uncompromising resolve hardening his expression.
“There are many battles I’ve grown weary of, but that will never be one of them.
Getting Rhea home and upon her rightful throne is something I will continuously strive to do. Even if it kills me.”
“I assume there has been no update on her?” Elora asks, her voice trembling.
“Nothing beyond what we already can assume.” The admission is a sword plunged into the room’s beating heart, silencing it as the five of us look at each other.
It’s Max who pushes us past it. “I think the crucibles are ready.”
And with that, we move into a semblance of order as we form an assembly line to begin melting the dragon glass.
I run my fingers against one of the smooth pieces, its iridescence reminding me of the Spell.
My curiosity wants to know how they found the glass and if the shape of it before they broke it down for transport was something unique or uniform.
But I keep my questions behind my teeth, the knowledge that Cass had sacrificed himself to get the glass enough to keep my focus on the present.
Elora, Max, and I sort the pieces by size, while Nox uses a handheld shovel to bring them to the crucibles.
Daje carefully sends a slow but steady flow of his magic into the flames.
It tints the fire unnaturally golden, his yellow blending with the oranges and reds.
As we work in tandem, in a silence that grows more and more tense with each minute that passes, I run through everything I know about the Mirror.
Its magic was ancient, likely the same raw power that flows all over Olymazi. Nox said he couldn’t remember if he saw magic leave the Mirror when it broke, but I wonder if its color might be like that of the Spell. Like that of the magic I saw in blood. Like Rhea’s magic.
“The first crucible is nearly melted,” Daje says, his voice strained.
I turn to find sweat already beading on his brow, his hand shaking from the continued use of his magic.
Fuck, we still have so much glass to melt to fill the frame.
“Perhaps you should go help him,” I tell Max, halting his sorting of the glass.
“The two of you can sustain the flame longer than just him alone.”
But Elora stops Max from going, her dark eyes darting from me to Daje while something soft flashes in them.
“He doesn’t want anyone to help,” she whispers, the corners of her mouth turning down.
“Rhea’s abduction, Cass’s death… He feels responsible for them both and is desperate to prove that he can fix this. That he can be more help than burden.”
“Is that what he thinks? That he is a burden?” I ask her under my breath as Max goes back to silently sorting.
“He tried, Bahira. He tried so hard to go back for Cass. He nearly hurt me trying to get to him, but I—” She swallows, hand trembling from where it rests on the table.
“I couldn’t watch him die too. But this…
this is almost worse. This is a slow death.
One orchestrated by him. One, I’m afraid, we won’t be able to stop if repairing the Mirror doesn’t work. If Rhea doesn’t come home.”
I think over her words as Max waves Nox over, the both of them bringing the next round of filled crucibles over to the flame.
“Daje’s always wanted to be the one to save those he loves,” I murmur, grabbing two new containers for us to fill. “He deserves someone showing him that he is worth saving, too.”
“Someone like you?” she asks, faint vulnerability coloring her tone.
“No,” I smile, feeling her eyes scouring my face. “I was never supposed to be the one to do that.”
Time passes slowly, Elora and I sorting through all of the glass, and Nox and Max adding crucible after crucible to the flame so that it can all be melted at once.
Only when Daje wobbles on his feet does he finally give in and allow Max to take over, his blue magic hugging the flame as he keeps the temperature steady.
Nox paces restlessly, looking out of one of the forge’s high windows as he denotes the faint trickle of sunlight showing through it means he will have to leave soon.
“We can wait for the glass to harden before you try imbuing it,” Elora suggests, her cheeks pink from the warmth emanating into the room.
“I disagree.” Though dirt covers the stone beneath us, his steps still echo as he comes to stand next to the empty frame. “We need to test it now to see if my magic will do anything at all or if this has just been a massive waste of time. Is all of the glass melted?”
Daje checks over the crucibles and nods. “The last one finally melted.”
“Thank gods,” Max breathes, his magic beginning to flicker. “Can I stop now?”
“Yes, but we have to move quickly.”
There’s a flurry of movement as all but Elora leap to grab a pair of large iron tongs.
One by one, we remove the crucibles from the flame, the hot glass meeting the cold steel releasing a high-pitched hiss.
Elora uses a wooden block soaked in water to smooth the glass into one even layer, and when the last crucible is poured, we stare at the iridescent glass.
It glimmers like the Spell, pressing into the edges of the frame as it begins to cool.
“I’m ready,” Nox says, his magic already glowing in his palm. It’s just a small ball of dark purple laced with a single wisp of black, and as my gaze lifts to meet those of Max, Elora, and Daje, their faces express my own concern. It isn’t enough.
In silence, we all watch as Nox feeds what little magic he can summon into the Mirror.
Eventually, it changes the entire surface to that same deep purple, black wavy lines interspersed throughout.
Within minutes, Nox’s heavy breathing fills the space.
Another few pass, and he’s forced to lean his other hand on the table to steady himself.
I lay my hand on his shoulder in silent warning, but he ignores it as he continues to send scraps of his power out.
It’s when he nearly faceplants into the hot glass that I finally pull him back, his magic sputtering out like a candle flame.
“Enough,” I whisper, panic rising at how deeply he leans into me.
“It isn’t. It never will be. Not until—” He doesn’t finish before his eyes roll to the back of his head and he becomes dead weight in my arms.
“Fuck! Max, come help me!” He rushes over, and together, we lay Nox gently on the ground, his sweaty, pale face gilded in the warm light from the flame. I press a hand to his cheek, calling his name as I stare down at him.
“Has he ever passed out from using his magic?” Max asks from where he kneels at Nox’s other side. Daje and Elora stand behind him, the latter leaning into Daje with his hand resting on her hip.
“Never,” I answer, glancing back up at the table holding the Mirror. “Is the glass still holding his power?”
As one, Elora and Daje move to inspect the Mirror. “The glass is hazy, but it appears his magic is holding.” She looks at me just as Nox begins to stir. “Do you think that means it will work?”
“Perhaps,” I answer, my fingers curled in towards my palms to hide their trembling. “We might need Nox to imbue it with his blood all over again.” This time not as crown prince but as the new king.
“What happened?” Nox groans as Max helps him to sit, sweat gliding down his temple.
“Your magic infused the Mirror, but we don’t know yet if it’s enough to make it work.”
He attempts to push himself up to stand and falters, needing help from Max and I to get up fully. “I’ll try—”
“Nox, you just passed out from using your magic. I don’t think you should try again.”
“I can do it,” he says, tired eyes framed in desperation. Without waiting for me to respond, he steps up to the side of the table. Max and I join him, Daje and Elora across from us as Nox calls out, “King Kai Vaea of the Shifter Kingdom.” My heart pounds against my ribs at Kai’s name.
There is always a moment while in the thrall of experimentation when time seems to halt.
It happens when I’m peering down the scope of the magnifier, clarifying the image to discover what lies beyond what can be seen with the naked eye.
It happens when my mind latches on to a new theory or hypothesis, and all I can think about is how I might test it and prove it true.
And it happens now, as I watch the Mirror begin to ripple, Nox’s command a pebble tossed into an otherwise calm lake.
Breath halts in my chest, and blood slips past my ears in time to the thrum of my heartbeat.
I don’t dare blink, don’t dare take my focus off of the Mirror as those tiny ripples travel down the length of it.
And then disappear. Leaving the Mirror as it was before Nox spoke.
All at once, the sounds of the room return, and with it, so does the heaving of my frustrated breath. “Damn it.”
“Did it not work?” Max asks, leaning over to look at his reflection in the Mirror.
“No,” Nox sighs as he braces his hands on the table. “I’ll try again—”
“Tomorrow,” I interrupt, arching a brow at Nox’s scowl.
“I’m fine—”
“And you’re due back at the palace.” A muscle flexes in my brother’s jaw. “This battle is multifaceted, Nox. I promised we would figure this out, and we will. But we can do nothing if you’re not well enough to help.”
He looks to Daje and then Elora for help, but when he only meets their pleading gazes, he reluctantly yields.
Together, we sneak back to the palace, but I don’t see Nox for the rest of the day, the duties forced upon him by Kallin and the council keeping him behind closed doors.
I spend time sifting through the journals taken from the archives, but the Mirror and Nox’s failed attempt keep my attention muddled, and when I meet my brother the next morning as we sneak back out under the cover of dawn, the anxiousness at trying again is an incessant hum beneath my skin.
We enter the forge to find Daje and Elora already there, sharing a pot of tea between them.
“No Max?” Elora asks, her hair pulled back into a ponytail that sits high on her head.
She still wears a sling, but her color looks better, as if she actually got a good night of rest. Daje is faring better too, but I see the cautious way he watches my brother, concern tugging his mouth into a straight line.
“I figured I’d give him the day off from holding more of our secrets,” Nox says, running a hand through his hair. My lips quirk, but the moment is sobered quickly when Nox approaches where the Mirror still lies on the table. “It’s still holding my magic.”
“Cass’s is in there too,” Elora says, and Nox stiffens. Her cheeks grow pink as she swallows, Daje reaching over to rest his hand at her back. “We had to test that it would hold magic before collecting the pieces. Cass volunteered.”
My throat prickles with sadness, but it’s the way Nox seems to brush Elora’s comment off that makes it tighten further. “Let’s try again,” he says, voice uncharacteristically cold. “And I think I should give my blood and a drop of Bahira’s as well.”
In the stilted silence that follows, Daje finds a clean blade and pricks my finger and Nox’s, both of us giving a drop of blood that the Mirror seems to absorb.
Once it’s back to that same purple and black smoky state, Nox feeds even more magic into it, this time pulling back before he collapses.
The glass darkens and then ripples when Nox calls out for Kai again.
For a moment, I think that it’s going to work.
That Kai’s face will appear on the other side.
But, like it hits a wall or runs out of magic, the rippling stops.
Nox and I return to the palace, and when I try to speak with him, he waves me off, citing more meetings.
On the morning of the third day, I meet my brother in his sitting room, his hair disheveled and eyes wild, as if he’s been up all night pacing. The frazzled energy fills the room, and I lay a hand on his shoulder to stop him when he tries to walk towards the balcony.
“Let’s forget the forge today,” I say, squeezing my fingers to keep him in my hold when he tries to walk forward again.
“Bahira, we can’t—”
“We can,” I interrupt, guiding him towards the door that will lead out into the hall.
His brows draw together in confusion as he looks at me from over his shoulder. “What about the guards?”
“I told you, we aren’t going to the forge today.” Pulling the door open, we step past the guards posted outside his room, their gray eyes watching us with curiosity. I let go of Nox to walk to my own door.
“Then where are we going?”
“I’m going to beat your ass at the training grounds.”