Chapter 109 Bahira #2
“Who said so?” I ask, struggling against the magical restraints and finding that they are already starting to give.
“Everything we did was to protect you, Your Majesty. To ensure that you’d be ready to protect us when the time came.
But, Princess Bahira, you cannot interfere.
You’ve already drawn too much attention to yourself.
” His lip trembles, spittle flying as he talks.
“You must leave this be. You must let the plan roll out accordingly for the good of our people.”
Dread lands like a rock in my stomach. “Those lines—the markings on his back—aren’t from the medicine, are they?” His grip on his magic falters. “Is it?” I shout.
“Leave it be—”
“We both know your magic is going to fail any moment now, and then you’ll be stuck in this room with two curious individuals—one with nothing to lose, and one who may show you mercy if you answer our questions,” I implore, my arms flexing as I fight against his hold. “Whose pl—”
His magic gives out, and he falls to the floor, hands planting to catch himself just in time. I move to help him, but Nox stops me. “Who, Galen?”
“Kallin’s!” he answers, his head hanging between his shoulders. “He promised it was only temporary, that until the damage the girl had done to you was reversed, we had to do it this way.”
“Girl?”
Galen lifts his head, the gray of his eyes lost behind unshed tears.
“Rhea,” he breathes, and Nox lets loose a low growl.
“Kallin knew about her. Knew that you weren’t being truthful about who she was and where she came from.
After I examined her for the first time, he asked for a full report.
I told him the truth, that she felt stronger than even you, King Nox, and that you tried to hide her signature from me. ”
“Why would you break a lifetime of trust with your king and queen for Kallin?” I ask, my eyes searching his.
“Because even though I have always respected your father, Kallin saw how much he put the wants of his family over the needs of his own kingdom.”
The accusation stings, and I point my blade at Galen as I sneer, “You know nothing of how much my father loves his people if that is what you think. A king can only be made better by his dedication to his family.”
“I have made sacrifices in the name of the kingdom that your father never could,” Galen says, righting himself enough to sit back on his heels. “Do you know what it is like to turn in a family member because you’ve found out they are hurting the kingdom?”
“Do you?” Nox asks, far too quietly.
“Yes. Years ago, my sister’s beloved husband, Simon, a renowned anatomist, was found to be killing mages in order to experiment on their dead bodies.
It was I who led the guards to his house when I discovered what he was doing.
I who helped raise his son as if he was my own.
Though Simon managed to disappear before he could be held accountable for his crimes, the fact remains that I took a husband away from my sister and a father away from my nephew in the name of doing what was right.
You”—his gaze leaves mine to look at Nox—“could not make that choice. Neither could your father.”
“Are you comparing the woman I love to a murderer?”
“While the intent may be different, Your Majesty, the crime against the kingdom remains the same. Kallin understood this, and that is why he did what he did.”
“And what is that?” I ask, battling the urge to throw my knife at his head.
He sighs, the sound exaggerated. “When word came that King Dolian threatened to attack our border towns if the girl was not returned, Kallin knew he had to act. I do not know the details of the exchange, but in return for getting her back—for righting the wrong you brought on our people when you stole her from the Mortal Kingdom—the king promised to leave our most vulnerable towns alone.”
“And you believed him?” Nox asks, his voice raising with the question. “You returned one of your own back to a monster!”
“But she wasn’t one of our own!” he volleys back in a rare show of anger. “She had never stepped foot in this kingdom until you. That is not someone worthy—”
“Worthy? Worthy? She is ten fucking times more worthy than anyone in this kingdom!”
“Galen, when you treated her, felt her magical signature, did you know that you were looking at the next Void queen?” I ask, pathetically hoping that his answer at least buys him a small amount of grace.
Kallin has been convincing in his campaign against every perceived threat against our people, enough so that I could almost understand Galen’s betrayal.
Unfortunately, he all but guarantees that there is no coming back from this with his answer.
“I suspected,” he says slowly, no remorse showing on his face.
“And I will tell you what Kallin told me when I brought my suspicions to him. Who is more dangerous: the enemy who proudly proclaims themselves as such or the one who hides behind pretty lies and manipulation, waiting for the right moment to strike?”
Nox growls as he leans forward, preparing to jump off the table, but I stop him with a hand at his arm.
“I believe you genuinely cared about her, Your Majesty. And I think that it blinded you to what the rest of us saw. She is not a queen of our people. Only a threat to the Crown.”
I shut my eyes as I squeeze Nox’s bicep, willing him not to act on the murderous thoughts I know must be dancing in his head. “What is actually on Nox’s back?” I ask, once again pointing my blade at him when he looks ready to protest. “The truth, Galen. It is your only saving grace now.”
“It is a lock,” he answers hesitantly, twisting his hands in front of him. “How do you control the man with the single strongest source of power besides the Continent itself? You smother their access to said power, and then you make it so that they don’t care that they’ve lost it.”
The shock of his confession is enough to draw a curse from me.
Galen says nothing more, ushering in a silence that feels like a fuse waiting to be lit.
Gods above, this hasn’t been about Nox healing.
They’ve purposefully been blocking him from his magic this entire time.
And then you make it so that they don’t care.
The medicine—it really had been numbing his mind. His emotions and feelings.
“Bahira.”
The plea in Nox’s voice as he says my name guts me. I nod as he stiffly turns back around, and I press my hand to his back while I angle the blade over that rough bump beneath his skin, right at the center of those dark lines. All this time. All this fucking time.
“If you do this, there is no going back,” Galen rasps, sadness and fear mingling in the threat. “The council will see to it that you will never remain king. They will turn our people against you.”
With the tip of my blade against Nox’s skin, I cut into it.
“Then so be it,” Nox responds, body tensing as the light gray skin over the hard mass splits beneath my knife, blood dripping as I cut through layers of skin and even muscle to reveal something black.
Carefully, with my brother’s labored breaths filling the room, I tilt the knife back, forcing the item to the surface where I grab it with my other hand.
And then Nox begins to scream.