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Chapter Eighty-One: Bahira

Kai’s voice booms out in the dining room where the Mirror is located as he calls out my father’s name again. Still, only silence answers.

“Is it possible that your father may have moved the Mirror to a spot where they cannot hear it?” Kai asks.

I shake my head as I clench my hands at my sides. “I don’t think so. It’s been in the council room since you used it to first reach out to us. Even if my father moved it, he would make sure that there is always a guard near it.” I finally look in his direction, giving voice to the thought that sends a heavy dread through me. “Something is wrong.”

Siyala, the female who had somehow been living in the Mortal Kingdom in her animal form until an injury forced her to shift, had given us a brief breakdown of what she knew of Rhea. Of what King Dolian had done so far to try and get his niece back. My stomach twists in on itself at the thought of what he wants her for—to marry her.

“What do you want to do?” Kai’s voice is tentative where he stands across from me, Siyala and Jahlee at his side.

I turn my gaze towards the Mirror, the gears of my mind turning but coming up with nothing except horrific scenarios of what could have happened back home. “I think it’s time for me to leave.”

“Then I will prepare a ship immediately.”

It doesn’t take long to pack up my belongings—ancient journals, a magnifier, clothes, and a spear are all that I need to take back with me. Jahlee and Siyala meet me on the steps outside the palace, Kai giving us space and waiting a few yards ahead.

“I wish you didn’t have to go at all,” Jahlee laments while pulling me into a hug, her arms squeezing way too tightly. I squeeze her back just as hard.

“I am going to miss you.” It’s hard to define what Jahlee’s presence—her friendship —has meant to me. She is the only one who truly understands what it’s like to be magicless in a world filled to the brim with it, and yet she commands a presence about her that dares anyone to call her less than.

“Just remember that when you feel adrift between two worlds, I am in that middle space too. We are only outcasts if we let them make us so.” She plants a kiss on my cheek and pulls back, her gaze flicking to her brother. “And perhaps there is still something that might bring you back here.”

Unable to sever her hope, I give her a quirk of my lips before turning to Siyala. She has washed up and changed since our meeting in the throne room, but her haunting amber eyes remain fiercely focused on me.

“You will let us know that Rhea is safe?” she asks though it sounds more like a command, her fingers curling at her sides.

“I will.”

She sticks her hand out between us, my own clasping hers as she firmly shakes it. “I’m sorry we could not talk more, as I know you have many questions. If I could accompany you on your journey, I would, but…”

“You have people who have waited years to see you, Siyala. Bahira will keep her word and reach out to us as soon as she can,” Jahlee says, giving Siyala a waggle of her brows. Reluctantly, the shifter female lets me go. I give them one last parting smile before turning and walking down the steps to the waiting shifter king, my trunk in his hands.

“You do not have to accompany me to the docks,” I tell him.

He doesn’t offer a response, instead turning and leading the way to where a ship is waiting for me. Blowing out a breath, I follow a step behind him. Kai leads us down a path that doesn’t cut directly through Molsi, but one that brings us around its outskirts. I can’t help but watch him as he walks in front of me. He will have so much work to do with weeding out the rest of the rebels and truly beginning his reign here as king. Though I no longer underestimate him, I find myself uselessly wishing that I could stay and help . If he would even allow that.

“I can feel your gaze on me, Princess.”

My lips twitch at the familiar statement, but I swallow back the urge to respond. The rest of our walk is quiet as the edges of the dock come into view. My hands run up over the straps of my pack and back to where my spear is tucked into its loops, nervous energy making me fidget.

The wooden planks, warped from sun and sea and time, creak under our steps as we walk to where a small ship is docked. The boat is a third of the size of the one I traveled to the island on and appears to only be manned by three people, their faces I somewhat recognize from the throne room.

“I trust these men,” Kai says, following my gaze. “But if they decide that they want to test that trust, you have my permission to kill them all.” He speaks the words loudly enough as we near the boat that all three men turn and look at us.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for the permission.”

Kai sets the trunk down gently, halting us in front of the boat. “Kai. It’s just Kai to you.” The breeze blowing in off the ocean ruffles his hair, sending dark strands over his forehead, and my stupid heart skips a beat at the sight of it.

“Bad idea to give your ruin so much power.” He steps closer, and I have to brace myself for his presence—his warmth and scent and just him .

“Be my ruin. Be my poison. Be the reason I question who the fuck I am and what I’m doing. The reason I give a shit at all. Be all those things and whatever else you want to, Bahira.”

His statements catch me off-guard as does the sincere look on his face. I shake my head, my teeth gritting together as too many emotions knot thickly in my throat. “Please, don’t do this,” I protest, my voice hardly loud enough to be heard over the lapping waves. I try to take a step back, only for him to pull me closer, an arm wrapping around my waist. My hands splay on his chest, both pushing him away and gripping his tunic. “I have stood firm behind my shields for so many years, and now, because of you, I am faltering. I am not strong enough—”

“You are,” he interrupts. His finger curls beneath my chin, tilting my face up to his. “People often think of strength as something that’s measured in battle—physical combat and mastery of weapons. But they rarely take into account mental and emotional toughness. They forget the will and perseverance it takes to continue on when the world tells them they shouldn’t. When it tells them they are weak . You are many things, Bahira, but weak isn’t one of them.”

“Kai.” The strain on my throat is heavy, my eyes growing wet as I stare up at him. His own gaze searches mine—my face and hair—while his hand flexes on my hip.

“What I said to you that night in the cave is not something that can be unsaid. I deserve nothing from you, and I will not ask you for anything you aren’t willing to give me. Nor would I want to keep you from anything— anyone —back in your kingdom.” He swallows, the edges of his face softening as he adds quietly, “But if there is a moment when you decide you’d like to talk with me again, I will make sure someone is always guarding the Mirror.”

I don’t let the sob trapped in my chest break free, one that’s filled with the words I don’t know how to say aloud to him. So, instead, I let him hold me, his hand tangling in my hair as he presses my head to his chest.

With the sun hanging low, a golden glow against the backdrop of a blue and lavender sky, I finally step out of Kai’s arms and onto the boat. He gives his parting words to the crew as they lift the anchor and the ship begins to pull away from the dock. I watch Kai the entire time until his figure is nothing but a dot in the distance. My hands grip the railing of the boat, the three shifters moving about the deck as they adjust the sails to steer us over the open water.

With a deep breath, I turn away from the Shifter Kingdom and face the direction of home. Except that, now, home feels more like the place I just said goodbye to.

Salty air caresses my skin through the open window of my cabin, gently tugging on the pages of the journal I’m reading. Needing the distraction, I pulled the ancient record out of my pack after dinner and began thumbing through the detailed notes left by the former council member.

As this one is only about fifty years old, it must have been one I grabbed from the nightstand in my room before leaving for the Shifter Kingdom. My eyes drift over the councilman’s words as he recounts the Flame Ceremonies of that particular week. It all seems standard for the time, the flames produced from each drop of blood only a few feet high. A boy from Santor saw a flame just over one foot tall. A girl from Galdr saw one of three feet. Another girl, this one from Galina, was also shown a flame of under two feet in height.

My finger taps on the page as I draw my brows together. Galina and Santor are both small towns that are close to the border of the Mortal Kingdom. Odd that, of the three ceremonies documented on this day, the two of those from these border towns produced a much smaller flame than the one child from Galdr. I set the councilman’s journal to the side and reach for my pack on the floor next to the bed, digging through it until I find my own journal. The pages rustle as I flip through them, stopping when I reach the chart that I had created to plot not only the details of the Flame Ceremonies but any mention of magical discrepancies.

I study the graph, most of the x’s marked are information gleaned from the past few years. There is a gap in the middle of the graph, that timeline missing because I haven’t read enough journals to fill it in. Yet, as I study the markings and find where the majority of the disturbances in magic are noted, the similarities between them become abundantly clear. Galina. Santor. Polatos. Agarino. All of these towns are near either the mortal or fae borders, and all of them have markings that show not only decreasing magic but a rate higher than any of the other cities that are centered in the Mage Kingdom. Like Galdr. Despite having the highest populace, according to the data I’ve plotted so far, the capital has the lowest amount of noted magical discrepancies.

Sitting up taller, I let the journal fall to my lap as I stare at the wall of wooden slats across from me. Hadn’t Kai also said that the shifters who live near the edges of the island are more highly affected by their magical blight than those who live near the island center?

“ Fucking gods ,” I whisper, running my hands over my face.

The blight in the Shifter Kingdom. The decrease in magic in the Mage Kingdom. It isn’t some random coincidence. There is only one thing that both kingdoms have in common. Only one thing that would affect the towns more closely located to the kingdoms’ borders. My legs shake as I force myself up from the bed, pacing on the squeaking floorboards as the gears of my mind turn and turn until they lock into place. Looking back down at the journals spread out on the bed, goosebumps break out over my arms as a chill runs down my spine.

“It’s the Spell.”