‘No, really, I mean it,’ he insisted. ‘The reason growing magic is so rare is precisely what you just said: it’s hard to explain, which makes it even harder to teach. Mixing magic can be learned quite easily; it relies very little on intuition. It’s whymost of what I learned was focused on mixing rather than growing.’
‘I hardly know any mixtures, though,’ Bisma said.
‘Well, that’s no problem at all!’ Xander said with a smile. ‘It’s easy to learn.’
Bisma did wish to learn more, she always had, but she’d never had any education or books to study from. Xander had a wealth of knowledge in his family, not to mention his education in Whitebridge, but she had obviously never asked him or Eleanora to teach her.
Perhaps she should have.
‘I’ll teach you all I can about growing magic if you teach me about mixing magic,’ Bisma said, feeling brave.
Xander’s face lit up. ‘Would you really?’
She nodded. ‘Absolutely.’
He was even more excited now; he was practically bouncing like a puppy. ‘Brilliant. That would be brilliant.’
His enthusiasm was infectious, but Bisma guarded herself from it. She would not allow Xander to sneak into her affections; she could not. She was afraid that if he ever did, it would be impossible to be rid of him.
Bisma did not wish to go back to the way things were after discovering Gregory’s true colors, the acute heartbreak she had felt. The nauseating realization that it had all been a lie: every moment they had spent together, every word, every touch. The disappointment had been a heaviness on her chest, infiltrating all her bones, which had been followed with the shame.
She would not open herself up to such a wound again, not when the previous one had been so hard to heal. Even now she felt the scar, the bruised, bumpy skin of it, cutting through the center of her, a jagged welt still tender to the touch.
She would have given Gregory her whole heart, and it would have meant nothing to him; on the contrary, he would probably have complained about what a large, bloody mess it was.
She’d stopped trusting herself after that incident. How could she have not seen it? Was she so easily deluded? So easily fooled? Bisma had always prided herself on her mind, but Gregory had proved that it was not always to be trusted.
But that wasn’t going to happen with Xander.
He was only interested in the cure from an academic standpoint. As for the rest, he was an incorrigible flirt, but as long as he didn’t start to mean anything more to her, she would be fine.
She would stay vigilant; they could work together as colleagues. She had always yearned to know more about her magic, as well, and perhaps this was the only opportunity she would ever have.
It was these thoughts that occupied her mind as she returned home to pick up Deeba, as well as some things from her garden to take to Xander’s. She placed the frozen, sleeping Deeba in a basket, wrapping her in a blanket.
‘Is she going to be alright?’ Mei asked, worried. They were all staring at Bisma as she prepared her things in the garden.
Bisma turned to give them all a reassuring glance. ‘Yes, she will be. I’m working with a very skilled and clever witch to find a cure.’
Xander was not here to witness it, so she could freely admit that he really was very clever.
‘There’s absolutely nothing to worry about, really. In the meantime, just think of Deebs as taking a very long nap,’ Bisma said. ‘Nothing at all to fret over.’
‘At least this means I get a break from changing diapers,’ Azalea joked half-heartedly.
Bisma and Luna exchanged a glance before they both laughed out loud.
‘Azalea, you’re such a little demon sometimes,’ Luna said, shaking her head, but she said it with fondness. Azalea blew her a kiss in response.
‘Oh, we were all thinking it,’ Azalea said, shrugging.
Seeing the older girls laughing, Nori and Mei joined in, their shoulders relaxing.
‘Now back to your chores,’ Bisma said. ‘I’m going to be busy working on this cure, so I need you all to be good and to listen to Luna.’
Azalea groaned.
‘You heard Baj!’ Luna said, grinning wickedly.
