Clink. Clink. Clink.
Kai's feet hit the stone floor. It did not sound like shoes. It sounded like heavy glass bottles hitting the ground.
Lina pulled him with all her strength. "Almost there!" she cried.
Nia reached the heavy iron doors of the chapel. She pushed them open. They fell inside the dark, quiet room. Nia slammed the doors shut and dropped the thick iron bar across the handles.
They were safe. The reflections could not break iron.
Lina let go of Kai, and he collapsed onto the cold stone floor. Lina dropped to her knees beside him.
"Kai?" she whispered.
She looked down at his legs. They were completely clear. She could see the dark stone floor right through his calves. The glass was creeping up to his knees.
Lina reached out and touched his arm. It was hard and freezing cold. It felt like touching a window in the middle of winter.
"Kai, what is happening to you?" she asked. Her voice broke. Tears filled her eyes.
Kai coughed. The sound was terrible. It sounded like ice cracking in a frozen lake.
"The mirror... it does not just trap us, Lina," he whispered. His voice was thin and hollow. "It changes us. It eats our warmth. It turns our blood into water. It turns our skin into glass."
Lina stared at him in horror. The terrifying truth washed over her.
The reflections outside were not just monsters. They were the students who had been taken. They were the people who stayed in the dark too long. The mirror had digested them and turned them into hollow copies. And now, it was doing the same thing to Kai.
"No," Lina said. She grabbed his hands. They were hard and smooth. "You are real. You are Kai. You are not a reflection."
"It feels so cold," he gasped.
The clear, hard glass was moving up his stomach. His chest was turning transparent. She could see his heart beating inside, but the beats were getting slower. The glass was squeezing his lungs. He could barely breathe.
"It hurts," he whispered. A single, clear tear rolled down his cheek. It did not wet his skin. It just slid down the smooth glass surface.
Lina pulled him into her arms. She held him as tight as she could, trying to share her body heat. But it was like hugging a statue. He was slipping away.
Suddenly, the heavy iron doors shook.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
The reflections were outside. They were throwing their pale bodies against the iron. The metal groaned under the pressure.
But the noise outside did not matter. The real danger was right here, in her arms.
Kai's neck was starting to turn clear. His breathing was just a shallow rattle. His dark eyes were looking up at her, but the color was fading. The whites of his eyes were turning flat and empty.
"Lina," he whispered. His voice was barely a breath. "If I turn... if I become one of them... do not let me hurt you."
"I will not let you turn," Lina said fiercely.
She looked down at her own arm. The 🖋️ mark was burning hot against her skin. The Quill had marked her for a rewrite. It wanted her name. It wanted to change her existence.
If the mirror was rewriting Kai into glass, maybe the Quill could rewrite him back.
It was a crazy, dangerous idea. But she had no other choice.
She pressed her marked hand against his cold, glass chest. She closed her eyes and pushed her mind into the burning mark.
"I am here," she whispered to the dark magic. "Take my name. Just give him back."
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
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Next Chapter Summary for Chapter 127: The iron doors begin to buckle under the reflections' attack, while Lina makes a desperate, dangerous pact with the Quill's mark to save Kai from turning completely to glass.