29. The Implosion of Magic #2
They’re walking me, my real body, between them. My feet trail the floor and my cheek brushes Drake’s occasionally. I hear everything. Feel everything.
But I’m still locked out.
“You found us,” Drake states, from my left, as we climb up stairs. They take them slowly.
“It didn’t require a Master of Spies,” Meg spits, from my right. “You’re idiotic. Both of you.”
“She wanted to see him.”
“You could have used one great little word we have in our language. It’s called, no.”
“She can be persuasive,” he mumbles – which I find bizarre. He never mumbles.
“I haven’t found that,” Meg counters. “Perhaps the problem lies with you. Perhaps you are just easy for her to persuade.”
“Meg,” he warns, darkly.
“No, really. You must be the most benevolent prince alive. Taking your future queen to see her lover.”
“It was an enjoyable experience all around, I can assure you.”
Inside my mind, I’m sitting straighter.
That was sarcasm, of course. But it felt stronger. More acidic. Why? I wish I could picture them.
“Well?” she probes him, tauntingly. “Did they hold hands through the grate? Was it terribly romantic?”
“Meg.”
“Oh, tell me. I’m intrigued.”
“They... did,” he says, rather raspily. What’s going on with him?
Sharper, she says, “I hope that heart-warming sight was worth it. Breaking half The Accords. Risking your lives and those of all three of your keepers. As I said – idiotic.”
“I am not an idiot.”
“Where is Riss? No one answered your cabin when I knocked.”
“Asleep.”
“Not by choice, I take it.”
“You’re not an idiot either, Meg.”
“If you were anyone but the Crown Prince, I’d have you executed for using magic on an officer.”
“And if you were anything but immune to blood magic, I’d make you forget ever knowing my identity, and Ara’s fate. So I suppose we are even.”
Silence stretches out for an uncomfortable length of time. I hear nothing but their steady steps and breaths.
Until, in a different voice, Meg says, “How did her magic expend?”
“She tried to end his addiction to osimidite.”
“Impossible.”
“Clearly.”
“She should go to the infirmary.”
“Of course. I am sure the ship medics will know all about misuse of blood magic, and its toll on the human body.”
“If others saw you—”
“They did, and I dealt with it.” A beat. “I told you. I am not an idiot.”
“I hope so. For your sake, and hers.”
“She should not trust you so much. You know far too much about things that do not concern you.”
“And yet – if she’s managing to do this to herself – she isn’t trusting me enough.”
We’ve stopped.
“Goodnight, then, Your Highness. I hope you’re not expecting me to curtsey.”
“Careful, Meg,” Drake says, voice cutting. “What if I did become king?”
“Of what? Deck 3?” I can hear the snicker in her voice.
But then she’s serious. “If that were to happen by some miracle, and you went through with the betrothal, then you’d have no choice but to keep me safe by your side.
Who else would be able to tell you when Ara has used her magic on you?
Who else would alert you when she decides she needs to go ahead and use your magic – whether you wanted her to or not? ”
Drake doesn’t like that. I can feel the pulling of the band once more.
“You can sense she did that.”
“It leaves an imprint around a person. Like a tear.”
“Regardless, I knew what she was doing.”
“Oh, I’m sure you knew just now. But you won’t always. I believe the longer you spend in proximity to each other, the stronger your magic will become. And right now, hers is throwing off yours.”
“Throwing off mine.”
“If the magic was working well, you would have been able to bring her back from the edge, at the very least. Stopped the explosion. If it was working perfectly, you would have been able to counter her from the beginning. Stopped her from using her magic at all for something so inane.”
“Yet she had no magic at all, just days ago.”
“Yes. And since then, she met you. The key. Then fell in love and lost her virginity. It’s to be expected her power would be tenfold – a hundredfold – what it was.”
His emotions go taut. One jerk and they’ll snap.
Beside my real body, I can feel he has gone hard. Loose. Like he no longer wants to be touching me at all.
“You believe they have been intimate.”
“Oh, Drake,” she says, singsong. Her hair whips across my face. “I hope you were not expecting her to preserve herself for you.”
“I believe she was supposed to. For the blood magic to strengthen. And my mother would never approve—”
“Never tell her,” Meg warns, right over me. “Protect the betrothal. If you want to protect your power.” Confidently, she says, “The magic could still stabilise.”
“Mm.”
Meg sighs – a huffing noise, like she has better places to be. Better people than the Crown Prince to advise. “You know what you need to do.”
“She won’t begin to feel for me.”
“No,” Meg agrees. “Since someone already had the bright idea of going without food for her for three years, I think we can safely rule out that option.”
“What, then?”
She’s almost whispering. Sounds serpentine. “You can’t get into her heart – but you could still get into her head. Or… somewhere else.”
Drake’s arm slides off me. The lack of his warmth hits me.
I’m being wrenched around, hard.
A door slams.
I wish, more than ever, that I could wake up.
Because what does she mean? Why is she even advising Drake? She must know I don’t want the link between us – the magic – at all.
But then I’m aware of her helping me to her bed, uncharacteristically gently, and I wonder if I was mistaken.
She’s an untitled woman in a man’s world. Just like I am. She’s just playing her cards right. She needs to keep him on side in case he does take the throne, one day.
Thinking about it, their whole conversation had seemed loaded with things I’m not sure I’ve properly understood.
Now in her bed, I let their words roll back over me and send me to sleep, like an unfamiliar lullaby.