Chapter 19
Maeve sucked in a frustrated breath as her heels echoed down the corridor towards the ballroom. Guests were already in attendance by the hundreds. She could feel all their racing thoughts, slamming through her without permission.
She paused in the long stretch of castle, and a nervous sigh slipped from her lips as she begged herself to swallow her pride.
Reeve’s allegiance and trust were crucial. She’d try a new tactic. One that never failed to gain a man’s attention.
She ignored him completely. All evening.
She moved onto the balcony where it was far less likely her mind would be flooded with the random musings of guests. A moment’s peace before returning to the never ending charade was a welcome one.
It didn’t take Reeve long to join her. Just as she hoped.
“If you look hard enough, you can see the crystal peaks of Aterna.”
Maeve looked across The Dread Lands. Castle Morana sat high in the Dark Peaks, overlooking the world around them. Aterna sat across the Black Deep. Too Far for her to recognize.
“You can see Aterna from here?” She asked.
“Can you not?” He asked.
Maeve laughed. “It’s all the way across The Black Deep. Even if the haze was lifted and the Magical barrier dividing your land from ours was gone, it would be a stretch for me to see your crystal palace from here.”
“How do you Magical’s manage without such heightened senses?”
Maeve smiled at him. “Perhaps the same way you manage to keep your head upright despite having an inflated ego.”
Reeve smirked. “Clever, clever.”
“I did want to know something though, since you are here.”
Reeve’s brows raised, and he took a seat opposite her on the balcony.
“There is little left on record here about such things, and at Vaukore we weren’t taught anything about the Dragons. My father told me there was a war centuries ago when Dragons fought Magicals. I didn’t want to believe him when he said my uncle killed the last of them. The skull was in our home.”
“I remember,” said Reeve.
“I insisted that because of you, they must still be real,” she continued. “But then I remembered a conversation with my father. He said your dragon form was not natural Magic. It’s a curse.”
Reeve listened intently as she continued.
“How could my uncle do that?” She asked softly.
“Hunting Dragons was a sport for many Magicals.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Of course it does,” said Reeve. “They were driven to extinction. Just as they drove Magicals of Shadow Magic to extinction.”
“What a depressing, endless cycle. I fear we are next,” she muttered.
“Why do you care what curses I carry?” He asked.
She shrugged. “Because after you. . .they are no more.”
He was quiet for a moment. Maeve gestured to his neck.
“Tell me why they call you Shadow Slayer. Where did you get that scar?”
He answered without hesitation, like a rehearsed speech.
“The Shadow War. A gift from its namesake herself.”
Maeve’s head cocked to one side. “Namesake?”
“She was a creature of Darkness, Queen of this land. I called her Shadow. She was the last known Magical with the abilities of the long lost Dark Planet, thought to be long gone from the Dragon’s war.
“She possessed Shadow Magic?”
Reeve nodded. “The last known wielder.”
“Looks like she didn’t manage to take your head off though.”
He shook his head. “No, despite her greatest effort she did not see one very powerful and pointed arrow coming towards her.”
“Your little archer?”
Reeve laughed. “He’s hundreds of years your senior.”
“Well, he looks fourteen,” she said with a smile.
Reeve’s eyes pulled from her as his smile faded. His lips hesitated on the brim of his goblet. “He was that day.” He was silent for a moment. “Actually, freshly fifteen, I believe.”
They sat in silence for a moment until Maeve spoke. “I’m sorry if I opened an unpleasant door.”
Reeve shook off his daze, and looked back at her. “The door is always open in my mind. I will never forget the power that oozed from her. It was more alive than any Magic I have ever felt.”
“At Brax’s wedding,” began Maeve, “Drystan said that his immortality had been lost in battle. Shadow destroyed it?”
Reeve nodded. “She didn’t just take it. She absorbed it.”
Maeve’s brows raised. “She was that powerful?”
“A product of Shadow Magic.”
She sat for a moment. “Like Vexkari?”
Reeve contemplated her question. “Not unlike Vexkari I suppose.”
“Drystan also said Immortality was gifted back to him,” continued Maeve. “I am assuming that was a gift from you for stopping her final blow.” She motioned one finger across her throat.
“It was,” he replied.
“So that’s why he stopped growing and aging then?”
“So inquisitive this evening,” he said with a mischievous smile.
Maeve shrugged. “You’re on your third goblet full I figured I might pry.”
Reeve laughed. “You think three goblets of this weak Witch’s Wine will loosen my tongue?”
“A girl can dream,” said Maeve with a playful smile.
Reeve’s eyes locked with hers. “What an honor to occupy The Dread Viper’s dreams.”
Maeve looked back down at his throat.
“She made that slice with a single finger I assume,” said Maeve, slicing across her own neck with a finger.
“A sword,” corrected Reeve.
“She used a sword? But if she held Shadow Magic, why did she see fit to use such a weapon on you?”
“The Sword belonged to my grandfather. It was forged for Orion the Dread on the day of his coronation.”
Maeve hesitated. “Mal’s ancestor?”
Reeve nodded. “So it would seem.”
“There was Magic in the Sword?”
Reeve shook his head. “I felt nothing when she moved to remove my head from my body. It was merely the blade. I believe she felt it…poetic.”
Maeve looked away from him and pondered in silence, looking at the party guests dancing and drinking.
“What do you know about Shadow Magic?” Reeve asked.
She shrugged and shook her head. “Nothing, really. Just that it died out three hundred years ago.” When Reeve didn’t reply, she looked over at him. “What do you know about Shadow Magic?”
He was already watching her closely. He didn’t answer right away, and when he did, his voice was smooth. “I know to fear it.”
“Why?” She pressed.
His expression saddened. “Because it is deceit so natural that when faced with it, I cannot tell if reality is my own.”
Maeve looked away from him once more. “They didn’t teach us anything about Shadow Magic or the war in school.”
“The Double O was formed as a way for Magicals on Earth to start over. They were terrified of repeating the past. Ignorance is bliss.”
“There is one thing I don’t understand. You are the most powerful of us all. Why was she nearly able to kill you?”
“I did not hold the power of Aterna during The Shadow War. My father did. On the battle field, I was merely a Senshi Warrior with a blade pumped full of as much of my father’s Magic I could handle.”
“And Drystan’s arrow?”
“The same.”
Maeve shook her head. “Where was he?”
Reeve’s brows raised.
“Your father,” she elaborated.
Reeve’s eyes moved away from her. “He was fleeing.”
“I thought those that inherited the power of Aterna were meant to be worthy of it.”
“I have never asked the Gods why either of us were deemed fit.”
“And your Inheritor?”
Reeve didn’t look over at her, after a long pause he spoke, a sad resignation in his voice. “How could I forget how seamlessly you carry conversation to gain the upper hand of knowledge?”
“Born and bred,” said Maeve with a sigh, not attempting to deny her manipulation.
Reeve looked over at her. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
He stood from the settee and made for the doors to the castle. Maeve didn’t call after him.
Abraxas appeared before her a few moments later. “You alright?”
She nodded. Abraxas handed her a water.
“Deception takes a toll,” she muttered. “He sees through me in the end.”
“Ah,” said Abraxas, taking a seat next to her. “It bothers you being a spy.”
“Wasn’t entirely unproductive,” she said. “He may not have been forthcoming about his knowledge of his inheritor, but he was about the darkness that drove Magical’s to Earth. Darkness I’m certain Mal will want to know about.”
“You’ll have plenty of time to discuss it with him when the pair of you get back from Hiems.”
Abraxas pulled a small folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her. It was icy blue with her name written across it in white stamped letters.
“You read my mail?” She asked with narrowed eyes.
“The Hand reads all correspondence,” he said casually.
Maeve Sinclair,
The Dread Prince has graciously accepted my invitation to dinner. I would be truly honored for the Dread Viper to see our beautiful realm and dine at Stalakta Fortress with my family.
Looking forward to your reply,
King Kier
Maeve dropped the letter into her lap and looked up at Abraxas excitedly. “The ice planet?”
Abraxas nodded with a smile. “I thought that might make you happy.”