Chapter 42
Most of Maeve’s favorite shops still remained on Earth since they were Human owned. She had shown no interest in shopping or buying new clothes, so when she announced to Mal she wanted to travel to London and Paris, he fought back his fear of her traveling to their old planet and supported the small part of her that seemed like her old self.
Spinel was quite perturbed when Maeve wouldn’t allow him through the Portal Mal created to Earth. He chirped at her feet and slunk into the darkness of the foyer.
Zimsy and Arianna accompanied her. The twins stayed with Grandmother Agatha, but Maxius had insisted on staying in Zimsy’s arms. And so she carried him until she spotted a dress she wanted to try on. Maeve took Maxius in her arms. He was soft and warm.
Zimsy claimed she only somewhat liked the dress, but Maeve bought it for her, anyway. They enjoyed warm tea in a small shop as ice flurries blew by the window. The haze of winter clouded the sun from view, but Maeve relished in its presence, regardless. The Humans around her didn’t know who she was. She was no one to them in the busy buzz of Paris just before Christmas.
She was grateful to be no one for a fleeting moment.
Maxius slept soundly against her, taking large breaths.
“No one has found his parents?” Asked Arianna.
“No,” said Maeve, ripping off a piece of her pastry. “He doesn’t tell me anything about them. Or maybe I just can’t understand him yet.”
Maeve paused for a moment and then looked at her sisters casually. “How are. . .things?’ She asked.
Arianna’s eyes narrowed. But Maeve smiled.
“Guess you already told her,” said Arianna, nodding over at Zimsy.
Zimsy’s poker face was non-existent. Maeve had indeed told Zimsy she walked in on Arman and Arianna.
“Zimsy,” hissed Maeve.
“I’m sorry!”
Arianna’s head lifted back as she laughed. “It’s alright, Maeve. I’m the one who told Zimsy about that summer when–”
“Shut up,” said Maeve sharply, her cheeks growing hot.
Zimsy bit her lip. “Actually, Abraxas told me about that first.”
Maeve groaned and swirled her tea. “You didn’t even answer my question, Arianna.”
Her sister smiled. “It’s really nice.”
“It’s more than just a drunken fling in the dark, yes?”
Arianna hesitated and then nodded, shame filling her expression.
“Don’t be ashamed,” said Maeve. “I want to help you.”
Arianna looked away. Maxius inhaled deeply and shifted against Maeve.
“This is not our old world, Arianna. If you want him, say the word, and I will see it done.”
The Sinclair sisters’ eyes met. It was silent, but there was an unspoken understanding between them. The past was over. The constant childish competition was over. Maeve was genuine in her desire for her sister to find happiness in Arman. They both lost Ambrose, but if Maeve’s gut instinct was correct, her sister and her father’s Captain had been secretly acquainted long before his death.
“It’s wrong to leave Titus,” she said, still clinging to the life forced upon her.
“But not wrong to have an affair and carry another man’s children?”
Arianna’s eyes flashed with hurt.
“I just mean–” began Maeve.
“I’m aware of what you meant,” said Arianna. “I don’t want to argue. Just leave it be.”
Maeve opened her mouth to speak.
“This is your problem always,” said Arianna. “You can’t just let it go.”
“Because you are in denial about what you could have,” said Maeve urgently.
“Not everyone wants to be a rebel, Maeve,” she scoffed in reply.
Maeve shook her head. “Fine,” she said, standing and pulling some Human money from her pockets, being sure to keep Maxius tucked snugly against her. “Have it your way.”
“Maeve, wait–” began Zimsy.
“I have some other things I’d like to do alone,” she said without looking at them. “Meet back at the Portal spot for Mal to bring us home.”
She left the little shop and threw up an invisible warm shield of air around them. Maxius didn’t wake at all until they turned the corner and Maeve leaned against the towering building behind her.
He looked up at her with sleepy eyes.
“Would you like to see my old home?” She asked softly.
Maxius yawned and nodded.
She held him tight as she Obscured them both to the edge of the Sinclair Estates property line.
“This is where my family is buried,” she said, as they walked with his tiny hand in hers, matching his short steps. The cliff-side drop to the stones and water below was sharp. The sun began to dip behind the horizon.
“It’s late,” she remarked. “And colder than I thought it would be.”
The property was no longer enchanted with a cozy warmth. Small patches of ice and snow stuck to the ground, crunching beneath their feet.
The graveyard came into view, nestled back into the trees she and Mal spent that beautiful summer racing through.
“My old home is on the other side of these woods,” she said.
We go? He signed.
Maeve looked down at him, sadness barreling up inside her. “No,” she said at last, losing her nerve to see Sinclair Estates.
Maxius didn’t question further. They walked the rest of the way without more conversation. The iron gate opened for them silently, swinging forward majestically.
Past her ancestors, past Antony’s grave, sat her father’s mausoleum.
A breeze shifted around them, pushing barren leaves across their path through the graveyard.
The smell hit her before the realization of what she was seeing.
Maeve stepped in front of Maxius. He grabbed the back of her legs and peeked around her. She scooped him up into her arms and forced his head against her shoulder.
Before his mausoleum lay a bright white unicorn.
Its neck was slit, and the ground beneath it lay rotting already.
She stepped forward hesitantly, red writing coating the creature’s side.
Mortem ad Sinclair
Maeve gripped Maxius tightly as the words “death to Sinclair” registered across her mind.
Every instinct to flee overcame her as unknown Magic sparked around her seven times.
Seven hooded figures Obscured around the graveyard. Collectively, their Magic shattered the protective barrier around the graveyard meant to keep humans and unwelcome guests from entering.
Maeve dropped Maxius to his feet and fell to her knees before him. With two fingers she pointed behind him.
A Portal swirled into existence, the greens and blues illuminating the cliff-side graveyard. The courtyard at Castle Morana blurred into view behind Maxius inside the Portal. She shoved him through as her other hand shot behind her, throwing up a shield in an attempt to deflect a curse.
The Magic required to make such a Portal surged through her, depleting the Magic needed to stop the curse from slicing through her back.
She was without her full strength on Earth, that was evident quickly. Mal had both the Dread Ring and Locket. She was on her own.
Warmth drenched her clothes as the curse shook through her. She gasped a cry as her small Portal began to collapse on itself. She surged her Magic through the doorway between worlds, but it only shrunk quicker.
Maxius gripped her hand tightly, tugging on her with a fearful expression. She pushed him fully through the swirling Portal and ripped free from his grip.
She slammed the magical doorway closed as he looked up at her in terror.
Her palms fell forward into the grass as her body shook and her vision blurred. The tips of her fingers were numb with ache. Creating a Portal on-planet was one thing. Sending Maxius across realms required much more of her strength. And the fiery Magic running down her back was another issue.
She turned towards her attackers and stood tall, despite the blow to her Magical reserve, and the pain building through her. Her breaths were heavy and deep.
Their faces were all masked.
“And here I thought that Portal was for you to run with your tail tucked,” said one.
“You talk of cowardice as though your identity is not hidden from me,” replied Maeve.
With the wave of their hand, their mask lifted and turned to mist.
“Remember me?” He asked.
The man was older than she was. In his thirties. She knew his face well, though now his expression was ridden with lack of sleep. He’d been to Sinclair Estates many times.
The son of Orator Moon. Leonardo. Moon had called him Leo.
Maeve’s footing shifted under exhaustion.
“That Portal drained the little snake,” one said.
“Who was the boy?” Asked Leo.
“A child and not your concern.”
“Is that where you draw the line? Children.”
“A hard one,” said Maeve, her vision white and hazy now. Blood soaked her back. She exhaled sharply. “I am worried I will pass out soon. So let me say this: your father deserved to die and I wish every day that I could kill him again and again.”
Magic pierced her face, sending her sideways onto her elbows on the ground. Leo advanced towards her.
“How dare you make a widow of my mother.”
Maeve scoffed, spitting blood onto the autumn leaves. “Your father made an orphan of me.”
“Everyone knows that poisonous goblet was meant for that usurper you share a bed with.”
“Too scared to say his name?” She taunted, praying she could bide her time with her tongue. “Afraid you’ll summon him?”
His boot made contact with the side of her cheek, sending her face first into the cold earth.
“Leonardo,” snapped one of the others. “You’re going to kill her.”
Maeve laughed as blood filled her mouth.
Two shaking fingers pressed into her chest as she searched for him across realms.
Mal.
She felt nothing in return. Maxius was her only hope of rescue.
“I dont give a fuck,” said Leo. “If she dies, so be it.”
“We have orders to capture, not kill,” he argued back.
Leo turned his attention on the other, bowing up at him.
“Oh-ho!” She explained with a cough. “Is there a bounty on my head?”
“Three rubies to be exact,” answered Leo.
“That all?” She asked.
She backed against the oversized headstone above her grandfather’s grave, gripping her stomach and pressing what little healing skills she had into her wounds.
“It’s against Magical law to kill a unicorn,” said Maeve.
If she could keep distracting them, she’d be deadly again soon.
“There are no Magical laws left on Earth,” said Leo. “There is no government, not an ounce of order remains.”
“I don’t mean the fucking Double O’s laws, you idiot,” she said with a groan. “A bad omen, truly.”
Leo turned back towards her. “Yeah, that’s what I wanted it to be. I can’t believe we have you down,” he said genuinely. “I was expecting to have to fight you out of our minds.” He looked her over with pity. “But something in me says you’ve lost the ability for that little party trick.”
Maeve’s eyes narrowed.
“Or maybe you never had it,” he said.
She replied, “How do you think I found and killed your father?”
Magic slammed into her chest, knocking her head back against the marbled stone.
Her teeth slammed together. Her eyes shifted to a close.
“Come on, Leo!” Screamed one of the others. “We already agreed to split the bounty! Stop messing around and grab her before he comes for her.”
“No,” said Leo. “I want her to rot here with the rest of her useless lot.”
He pointed two fingers at her, before toppling to the side.
Another hooded figure stood before her. “I’m collecting that bounty, you ass,” said a woman’s voice.
Darkness hissed through her darkened veins.
Maeve gasped.
Mal .
I am here .
Magic, dark and holy, barreled towards her, deep in her chest. It exploded with cosmic night.
Birds screamed and rushed from the treetops above. The orange sunset was now hidden by inky black mist.
Mal appeared at her side as darkness erupted from him. It swarmed around Maeve. The Magical before her vanished, misting into dark nothing as Mal ripped him apart.
Leo scrambled backwards on the ground. The graveyard gates slammed closed as a new Magical barrier encased them, imprisoning her attackers.
Mal bent down before her. His mouth twitched as he took in her bleeding and marked face.
“Can you stand?” He asked her calmly. “Let’s get you on your feet.”
He lifted her off the ground by her waist and set her gently before him. His chest pressed against her back, one finger extended towards the rest and his free hand wrapped tightly around her waist.
“Hello, Leonardo,” said Mal darkly. “I thought I made it clear that if a hand was laid on her, every head would roll.”
Leo opened his mouth to speak, but the words caught tight in his throat as Mal’s chin jerked upwards.
“I didn’t give you permission to speak.” Mal shook his head. “I have tried to be understanding and patient. I have no qualms about what you do on Earth, only that you allowed my people and yours to travel freely between realms with immunity. And this is how you repay me? By attacking my girl when she is here paying tribute to her father? Pathetic. Seven on one? You Couldn’t even face her yourself.”
Leo grabbed at his throat in frustration.
“Answer,” commanded Mal, releasing his grip on the man’s voice.
Leo gasped, choking on air until his breathing was regulated. “You destroyed lives here on Earth. You killed many families in your attacks,” he gestured to the man next to him. “You killed Kellon’s sister. You killed my father. It is chaos on Earth, and you expected us to lay down and be happy for your so-called graciousness.”
“I did not extend the sins of those around you onto you,” said Mal. “For that I did expect gratitude. My mistake.”
Dread Magic pulsed at his fingers.
“You were offered a place in my lands,” continued Mal. “Despite your heritage. Despite that your father attempted to assassinate me, I offered you a new life.”
Three of the still masked Magicals yanked on the gate of the graveyard to no avail, desperate to escape.
“Fuck you,” said Leo. “Just kill me. Why do you hesitate?”
There is empathy resonating from you, Mal said into her mind.
I know what he feels. Every ounce of it.
What would you have me do, Little Viper? He would have killed you too.
One of the masked Magicals fell to his knees and began begging for his life. “I only agreed to come for the bounty, your Grace,” he whimpered. “My family needs the money. My parents were both killed in the battle at Vaukore. My sister and I have nothing.”
With a wave of his hand, Mal removed the mask. A young boy, no older than fourteen with tear stained cheeks, looked up at them.
“Is this who you enlist to do your dirty work, Leonardo?” Asked Mal. “Children?”
Leo looked over at the boy. “He owes my family a debt,” he spat.
The boy did not look at him.
“Dead men collect no debts,” said Mal.
Leo glared up at him. Mal looked back at the boy.
“What’s your name?”
“Jack, my Prince.”
“If you would call me by such a name, why are you not in the Dread Lands? You were offered a place.”
The boy did not look at Leo.
“I was afraid,” he mumbled.
“Of me?” Asked Mal.
Jack shook his head. “Of him.” His eyes looked over at Leo. “Of his father. If my family’s debts were not paid, my sister would be fed to Moon’s dogs.”
Mal looked back at Leo. “Lovely.”
Leo scowled at the boy.
“I’ll make you an offer, Jack,” said Mal.
The boy’s red nose looked up at him.
“You and your sister will have a place in my world, if you want it. But your loyalties must be proven.”
Jack swallowed. “She’s only six. I can prove my loyalty and hers.”
“Good. A real man already,” said Mal. “Stand.”
Jack stood at once and straightened his back. He looked at Mal with reserve.
Mal stared back at him. His heartbeat stayed in perfect rhythm as he said, “Kill Leonardo Moon.”
Leo looked over at Jack and laughed. “He doesn’t have the–”
Maeve jumped slightly as a bright flash of red shot from Jack’s palm towards Leo.
The fallen leaves beneath him shuffled as he fell limply onto the cold ground, his eyes stuck wide.
Mal pointed four fingers out, and the remaining four Magicals sucked in their last breaths.
Jack looked up at Maeve and Mal.
“Go home and gather your things,” said Mal. “My Hand will send someone to collect you and your sister shortly. There is an orphanage in the Beryl City, where you will be permitted to live freely.”
Jack dropped to his knees. He placed a fist over his heart and bowed his head.
Darkness enveloped Maeve’s vision. Maeve tucked her head into his chest as he pulled them through space and time to Castle Morana. Her feet touched down on the entryway.
“An orphanage?” She asked up at him.
Mal nodded. “It was created long before the restoration of those mansions.”
Maeve used what little strength she had left to grab his face. “My Prince,” she said with awe.
He pressed a kiss into her forehead and inhaled slowly.
Zimsy reached the foot of the stairway with Maxius in her arms. He pushed from her long, slender Elven limbs, desperate to reach the ground. Zimsy placed him on the tile and he ran towards Maeve.
Maxius tugged her down to her knees and threw his arms around her. She winced as she hugged him back.
Mal moved to press his fingers to his chest, “I need to call Astrea.”
“I already did,” said Zimsy, watching Maeve closely.
Mal nodded in silent thanks.
“How did you get here?” Maeve asked her. “And where is Arianna?”
“Mal sent Arman and the Bellator for us as soon as he came for you,” she answered. “Arianna is fine.”
Maxius pulled away from her. He made a swift motion with his hands and gestured to the blood staining her side.
“Blood?” Asked Maeve.
Maxius shook his head.
“Hurt?”
He nodded and made the motion again.
Maeve smiled softly. “Yes, it hurts. But my friend will be here soon to heal me. And then I won’t hurt anymore.”
Maxius looked up at her, worry still running through his eyes.
“You are safe,” said Maeve.
Maxius made a motion with his fingers. Safe.
“Safe,” repeated Maeve, stifling her wince as she moved to stand.
Mal’s hands slipped around her hips, stopping her from falling.
The castle doors swung open and Astrea appeared, her pregnancy almost at full term. Alphard trailed behind her. The two Mavros siblings looked more alike than ever as they entered their mid twenties.
Astrea moved towards Maeve at once.
Alphard’s mouth fell open slightly at the beginning of a bruise on her face, his eyes trailing to her blood-stained clothes.
“Who the fuck managed to do that?” He asked, slight fear in his voice.
Mal shifted her body towards him and pressed his lips into her cheek. Icy Magic danced across the skin, penetrating the wound. The pain lifted at once.
“I was drained,” Maeve answered. “There were seven of them, I think, and I used all my Magic making a Portal.”
Alphard’s brows raised. “A portal from Earth? To here? By yourself?”
She nodded.
“Damn,” he said. “Astrea can’t even make a Portal to the next room.”
His sister looked back at him with a glare. He merely smiled back at her.
Astrea looked to Mal. “I need her lying down. Her back needs attention.”