Chapter 74
Maeve’s body felt light, with weightless bones and a dizzy head. She played with her ring finger, unaccustomed to the way her finger felt without the gold band and sapphire stone.
The act of Vexkari had been every bit as nauseating and excruciating as Mal made it seem. But in a place as potent and swarming with Magic as Castle Morana, Magic was easily commanded. As every ounce of her Magic sat in her ring back at Castle Morana, the only way for her to move off realm in secret, she walked down a foggy alleyway in London as the sun set behind the city.
She couldn’t let herself dwell on the emptiness she felt without her Magic or the unbridled terror not having it.
Fear is the absence of Magic, she repeated to herself as she crossed a darkened alley in London.
But there was more than just her own Magic in her veins. The feeling of Mal’s Magic alone coursing through her was euphoric. It tingled like their first kiss. The weight of it was like his protectiveness when Vaukore fell. Those versions of them were scarred with war and death and darkness. They were but a memory.
A beautiful memory that propelled her across a stone paved street. Spring was in full bloom on Earth.
Jude stood tall on the other side of the gate at Finchley Orphanage.
“Hello, Jude,” said Maeve.
He squinted at her. “Hello,” he replied skeptically.
“You don’t recognize me,” she said as she took in his expression.
Jude shook his head.
“Do you know Maxius?”
Jude’s eyes widened, and he swallowed. “No.”
Maeve smiled. “Please don’t lie to me,” she said softly. “I know he is here.”
Jude straightened. “You can’t come in.”
“That’s alright,” she said. “Can you bring him here?”
“No,” said Jude. “I promised to help watch over him.”
Maeve watched him for a moment. “You promised Mal you’d watch over him?”
Jude frowned at her and tried to look brave. “Yes.”
Maeve smiled in appreciation. “That was very kind of you to do.”
Jude shook his head. “You can’t come in. You can’t cross the gates. No one can except him. He said he sealed in with Magic. His Magic. He said he’s the most powerful Wizard ever. And it’s real! I saw it. He told me himself that no Magic but his can cross.”
“Hmm,” said Maeve, inhaling deeply. “I think you might be correct. But Magic is. . .” She lifted two fingers as the metal bars of the gates clinked apart. “Clever,” she finished, as they swung wide.
Jude’s cheeks turned red as he stepped backward. “What are you doing?”
Maeve closed her eyes and called upon every bit of Mal that ran free in her blood. Her darkened veins turned black as night as Mal’s Magic seeped from her, nearly overpowering her own. She stepped between the tall iron gates and crossed the shield of Magic surrounding the orphanage.
Jude scurried backward along the path. Maeve pressed forward, closing the gates behind her with a soft push of her palm.
Zimsy stood immediately. Her face was both fearful and thrilled as she took Maeve in.
She looked her over once before dropping the book in her hands and jetting around the table towards her. Maeve slammed into her as Zimsy flung her arms around her neck.
Maeve held her tightly. “Maxius is here, yes?”
Zimsy nodded and pulled away. Her large eyes lingered on the bruises across Maeve’s throat. She opened her mouth to speak, but Maeve cut her off.
“We don’t have much time,” she said.
Zimsy nodded and took her hand. “I must tell you first,” she said. Her lips and brows pulled together as she squeezed her hand. “Just as before, when we were on Earth and Mal was in The Dread Lands. . .time moves differently.”
Maeve’s shoulders dropped. “Alright,” she said bravely. “I don’t want to know how long, Zimsy. I can’t know. I have to keep moving forward.”
Zimsy pulled her into a hallway as a stomping thud landed at the foot of the stairs.
Maeve’s throat tightened as joy exploded through her.
Maxius’ smile faded and his mouth fell open.
He was older, but Maeve’s heart swelled. He was still a small child.
“Do you remember me?” She asked hesitantly.
Her stomach turned to acid at the reality of her words.
He was at least four now. She’d missed so much of his life. Again.
Maeve kneeled down as Spinel trotted down the stairs and wrapped himself between Maxius’ legs.
Maeve’s suppressed cry spiraled into a relieved laugh. “I should have known.”
She looked back at Maxius.
We go home? He signed.
Maeve’s breathing hitched as she saw a gold band on his wrist-a watch with an emerald inlay and two serpent hands. She opened her arms to him. “Come here.”
Maxius fell into her as she wrapped her arms around his small frame, tucking her head atop his. She couldn’t lose him again. She couldn’t erase it all and not know where he was, who he was.
Not with Shadow at her back.
She closed her eyes and allowed herself just a moment of pretend peace. Soon she’d have the time with him they both deserved. To make memories of their own.
More lies it would all be, but she’d settle for them in such dark times.
“We should stay here,” said Zimsy. “On Earth.”
“No,” said Maeve, not opening her eyes. “This orphanage is only safe because Mal made it so. Shadow and I have a deal, though I’m not stupid enough to believe she’ll uphold it.”
Zimsy’s eyes grew large. “You made a deal with that darkness? Oh, Maeve.”
Maeve held Maxius tight.
There was no place safer than at her side. Mal may have placed the strongest protections around the orphanage, but Shadow would find a way, just as Maeve had, deal or no deal.
There was only one way to beat the dark reality upon them. Even if it only bought them time.
Her lux charm illuminated in the darkness.
Sinclair Estates was quiet. Like a shadowed memory of something that once was. Despite the elegant beauty the home was, stepping across its foyer was far from the warm welcome home she’d always received in the past. Each echoing step across the white marble was a reminder that she was completely alone.
The furniture and paintings were covered in thick tarps of fabric. The ornate fireplaces only held ash.
She twisted her fingers and ignored the cry of Magic in her darkened veins. It begged her to remain loyal. It pleaded with her to keep trying to save him, as she had sworn to do. The Dread Mark on her chest thrummed with a sinister threat, as though it could feel she was about to break those vows.
Reversing Vexkari wasn’t in the Dread Spellbook. There were no counter-curses in the ancient text. The Dread Magic it boasted was final and irreversible.
But Vexkari was more than just Dread Magic. It was greater and older than all three types of Magic. And Maeve was certain that if it were possible to alter the brand of Magic on her chest, and reverse such deep vows, the Library at Sinclair Estates would have the knowledge to do so.
What little light the sliver of the moon provided slipped in through the skylights of the vaulted room. The sky was clear, allowing for a picturesque view of the stars.
She stalled, allowing herself a moment to admire the moonlit collection of wisdom before her. Her lux charm gently hummed with pale white light.
Time wasn’t limitless. She was counting on Abraxas to ensure, if Mal returned to Castle Morana, that he did not note her absence. With a long and hopeful breath, she stepped down the aisle.
A soft crackling sound flittered by her ear. Her lux charm dissipated, dissolving into nothing as a warm blue glow encompassed the air around her. The firelight at the first row of books illuminated with a soft flame. Small, bright blue, crackling fire mounted the golden sconce.
She stepped deeper into the Library.
Another hiss as the end cap on the second row of books glowed just like the first.
Maeve’s heart stilled. And she smiled.
Like calls to like.
Row after row went by, flames bursting to life, as she ventured deeper into the Library at a quickened pace. Her eyes stung with tears and her chest tightened beneath the safe and familiar Magic blossoming around her.
She’d never understood before, just as she hadn’t understood Vaukore’s Magic.
Sinclair Estates was it’s own Vexkari.
It was alive with the Magic of her ancestors. Her father and his brothers. Her grandmother and her sisters. She opened herself to feel it all.
The house’s Magic infiltrated her with warmth. It was births and celebrations of life. It was card games in the sunroom and children’s first steps in the gallery. It was stolen glances of courting and tea served just right.
It was a memory of time so beautiful it ought to have shattered her.
But there was no sorrow in her now. There was only gratitude to be part of something so holy and raw.
She held onto that Magic until at last, she stepped past a row of books and no firelight burst into existence. She stopped and turned. The rows of books behind her remained illuminated. She looked down the darkened row and understood at once.
She stepped down the aisle, smiling as more firelights guided her way with each step.
She held tightly to the Magic of her blood, the Magic of her ancestors, and knew they would protect her from what was next.
A single book slipped from the shelf and slammed into the floor with a reverberating thud. Its pages whipped violently open, flipping to a single page.
The Library illuminated with a glow of a hundred lights all around her.
Maeve fell to her knees before the book.
There would be no sacrifice of blood or exchange needed for this spell. It was her ancestors who already paid the price for her. Magic swirled around her, swallowing all sound.
A small portal swirled into existence in the air. From it, swooped a small jaybird with her Sinclair family ring in its beak. The dainty blue and white bird flapped its wings before her. Tied to its leg was a small roll of parchment, which slid to the floor and opened elegantly.
See you on the other side.
Your favorite,
Brax
Maeve took her ring from the feathered creature’s beak and slipped it on her finger.
Vexkari consumed her, drenching her in Magic. Her Magic.
With a fearless voice, and without hesitation, she placed two fingers on her chest where the Dread Mark lay and recited the spell stamped across the tattered page.
The fabric of her blouse shredded open above the mark.
The smell of cinnamon cigars flitted up around her and numbed the pain of the expulsionary Magic required to revoke the oath she took.