Chapter 48 Maeve
Maeve
There was nowhere to go, nowhere to run.
Tension tightened Jude’s every muscle, skin over-hot where it was separated from hers by a scant few threads.
He smelled of blood and sweat and ash, and she loved him.
Maeve loved him, and love brought a weight to her decision.
There were no limits, nothing she wouldn’t sacrifice. She would do anything to protect him.
Anything.
She released her hold on Jude’s waist and stepped towards Ezra, ignoring Jude’s frantic whisper of her name, the fingers glancing off her wrist. ‘I’m so glad you found us,’ she called, pitching her voice high, as though she’d been waiting for Ezra to come and save her.
‘Maeve?’ Ezra replied. ‘Is that you? Are you all right?’
She prickled at the false sweetness in his voice. Her footsteps echoed in the high-ceilinged room.
What her plan was, she didn’t know, only she had to stop Ezra before he got to Jude.
She walked closer, balling her fists at her sides.
She wasn’t powerless. She could face him, look him in the eye and tell him that she wouldn’t comply with the Abbey, wouldn’t do as she always did and duck her chin, saying yes to whatever he asked.
She wasn’t that person anymore. Perhaps she never had been.
Ezra met her in the middle of the room. The candle in his left hand guttered, sending waves of deep shadow across his face. The look in his eyes was unmistakable. One she had seen watered down in brief flashes, never in its totality.
Rage – and it was ready to boil.
Maeve froze. Her gaze skittered down to his right hand, clenched just beneath his throat. A flash of silver shone between his fingers. She lurched back, stopped by a glittering wave of pain banding across her head. Somewhere far behind her, Jude gasped.
Before she could take another step, before she could run to Jude and cover him with her body, Ezra struck out towards her with the flat of his palm. In his hand, the relic glinted metallic, open to show a lock of pale hair.
Her vision fuzzed with a wash of golden light before her head split open with pain.
There was no fighting as her world faded to black.