Chapter 13 #2
“Anytime.” She smiled at me with more affection than I had been given in many months and took ahold of Maggie’s wrist.
Yaya pulled slowly, testing me to see if I would let her go. Of course I could. I would loosen–I looked down–my claws, and Maggie would stand right next to me. Thank the Godds she did when Yaya drew her loose, an evil grin on the old woman’s face.
The smile turned downright motherly for Maggie. “Go ahead. Wipe his mind of the past day.”
Yaya loved tests. She used the same innocent tone with me during our hours of lessons together. She told me it made the bitter work go down easier.
“I only remember half of the ‘forget-me-not’ sigil.” Maggie looked uncertain and I wanted to snatch her back to me.
“This one?” Yaya drew something in the air.
How did she know witch magic? Granted, she had been alive for a very, very long time, but she never told me that. She winked at me so I must have had my mouth open.
“That’s it,” Maggie said. “But I don’t have enough power for that.”
“Don’t you?” Yaya asked.
I resisted the urge to pour all mine through the bond. Maggie had to do this herself. Pumpkin pulled a smoky quartz out of that pouch of hers and I felt my body tingle with awakening magic.
“This can’t do it on its own.”
Yaya nodded. “You’re right,” she said with warmth.
Maggie opened her stance in a way she never had for me. And I was so attuned to every way she held herself, I noticed.
“But maybe I can channel my power through it?”
I almost screamed GOOD GIRL and ruined the moment. Maggie’s power licked the air. The inkiness of her fingertips pulsed darker.
“Try it out,” Yaya said.
Maggie clutched the smoky quartz like it insulted her and drew the sigil across the man’s chest with it. Magic flared across the Elf’s body and I had to shadow shield the rest of us from being consumed by Maggie’s spell.
“Excellent.” Yaya clapped her hands. “Clumsy, but you did it correctly. You just need some practice.” She turned to Jax. “Strapping young fellow. Would you be so kind as to dump poor Aimon about two miles down the road? He can make his way back to the palace from there.”
Jax grumbled before Maggie slipped him some gold talons. I squinted. Were those mine? Maggie’s innocent face said ‘yes’. Jax did as he was told and I warmed to someone who actually followed orders, even if it was for gold.
“Thank you, youngling.” Yaya drew us into the kitchen. “Let’s have a bite and we can chat while he deals with that.”
We sat at the large, scarred kitchen table. The one piece completely at odds with the rest of the mansion. She claimed it was from her first house. So I wasn’t sure how the thing hadn’t rotted to dust, but Yaya had her ways.
“So what have you been up to, Chubby Cheeks?” She assessed my face as she placed some dainty dishes in front of us. “Noth. Sorry. I know you’re not my little one anymore.”
“This one,” I pointed to Maggie, “has kept me busy with her assassination attempts.”
Yaya looked at her with more fondness than was reasonable for just having met her. “That’s adorable.”
“You’re all crazy,” Maggie grumbled.
“Wait, you’re serious?” Her concerned look was more for Maggie than for me as she returned to the counter. “Let me just warm this up. It’s better warm.”
Yaya turned on the oven and slid something inside before I saw what she held. The heavenly aroma of Melwyyn cake filled the kitchen.
“Why would you even attempt to kill him with your level of skill? Don't you know how powerful he is? Being half Nightmare makes him almost impossible to murder.”
Maggie swallowed thickly at that. Her eyes flicked to me, full of fear for the first time. Great. I did my best to hold my gaze steady and face any disgust there.
“Is the cake ready, Yaya?” I said to give me time to search Maggie’s expression.
“Oh, yes.”
I didn’t find any distaste, and I let out a long breath as relief flooded through me. But Maggie did lower her gaze to the table in the first bit of humility I’d ever seen from her. I didn’t care for it, even though it was wise.
Yaya whisked the cherry-studded cake out of the oven and onto a trivet in the center of the table. I cut myself a healthy slice instead of the half of the cake I wanted to shove in my face. Melwyyn cake tasted like pure childhood.
Yaya sat down. “Don’t worry about it, Maggie. Noth doesn’t look any the worse for wear. In fact, he has a rosy glow about him.”
I attempted to kick her under the table but she moved too fast for me. I got the feeling Yaya had already married, mated and crowned us in her head and I was still trying to figure out how not to die in my own territory.
“Have some cake, dear.”
Maggie eyed it like the confection would grow teeth and bite her. “I shouldn’t.”
“You’ll love it,” Yaya said.
“It's a magic cake made by the Elves. Try it,” I encouraged her.
“I don’t eat sugar.” Maggie leaned away.
Yaya looked at me again and I shrugged. Maggie could eat or not eat whatever she wanted as far as I was concerned.
“Luckily, it has no sugar in it. Just love,” Yaya said.
I grabbed another slice and stuffed it in my mouth, happily munching away.
Maggie’s glance at Yaya said she didn’t want to be rude. She took barely a crumb between her fingers and put it in her mouth. Watching her mouth work, her smile form and her eyes light up with mutual understanding was addictive.
“This is amazing. Almost better than anything Fallon has ever made.”
Quite the compliment as Fallon was one of the few people Maggie truly liked. I couldn’t resist. I fed her a bit of my cake to evoke her joy again.
“The usurper likes it too. I tried to poison him with it.”
Maggie spat the cake out and she glared at me. I put up my hands.
“I didn’t do it!”
Yaya patted her hand. “Oh, not this one. His bride won't touch it either. She seems painfully thin.”
“Bride?” I asked her.
She sighed heavily, smiling as Maggie shoved as much cake as she could into her mouth. “He’s promising to bring fertility to the Elves and using his bride to prove it. If Severin doesn’t kill him first.”
“The King of the Fae has already made his move?” He was an icy twat at the best of times. It didn’t quite surprise me he had the gall.
“Just court visits for the moment but he’s probing for weaknesses,” Yaya replied. “And he wanted to see the Godd object. He wasn’t impressed.”
I slapped my hand onto the table. It didn’t stop Maggie from eating cake. “Even the Fae knows it’s a fake. And the rest of the court still believes the human has the true Calix?”
“It looks convincing and he’s so confident about it.”
Maggie swallowed, covering her mouth. “May we all have the unending confidence of an undeserving man.”
“You have been my eyes and ears all this time. Tell me the truth. Can we do this? Can we depose him?”
Yaya’s face grew serious. “It won’t be easy, Noth.
He’s entrenched deep. He’s called to our people’s greatest hope - children.
Those he hasn’t been able to guile, he has wires and mecha for you to wear.
If you kill him, you’ll turn him into a martyr and you will never don the crown again. Maybe you should keep your freedom.”
Maggie had asked the same. None of them really understood. Yaya loved me and never thought of me as ‘other’ but she was a full elf, my father’s mother. She had told me often over the years if I was happy, she was happy. The crown didn’t mean anything more than that to her–my happiness.
“I won’t do anything stupid.”
Maggie sniggered as her cake eating finally slowed enough for her to wipe her mouth.
“Then I volunteer to kill him. They’re expecting you, not me.
You won’t be blamed. I know you don’t think I’m much good at magic or killing, but Brad is a human.
I can take that bitch. Jax can get me in. I can blend in.”
Resisting the urge to laugh was hard. Maggie hadn’t blended with anything in her entire life.
It would be dangerous, but all of this was dangerous.
We were dangerous together. It couldn’t be worse than what we tried on each other.
She didn’t mention that her plan would ensure we would never be together when I took the crown.
Who would want a king-killer for a Queen?
Certainly not me. Certainly not. I balled my fists.
“Only if you wear an illusion.”
Maybe it was better this way. I would get what I wanted and I could be a coward and never have to figure out how Maggie and I worked out forever.
Yaya’s smile grew sly. “The court thinks Elven magic is far superior to anything else in the Harrowlands so they wouldn’t know a witch’s sigil if it bit them on the ass. I can get you past the initial guards. Tomorrow is announcement day.”
“Announcement day?” Maggie and I asked together.
“Oh, yes. He feels it’s very royal to make us all gather and listen to his pep talk and grand plans. It's a monologue, by the way. We don't participate.”
“Why didn't I think of that? Then I never would have had to listen to the council tell me off every month. How are they?”
“Well, dead.” Yaya waved her hands and I choked on my slice of cake. “Sorry! As a governing body. He stripped them of all power and made them vassals again.”
“I’m sure they were thrilled.” So the usurper had no check on his power.
“Most won’t support you outright but Brad hasn’t won many allies.”
“He won’t need allies when he’s underground,” Maggie said.
Maggie's scheme wasn’t my preferred plan, but it was stupidly brave. She never did tell us about what happened when Brad kidnapped her and Fallon. Some part of me didn’t want to know or I really would burn down all of Allfenheim to get to him. Then where would we be?
“You need a good night’s sleep before we attempt anything else. Let me set you up in the guest room. Do you need something else to eat?”
Maggie looked down at her plate. “M-more…” She stuttered. “...cake.”
Yaya had the grace not to laugh. “I can make a breakfast version in the morning.”
“Come on, Pumpkin. I’ll tell you a bedtime story.” I took her hand and she actually blushed. I never thought I would see her cheeks rosy. Maggie came out of the womb unflappable.
Just as I was about to wrestle her into a room, Jax opened the back door, looking as tired as the rest of us.
“He can listen too,” I tossed out.
“That’s not… I don’t… I don’t want anyone to watch…”
Both eyebrows raised to my hairline. Pumpkin did have limits! I never thought I’d find them.
“Fine. He can listen next door.”
“No thanks,” Jax grunted.
I dragged Maggie upstairs, taking the fresh linens Yaya dug out of a closet and I picked a bedroom at random.
Certainly didn’t want my childhood room for what I had in mind.
But as we sneezed through ripping off all the dust covers and Maggie threw dust bunnies at my head, the desire to fuck her senseless lessened.
Gertrude was the only one I would admit it to, but my mind wandered to whether or not Maggie would like my royal greenhouse bower.
I'd never brought a woman there before, and I wanted her to experience the peace of it.
We made the bed, Maggie working with more competence than I would have given her credit for. Her auburn hair curtained her face, playing hide and seek with her lake-blue eyes. I cracked the window to the night air.
“Would you like a bath?”
Even Maggie wasn’t too proud to say yes.
Not entirely comfortable with the inky black liquid I summoned, she still sighed in contentment as she got in and that was enough.
I proved a gentleman and bathed behind a screen that might have been all but transparent with the firelight behind it.
Clean, I jumped on the bed and covered my eyes as Maggie put on a fresh tunic to sleep in.
“Come here, Pumpkin.” I slid up the bed to rest my back against the headboard.
“I don’t think that’s how you ravage me.”
“Well, that’s just a lack of imagination.”
She crawled onto my lap. I kissed her with all the ease and grace I never thought I would find in my life. Mine was made to be difficult by the very shape of it.
“Why do we feel so different, Noth? I don’t laugh at guy jokes. I don’t cuddle. I don’t sleep with men.”
I raised a brow.
“You know what I mean.”
I summoned a flip response, but it died in my throat when she used my name. What would she say if I told her that somewhere between the murder attempts and her fumbling redemption, I fell in love with the idea I would end the world for her?
“We’re mates.” I clamped my mouth shut. That wasn’t what I meant to blurt out.
I had never tasted the fear my Nightmare injected into people, but I assumed it worked something like that.
What would she say? What did I want her to say?
Her face remained blank. What if she tried to kill me again? Or worse, what if she started crying?
A line of confusion creased her brow. “Huh?”
My brain stuttered and then poured a river of words out of my mouth. “Elves left that behind long ago. You would have to be an idiot to believe in all that Fate and Destiny and star charts, right?”
Her expression closed off at the insult and she climbed off my lap, her shoulders hunched.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Couldn't go around shoving my desperation in her face. I wouldn’t have her think I was a mindless monster. My Nightmare snorted at the affront.
She pulled the blankets rather hard around her. “Let’s just get some sleep. Maybe then I can dream about killing you.”
There. That's how my Pumpkin and I did things. Holding her anger close was my specialty. We climbed under the covers and she edged to the furthest corner of the bed until my shadows slipped over her and hauled her against me. Her annoyed huff gave way to her even breathing.
She would get over it. I just needed some time to get my act together before I confessed I would die without her.