Chapter 20
The mountains across the Black Deep turned dark, black as night, as Maeve’s scream echoed through the halls at Celestian Palace in Aterna.
No one stirred. The water crashed lightly against the stone steps below. There came no footsteps of panic or calls of confusion.
For her scream had only reached one set of ears in Aterna. Traveling across ancient Magic, it struck its mark.
Her voice was broken and begging in his ears.
He’d been waiting for this day. Overseeing the training of every boy and girl old enough to enlist in the Senshi Cadet Corps, strengthening the Magical borders that separated them from the Dread world.
Wondering if she’d find him before he’d be forced to find her. That perhaps the gods would spare him the misery of having to take her against her will, guaranteeing her already festering hatred.
He tore his eyes away from the distant land and placed his gaze on the banister outside his chambers, where Spinel sat like a chiseled statue with glowing, pale red eyes.
The goblet of wine in Reeve’s hand shattered furiously as he looked back across the dark water at The Dread Lands beyond, where they knew not he and the Aterna people existed.
Where she was tearing apart her Magic willingly.
Where he would soon be.
Get him out of here.
An audible sound of pain left Reeve’s throat at hearing her voice for the first time in years.
Reeve shook his head. “Gods dammit,” he muttered, feeling that constant pull towards her tighten as she wrapped her Magic around their bond. His stomach clenched, feeling her shred open the spell he himself had cast.
The one meant to protect his people, to keep her far away from him.
He closed his eyes, drifting into the space of their connection, feeling her relentless tug on the Magic that bonded them.
In the endless darkness that surrounded him, was Maeve Sinclair.
She sat not ten feet from him, with red eyes and swollen cheeks.
Too many bones exposed, and her skin void of color, save for the bright purple beneath her eyes.
Her dark hair framed her sunken face, as lifeless pale eyes shone across the darkness at him.
Reeve shuddered a breath as he took in the sight of her.
He could never have imagined her in such a state.
The Witch he once knew was full of Magic and power, her eyes unnervingly sharp and her cool demeanor present at all times.
This girl before him now, was far from the daughter of Ambrose Sinclair.
This girl was the consequence of so many wrong choices.
He should never have left her that day. He should have taken her then and gotten it over with. Now she was paying for his own pride and fear.
“Get him out of here, Reeve.”
Her broken whisper echoed across the nothingness twenty times over before it grew silent in the connection of their minds once more.
Reeve shook his head, which lay in his hands.
“Gods dammit,” he muttered again.
Reeve gasped as a moonlit darkness snapped before him, and the vision of her vanished.
Spinel rubbed against his arms as Magic visibly crumbled in the distance, his own Magic, across the Black Deep.
He ran his hand along Spinel’s back, petting him as he made a promise to himself: this time, he would not lose her.