Chapter 28 #2
Reeve’s brows flicked up in something like agreement. “You should know I placed a new spell on the perimeter of Aterna. One neither Malachite nor that thing can see.” Reeve’s head tilted to the side. “You won’t hear his voice again.”
She inhaled a small, quick breath at the words. They were an unwelcome relief. She’d never imagined feeling grateful to stop hearing Mal’s voice.
She’d never imagined any of this.
Reeve’s eyes didn’t leave hers.
Long moments of silence passed between them.
“I will help you on Heims,” said Maeve. “But I’ll need new shoes.”
“What? Can’t go traipsing through the winter woods on Heims in those lovely slingbacks?” he teased, bringing his tongue to the tip of one of his canines.
The act made her stomach tighten.
The corners of Maeve’s mouth turned up ever so slightly. Reeve loosed a hefty breath. She forced her lips down into a frown, but Reeve’s smile only widened.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, his tone telling her he already knew the answer.
She nodded and then quickly said, “I’m just hungry. It has nothing to do with your sleep aid.”
“Sure,” said Reeve lightheartedly. He snapped his fingers, Magic pulsing from them gently. “Food will arrive shortly. Now for business talk.”
Reeve waved his hand, and with a small twinkle of light, a letter appeared before her in the air. Her fingers snagged it, pulling it closer for inspection as she crossed towards him. The emerald green seal was already broken on the letter. Her heart turned heavy.
She didn’t move to open it, despite recognizing the handwriting as belonging to Abraxas.
“What’s it say?” she asked, her voice dry.
“They are coming here in two days.”
Maeve looked away from him and the letter, not having expected a visit. The thought of seeing Abraxas overjoyed her. To ensure his well-being, as well as he could be, was a gift.
But that meant having to see Mal. No. That meant having to see Shadow’s version of Mal.
Reeve contemplated his words carefully before he spoke. “I hate what I am about to say, Maeve. I want to tell you, you have a choice. I want to lie and say you have the freedom to choose if you attend this display of power.”
“But I don’t,” she said softly.
Reeve nodded. “If we are going to right the world, it will require us to play the game.”
Maeve let out a cynical laugh, but there was no disagreeing. He was right. She couldn’t escape facing it. If she was going to try and save Mal, hiding wasn’t an option.
“You couldn’t defeat her the first time,” said Maeve reflectively, no condemnation or judgment in her voice. No, she kept that resentment buried. “And with Mal in this state. . .what plan do you truly have? Beyond a rebellion with some creatures on Heims?”
“The first time I faced Shadow, there wasn’t a prophecy.”
Maeve’s eyes narrowed, her voice growing darker with each word. “A prophecy? Which one? The one that says Mal is the one to defeat her, or the one that says in order to do so, he has to become one with my son? Absorbing his Magic? His life force?”
“Maeve,” said Reeve calmly, “I only meant—”
“I know,” she said tensely. “I’m sure you think at some point I need to accept Maxius’ fate. That I should think of it as some honor only he can carry. But I don’t. I’ll do whatever I can to protect him.”
“Have you considered that if Shadow is removed from Mal’s mind, perhaps Malachite could control—”
“Stop it. Do you hear yourself?” Maeve shook her head. “I can’t imagine how buried beneath her he is for him to. . . regard me the way he does under her possession. She told him to kill his son, and he did not hesitate.”
The words, the truth of them, and their infinite weight hung between them. Reeve’s face showed every emotion she hated in an opponent: pity, consideration, and a light annoyance. His voice held all of those things as he spoke.
“Do you know what drove Shadow to manifest her body? Do you know why she wanted your eyes?”
Maeve refused to answer.
“You are the only one who can draw him out of this.”
She recalled the way the green in his eyes faded beneath her touch. No. Not that.
“You want me to throw myself at him?” she asked, her voice barely audible, as though just speaking the words would taint her.
“No,” said Reeve. “I want you to be mine when he comes here.”
Maeve’s eyes shot up to his as he finished his thought.
“And I want it to strike him so strongly, so violently at his core, that the Malachite you know surfaces.”
“And Shadow? You think she will fall for something so pathetic?”
“If Shadow is present, you can let me handle her.”
Maeve rolled her eyes. “So that’s your grand plan? We whore out our bodies?”
“Don’t be crass, Maeve,” said Reeve, but his voice dripped with something sensual.
She still hadn’t figured out if he did it on purpose or was even aware of the way he spoke to her.
“I have an arsenal of traits to distract with. Shadow, for example, loves to hear her own voice. I intend to let her remind me of all my failures while you use those pretty lips to drain the green from Malachite’s eyes. ”
Pretty lips.
She pushed down on those words and bit back her reply as footsteps entered the room. Reeve’s eyes left hers and regarded the Immortal man with two plates of food.
“Thank you, Venn,” said Reeve, his voice genuine, holding that powerful humility he seemed to only have towards others. Never her.
Her stomach growled quietly at the smell, giving away just how eager she was to eat. Venn dismissed himself silently after placing the food before her.
And with that, Maeve picked up her fork and began to eat without reservation.
“Eryx told me the Senshi lived here,” she stated between bites.
“They did,” he answered plainly.
“He also told me that because the palace is now empty that it meant hundreds of citizens lost their jobs, their livelihood.”
She chewed on a perfectly steamed vegetable and swallowed, her eyes on him. His attention dipped down slightly, watching her throat bob as she swallowed.
“But I know you’re too righteous to ever do that,” she finished.
Reeve’s eyes were back on hers. “You talked to Eryx?”
She nodded. Reeve’s eyes narrowed slightly, his mouth pinching at the corner. Maeve paused her eating to observe him.
“What else did he say?” asked Reeve.
Maeve looked down at her plate and shrugged. The action was a lie. Of course, she remembered his harsh words.
I’m just waiting for the moment this act of yours falters.
Reeve accepted the lie, but something on his face told her he was fully aware of Eryx’s opinion of her, and that Eryx had made it clear to her as well.
“He will go with us to Heims,” said Reeve, as though preparing her for his company. “And tomorrow morning we will meet to go over everything during breakfast.”
Maeve merely nodded, her mind far from the plan for Heims. She was more concerned with their guest in two nights’ time. She sighed, not realizing just how quickly she’d eaten everything she’d been served.
When she set her fork down, her eyes met Reeve’s. Maeve took in the satisfied expression on his face and scowled, but she couldn’t deny the positive difference a full meal made. She lowered her pride, reflecting on just how foreign her body now felt without her Dread Magic.
She shifted in her chair, propping her arms along the sides. “If I asked you to help me control this lightning, is that something you could do?”
Reeve’s smirk dropped into something more sincere. She wanted the smirk back the moment his eyes sparked with something more than just arrogance.
“Yes,” was all he said.
She knew two days wasn’t enough time to perfect the technique, but it was better than nothing.
“Now?” she asked.
Reeve nodded.