Every head turned to him. His expression was concerned. Zimsy’s eyes were massive. Eryx’s jaw dropped, tension pulling up his shoulders. Drystan looked down.
“You really do know everything,” replied Reeve, solidifying his statement.
Abraxas tipped his head at Reeve, but his worried expression quickly shifted to Maeve. But she wasn’t looking at him. She remained staring at the wood grain with spiraling thoughts.
Magic whispered in her ear. . .things she’d seen but had never understood. Power she’d felt, but never acknowledged.
“You’re lying,” said Eryx.
“No, Eryx,” said Reeve. “She will Inherit the power of Aterna. I can feel the Inheritance picking at my skin. It’s near.”
“You’re just going to lie down and let it happen? When we are all on the brink of extinction?”
“Yes,” said Reeve, as Maeve said, “No.”
Eryx looked at Maeve at last, and then at Zimsy. He appeared to hold back his next words to Maeve, which were no doubt fueled by anger.
“Reeve,” began Eryx, “You are blinded by the bond you share with her. You cannot see that she is not worthy to possess the power of the gods. You cannot place the duty of protecting Aterna and its holy Magic with her.”
Reeve’s voice was sympathetic. “You don’t understand. You think our personal feelings should stop the Inheritance? A power ordained from life we cannot even comprehend? My personal feelings did not stop it last time.”
Eryx’s face softened. “I know that,” he reminded his friend gently.
Maeve’s fingers drummed against the table, electric Magic trickling across her hands. Reeve continued, so infuriatingly at peace with his noble decision to give up his life for her. For Mal. For all life.
“For Maeve to stand a chance in a battle against Shadow, which will be required in order to release Mal’s mind from Shadow’s grip, she must have all available strength possible. I believe her Shadow Magic to be superior to Shadow’s own, but the Dread Magic that Shadow has absorbed over centuries will dominate her when it comes to pure strength.”
Eryx's eyes were slits. “So you die? And she lives.”
“No,” Maeve repeated, her gaze still down and distant.
Eryx scoffed at her. “You think you can just deny what the gods will? And if you think I will stand by you as you seek to bring that monster here—”
“I will not abandon him,” said Maeve plainly.
Eryx looked down at the table. And then at Reeve. “How many times will it take? How many times will she choose him before we’re all dead? He chose his path, now let him—”
“Eryx,” said Zimsy softly, speaking at last.
Maeve entered his mind before she thought better of it. She presented one single emotion and visual to him. There was not a particular memory of Mal’s possession that she showed him, but more, she made sure he felt the weight of it all. That ultimately, it had been her arrogance and cowardice that unsealed Shadow. Not Mal’s. That hisdeterioration into the broken and lost form he now resided in was far from deserved.
She showed him in a blink, and when she pulled from his mind, his eyes were not full of fury. Eryx’s eyes were glassy as he diverted his gaze to his lap.
“Would you like to feel more? I can oblige. I just recently discovered that Shadow Magic is so much more than twisted memories. I can make youfeelmore, too, if you’d like.”
“No,” said Eryx, his voice clipped.
The hairs on his arms stood at attention as he met her gaze.
Maeve nodded. “It’s not just about him. It it about getting the Magicals safely out of the Dread Lands before they are lost completely. Before Dread Magic is truly extinguished.”
Having at last decided her course of action, she sighed loudly.
Her father had not raised her, and Mal had not brought her to power, just to be controlled.
She turned to Reeve.
“I have two things to say. The first is, fuck your gods,” she said, and the fire in her stomach ignited as Reeve began to grin. “And second, I am so sick of being cornered into choices,” she said coolly.
