Eryx straightened and grimaced. “No.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“I doubt her. As I always have.”
Her Magic shifted—his spine straightened. She changed realms, jumping to another.
Reeve shook his head in a brotherly way. “You’re going to have to get over that.”
Eryx sighed. “I know. She means so much to Zimsy.”
Reeve’s head cocked to one side. “I was referring to me.”
Eryx stretched his arms out and crossed one leg over the other. His head bobbed back, adjusting his gaze to the ceiling. “You’re set on her, then?”
Reeve smiled to himself. “Quite.”
Eryx looked back at him. “And if she isn’t?” he dared.
Reeve’s eyes moved smoothly to his second in command. “If she isn’t what?” he pushed back.
“If she isn’t, as you’ve said, ‘quite set’ on you.”
Reeve inhaled deeply, picturing it almost adoringly: her futile attempt to get away from him. Her resistance. It made him hungry for her.
He grinned. “She is.”
A sharp tug on his bond with Maeve brought a deep inhale through his nose.
“Despite the fact that she still aims to honor him?”
Eryx’s question hung heavy in the air between them as Reeve stood, feeling her Portal opening just outside the walls of the palace and prepared to go and see what could have been so personal to her he’d been excluded.
“One day you will understand,” said Reeve. “Her loyalty isn’t to be feared. It’s her greatest strength.”
He didn’t wait for another reply, and moments later, he watched as Maeve moved through the swirling illumination of the Portal. She was still drained of her Aterna Magic, but it was quickly replenishing.
“Where have you been?” asked Reeve, a fake tone of disapproval in his voice.
“Oh, nowhere,” said Maeve, tucking her hands behind her back and smiling coolly. “Just using the power of Aterna in ways you couldn’t.”
Reeve’s playful expression fell, as she hadn’t returned alone.
Through the blinding Portal stepped Antony Sinclair, looking like his father.
Reeve’s chest tightened at the resemblance.
He was the spitting image of Ambrose Sinclair twenty years ago. No longer confined to his wolf form, he stood tall with a keen look of settled confidence in his bright-blue eyes. The same look all Ambrose Sinclair’s children wore.
Reeve smiled. “Well, well, would you look at that.”
Antony stood abreast of Maeve and dipped his head at Reeve.
“Hello, Reeve.”
He cocked his head at Maeve. “I’d ask how, but I already know the answer.”
Maeve smirked. “I’d like to hear you say it anyway.”
