“Oh, Maeve,” he replied. “You shouldn’t boast. It’s so unbecoming of a lady—”
He managed a laugh from her.
Chapter 49
The evening sky dropped blankets of snow, but the endless snapping fire in Reeve’s lounge provided warmth enough for them all. It was immortal itself. Maeve retreated from her siblings, Zimsy, Abraxas, and the little ones who couldn’t stop asking their new Uncle Antony questions.
Antony didn’t look bothered in the slightest as he told them stories of the grandfather they’d never meet. Alphard smiled, interjecting his own details here and there.
Maeve grabbed a quick bite from the table of food, satiating Zimsy’s constant encouragement for her to please eat something. She wasn’t sure she needed to eat anymore. She hadn’t been hungry once since she’d taken the power of Aterna. But she popped a grape in her mouth nonetheless.
“I don’t get you,” said Eryx, appearing at her side, as she picked up another.
He spoke softly, his words meant just for her ears, but the elegant music kept their conversation private.
Maeve didn’t look at him. “Is that meant to be some groundbreaking information?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am trying,” he muttered.
“You’re doing a wonderful job,” she offered, being no help as she continued to chew the grape.
He opened his mouth to continue, but Maeve cut him off casually.
“You’re confused,” she said, then swallowed. “You don’t understand how I could stand here and enjoy a party when, come sunrise, my view will look entirely different. You don’t get how I smile, while Mal waits in torture and possession when I claim my priority is saving him.”
Eryx didn’t respond. Maeve’s brows raised.
“Am I right?”
He nodded.
She looked across the hall, finding Antony and Alphard at once, as they laughed and drank like they’d never been apart. Arianna sat close by, smiling consistently. Maeve had never seen such a look of glee on her sister’s face. Zimsy ate her plate of chocolate-covered sweets, her own recipe no doubt. Abraxas sat and sipped his drink, reserved and occasionally interjecting as Lyrux played at their feet with Arianna’s twins.
The sight made her shoulders drop.
Her son was not free.
He was trapped beneath a spell of protection. A cage. A prison.
When would it be safe for him to live when she could feel every single Dreaded Dead on the other side of Reeve’s barrier that clawed at that wall of Magic with the intent to harm him?
Maeve’s chest ached. “It is not for me I celebrate. Nor for Mal.”
She watched as her family reminisced and did their best to pretend like death wasn’t at their doorstep. That the finite reality of conflict hadn’t arrived.
“If I, alone, could evacuate the entire Dread Lands right now, I would,” she said softly. “I’d leave them all here to laugh and remember an easier time. I’d pour you and Reeve a drink, and let you sit at the bar for hours while I shouldered the burden.”
Eryx watched her with an intense desire to understand deep in his eyes.
“But even with this new power, I can’t do it alone.”
Eryx swallowed uncomfortably at her vulnerability. “And Reeve? Are you at his side because you can’t do it alone?”
Maeve’s face fell into a cold solemnity. She looked over at Eryx and nodded her head slightly towards Zimsy.
“She’s standing over there just begging to be held and fed strawberries,” drawled Maeve. “And for some reason, you’re still standing here boring me.”
Eryx scowled at her, but his eyes gave him away as he stepped away from her and moved towards Zimsy.
