Time to let go.
Reeve’s signal slid into her mind, a silent thought propelled through their bond, just for her.
Maeve released her hold on Shadow’s mind, and together they plummeted back to reality. A warm, suffocating sensation wrapped her lungs as she passed through the barrier line of Aterna Magic. When she opened her eyes, the barrier separated her and Shadow at the center of the Black Deep. With solid ice beneath their feet, Reeve stood at Maeve’s side, having just deposited them both on either side.
Shadow let out a small sound. “Always so clever.” She reached forward, still reeling from Maeve’s attack, one long, gaunt finger trailing against the wafting line of Magic. Black essence, dirty and contaminated Magic, shot up and out, towering above her, sticking to the barrier like slime. It dripped down, slowly streaking the barrier.
Shadow tapped the barrier between them three more times. It rippled beneath her touch, and Maeve felt the change in her Magic then. She was drawing Dread Magic into herself. The scattered and roaming Dreaded Dead behind her collapsed, becoming nothing more than lifeless bodies once more.
She’s taking back the Dread Magic she necromanced the Dreaded Dead with,said Maeve into Reeve’s mind.
Reeve didn’t reply.
Dark swirls of Magic encompassed Shadow’s pale frame, and she disappeared on the wind.
“How long will that take her?” asked Maeve, finally tearing her eyes away from where Shadow had been.
Her eyes landed on Reeve at last. The blood on his face was already dried, mixed with sweat and dirt that glistened across his skin. A massive tear across his chest, which was slowly cauterizing itself, stained his front.
“Be a doll, will you?” he said with the cigarette between his lips.
Maeve’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth fell open.
“Lecture-free,” he added.
She snapped her fingers, and the tip ignited. Reeve held it between his tattooed fingers and inhaled deeply. His shoulders dropped at once. Another drag, and his eyes closed.
“Is that a cigarette?” she asked finally, in disbelief.
Reeve exhaled the toxic smoke. “I believe I said lecture-free.” He enjoyed his cigarette another moment. “Small thing,” he said, gesturing to the wound encompassing half his torso. “I’m healing at a fraction of the time I would have in the past. Not half.”
“I never said I gave youhalfof the Aterna Magic,” Maeve replied plainly.
Everything stilled. Maeve’s head tilted as Reeve’s jaw fell open, the cigarette lazily between his fingers.
“You didn’t think you would be my equal, did you?” asked Maeve. “I had to tip the scales somehow.”
Reeve took another drag and grinned. “Cruel little kitten.”
“I did what was necessary to win this war and to keep you. We couldn’t both share second place and turn the tide.”
“Deceived by my own woman once again,” he said.
“You couldn’t feel it?”
“When you yield that much power, it is—”
“Incalculable,” she finished for him. “Yes. I know.”
Reeve’s cigarette vanished, as if it had never existed. He lowered his chin. “So you think you are in first place now?”
Maeve allowed herself a small smirk. “I have, without a doubt, surpassed you.”
Chapter 52
Senshi Warriors and defected Bellator alike all contributed to the chaos around them as they secured refugees. Healers, both of Aterna Magic and Dread Magic, worked on reviving those terminally affected by Shadow’s toxic presence. By the blight she’d become once more in their final days in the Dread Lands.
“Where is he?” asked Maeve as they entered the Celestian Palace.
