Her eyes lifted from her fingers to Shadow.
Arianna’s blast of lightning was stronger than Maeve’s had ever been, even if it lacked the control Maeve had previously perfected.
“It seems the Sinclair sisters share in their electric abilities, Dread King,” commented Shadow, just inches from the throne Arianna had just exploded.
Arianna crossed the hall boldly towards Mal, towards Shadow, not a single step held a drip of fear. “You controlled the Dreaded Dead, did you not?” she asked, her question directed at Shadow.
Shadow smiled at Arianna’s fury. She relished the pain in Arianna’s eyes so sinfully, it seemed, that she did not feel the Magic pouring from Astrea and Juliet. Their whispers were barely audible as they assisted in placing protective enchantments around Maxius.
“I did,” said Shadow proudly. “I do. Did I take something precious from you?” Her voice lacked all remorse, already knowing the answer to her inquiry.
Knowledge of the past, knowledge she herself had not hidden, flooded Maeve’s senses. Arianna wouldn’t last long against Shadow, and so Maeve knew time was limited. Though she was grateful her sister was clever enough to bait Shadow into gloating, giving Maeve the time she needed.
She placed two fingers on her palm and sliced the skin open in one swift movement. Placing her bleeding palm on Maxius’ chest, she offered everything for his protection.
Absolutely all of her.
Pain began to cut through Maeve as her offering took hold.
It happened all at once, through her entire body. Death’s hands grabbed her mind, each of her bones, holding her in an iron grip of observation. More hands appeared and began clawing with long, sharp, dirty fingernails across her bones. An icy prickle walked slowly down her spine, piercing each segment, meticulously covering all of her. They stalled, Magic giving her a chance to turn back.
Spinel appeared in the archway across the hall, his bright and wide-set eyes locked on her. Maeve’s brows pulled together as his sudden appearance at Castle Morana shifted through her. Always at Maxius’ heels and always curled near him.
And now he was here. When she was on the verge of pouring every bit of her Magic forth in order to protect Maxius.
Spinel’s head dipped to one side, and Maeve took it as a silent encouragement. He disappeared silently back into the shadows behind him, and she accepted the exchange of Magic as more lightning cracked wildly behind her.
At once, those filthy hands that had fastened themselves to her very essence began scraping and clawing with relentless and unyielding intentions. They drowned her. Again. Again. And when she was certain she was drained completely, they pulled more air from her lungs, only to crush them again. Again. And Again. Maeve begged them to stop. Each dirty fingernail that ripped her skin felt like a hundred lashes, the pain building with each claw that stripped away her Magic.
But in the absence of Magic pouring from her in sacrifice, she felt a beam of power that stretched farther than she could understand. It had no destination. No end that she could rationalize. But the Magic vibrating along the thread was pure. It was a friend. She pulled gently on the strand of Magic and pleaded for her son.
Get him out of here.
The line of Magic sharpened at her call.
Her blood was on fire, forged of something new. The hands worked diligently until every fiber of her Dread Magic was sucked from her.
Her center tilted as she slumped sideways. She barely saw the pale-blue crystal slowly encasing Maxius vanish with his sleeping body.
Chapter 20
The mountains across the Black Deep turned dark, black as night, as Maeve’s scream echoed through the halls at Celestian Palace in Aterna.
No one stirred. The water crashed lightly against the stone steps below. There came no footsteps of panic or calls of confusion.
For her scream had only reached one set of ears in Aterna. Traveling across ancient Magic, it struck its mark.
Her voice was broken and begging in his ears.
He’d been waiting for this day. Overseeing the training of every boy and girl old enough to enlist in the Senshi Cadet Corps, strengthening the Magical borders that separated them from the Dread world.
Wondering if she’d find him before he’d be forced to find her. That perhaps the gods would spare him the misery of having to take her against her will, guaranteeing her already festering hatred.
He tore his eyes away from the distant land and placed his gaze on the banister outside his chambers, where Spinel sat like a chiseled statue with glowing, pale red eyes.
The goblet of wine in Reeve’s hand shattered furiously as he looked back across the dark water at The Dread Lands beyond, where they knew not he and the Aterna people existed.
Where she was tearing apart her Magic willingly.
