“If Shadow is present, you can let me handle her.”
Maeve rolled her eyes. “So that’s your grand plan? We whore out our bodies?”
“Don’t be crass, Maeve,” said Reeve, but his voice dripped with something sensual. She still hadn’t figured out if he did it on purpose or was even aware of the way he spoke to her. “I have an arsenal of traits to distract with. Shadow, for example, loves to hear her own voice. I intend to let her remind me of all my failures while you use those pretty lips to drain the green from Malachite’s eyes.”
Pretty lips.
She pushed down on those words and bit back her reply as footsteps entered the room. Reeve’s eyes left hers and regarded the Immortal man with two plates of food.
“Thank you, Venn,” said Reeve, his voice genuine, holding that powerful humility he seemed to only have towards others. Never her.
Her stomach growled quietly at the smell, giving away just how eager she was to eat. Venn dismissed himself silently after placing the food before her.
And with that, Maeve picked up her fork and began to eat without reservation.
“Eryx told me the Senshi lived here,” she stated between bites.
“They did,” he answered plainly.
“He also told me that because the palace is now empty that it meant hundreds of citizens lost their jobs, their livelihood.”
She chewed on a perfectly steamed vegetable and swallowed, her eyes on him. His attention dipped down slightly, watching her throat bob as she swallowed.
“But I know you’re too righteous to ever do that,” she finished.
Reeve’s eyes were back on hers. “You talked to Eryx?”
She nodded. Reeve’s eyes narrowed slightly, his mouth pinching at the corner. Maeve paused her eating to observe him.
“What else did he say?” asked Reeve.
Maeve looked down at her plate and shrugged. The action was a lie. Of course, she remembered his harsh words.
I’m just waiting for the moment this act of yours falters.
Reeve accepted the lie, but something on his face told her he was fully aware of Eryx’s opinion of her, and that Eryx had made it clear to her as well.
“He will go with us to Heims,” said Reeve, as though preparing her for his company. “And tomorrow morning we will meet to go over everything during breakfast.”
Maeve merely nodded, her mind far from the plan for Heims. She was more concerned with their guest in two nights’ time. She sighed, not realizing just how quickly she’d eaten everything she’d been served.
When she set her fork down, her eyes met Reeve’s. Maeve took in the satisfied expression on his face and scowled, but she couldn’t deny the positive difference a full meal made. She lowered her pride, reflecting on just how foreign her body now felt without her Dread Magic.
She shifted in her chair, propping her arms along the sides. “If I asked you to help me control this lightning, is that something you could do?”
Reeve’s smirk dropped into something more sincere. She wanted the smirk back the moment his eyes sparked with something more than just arrogance.
“Yes,” was all he said.
She knew two days wasn’t enough time to perfect the technique, but it was better than nothing.
“Now?” she asked.
Reeve nodded.
Chapter 29
Aterna’s main armory lay near the Celestian Palace, but the armory Maeve stood in was part of the palace, just off of Reeve’s own private quarters. The smooth crystal walls held an assortment of weapons, mostly swords. They were all unique, with hilts and ornamentations each their own, no two matching. Some had engravings she could read, like a smaller, thin blade that had a date carved in it. A date from nearly three hundred years prior. Some had carvings and markings that pulsed with Magic Maeve could understand.
