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Maelle stood at the far “corner” of the room and was surrounded by shadows that concealed her form to the point only her eyes were visible.
Theywere little more than silver slits that promised death.
I immediately released my repelling spell and lowered my knife. Best not to antagonize her given she seemed on a knife’s edge temper wise. “Maelle, you’re alive.”
“Of course I am. I would never be caught by such a cheap trick as this.” Her fingers briefly shredded the shadows as she waved a hand toward the inert figure on the floor. “We had presumed he’d be a target, but we did not expect it to happen so soon in the game.”
“It’s hardly a game when lives are at risk,” Belle commented.
The silver slits briefly looked her way. “Revenge is the biggest game of them all, my dear witch. And this?” Her fingers briefly appeared again. “This is merely a first play.”
I’d have thought sucking the life out of a woman who resembled her daughter the first play, but maybe she meant on a personal level. “Is it a first play that allows you to retaliate?”
“Against her? No. Not unless she kills him—and she won’t, not until she’s ready. Against any of her creatures—and she would have more than me, as her taste for the elixir of life goes far beyond mine—yes.”
“But if she does kill him, it’ll negate your oath to her?”
She hesitated. “It is something of a gray area. He was created long after I left the coven, but there is little information on whether he would fall under the scope of my oath or not.”
And she understandably had no desire to test those boundaries.
I hesitated, but couldn’t help asking, “And was it her ‘tastes’ that led to you decimating the coven in the first place?”
Just for an instant, her fury surged again, and I had to resist the urge to step back. The wild magic continued to pulse around both me and Belle, so there was no logical way she could hurt us.
Logic, however, wasn’t in any way quelling fear.
“No, it was not,” she growled after a second.
“Then what was? Honestly, Maelle, we need to know what lies at the base of this if we’re to have any hope of stopping her.”
“You willnotstop her.Iwill.”
Not if we got to her first. And I hoped we did, and soon, because the reservation really couldn’t deal with the wave of bloody deaths that was coming.
Was coming, not might be.
Fuck.
Let’s hope this is the one time your intuition is incorrect, Belle commented grimly.
You and I both know it fucking won’t be.To Maelle, I added, “If you want our help—and you obviously do given one of you rang us before all this went down—then you need to answer the goddamn question.”
Her fury flared yet again, and it made me wonder if Roger was in some way her calming influence. Without him, she seemed far more… temperamental? Volatile?
Was that why she’d disappeared for so long after she’d killed Clayton? Because Roger was in repair, and she didn’t trust her own bloody nature?
“I do notwishyour help,” she said, her tone still barely above a growl, “but I cannot stand idly by and let her take out my people one by one. Roger might be the biggest blow to my support system, but he will not be the last.”
“You could run,” Belle said.
The silvery slits burned toward her again. “I could. I won’t. This ends here.Sheends here.”
“Why?” I asked again. “What did she do that made you destroy your entire coven?”
There was another long pause. Though I couldn’t see the flex of her fingers, I saw the movement through the shadows. Felt the burn of her barely contained anger and frustration. She really,reallydidn’t like being questioned.
Let’s hope us forcing the issue doesn’t come back and bite us in the ass.Belle paused, then a wash of amusement came down the line.Or wherever else Maelle likes to bite.
