by Frost Kay
If she’d been herself, she’d have ripped into him for giving her a command. But she was too tired to argue. The man was right. She was exhausted and broken.
Maeve tucked the blankets around her chin as tears began to drip down her cheeks, hardly believing that her dragon was truly gone. As sleep crept up on her, cool lips pressed to her forehead.
“I’m sorry.”
Two little words.
They didn’t make her feel better, but she felt less alone.
The rest of the week blurred into a watercolor painting of days and nights. Her brother came and went, but Gadiz was always near. She ate when they bade her to eat, but the food tasted like ash upon her tongue. It was a special torture of its own to be forced into the company of her dragon’s murderers. Her mind screamed at her to fight, to do something, anything, but the numbness that had wrapped itself around her was like an impenetrable wall. Her mental rants and self-loathing kept her company until it wore her out and she slipped back into blessed sleep.
One morning, she sat upon her bed, her legs dangling over the side as she gazed blankly past her balcony. It was such a pretty day outside. She hated it. The world should look changed after the atrocities that had been committed. The day prior, she’d caught part of the whispered conversation Zane and Gadiz were having while they thought she slept.
Their plan had worked. The Nagali had been defeated.
Maeve placed a hand over her mouth to keep from dry heaving as she thought back on what they’d described. All the families. All the dragons. She closed her eyes and sucked in deep breaths to prevent herself from vomiting. She was surrounded by monsters. Get out, her mind screamed, but she couldn’t pry herself from bed. Guilt, shame, grief, and anger created a concoction that bled her energy.
She stiffened, her back straightening and her chin lifting as she caught the scuff of a boot against the stone floor. Maeve craned her neck to watch impassively as Gadiz slipped out of the room and her brother entered. Zane closed the door quietly behind him and rested against it for a moment. Vaguely, she noted he didn’t look well. Dark smudges marred the skin beneath his eyes, and his clothes were rumpled. It was odd to see him ruffled. He was never anything but a perfectionist.
He pushed from the door and meandered toward her like he had all the time in the world. Zane moved around the trunk at the end of the bed and sat beside her, the feather mattress dipping underneath his weight. For a moment, he said nothing, just stared straight ahead.
That was new.
Every time he’d visited, he’d urged her to drink or to eat. He’d spoken about his day like he hadn’t changed everything with his betrayal. Rage and hurt roiled in her gut. How could he do such a thing? To her? To children? Her skin crawled at the thought of what he’d done. She needed him to leave.
“Do you need something, brother?” she asked, her voice rusty from crying and disuse.
He sighed. “Maeve, you can’t go on like this. You need to eat and drink. Gadiz and I can’t continue to baby you. You need to move on.”
She jerked but managed to keep a blank face. Move on? It had only been four days. Maeve swallowed hard. Four days since Spinel died. Four days since she’d failed and all those people died.
“If I’d known you were going to react like this…” He leaned forward, head in his hands, dragging them down his face to cup his mouth. “All I want is what is best for you.” Zane glanced at her from the corner of his eye. “You’ve always been the better of the two of us. I know you loved Spinel, but he was changing you, manipulating you. Your dragon was old and wily. He was turning you against me, and something needed to be done.” He blew out a breath. “If you’re poisoned, what do you do?”
“You cut out the poison,” she answered reflexively.
“Exactly. He was poisoning you. It was my duty to make sure he didn’t kill you. All I want is for you to be safe and happy. To have a family.”
A family.
The hair along her arms rose, but she made no movement toward him and just listened. She’d never have a family as long as she lived near him. He’d proved how callous and dangerous he was.
Zane turned to her and clasped her face between his palms, his expression open and sincere. “I’ve seen the changes in you over the last couple months. You’ve drifted away. You’re keeping secrets, and I don’t like it.” His face darkened for a moment before it cleared. “It’s always been you and I against the world. Spinel was a danger to everything we’ve built and everything we are. I did this because I love you, Sister.”
She was going to throw up. He actually believed his own lies. He hadn’t done this for her. Zane had killed Spinel to control her. When she’d begged him for help, he’d stood there and done nothing. He was supposed to protect her, but he was the one she needed protection from. She fingered the bandage along her arm, remembering the pain of the dagger slamming into her and knocking her from her dragon’s back.
Zane noticed her motion and brushed his fingers along the bandage. She winced, even though the wound was healed, thanks to his serum. It was all sorts of wrong for him to be trying to comfort her when he’d been the one to hurt her.
“I’m sorry I hurt you. I regret it.”
Maeve stared at him and nodded as if she understood. Her mind howled. She imagined crashing her head into his when he leaned closer to inspect the skin.
“It won’t scar,” he murmured with a faint smile.
Her lips thinned for a moment. It wouldn’t scar on the outside.
Her brother’s smile faded as he looked up into her eyes. “I love you. You understand that, right? You know that I did this for you?”
She scrutinized her brother, not shying away from his gaze. He still looked like her brother. He’d become a man, but she could still see the little boy she’d helped raise inside there. Her heart broke more. In the last few days, she’d had plenty of time to go over and over what had happened. It all led to one thought: he wasn’t her brother anymore. No brother of hers would’ve hurt her and taken an innocent life. Somewhere along the line, her Zane had disappeared, and the Warlord had taken his place. It would be easy to say she hadn’t noticed, but she’d chosen not to look closer. As long as he hadn’t crossed the invisible line she’d drawn, she’d been alright in her ignorance.
Others had paid because of that.
The Warlord was dangerous.
Tears stung her eyes.
He was a murderer of innocents.
And she was as much to blame.
Maeve laughed, startling the Warlord, her chuckle like dried leaves in the autumn. If she didn’t laugh at the irony of it, she’d cry until there was nothing left of her. The fate she’d tried to protect him from had caught up. They’d become what they both had loathed. They were murderers. They only differed in their motivations – she’d sought to protect him, and he sought to imprison her.
“I understand your actions. I don’t blame you.” Her words were utter lies, but she said them without hesitation. She reached out and cupped his cheek, a small smile on her lips that she forced not to tremble. From now on, nothing would be the same. He’d made his choices, and she would make hers.
The Warlord smiled, and his shoulders slumped, as if relieved. “I’m so glad you understand. I was so worried he’d taken you from me.”
The possessive way he said it sent a shiver down her spine. “No one will ever separate us.”
He hugged her tightly and then stood, brushing his knuckles down her cheek. “This is just the beginning, Sister. We’re going to change the world.”
“I believe we will,” she said as he moved toward the door.
The Warlord paused as he pulled the heavy wooden door open; he glanced at her over his shoulder. “I know Gadiz has been spending much time with you recently. He has asked permission to court you.”
Her mouth dried, but she kept her expression clear. “Has he?”
“You know I won’t force you into the match, but I think it would be smart. He’s o
ne of the only ones I would trust with you.”
She nodded, feeling numb. The Warlord had thrown her off balance once more. “I’ll think about it.”
“Do, please. You’ve been of marriageable age for some time now. It wouldn’t be a bad thing to have another ally to add to the family,” he said as he left the room.
The door clicked shut and tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She’d lost her dragon and her only existing family. Maeve rubbed at her aching chest and gasped for breath. She wasn’t ready for what she had to do.
Maeve glanced out the open doorway to the balcony. It would be easy to sneak out of her room and disappear into the jungle. She could live in Aermia or make her home in the secluded mountains of Methi. But deep down, she knew that wasn’t her future. Zane was too powerful to leave unchecked.
It wasn’t possible to walk away.
She was his balance.
And eventually, his downfall.
Five
Maeve
She ghosted down the halls, avoiding the puddles of moonlight that reached for her like spectral hands. A whisper of a sound registered as she passed a mutilated painting of her mother. Was it a scuff of a boot? She couldn't take any chances of someone following her.
She pressed herself against the wall, melting into the darkness that greeted her like an old friend. Maeve held her breath and tried to ignore the painting. The emerald-green eyes of her mother's destroyed painting seemed to glow and accuse her of something. She hated that her brother wouldn't take it down.
Another soft sound.
Her breath froze in her lungs as a collection of darkness moved stealthily down the hallway, nothing more than a wraith.
Gadiz. The Warlord’s best reaper.
Fear trickled down her spine, and sweat dampened the back of her neck. Gadiz had been dogging her every move for the last few weeks. She pretended that she didn’t notice, and he never mentioned his lurking proclivities during their courting rituals. She swallowed hard and prayed he wouldn’t find her now. She needed to be more careful if she wanted to pull off her ruse.
Her brother had been right about allies. Maeve had isolated herself in the Warlord’s court, but she’d soon found, after a little digging, that not everyone was as enthusiastic about his crimes as they claimed to be.
Spinel’s dying image wavered in her mind.
Maeve pushed aside sickening thoughts as her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest as Gadiz passed by her, not even sparing her hiding spot a glance. She held still long after the warrior had disappeared, palming the blade she didn't even know she'd drawn.
She needed to get back to her room before he arrived there. Inhaling deeply, she inched away from the wall and slunk down the hallway with silent steps. A lone bellow made her pause, her hands shaking.
A dragon. “It’s just in your head,” she whispered to herself. Since Spinel died, she’d come to realize that she suffered waking dreams. They disoriented her, and it was hard for her to distinguish what was real from fiction.
The rage and pain she tried to keep hidden flared inside her chest as the truth she attempted to deny rose up once again. Her brother had butchered her dragon, her one true companion in the world. That was a truth she wished wasn’t real.
Maeve staggered and placed her hand against the mosaic-covered wall, forcing her tears back. All her life, she'd done her best to protect Zane. Guilt flooded her to think of the atrocities he'd suffered. If only she'd done better, been better...
No. She shook her head to dispel the thoughts as her heart broke even further. He’d made his choices. He’d chosen to become the Warlord that committed genocide against the Nagali. He’d killed her only friend in the world, her dragon. He'd made himself into the monster their father never was.
She swallowed the bile in her throat and straightened, shoving all her emotions down until a dull numbness filled her. She loved Zane, but she couldn't turn a blind eye to his crimes any longer or make excuses for him. He'd done the unthinkable, and someone had to do something. That person was her. Even if it killed her.
She stalked forward and rounded the corner, glimpsing Gadiz as he slipped into a room at the end of the hallway. A grim smile tipped her lips up at the irony of what she was about to do. Her father had always been so determined to turn her brother and her into a demon like himself. She'd fought against his shackles of tyranny … but no more.
Maeve straightened and threw off the chains of her former ideals. She wasn't good. She wasn't bred to be a paragon of virtue. She was designed to be a warrior, a reaper, a monster.
Her brother loved her, and she loved him. It was always them against the world. And that w why he'd never see her coming.
She'd always been his shadow and had hated it. After this day, she'd embrace it. The shadows would become her friends, justice her driving force, a smile her most deadly weapon.
It might take years, but she’d bring his kingdom down upon his head.
But first thing’s first. She needed to seduce her future husband. She needed allies, and while Gadiz was loyal to the Warlord first and foremost, she’d turn Gadiz into her own instrument. The old saying was true.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
One way or another, she'd end this nightmare.
She wouldn’t survive it.
Death would come for her in the end. Happily-ever-afters weren’t meant for the villains, and becoming what the kingdoms needed meant the death of herself, of everything she’d ever stood for.
Today, Maeve the sister to Zane, died. And in her place, Maeve the handmaiden of the Warlord was born.
Justice would be served. Spinel and the people of Nagali would be avenged.
“You and I ‘til the end, Brother,” she whispered to the empty hallway.
Ready for the rest of this spellbinding story to play out in a battle of epic proportions in SPY’S MASK? You can now pre-order SPY’S MASK: THE AERMIAN FEUDS BOOK FIVE!
Thank you for reading WARLORD’S SHADOW. I hope you enjoyed it!
If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage https://www.frostkay.net/ or join my facebook group FROST FIENDS!
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Happy reading,
Frost
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