Empire of Storms
Page 143

Maeve smiled slightly. “What a joy, to learn that your usual good spirits remain undimmed in such dark days.”
“How could they not, when so many of your pretty males are in my company?”
Maeve cocked her head, her heavy curtain of dark hair sliding off a shoulder. And as if in answer, Lorcan appeared at the edge of the dunes, panting, wild-eyed, sword out. His focus—and horror, Aelin realized—on Elide. On the sentry holding the blade against her white neck. Maeve gave a little smile to the warrior, but looked to Manon.
With her attention elsewhere, Lorcan took up a place at Aelin’s side—as if they were somehow allies in this, would fight back-to-back. Aelin didn’t bother to say anything to him. Not as Maeve said to the witch, “I know your face.”
That face remained cold and impassive. “Let the girl go.”
A small, breathy laugh. “Ah.” Aelin’s stomach clenched as that ancient focus shifted to Elide. “Claimed by queen, and witch, and … my Second, it seems.”
Aelin tensed. She didn’t think Lorcan was breathing beside her.
Maeve toyed with a strand of Elide’s limp hair. The Lady of Perranth shook. “The girl who Lorcan Salvaterre summoned me to save.”
That ripple of Lorcan’s power the day Ansel’s fleet had closed in … She’d known it was a summoning. The same way she’d summoned the Valg to Skull’s Bay. She’d refused to immediately explain Ansel’s presence, wanting to enjoy the surprise of it, and he had summoned Maeve’s armada to take on what he’d believed to be an enemy fleet. To save Elide.
Lorcan just said, “I’m sorry.”
Aelin didn’t know if it was to her or Elide, whose eyes now widened with outrage. But Aelin said, “You think I didn’t know? That I didn’t take precautions?”
Lorcan’s brows furrowed. Aelin shrugged.
But Maeve went on, “Lady Elide Lochan, daughter of Cal and Marion Lochan. No wonder the witch itches to retrieve you, if her bloodline runs in your veins.”
Manon snarled a warning.
Aelin drawled to the Fae Queen, “Well, you didn’t drag your ancient carcass all the way here for nothing. So let’s get on with it. What do you want for the girl?”
That adder’s smile curled Maeve’s lips again.
 
 
Elide was trembling; every bone, every pore was trembling in terror at the immortal queen standing above her, at the guard’s blade at her throat. The rest of the queen’s escort remained distant—but it was to the escort that Lorcan kept glancing, his face tight, his own body near-shaking with restrained wrath.
This was the queen to whom he’d given his heart? This cold creature who looked at the world with mirthless eyes? Who had killed those soldiers without a blink of hesitation?
The queen whom Lorcan had summoned for her. He’d brought Maeve to save her—
Elide’s breath turned sharp in her throat. He’d betrayed them. Betrayed Aelin for her—
“What should I demand as payment for the girl?” Maeve mused, taking a few steps toward them, graceful as a moonbeam. “Why doesn’t my Second tell me? So busy, Lorcan. You’ve been so, so busy these months.”
His voice was hoarse as he lowered his head. “I did it for you, Majesty.”
“Then where is my ring? Where are my keys?”
A ring. Elide was willing to bet it was the golden one on her own finger, hidden beneath her other hand as she clenched them before her.
But Lorcan pointed his chin toward Aelin. “She has them. Two keys.”
Cold clanged through Elide. “Lorcan.” The guard’s blade twitched at her throat.
Aelin only leveled a cool stare at Lorcan.
He didn’t look at either Elide or Aelin. Didn’t so much as acknowledge their existence as he went on, “Aelin has two, and probably has a good inkling where Erawan hides the third.”
“Lorcan,” Elide pleaded. No—no, he wasn’t about to do this, about to betray them again—
“Be quiet,” he growled at her.
Maeve’s gaze again drifted down to Elide. The ancient, eternal darkness in it was smothering. “What familiarity you use when you speak his name, Lady of Perranth. What intimacy.”
Aelin’s little snort was her only warning sign. “Don’t you have better things to do than terrorize humans? Release the girl and let’s settle this the fun way.”
Flame danced at Aelin’s fingertips.
No. Her magic had been emptied, still hovered near burnout.
But Aelin stepped forward, nudging Manon with the side of her body as she passed—forcing the witch to back away. Aelin grinned. “Want to dance, Maeve?”
But Aelin shot a cutting glance over her shoulder at Manon as if to say, Run. Grab Elide the moment Maeve’s guard is down and run.
Maeve returned Aelin’s smile. “I don’t think you’d be a suitable dance partner right now. Not when your magic is nearly depleted. Did you think my arrival was merely dependent upon Lorcan’s summoning? Who do you think even whispered to Morath you were indeed down here? Of course, the fools didn’t realize that when you had drained yourself on their armies, I’d be waiting. You were already exhausted after putting out the fires I had my armada ignite to tire you on Eyllwe’s coast. It was a convenience that Lorcan gave your precise location and saved me the energy of tracking you down myself.”
A trap. An enormous, wicked trap. To drain Aelin’s power over days—weeks. But Aelin lifted a brow. “You brought an entire armada just to start a few fires?”
“I brought an armada to see if you’d rise to the occasion. Which, apparently, Prince Rowan has done.”
Hope soared in Elide’s chest. But then Maeve said, “The armada was a precaution. Just in case the ilken didn’t arrive for you to wholly drain yourself … I figured a few hundred ships would make for good kindling until I was ready.”
To sacrifice her own fleet—or part of it—to gain one prize … This was madness. The queen was utterly insane. “Do something,” Elide hissed at Lorcan, at Manon. “Do something.”
Neither of them responded.
The flame around Aelin’s fingers grew to encompass her hand—then her arm as she said to the ancient queen, “All I hear is a lot of chitchat.”
Maeve glanced at her escort, and they stepped away. Hauled Elide with them, the blade still at her throat.
Aelin said sharply to Manon, “Get out of range.”
The witch fell back, but her eyes were on the guard holding Elide, gobbling down every detail she could.
“You can’t possibly hope to win,” Maeve said, as if they were about to play cards.
“At least we’ll enjoy ourselves until the end,” Aelin crooned back, flame now encasing her entirely.
“Oh, I have no interest in killing you,” Maeve purred.
Then they exploded.
Flame slammed outward, red and golden—just as a wall of darkness lashed for Aelin.
The impact shook the world.
Even Manon was thrown on her ass.
But Lorcan was already moving.
The guard holding Elide showered her hair with blood as Lorcan slit his throat.
The other two guards behind him died with a hatchet to the face, one after another. Elide surged up, her leg barking in pain, running for Manon on pure, blind instinct, but Lorcan gripped her by the collar of her tunic. “Stupid fool,” he snapped, and she clawed at him—