Was it because he’d killed the Fae warrior entrusted with it?
“This is your fault,” she said accusingly, which didn’t exactly answer his question. The Dark Queen grimaced and offered what was left of the sword to her warrior. “It’ll ruin my skirt,” she said and he took it, bowing low to her afterward. He placed the blade on a different table, then stood at attention between the Dark Queen and the melting weapon.
Maeve considered Hadrian and her eyes glinted with what might have been amusement. The apparent change in her mood did nothing to reassure him. “You should know that the Others are concerned that I don’t seem to hunt the Pyr. They think there’s something special about you dragon shifters, and some have concluded that you’ve made a bargain with me to ensure your own survival.” She arched a brow. “The truth, of course, is much simpler. You fall lower on my list since you’re not a native species, so to speak.”
Hadrian didn’t understand what that meant.
Maeve chuckled, as if she’d read his thoughts, and he remembered her reputation. He tried to keep his thoughts simple. “There were no dragon shifters on Earth,” she informed him. “Not originally. No divinity created dragon shifters here either. You’re all aliens who arrived out of the blue and mingled with the local inhabitants. You’ve been here a long time, but that doesn’t make you native.” Her voice hardened, even as Hadrian wondered whether that was true. “You’re still mutants and you still taint the planet with your presence, but you’re foreigners. Immigrants. I’ll get to you after the Others who originated here.” She swung her foot a little more and smiled at him. “I didn’t plan for the other shifters to turn against the Pyr, but it might work out quite well. The Others could do some of the work for me. There could be fewer of you to slaughter by the time my main quest is complete.”
That wasn’t the most reassuring thing she could have said. How could Hadrian save his fellow Pyr? The gloves were closer to completion but not done, and that annoyed him.
Maeve raised a hand and shook a finger at him. “You know, I didn’t think much of it when Rania chose you as her Pyr victim. I gave her that assignment to worry you all a bit and it’s a bonus that it’s sowing some dissent amongst the Others. But she has an instinct, that one, and she chose very, very well.”
Maeve slipped off the table and moved past the Fae warrior to look down at the weapon again. It was even smaller than it had been and the hilt was beginning to melt now. “You know I can’t tolerate this. My warriors must be armed, and that means you must die now.”
She would kill him before he could finish the gloves for the other Pyr.
She would kill him before he could have the same effect on the entire Fae armory. If Hadrian had been breathing, that realization would have made his breath catch. As it was, his thoughts spun. The Dark Queen had a vulnerability and he’d learned about it only when it was too late to do anything about it.
Maeve laughed. “Exactly,” she said with approval. She snapped her fingers and a slit of silver light appeared. Someone stepped through the gap before it was closed. Hadrian was surprised to see that it was Kade, the Pyr who had betrayed him.
Hadrian had admitted Kade to Rhys’ apartment when Kade had lied to him. Kade had then stolen the stylus Maeve had originally given to him, the one that let him enter Fae at will. He’d been forced to surrender it to the Pyr, but had tricked Hadrian to steal it back. Kade had then disappeared. Hadrian itched to teach the faithless dragon shifter a lesson, but he couldn’t even blink.
Kade stared at Maeve with adoration. She ran a hand across his cheek, as if he was a pet poodle, and Hadrian realized that Kade was completely in the Dark Queen’s thrall. Would that be enough to turn him against his fellow Pyr? Hadrian feared it might be, and once again hated that he was powerless.
Why hadn’t Alasdair heard the Fae arrive? Did it have something to do with the clock stopping?
Were they outside of time?
Maeve reached up and touched her lips to Kade’s mouth briefly, a move that made the dragon shifter tremble with desire. Hadrian saw the Fae warrior flinch, and wondered whether Maeve was aware of his jealousy.
“Destroy it all,” Maeve whispered to Kade. She laughed and made a gesture, summoning a red halo of light. “In silence!”
Kade moved immediately to stoke up the fire in the forge and Hadrian knew what he was going to do. He would have appealed to Kade in old-speak, but he couldn’t make a sound. He tried to call to Alasdair and Balthasar but he couldn’t utter a word, in old-speak or aloud. He screamed in outrage in his thoughts but no sound emerged.
And as he struggled against the prison his body had become, Kade threw the newly-made blades into the crucible. They landed soundlessly and the fire jumped hungrily. The flames should have been roaring, but there was no sound. Kade pushed the crucible into the forge and Hadrian watched helplessly as his work was destroyed and the blades melted.
Kade then shattered the template for the laser cutter, an act that should have made a lot of noise, but one that also happened in silence. If that wasn’t enough, Kade shifted shape, becoming a powerful dragon of amber and gold. Maeve’s red glow seemed to pulse with malice as Kade smashed the laser machine, too, ensuring that no one could produce blades easily in the studio again.
Kade then breathed dragonfire with gusto, setting the studio alight. His ability to breathe fire had always been impressive, and Hadrian couldn’t help wishing it had been a little less so. The tables and the walls began to burn, the bright light of the forge glowing in the middle of it all. There wasn’t a single sound as the sparks jumped and the fire spread. Hadrian could only watch as his studio was destroyed.
He noticed then that the Fae sword had completely melted away, the last drop of the water sizzling as it evaporated. There was no sign that it had ever existed, except a faint shimmer of silver that vanished almost as soon as Hadrian noticed it.
Maeve stood beside the Fae warrior, watching with satisfaction as Kade shifted to his human form again and returned to her side. She pointed down and he knelt to kiss her shoe. Her eyes shone with triumph as she met Hadrian’s gaze.
“No more,” she said with quiet conviction. Again, she turned her wrist, as if summoning something to her. The red glow spun around the studio, then gathered in the palm of her hand, like an orb of fire. “No more from you,” she said darkly. Her eyes lit as she cast the sphere of red light at Hadrian.
It struck him in the middle of the chest and flared to brilliance before it died away. Hadrian felt the cold in his fingertips and toes first, then watched as a layer of hoarfrost spread over his skin. His skin turned pale and white. He felt chilled first, then cold, then he couldn’t feel anything at all. It was horrifying to only be able to watch the progress of Maeve’s curse, to feel it traveling up his arms and legs, making steady progress from his extremities to his heart.
He panicked, knowing he was going to die, that his mate would never be able to fulfill her quest, that Maeve had tricked them both. He watched as the Dark Queen tucked one hand into Kade’s elbow and the other into the arm of the Fae warrior. She surveyed the studio, then looked between her minions with satisfaction. She nodded and the Fae warrior sliced open the air with his dagger, leading her through a portal to the shimmering silver light of Fae. Kade followed like a devoted puppy and Maeve never looked back. The Fae warrior smirked at Hadrian as he closed the portal between the worlds.