Her frown said she noticed. This could be a casual share across the mate bond. We hadn’t really resolved our differences. This was just getting us to a goal, right? I wasn’t biting her so we weren’t sealing anything. I would figure out what I was going to do with us after she kicked Brad’s ass.
I realized how wrong I was the moment I opened the bond. Everything that was Maggie flooded my senses. Her earth and Sharp-Fringed Poppy scent, her anger, tenacity, thoughts, hopes and dreams poured into me as I opened the bond wider and wider. Maggie took all of me. Not just the magic, but my own fears and dreams. My wants and needs. My Elf and my Nightmare. Lust and love swirled through the bond that connected me to another like never before. My magic was an easy thing to give up. My self-preservation was not. I pulled back enough not to lose my everything in her as my magic and hers crashed together to crawl black up her arms, fanning from her eyes.
Her gaze remained sad. “I’m sorry I doubted you for a second.”
Of course she saw my memories in that onslaught. She saw what happened with Rue even as the magic filled her up so much she wept darkness. My terrible fury might defeat Brad after all. I just had to merge it with her anger.
“It’s okay, Pumpkin.”
The nickname softened her fearsome gaze. “I’ll fix this. One bowl of butt soup coming up,” Maggie said.
But instead of jumping into the fray, Maggie plopped her ass on the ground and folded her legs into that impossible position. All her attention turned inward and I felt the tug on my soul grow. She traced a sigil on one of her crystals and pelted Brad with it.
Brad made the mistake of picking it up, rolling it in his palm. “Sticks and stones. What is this supposed to do, you dumb bitch?”
When she closed her eyes, she said,“Stay Still. Stay Quiet.”Her voice boomed around the veranda and over the fields.
Brad immediately froze. He couldn’t even drop the crystal. I wonder how many times Rue had to teach her that one… and for what.
Maggie calmly popped up, circling around Brad, drawing her sigil on the ground like she was painting her nails. The magic she brought forth when she finished ripped the air out of my lungs. I used everything inside me not to fall to my knees before theCouncil.
“I Will Make You Small.”Maggie intoned in that witchy voice.
I half expected Brad to be flat as a pancake when I blinked next but her magic moved with the speed and power of a glacier. I had never seen Maggie so restrained, or so powerful. Her magic slowly crushed against Brad’s barrier instead of landing it with a sharp strike, much as I had pushed the Calix through it earlier.
Brad tried to reinforce his barricade but he was indeed still and quiet. His outrage blazed in his eyes as he stood helpless against Maggie’s onslaught. The quiet pop of his barrier barely made a sound as hundreds of monsters and soldiers made not a peep. I didn’t think I could even get words out as Maggie plundered my magic for her final assault.
“Don’t think of this as humbling, Brad. You have so much more to be humble about.”
Seeing her vengeance rain down on my tormentor was hotter than I could have imagined.My dick would have been hard if I could have mustered the strength. I let her take everything even as the pull threatened to stop my heart, still my lungs. Brad’s screams started again as she opened a dark portal just like mine and forced him into it. She took her time terrorizing him with his nightmares, manifesting them around him, as he sank into the nothing. Who was afraid of puppies? His fear fed my Nightmare so he could give her even more power. Brad sank until the darknessclosed over his last reaching fingertips.
Maggie skipped to me, helping me stand, feeding my magic back.
“He deserved worse than the void,” I told her.
She patted my head. “Oh, I sent him to your dungeon so you can do what you want with him. You’re welcome.”
I gathered her into my arms with the ferocity of my Nightmare. Was I allowed to lick her from head to toe in public? I wasn’t sure if she understood the gift she had given me, or the danger she had just put herself in. My eyes turned to the Council sitting pale and tense in their chairs. My shadows rippled all over as my Nightmare gladly gave up my skin, tired from Maggie’s relentless pull on his soul.
My teeth ground to dust as Nemian leaned over to whisper to one of the other Councilors. The weight of my territory settled on my shoulders once more. As eager as I had been to get back to it, the burden was heavy.
“Not even a bit of applause?” Maggie asked with that attitude I loved.
Nemian cleared his throat and I already knew I wasn’t going to like anything that came out of it.
“You’re Highness–” well that didn’t start so bad “–it seems you find yourself with the crown once again, but how do we know you are even still an Elf under all… that?” He gestured to all of me.
I opened my mouth to begin our political game again when Maggie sprang forth in my defense.
“How dare you! He’s as Elf as the rest of you. Would I be able to do this if he wasn’t?”
I lifted a hand to stop her but she ripped at my power again, and the Calix helped her. The Godd object imparted its fertility through the mate bond. Everyone else saw it glowing in response to her sigils that spread my magic over the soil, the ruined gardens in the distance and the half-dead plants fighting for survival against Brad’s onslaught. Plants sprang forth from the earth in profusion. Their heady perfume filled the air. Everyone also saw when I cut off her display.
The scream that cut through the night air put a puzzled look on Maggie’s face.
“The witch wields the power of the Elves. What else might she be doing to him?” Nemian said as Yaya caught another Council member in a dead faint.
Maggie swallowed hard, backing up into the shelter of my body. I tried not to stiffen against her. I had said it often enough. Elves didn’t have mates and the fact that she could wield my magic was just more proof that we were a threat.
