“Could you give us a moment?” Mal asked.
Zimsy bowed her head and slipped past him into the hallway.
Mal stepped inside and the door clicked shut behind him.
Maeve sighed into the sedating feeling of his presence. “Why did you do that?”
He studied her face closely.
“Because I mean it,” was all he said.
Maeve’s breath hitched, and her mouth hung open.
His hands reached for her face.
At last.
His cool, smooth hands fused with her flushed cheeks.
“I’m filthy Mal-”
“When the castle began falling, and you looked at me like you were going to die, I nearly couldn’t bare it. I don’t think I could have done what I did if that fear hadn’t been there. I was determined that you would live, or I would die trying to save you.”
Tears pooled in the corners of Maeve’s eyes. He wiped each of them as they cascaded down her dirty cheeks.
“I realized then,” said Mal, looking back and forth at her tears, “that while I will always save you, I was meant to save us all. I was meant to save the Magicals, or die trying.”
“I’m scared of what’s coming,” said Maeve, her voice catching. “I’m scared I’m not strong enough. I’m not like you. I don’t have your iron reserve.”
“You don’t have to be like me,” he said quietly. “Your strengths are not my own, either. I need you to be you.”
“I jumped,” she said.
Mal’s eyes lit up. “What? When?”
“Kietel made me,” she said. “But I did it.”
Mal’s chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm.
He pulled her head to his chest, and she snaked her arms around his torso, palms flat against his back. He kissed the top of her head and spoke calmly.
“I am going to reform the Dread House and reclaim our place as Magicals in the promised land.”
Maeve nuzzled closer to him. “I knew you would.”
“And you will be my second, Maeve.”
She looked up at him, pride building in her chest. Not his High Lady. Not his Queen. Not his wife.
His second in command.
“Does that make you happy?” He asked with a subtle smile, one that showed he already knew the answer.
Maeve nodded, her own smile blossoming. “Yes,” she breathed.
His eyes traveled down to her lips as his hands shifted lower on her body.
Her stomach flipped.
