Magnus didn’t move, couldn’t speak. All he could do was stare.
She smiled wearily at him, this woman who now appeared to be centuries old. “Don’t worry, young man. It’ll take some time, but I’ll recover. My business would suffer if I didn’t. Now, forgive me for not getting up, but my bones are weak. Take this.” She raised the obsidian blade off the table, her wrinkled eyes narrowing. “And remove yourself from my sight forever.”
Chapter 5
Maddox was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for Magnus, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.
“What she said about me,” he began.
“Ignore it,” Magnus told him.
“How can I ignore it? She looked at me like she was afraid of me!”
“That woman is afraid of everything.”
“It doesn’t mean she was wrong. She saw so much . . .”
Magnus didn’t really know this boy, nor did he need the burden of feeling like he wanted to protect anyone apart from his sister.
Walk away, and pretend you never met him, he told himself. He has nothing to do with your life.
But he didn’t do that. Instead, he grasped the boy’s shoulder hard enough to draw Maddox’s full attention.
“I only met you today,” he said, “but I’m no fool, despite what that witch might think. She’s wrong about you. I’ve met evil people, those who would bask in the pain and destruction of others. Those who should be feared. Your guardian is one of them; my father is another. But you are not.”
A breath caught in Maddox’s chest. “How can you be sure?”
“I just am.” Magnus looked up at the sky. The sun had sunk in the west, but there was still plenty of time left before sunset.
Time for choices. Time for possibilities.
“I know you don’t want to return to your guardian,” he said.
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t have to!” The boy’s insistence on his lack of control over his own life both pained and frustrated Magnus. “What you need to do is realize what you want in this life and . . . just take it. You are the one who controls your destiny, not your guardian. Not anyone!” Magnus rubbed his hand over his mouth, thoughts and plans rushing through his mind about how he could help this boy who was so different from himself and yet so much the same. He glanced up at the sky, dismayed that the sun was quickly descending in the west. Now that he had what he needed, he had to return to Lord Gillis’s villa with haste. “I don’t know if it’s possible, truly, but if there’s a way, perhaps you could come with me. If you want to escape Livius, I can guarantee you there is no better way.”
Maddox was silent for a few stunned moments. “I thought you hated me.”
Magnus raised his eyebrows. “Why would I hate you? I have no reason to. You didn’t steal from me.”
“I could come to your kingdom of snow and ice? Really?”
“Like I said, I don’t know if it’s possible—but if it is, you would be welcome there.”
Hope flickered in Maddox’s dark eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, it faded. “I can’t leave my mother behind. Livius will be very angry, and if I’m not here . . . he knows where to find her. I need to protect her.”
Magnus understood how Maddox felt about his mother—that need to ensure her safety at any cost. He respected it.
“Very well. Then you need to get her somewhere safe, somewhere he won’t find her. It’s possible.”
“You really think so?”
“Maddox, my friend, if it’s possible for Valoria and Cleiona—” He frowned at the name of the goddess, whom he’d heard some Valoria dissenters refer to as the “Golden One.” Before they were sent to the dungeon, that is.
A golden light; a moth to a flame.
The young princess in the south was also referred to as the “Golden Princess.”
He shook his head to clear it of such irrelevant thoughts.
“Magnus?” Maddox prompted.
Magnus tried to focus only on the boy before him. “If it’s possible for the goddesses to exist side by side with mortals, then yes, I think it’s possible that you can escape the clutches of Livius.” He smirked at the thought. “Perhaps you should do as Samara said—get a snake to bite out his other eye.”
Maddox laughed nervously at the suggestion. “Perhaps I will.” Then he sobered. “Did you get what you needed from that strange woman?”
Magnus pulled the obsidian blade from underneath his shirt, moving it around so the sun glinted off its black surface. “I hope so—which means that it’s time for me to go.”
Maddox nodded. “Of course. And I wish you a pleasant journey back to your kingdom, your highness.”
Magnus eyed him. “You still don’t believe me about that.”
“That you’re a prince?” He grinned. “Not at all, really.”
Magnus found himself grinning back. He glanced over Maddox’s shoulder as he saw someone approaching from the city center. Magnus’s smile quickly disappeared.
Kalum from the tavern approached him.
“I thought I’d find you here,” the man said.