Page 34 of Curse of Immortality
Slowly walking past the grand stairs in the entrance area to the door leading to his study, each step creaked under her dirty feet.
Maeve kept her head high and her face emotionless. The hatred in her heart made everything numb inside her. Her facial features had turned cold and distant.
James sat in a chair reading. Next to him stood an empty cup and a plate. Maeve instantly spotted the silver knife on the plate. She was in no hurry to end his life and enjoyed the power she held in that moment as James sat unaware of her watching him.
“About time.” James huffed when he sensed Maeve slowly walking toward him, only he thought it was one of his servants bringing him tea and didn’t stop reading.
When a cup wasn’t placed on his side table, he turned his head to see what incompetent servant he had to lecture and scold. Seeing Maeve behind him, James reacted as if he’d seen a ghost. With his heart skipping a beat and his face turning instantly pale, he jumped out of his chair and took a step back to create distance between himself and the woman he thought he’d murdered.
James stared at her with large eyes and although he tried to speak, he was so puzzled to see her that his sounds were incoherent.
“Cat got your tongue?” Maeve asked, taunting his inability to form a sentence.
“I told you to stay away from me,” he finally managed to say. “Your obsession with me isn’t charming. Haven’t I made it clear that I don’t love you?”
“Why did you have Rose killed?” Maeve asked with a steady voice as she imagined all the different ways she wanted to hurt him.
James’ eyes darted around the room, and he moved to the left to have the table between them. “She was a witch, just like you. I would have never been enchanted by you if I’d known what you really are,” he spat out.
Maeve had intended to tell James how much she hated him and thought he was the worst human of his kind. But the moment he insulted her aunt, she lost all patience and saw red. Slashing her hand through the air, Maeve used her powerful new abilities to make James fly through the room and hit the wall before falling to the floor with pained groans. The old floorboards creaked under Maeve’s feet as she slowly walked toward James, who lay on the ground holding onto his ribs and cursing her name.
“Get away from me, you witch, or I’ll fucking kill you,” he threatened, but Maeve wasn’t afraid.
Standing in front of James, she looked down at him and felt like a cat with a mouse under its claws. The moment seemed symbolic compared to the first time they’d met when James had sat high on his horse and looked down at Maeve. Back then he had seen her as easy prey he could devour and use for his gratification. Now the roles were reversed.
Raising her hand, Maeve used the element of air to force his body up against the wall until he was dangling with his feet under him. James didn’t understand how she was pressing him against the wall without touching him. To him, it was proof of her dark magic and in a way he was right. Maeve’s strength was magical. No Earthen would have ever been able to hold a human up simply by using the element of air. But Maeve had taken the most powerful crystal in the world, and it had left her with a strength beyond that of any Earthen before her.
Now her face was stern and seemed otherwise emotionless, but the pure hatred in her eyes revealed the fire burning in her heart. Locking her jaw, she raised her hand and forcefully struck James across the face. The slap was loud and cathartic. It wasn't merely that this weasel of a man filled her head with lies, stabbed her in her gut, and left her for dead. He had also been the reason Rose had died a horrendous and unjust death. His pathetic whimper didn’t soften Maeve. He had shown no mercy toward her and Rose and she would show him none in return. His head swung down to the side and Maeve saw that like a cat with sharp claws, she had left a large red mark across his cheek. Again, Maeve tightened her hand and tossed James across his large study. She took pleasure in every expensive vase and figurine he broke as his body knocked them over and they shattered against the floor. His body slammed against the wall and this time he coughed up blood as he lay on the floor.
With fear in his eyes, he begged, “Please, Maeve. Don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything!” The usual arrogance in his voice was gone and replaced by a brittle and high-pitched begging for her mercy. Maeve relished the sight of James’ humiliation and took her sweet time walking toward him again.
“This can all be yours. We can live here together as we’ve always dreamed of. You can’t kill me! You need me to have this privileged life!”
Maeve didn’t answer him, which frightened James all the more. He felt like a small fragile animal that stood no chance against this bloodthirsty predator.
Her face still showed no emotions as Maeve asked, “How does it feel?”
James shook his head signaling that he didn’t understand her question.
“How does it feel to be an arrogant and entitled excuse for a man who has never been scared of a woman in his life, to be at my mercy? You’ve always viewed us, women, as toys to be used for your pleasure, haven’t you? How ironic that one of your toys turned out to be more powerful than you.”
Like a small, frightened boy, James pleaded with Maeve, “I don’t deserve this! Please spare my life, I’ll give youanything.”
Maeve considered his words for a moment and said, “Can you give me my aunt back? Can you give me back the loving, sweet girl I used to be? You took that all away from me, James. But you’re right. You don’t deserve to die.” Her voice was steady, and her eyebrows were arched.
James breathed out in relief and lowered his head. “Thank you.”
“You don’t deserve the mercy of death. Instead, I want you to live with the knowledge that you will never escape me. You promised me this life, and I will take it, but not today. I’ll wait patiently until you have built a life for yourself with a wife and children. Every day, you’ll live with the fear that tomorrow could be the day where I’ll show up and kill everyone you love just like you killed my aunt.”
James shook his head with moist eyes. “Please don’t! I’ll give you money to stay away, Maeve. I’ll do anything.”
Maeve stared down at the broken man lying on the floor and couldn’t remember why she had once loved him. “Anything?”
He nodded eagerly before spitting out more blood and touching his mouth, revealing that he lost one of his front teeth.
Maeve’s slowly spoken words came like whiplashes from her tongue. “Kiss. My. Dirty. Feet.”
James swallowed hard but seeing the hardness in her stare, he leaned forward and placed kisses on her bare feet, which were gray from walking on ashes.
