Page 24 of Curse of Immortality
“You’re mad,” he hissed.
“But James…” Maeve’s eyes were pleading.
“Stay away from me,” he demanded and kicked his horse hard. Not looking back to see how Maeve’s eyes darkened he set the horse into motion and galloped away.
James’ harsh rejection on top of her nightmarish past twenty-four hours made Maeve see red. She had given her virginity to him, bought into his lies, and left Rose and Althea to be with him. For James to call her mad and take off as if she wasn’t worth his time made her so angry that she used her abilities to stop him.
Raising her hands in the air, she sent a gush of strong wind his way. The amount of emotion Maeve felt in that moment and channeled into her wind made it the strongest elemental spell she’d ever created. Attacking him from the back, the wind knocked him off his tall horse and threw him to the ground. His stallion was spooked and trampled his leg, which made James howl with pain.
Maeve calmed the horse from a distance. Using her powers, she brought the stallion from being scared and confused to standing close to James and nibbling at leaves from a tree.
When Maeve approached them, James yelled, “Get away from me” and crawled backward with one arm while the other was trying to stop the bleeding from his leg.
“I didn’t mean for you to get hurt, James, but you have to hear me out.”
“What happened?” he cried out and looked around with a perplexed expression on his face. “Where did that storm come from?”
“That was me. I couldn’t let you leave.”
He stared at her. “What are you talking about?”
“I created that gust of wind. Here, let me help you.” When she squatted down and tried to touch him, he moved back again.
“I can heal you.” Once again, Maeve stretched her hands out toward his wound, but the way James flinched made her stop.
He’s scared of me.At first, the thought was absurd to Maeve. James was much bigger and stronger than she was, but it was right there in his eyes and actions. He had called her insane and now he was trying to get away from her. The desperation she had gone through all night intensified and, in an attempt to win him back over, she panicked and did the one thing she’d sworn never to do – she told him the truth.
“I’m not human like you, James, I’m an Earthen. We are healers by nature, and I use my abilities to help animals. I can tend to your wound if you let me.”
“You’re lying! Get away from me,” he sneered.
“No, look. I’ll prove it to you.” Maeve held up her palm, where she made a small flame appear.
James’s eyes grew to double size, and he stammered something unintelligible.
“I just want to help,” she said, leaning forward to tend his wound once again.
Maeve saw it when James drew his dagger. A second ago he had been trying to get away from her, but now he drew closer. It all happened so fast and left her no time to react before he stabbed the blade into her stomach. Yesterday, he had loved every inch of her soft skin that he had kissed so tenderly. Now, she blinked her eyes in confusion and looked down at the shaft of the dagger planted right in her gut. Her throat began to shake as pained sounds tried to escape. The depth of his betrayal made her mouth fall open and tears stream down her cheeks. She stared at the trail of blood running from her wound to the man she had once loved more than life itself.
Maeve’s large expressive eyes had been the thing that drew James to her in the beginning, but now he looked into them as if she disgusted him.
The emotional and physical pain was excruciating, but Maeve managed to speak one word in a brittle voice. “Why?”
“You hexed me! But now I know the truth. You’re nothing but an old hag who used magic to appear young and beautiful so you could lure me in.”
“N-no,” she sobbed in protest.
James moved closer to Maeve, who lay on her back looking at him through her wet eyes. When he pulled his dagger out of her stomach, she groaned and pressed her hands to the wound, pleading with him. “Help me.”
James blatantly ignored her and dried the bloody knife off on the mossy ground. As he stood up, he towered over her for a moment, and then he bent down and ripped off the silver necklace he had given her months ago.
Maeve’s pained groans echoed through the forest but didn’t soften James. He too was injured from his fall. But a cut in the leg wasn’t as immobilizing as a knife in the gut. With a limp, he dragged himself toward his horse.
“Your witchcraft would never have worked. Even if I weren’t engaged to Elizabeth and you came from a wealthy family, I would’ve never married you because I don’t respect you and I certainly never loved you.”
Unable to do anything other than keep pressure on her stab wound, Maeve remained quiet. She didn’t understand his cruel words because she had been so convinced that they were in love.
James groaned as he used his strength to get up on his tall horse. Before riding off he looked down at Maeve, who lay on the ground in a pool of her blood. Her eyes were large and her gaze begged for an answer that would make sense to her, so without the slightest feeling of guilt he said, “A woman who lies with a man outside of marriage is nothing but a whore.” James lifted his gaze from Maeve, turned his horse around, and left her to die.
