Call Of The Dark

For the next day, Emma busied herself. She decided she wouldn't even look at what the two of them were doing even though her curiosity was very high. She was seriously jealous of Maeve and hated that she had come back so soon. That made her wonder. Why did Maeve come back so soon when she had said that she was going for a week or ten days?

An exasperated sigh left her as she walked with Ginger towards the small garden again. "What is the name of the garden?" she asked her as she plucked a buttercup.

"You can give it a name." a voice startled Emma. She turned sharply to see that it was Magnus.

"Magnus!" she chuckled and saw that Yul was also there with him, but Yul was looking pretty serious. "How are you, Yul?" she asked in an excited voice.

He grunted. "I am well, Emma. And you?"

"Bored!" she scrunched her nose. "Only a few days are left for the ritual and I want to live my life to the fullest!"

Yul's heart squeezed. "I am so sorry for you, Emma…" he said in a soft voice, forgetting what Lazarus did to him.

Magnus said, "How about we go to the village and celebrate your eighteenth birthday?"

"That would be wonderful!" she squealed with excitement.

"But Lord Lazarus won't like it!" Ginger reminded us grumpily like a loyal maid. "Moreover, you can't go because of Goddess Maeve's magic. She has that invisible wall around the palace for you."

"That wall seems like it is crumbling," Magnus replied, brushing his nails. He leaned over to me and whispered, "I can feel that Maeve's magic is… crumbling. She is not as strong as she was earlier."

At that, Emma stifled a chuckle. "Do you think I can walk through the wall?"

"Most likely, you can," Yul said in a low voice.

"Then how about we experiment?" Emma was over-excited. She was yearning to go to the village and breathe some free air.

Ginger gasped… audibly. "What if the goddess comes to know? And what if Lord Lazarus comes to know? He will bury me alive!"

"Yes, it could be dangerous," Yul added with a sigh. "Experimenting with her magic, I mean. Not going to the village."

"Then I will ask Maeve to lower the magic for you." A soft voice from the entrance startled them. Gladys was standing on the door with her arms crossed against her chest.

Emma spun to look at her and her eyes widened with surprise. "Gladys!"

As Gladys walked to them, both Magnus and Yul tensed. "What are you doing here, sister?" Magnus asked with a brow raised.

"I came to know that Emma is here and so I came to talk to her. What about you, Magnus?" She looked at Yul and immediately disregarded him.

"We both came here to stroll and chanced upon Emma" Magnus replied with an air of caution. He tried to mask his surprise that Gladys knew Emma well.

"I see," Gladys gave him a tight nod.

"But you know Maeve well?" Emma asked, jerking her head back.

"Only as much as the rest of my brothers and sisters know," she said with a smile. "Though I can surely ask her to remove the magic wall."

"That won't be necessary," Magnus chuckled. "Her magic is too weak now. Any day now and it will crumble completely. If she tries to do more, her body would suffer greatly."

At this Gladys became silent. She looked at Emma and gave her a sheepish smile. "How about we all go to the village at midnight?" she suggested after a moment of awkward silence.

"You also want to go?" Magnus narrowed his eyes.

"Well, why not?" Gladys said with a smile.

He took a deep breath in as if trying to suppress his surprise and then turned to Yul. "Then let us go at midnight?"

"Yes, that would be okay with me."

Magnus and Yul left the garden, leaving Emma with Gladys. Ginger hurried out of the garden. When Gladys was alone with Emma, she grasped her hand and said, "Emma, did he mark you yet?"

Emma pursed her lips and sighed. "No, he didn't!" She didn't know why she was so keen on him marking her. In fact, she was looking forward to it. "But why are you so interested?" she asked, slouching a little. "As such his betrothed is here. He won't have time for me anyway." The thought left her miserable.

Gladys bit her bottom lip. "You should make him mark you as soon as possible, Emma. This is very important if you want to live."

Emma closed her eyes and tipped her head up. She wanted to live. She wanted to enjoy her life and not lend her body to a goddess. "What do I do?" she let out an exasperated exhale.

"Come, let's talk about it," Gladys said politely.

Gladys gave her many ideas on what to do if you wanted your mate to mark you. She took her to her room and then even gave her books that showed many erotic positions. Emma blushed hard, but she didn't stop reading them. "Can I take one with me?" she asked demurely.

"Of course!" Gladys said and then gave her two more.

---

Sitting in Maeve's room, Lazarus was sipping blood from a crystal tumbler. "I should have been drinking from my mate, you know." He was staring at her reflection in the mirror.

"Then who is stopping you?" Maeve replied as she looked in the mirror to apply more makeup. She had applied a lot of gold dust on her cheeks after plastering her skin with some clay-based foundation that she brought from Vilinski. It tightened her skin. After that, she applied a heavy dose of kohl that stretched like wings on the side of her eyes.

And suddenly, his lips stilled on the tumbler. Emma was so much prettier than her. The two of them were not the same. While Maeve loved to cake her face with makeup and often made him spend huge amounts of gold coins to purchase cosmetics that were available in other kingdoms, Emma didn't wear any makeup over her creamy soft skin.