The Living Wife

The Shadow I

***

Amara wasn't sure exactly where the chill had come from. It was neither from outside the room where she had argued with Xelan not was it from the room as she walked in the men in tow. She rubbed at her arms, trying to dispel the cold and hopefully with it, the pit in her stomach. Ivina was waiting for them, standing in front of a crystal mirror on the table that wasn't there before.

"Lovely of you to join us," she said, looking anything but pleased.

"How is he?" Fraser asked, going immediately to her side. Amara wondered if she had been that way with Jack, unable to be away from each other for a minute. She looked away, oddly resentful as the chill settled again.

"None the wiser," she replied, looking down at the mirror. Amara's eyes looked down at the crystal, seeing a scene of a man in a room much identical to theirs, his head on the cloud chair back and a drink in his hand.

"What's the plan?" Xelan asked from beside her.

"It's rather simple really. We make contact."

"I don't suppose he would be rather interested in having company," Xelan said, folding his arms.

"No, he won't. But I doubt he would be so opposed to what you'll have to say," Ivina said.

"You're not coming with us?" Xelan asked, not missing her choice of words.

"No, it would be better if she wasn't seen."

Amara tuned them out at that point, tired of listening to them converse without so much of a glance her way. She focused her attention on the man instead, watching him relax and sip away without a care in the world. At first glance, she would have never considered him to be of the same race as the magi she had met over the past few months. For one, she couldn't neither imagine any of them in an ugly patterned shirt and stone washed jeans, nor could she picture them sporting a scruffy beard and a man bun. Everything about him screamed ordinary, making her worry they might have gotten the wrong guy. No one else seemed to share her concern, finishing up their plans. Once done, both Xelan and Fraser disappeared under the covering of blue lights, as did the mirror on the table.

"Something on your mind?"

She looked up to see Ivina watching her quite intently, her gaze unnerving her.

"No," she lied. She had been foolish enough to play her game earlier and all she was left with was the unsettling chill and the suffocating weight of Xelan's revelation.

Her fingers curled back into her palms, biting into the skin with her nails. Ivina was right about it being a laughable situation. And thanks to her stupid curiosity, she knew just how laughable it was.

"Judging by the look on your face, I can see why Xelan wasn't keen on coming clean on the terms of his arrangement."

She ignored her, making her way to the wine she had initially snubbed to get herself a glass. A child? The Dalis really expected a child? She thought back to Lyle's vile gaze on her midriff and the bile rose in her throat.

"I have to say, you're a rather strange one."

"You don't say," Amara drawled, sipping her drink as Ivina went for what would be her third glass.

"Usually, a cursed man with an alias like 'the Black Widower' should have been the first sign of trouble. But your warning bells only seem to ring long after ending his curse now that you are faced with the possibility of having children."

The giggles came freely from Amara's lips. That was a rather spot on observation, she would give her that. But children had been the furthest thing from her mind when she married him.

"As you said before, I'm a strange one."
And rather foolish one as well. A dangerous combo.

"Yes, I did. But it does beg the question."

"What?"

"Is the prospect of having children with him that horrifying?"

The wine called to her again and she filled her glass, downing it with gusto. Thankfully, Ivina's attention shifted from her, her gaze becoming unfocused as her eyes started to glow. Allowing Amara the grace of distracting herself from the question, and how, despite being straightforward, it couldn't spark a clear response in return.

***