Gathering Darkness

“Wow.” Nic’s brows shot up. “Although, now that you mention it, I have heard Kraeshian girls are known to be rather . . . friendly. Looks like Amara represents her empire well, even if her taste is questionable.”

She grimaced. “It makes me wonder what she’s really after, and if she and her brother have different goals after all.”

Nic appeared to consider this new information. “Perhaps she assumes Magnus can lead her to the Kindred. Does she think he has it buried under his blankets?”

She glared at him. “It’s not funny.”

“I would never dare make light of something like this.” But his lips were twitching slightly.

Nic had once been jealous of how she had behaved toward Magnus during the wedding tour. But he had to understand that it had been necessary for her to feign a certain level of affection. Still, he’d accused her of falling in love with the prince.

What a truly ridiculous notion that had been.

She was still insatiably curious about Nic’s dealings with Prince Ashur. Apart from his confession of their kiss, he hadn’t been inclined to divulge much. Cleo tried to be patient. He’d confided so much in her already, and she was certain he’d tell her more if there were more to tell.

“I don’t trust them, Nic. I can’t align with anyone I don’t trust. So what do I do now?”

“I wish I knew.”

She felt her life and goals spiral out of her control, spinning like a top. “I need a sign. Something to tell me what to do next. Some sign to tell me there’s still hope for us.”

Just then, the throne room doors swung open and voices boomed down the hallway. Cleo peered around the corner to see the king emerge, followed by the handsome boy that had been assigned as Lucia’s new tutor. Lucia had spent all day yesterday locked in her chambers with the boy as they began their private lessons.

What constituted these lessons had not been disclosed to anyone, but many servants had begun to whisper that they involved Princess Lucia’s secret and dangerous talent for elementia.

Whatever the truth might be, Cleo could see why Lucia seemed so eager to devote herself to her new studies. Her tutor was tall and lean and devastatingly attractive. His features looked as if they’d been forged from precious metals—bronze hair and silver eyes. His skin glowed with an ethereal golden tan as if lit from within.

“Do you know anything about him?” Cleo asked Nic.

“Not much. Apparently Lucia crossed paths with him in the city after the rebel escape. She brought him back and the king accepted him with open arms. Very unlike him.” Nic eyed the pair with disdain. “Knowing his majesty, I give Alexius a week, maybe two, before he’s dead.”

Alexius. She’d heard his name in passing, but with her mind so set on a multitude of other problems, she couldn’t quite place it.

But suddenly, the name resounded deep within her.

Cleo’s breath caught and held as she remembered what Lucia had confessed the day they toured the city together.

“A Watcher named Alexius visited my dreams. He promised to visit me again after I woke, but I haven’t seen him since.”

“Cleo?” Nic touched her arm. “You’ve gone pale. What is it?”

She met his concerned gaze and a smile slowly spread across her face. “That sign I wanted? To give me hope? I think it just walked through those doors.”

CHAPTER 19

LUCIA

AURANOS

The king had readily agreed to make Alexius Lucia’s elementia tutor.

Yet somehow, Lucia hadn’t realized that this decision would result in actual lessons, having considered it merely an excuse for Alexius to stay at the palace.

Initially, back in Limeros, Magnus had tried to help her with her magic—encouraging her to use air magic to lift objects heavier than flowers, to summon fire magic that would do something more powerful than light a candle. For all her recent difficulties with her brother, he’d been the first to encourage her, to help her accept her burgeoning powers rather than think of them as evil, as it was with witches who were executed for their crimes. For this, she’d always be grateful to him.

Much more recently, the king had released an accused witch from the dungeons, in the hope she might help his daughter learn how to further control her abilities.

But the witch had been an inadequate tutor. She’d been offensively weak and easily intimidated by the far superior magic Lucia displayed with barely any effort. And that had been the end of her.

Alexius was quite different. After all, as an immortal, he was created from magic. Even in his mortal form, he embodied it. Although he readily admitted that the magic he could summon paled in the light of Lucia’s prophesied elementia, he had full confidence he could be an asset to her. And to her father.

He and Lucia had shared one full day of lessons, from sunrise to sunset, locked in Lucia’s chambers with the furniture and rugs pushed to the edges of the room to create plenty of space for them to move about freely on the smooth marble floor.

Similarly to Magnus’s teaching style, Alexius had Lucia lift objects with air magic, and use fire to light small blazes. She used water magic to create ice, and earth magic to nurse dying plants back to life.

“I can heal your leg,” she said to him, having noticed his slight limp as soon as he arrived. “Shall I try?”

Alexius brushed his fingers against the fabric of his trousers. “That’ll be impossible, I’m afraid. This cut will have to heal the same way a mortal’s would. Earth magic—healing magic, either mine or another’s—won’t work on me anymore.” He offered her the edge of a smile at her look of dismay. “It’s all right. There are many penalties for choosing to leave the Sanctuary. This is but one of them. I’ll be fine, I promise.”