Gathering Darkness

How Alexius had come to hate her.

She opened the door to Danaus. “Oh,” his voice boomed. “I see you’re not alone.”

“No.” She held the door open wider and gestured him inside. “But come in. Please, I insist.”

Danaus might have been every bit as beautiful as any of their kind, but his eternally sour expression made him ugly to Alexius. Danaus regarded him now with clear disdain. “Alexius isn’t one of us,” he said.

“Of course he is. Don’t be rude, Danaus. It doesn’t become you. Please say what you came here to say. It’s clear that it troubles you deeply.”

“Very well.” He hissed out a breath of impatience. “I’ve received word from a scout that one of our exiles has been using his magic to help the mortal king build a road. I believe Xanthus was one of your most devoted minions, wasn’t he?”

Alexius nearly flinched at the name of Phaedra’s brother, gone from the Sanctuary for twenty years. He’d once been Melenia’s lover, and her most favored and gifted protégé. She’d coached him in ways unlike she had anyone else in the Sanctuary, which had caused everyone, Alexius included, to suspect and envy him.

Now he knew better than to envy anyone this immortal singled out. Now he pitied those she hand-selected. Including himself.

“The pretty spider in her silvery web, spinning tales to wind around us all.”

It was a warning from Phaedra that he’d ignored. She had been smarter than anyone had suspected.

Melenia nodded. “I remember Xanthus very well.”

Danaus pursed his lips, clearly annoyed that this news did not incense her. “I believe someone here in the Sanctuary is visiting him in his dreams, guiding his actions.”

Her brows arched. “Really. Who?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Despite Danaus’s ancient age and vast wealth of knowledge, he really was deeply stupid. But perhaps Alexius was dismissing him too soon. Like Timotheus, he was an elder. If only Alexius could find a way to meet with them privately, to tell them what Melenia planned behind their backs, that would be two against one . . .

The rebellious thought caused a sudden, intense pain to blossom in the center of his chest. Unlike the vague pang of guilt or regret, this was a literal pain, brought on by the obedience spell Melenia had placed on him to ensure his loyalty. He’d been fighting it for weeks now, but had recently found that it was unbreakable. He groaned audibly, relenting to it.

“Everything all right with you, boy?” Danaus asked, eyeing him warily.

“Of course,” he replied, steeling himself until the pain began to fade.

“Ignore him, Danaus, and let me tell you exactly who is guiding Xanthus,” Melenia said, her voice calm and even. “I’m already well aware of what’s been going on, and I know who accesses his dreams.”

His expression filled with wonder. “Who?”

“Me.” She smiled. A hint of wickedness flashed in her sapphire-blue eyes.

Alexius was beyond shocked. Why would Melenia share such a valuable secret with the immortal she’d professed to trust the least?

“What?” Danaus stepped forward, leaving little space between himself and Melenia. “That’s impossible. We elders can’t dreamwalk.”

“You can’t. But I can,” she said. “I visit the dreams of both Xanthus and the mortal King Gaius. They are both part of my carefully crafted plan. The king wants the Kindred for himself, so much that he’s willing to do anything, say anything, be anything to get them in his greedy hands. And it’s because of this greed that, out of anyone I’ve ever come across, he’s been the easiest to manipulate. Even now, he eagerly awaits my next instructions in another dream.”

Danaus’s eyes flashed with envy. “How is such a thing possible? You must tell me. To escape this place if only through someone else’s mind . . . I crave it.”

Of course Danaus would jump on any opportunity, no matter how immoral, that might benefit him. He didn’t even seem to care that Melenia had been keeping this secret from him until now.

“You really want to know?” she asked coyly.

“Yes. You must show me!”

A warning rose up inside Alexius and his throat tightened. He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t.

“All right.” Melenia took Danaus’s face in her hands. “Look deeply into my eyes.”

Don’t. Don’t do what she asks.

But Danaus’s lust for this skill transformed the justice-seeker who’d entered the room into someone just as blind and greedy as King Gaius.

“I’m surprised you never figured this out on your own,” Melenia said. “Then again, it was only an accident that I discovered it for myself.”

“Discovered what?” Danaus demanded.

“That Watchers are capable of pulling magic from each other to become more powerful. Power that lets us do all sorts of interesting things—including dreamwalking.”

Alexius’s heart began to thud, but the tearing pain in his chest kept him still and silent.

Danaus’s eyes lit up. “Show me how.”

“If you insist.”

Melenia locked into his gaze, and her hands began to glow.

“I feel it,” Danaus whispered. “I feel the power leaving me and entering you. Incredible. All this time . . . how could I not have known?”

“There is a catch, of course. There’s always a catch. If one takes more than just a taste, a mark is left upon the donor.”