Page 39 of Fallen Stars
“I’m surprised you came.”
Elara arched a groomed eyebrow, holding him with her stare. “You think I’d pass up on the opportunity to save my beloved?”
Something akin to envy roiled in Eli’s stomach. Love. What a concept. What a deep tragedy. “Ever the romantic, Elara.”
She snorted, turning as a soft knock sounded. “I know you don’t have a heart, but you really are a bastard.”
Cynthia entered, a small slip of a maid, with a silver tray loaded with a teapot, milk, and an array of cakes. She set it down nervously, her hand tremoring as she placed a porcelain teacup in front of Elara.
“I don’t bite,” Elara said, offering a smile. “Thank you.”
Poor Cynthia looked about ready to burst into tears and curtsied hurriedly before closing the door.
“So,” Eli said, pouring hot tea from the pot into Elara’s cup. “We’re to begin this foolhardy plan to enter Ariete’s dreams. Before I even begin to break down the basic workings of the mind, I need to ask you something, Elara. Are you truly ready for this, for what may come, particularly when Ariete discovers what you’ve done? Which he will.”
Elara raised her chin with a look of defiance. “Do I look like a coward to you?”
He observed her. “No, you don’t.”
“Well then, I think that answers your question. Let’s begin, shall we?”
Eli smirked, stirring milk and honey into his tea before taking a sip.
“Now that your immortal self is awoken, the scope of your power is immeasurable and unchecked for now. You will find it far more effortless to conjure and wield it than you used to. But you need to understand it. What do you know of dreamwalking?”
“Isra taught me the basics,” Elara replied.
“One of your guards last night?”
Elara laughed softly. “Something like that. I know how to transcend, how to enter a dreamscape.”
“Have you ever found resistance when entering one?”
She thought for a moment. “No. Every one I entered was without a thought, and I was always drawn to it. There was never anything in my way.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not what you’ll be greeted by with Ariete. The god of war is going to have every safety measure around his mind in place, traps to fall into, possibly even tranceholes if his defences are advanced enough.”
Elara frowned. “Tranceholes?”
“We’ve already established what a tether is, Ariete having stolen Enzo’s.”
“Yes, it’s what keeps someone bound to this world. Us dreamwalkers have to use ours to remain rooted as we walk between realities.”
“Exactly. Now if someone like, I don’t know,a master of combathas the utilities to keep you trapped in his dreams or sever your tether altogether, he could keep you locked in a trancehole. Pockets of space in the dreamlands where your tether is snapped, no way back to your body, as your soul wanders through the darkness in agony while you go mad.”
“Like what’s happening to Enzo,” she whispered. “I’ve visited him in my dreams, and the last time I saw him, he told me…” Elara closed her eyes, and Eli’s brow furrowed. “He told me that he couldn’t eat or drink or sleep.”
Eli didn’t quite care enough to sugar-coat it as he nodded. “He will likely be in agony, Elara. He has already been left in the dreamlands for too long. Another week, and he will begin to lose his sanity. A week after that, and his soul will be utterly irretrievable.”
Elara’s lip trembled, and it was the first sign of vulnerability he had seen in her.
“You’re going to enter my dreams today,” Eli said. “We’re going to assess how powerful you really are, how you react when reaching defences. Each lesson will gradually bring you closer and closer to your meeting with Ariete.”
Though Elara was visibly upset, he had to give the woman credit for her determination. Most would have balked at what Eli had revealed, and the challenges that lay ahead. Yet all she did was raise her chin, her silver eyes flaring with defiance.
Elara’s hand trembled, her jaw clenched as she held back tears from him. “Then we’d best work as quickly as possible. We have two weeks.”
Chapter Fourteen