Page 40 of Fallen Stars

Elara drained her tea toits dregs, willing the tremors in her hands to stop. It was worse than she’d thought. So much worse. She had thought she was giving Enzo a respite, so entirely sure when she had dragged his soul into her dreamscape that his body would be at peace. But after what Enzo had revealed to her and then what Eli had just said, guilt writhed through her, coiling like the serpent on his arm around her heart. They had fourteen days to get her dreamwalking into fighting shape for Ariete, and she had so far to go. As the panicked thoughts crowded around her, she leashed them all, gritting her teeth as she tied and buried them deep within herself, ordering her shadow to take them. Now was not the time to unravel.

She took her last gulp of tea, setting the china down and smoothing her hair back. She reached into the pocket of her gown for a velvet ribbon, which she used to tie it. No distractions. No doubt. She inhaled deeply, locking eyes with the Star.

“Ready?”

“Ready,” she nodded.

“I take it from your eyes you’ve become familiar with hypnom. Will you need it to aid your sleep or can you go without it?”

A flush crept to Elara’s cheeks. “No,” she bit out. “I can do fine without.” Her mouth dried at the thought, of the sweet bliss and escape that heady purple smoke provided. Her fingernails dug into the wooden arms of her chair.

Eli’s bored, dark eyes flicked to the gesture. “Convincing,” he drawled. “Now close your eyes.”

Elara did as he requested, her senses hyper aware and constricting in the presence of the Star. She could smell the rain of him, could feel that quicksilver charm, stronger, as it began to coat the room with his magick.

“Walk as you usually do and meet me by the gates,” was the last thing she heard as she felt herself drift away.

The feeling was as familiar as breathing now, thanks to the shackles that had broken around her powers. She rose—not far—as she saw Eli’s dreamscape hovering above him, a storm-filled cloud that writhed and flickered, as though lightning rippled through it. With her senses heightened in this state, she could smell the metallic tang of it as she drifted to it. She braced herself for the overwhelming power that was bound to hit her, and with a deep breath, she plunged into it.

Rain hammered down on her, soaking her in seconds.

“A little predictable, Eli!” she shouted, looking around wildly as she got her bearings.

The heavens poured down on her, the dreamscape dark. Slick concrete beneath her feet wound like a path, the pavements on either side lined with black streetlamps, their candles flickering and spluttering out in the rain. With a curse, she squinted into the gloom, seeing nothing around her but the path and an enormous blurred structure up ahead.

She followed the path, rubbing her arms vigorously as she climbed the winding trail, Eli nowhere in sight. The structure in front began to take shape the nearer she got, and she realised she was looking at a slate grey and black mansion. It twisted into the clouds, its architecture adorned with gargoyles and other reliefs, a large stone archway before it. She could see gigantic bay windows, dark and flickering. She could have sworn she saw a shadow within one.

“Dear gods,” she breathed, her neck craning up as hair plastered to her forehead. “Eli?!” she called out. She saw curling iron gates up ahead and jogged to them, calling out again.

Eli strolled from the shadows, and she cursed, clutching her chest. He snickered and leant on a gate, one foot crossed behind the other. Bone dry. Of course he was. The iron gates formed curling patterns, flowing into a huge lock that she realised was shaped like a serpent.

“You’re a walking cliché, you know that?”

Eli’s lips twitched, his usually near black eyes shining a little lighter in the dream. “I’m impressed you’ve made it this far already,” he said, peering through the gates.

“I’m not an amateur,” she snapped. “What do I do now?”

“Perform a test of sorts.” Eli’s smile was small. “I’ve hidden something, something of great importance, inside that mansion there. If you can get inside it, that will be a feat in itself. If you can locate the prize, well… It won’t be nearly as hard for you to enter Ariete’s dreams as we thought.”

“Are you going to make this as hard as possible for me?”

“Of course,” he replied, pushing off the gate. “Oh, and the serpent bites.”

“The serpentwhat?” she asked, turning wildly to him. But there was only thin air, Eli’s figure having vanished from sight.

She stomped, the chill getting in her bones now. “This is not real,” she muttered, squinting up at the gates. The first task, how to get through the bloody things.

She pushed against them, rattling the iron, but they remained firmly locked. She slammed her palm onto the lock, searching around the drab shrubbery surrounding the gates for a key.

It was no use. Logic told her that Eli wouldn’t make it so simple, to unlock a person’s entire subconscious. She straightened, putting her hands on her hips as she thought.

Enzo had shown her how to break a lock with her shadows before. She’d formed a key from them and broken into his cell that time.

She went to use them, forming them in her hands until they resembled a key. They felt solid as she went to force them into the lock, but just as she was about to, she heard a tut.

“Wonderful way to get caught before you’ve even set foot inside someone’s head.”

Eli’s voice echoed around her—it was in the skies, in the ground. She scanned the atmosphere for him, finding him nowhere.

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