Page 41 of Fallen Stars

“What do you mean?” she shouted.

“Forcing your way into someone’s dream, especially using your powers like that to do so… Ariete will have you trapped in his dreams for eternity the minute he feels it. You need to catch him unawares.”

She sighed in frustration, pacing. “Then what exactly am I to do?”

“Elara, you can control shadows. You can summon them. Have you ever tried becoming one?”

She stilled. “What do you mean?”

His voice echoed around her. “The Three is simply a term that mortals coined to restrict their powers. But Stars and titans—we are not mortal. What would happen if you thought outside the box?”

Gods, she was not enjoying these silver-tongued riddles.

“Are you suggesting I simplymorphinto something else. I know my powers. I know I can’t do that.”

Eli’s chuckle was soft on the breeze. “You’re a dreamwalker. You should understand that the rules don’t apply in dreams.”

And with that, she heard him leave, as though a vacuum had sucked all the noise out of the space.

Forget the rules, she thought. That was the trouble with dreamwalking. She was still in a waking form; she couldn’t just submit to the dreams around her the way a normal person could. But what Eli had said made sense.

She tried a moment to drop her expectations of what was ‘normal.’ She moved her hand before her with purpose, focusing on her fingers.

Nothing happened.

She attempted again a few more times, trying to force herself to change, force her fingers darker, become somethingother.

After what felt like hours, but in dreams was likely minutes, she spat a curse, sighing hard.

Become a shadow, she thought to herself, trying to shake herself back into focus. Rather than try to force her magick as she had been, she let herself relax, allowed her magick to flow where it willed. And to her amazement, her fingers began to seep into shadows, turning black and insubstantial.

“Holy hell,” she whispered, in awe at how easy it had been to do the moment she’d let go. Next, she brought her attention to her arm and did the same thing. To her utter amazement, her whole arm became but a wisp of darkness. She tested it, gingerly pushing it through the bars of the gates as though it really was nothing more than smoke.

She repeated the same exercise over and over until her entire body had transformed into something ethereal, and then with a held breath, she slipped through the gates.

“Very good,” a voice boomed, and she jumped again, jolting back into her own corporeal form.

“Can you stop doing that?” she hissed, making sure all fingers and toes were attached to her before setting her sights ahead. The mansion was closer now, so close that she could see the emerald ivy trailing the walls and rain-marked statues beneath.

As she approached it, she studied the architecture before her with narrowed eyes, trying to look out for any trap, any danger.

Her gaze caught on two statues towering on either side of the arch. They reminded her of the ones in the Angel’s Graveyard, and she bit back a pang of nostalgia, remembering Celine. How she wished she could hear the angel’s advice now.

But these statues were weeping women, not angels. Their hands were pressed together in prayer, furrowed brows tilted to the sky as tears ran down their faces.

Elara repressed a shudder, ignoring them and the way it felt as though their eyes were tracking her as she brushed past.

Through the archway was a quiet courtyard, only the steady patter of rain her company, and she traversed it quickly, finally coming to a large, black door.

The same emblem that was on the gates was imprinted on the door—the snake in a stark relief.

However, this door, to her surprise, was creaking gently, already ajar.

She widened her eyes, pushing it gingerly. It swung open as she scanned the surroundings for danger.

Her mistake was stepping through the front door.

Before she could blink, a viper the size of a winged lion whipped out of the darkness, its maw open wide, hissing tongue ready to swallow her whole.

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