Rebel Spring

CHAPTER 21

ALEXIUS

THE SANCTUARY

Melenia looked up as Alexius entered her chambers in the crystal palace. It was a room filled with light and flowers. A floor-to-ceiling crystal window looked out to the expansive city far below, where other immortals made their home.

The window bore a jagged crack down the center. The massive tremor in the mortal world had been clearly felt here as well. Many immortals, in fact, had panicked, believing this to be the end.

But Alexius knew differently.

He’d already been on his way to see Melenia when it happened. His steps were focused, his mind clear. There were matters that needed to be discussed, and they couldn’t wait another day.

As she stood from the seating area, her diaphanous robes swished around her curves. Her eyes were blue-a vivid sapphire shade that no one could ever mistake as mortal.

“I’m glad you’re here,” she said before he had uttered a single word. He was struck by her beauty, as he always was. She held her hands out to him as he drew closer. “You can celebrate with me another sign of our success. We’re close now. So close I can taste it.”

“And what does it taste like?”

“Like sweet victory. At long last.” Her smile fell as she saw he did not look pleased by this. She reached up to press her cool hands against his warm cheeks. This woman seemed so small and fragile before him, but he knew she was anything but. He’d never known anyone stronger in his entire existence. For so long, he had admired that strength. “What is wrong? You look so troubled.”

“I am troubled. The princess awoke from her deep slumber earlier.”

“I see. And now it will be more difficult for you to access her dreams.”

“That’s not it.”

She watched him carefully. “Then what is it? Unburden yourself to me, Alexius. You know you can trust me. We share all of our secrets, don’t we?”

So many secrets, he’d lost count of them all. “Two disasters in the mortal world. The tornado and the earthquake. It’s unfolding exactly as you said it would.”

“Yes.”

Melenia was a very special immortal, different from the others. More powerful in so many ways. She could see many things the others couldn’t-that which happened here in the Sanctuary and beyond into the mortal world. Her sight was clear and focused and always had been.

“And you continue to visit the king’s dreams?” he asked.

There was a pause this time before she spoke. “Not recently. He already knows what I need him to do.”

It was another of Melenia’s many secrets. Elders did not possess the ability to enter the dreams of mortals. Such a task was never easy and was always draining of one’s magic and physical strength. But for an elder, it was impossible.

Except for Melenia.

“It won’t be long before my road is finished,” she said. There was joy in her voice.

Yes, her road. A road that had to be swiftly built by mortal hands. A road that needed to pass certain locations along its twisting path.

And, of course, since it wasn’t only a road, one mustn’t forget that there needed to be a great deal of blood spilled on it.

Blood-everything depended on blood. It was elemental. It was magic. Even when it flowed from the veins of mortals.

And when the road was finally completed. .

“I need to know if there’s another way,” Alexius said, the words thick in his throat.

Melenia’s brows drew together. “Another way?”

He raised his gaze to meet hers, trying to shield the ache in his chest beneath his golden, swirling mark. Other immortals didn’t know of Melenia’s plans, but he did. He’d agreed to them when originally enlisted to her cause. He’d been certain he could stay the course.

Now he doubted himself.

Understanding entered her blue eyes. “I wanted you to make contact with her. To speak with her. To establish whether or not she was truly the sorceress prophesied by Eva so many years ago. You did as I asked of you perfectly.”

“She’s an innocent, Melenia.”

“No mortal who lives and breathes more than a day is innocent.”

“Help me understand. How are you so certain that your plan is the only one there is to find the Kindred? To release us from this prison? How are you so sure of it?”

Her jaw tensed as she swept past him toward the edge of her chambers, indicating the walls with a wave of her hand. Etched into the silver and crystal were the symbols of the elements-earth, fire, air, and water. It was her shrine to the Kindred, one many immortals had in their living quarters. They prayed to the symbols, hoping for answers, for guidance in the long days, years, centuries that had passed with no change and no escape.

“Because they speak to me,” Melenia said very simply, running her fingers lightly over the triangular symbol for fire. “They tell me what to do. How to find them. And your princess is the key. When my road is complete, her blood will be spilled. All of it.”

A shudder went through Alexius.

Once, he was prepared to sacrifice Lucia for the sake of saving his world before the magic faded completely from it. He’d been committed to the cause, as had a select few immortals chosen specially by Melenia to join her small army.

Melenia turned from her shrine to study Alexius and she tilted her head. “I wanted her to fall in love with you, to make her more willing, more pliable. But you’ve fallen for her as well, haven’t you?”

“No.” He bit out the bitter word, feeling the falseness of it leave his mouth.

“You can’t lie to me. I know the truth when I see it.” She sighed. “This complicates matters.”

“I need to go to her.”

“Yes, I’m sure you think you do.” Her hand remained upon the symbol for fire as she gave him a quizzical look. “You’re not the only one currently infatuated with a mortal. Phaedra has allegedly been watching one closely as well. A rebel.”

His gaze snapped to hers. “A rebel?”

“I don’t trust her. She sees too much. She knows too much, just as Stephanos did. I worry that your friend is becoming a liability to my plans.”

She said it lightly, but a gnawing concern began to build within Alexius’s gut. If Phaedra proved herself a problem for Melenia, then he worried deeply for her. Phaedra did not guard her thoughts or her words. She spoke her mind too plainly and she acted spontaneously and without thorough consideration of any risks. Such behavior could earn her enemies. Powerful ones.

Perhaps it already had.

“Why must your plans remain secret?” He asked the question that had been plaguing him for months. “To find the Kindred, to break the chains keeping us trapped within the Sanctuary: it benefits all of us. Why not tell Timotheus or Danaus of the princess? Of the road?” He hesitated. “Is there something more you seek that they would not approve of?”

“Don’t worry about such things. And don’t worry about your princess.”

“I need to go to her,” he said again. “Now. It cannot wait.”

“No, you don’t need to go anywhere. Not yet. Not until I’m ready for the final piece of this puzzle to snap into place.”

“The final piece of your puzzle means her death.”

“You agreed to this, Alexius. You agreed to what would save your kind, save the world. Do you really want to change your mind now?”

“What I want is to find another solution.”

“There are no other solutions.” She came toward him and took his hands in hers, squeezing them tightly. “I understand, I do. I understand what it’s like to love someone forbidden to me. To pine away for him. To ache for his touch and know that a future together is impossible. I know to what lengths someone is willing to go to help the one they love more than anyone else.”

His eyes met hers, hope flooding his heart.

She fixed him with a cool smile. “And I know how dangerous it is to have thoughts like these.”

“Melenia. .”

“Say nothing more. I need you to regain your objectivity and your devotion to me and my cause. The princess’s life will be sacrificed for the sake of the Kindred. Their magic is all that matters.”

“I need to talk to her.” The words stuck in his throat.

“No, you don’t.” Her grip on him tightened and he couldn’t pull away. He felt a draining sensation spreading through him. She was draining his magic, his ability to shift form, to enter the dreams of mortals. To do anything but breathe and exist.

It would be all it took to keep him away from Lucia.

There was a reason why Melenia was the most powerful immortal of them all. She could do this.

“Not all love is eternal,” she whispered to him as he weakened and fell to his knees before her. “Not all love has the power to change worlds. What you feel for the princess is a passing fancy, that is all. Trust me, Alexius. I’m only doing this to help you.”

He’d promised Lucia he would come to her in her dreams. He’d come here to try to find a way to save her life.

On both tasks he’d failed.

Yet he knew that Melenia spoke the truth, that he was thinking irrationally and was in danger of becoming a liability to her plans. The life of one sixteen-year-old sorceress was not worth the destruction of everything and everyone.

Lucia would have to die. And one day very soon, he would be the one to take her life.

There was no turning back.