“This is unacceptable,” my brother said, turning to my guards after I finished recounting Lorien’s visit. “Completelyunacceptable.” His voice boomed through the small space of my office. I’d never seen him so furious; the guards looked as though they were fighting the urge to run.
It took a moment, but one of them finally found the courage to step forward and reply. “We’re spread thin, Highness. Between the visitors you’ve asked us to monitor, and the soldiers we’ve sent to aid with the rebirth projects, our numbers?—”
“Do you know what the wordprioritymeans?”
“Bastian.” My tone was sharp. “It’s over. I’m fine. And I asked my guards not to suffocate me—it’s my fault, really. They merely followed my orders to keep their distance.”
He continued to fume, his gaze shifting between the guard and a pair of marks that Lorien’s magic had burned into the floor.
“You know Lorien has ways of eluding his enemies,” Eamon said, abandoning his own examination of those marks beforestepping back to us. “Tricks that no one, our seasoned guards or otherwise, could be expected to anticipate.”
Bastian’s gaze turned only slightly less livid as he fixed it on the guard lingering by the door. “Go find Captain Voss and tell him to meet me in the stateroom at the top of the hour,” he ordered. “We have much to discuss.”
He bowed and hurried away.
Bastian ordered the rest of the guards into the hall outside. He paused at the door after directing them, clearly trying to collect himself. His voice was somewhat closer to his usual practiced calm as he turned back to us and said, “I don’t understand how he slipped pasteveryone.”
“The same way he escaped right in front of my eyes,” I said, absently scratching Phantom between his ears. “The Vaelora were once able to come and go as they pleased between the realms, weren’t they?”
“She’s right,” said Eamon. “And he’s stronger now that he’s reunited with whatever magic was contained within Aleksander’s body. Not to mention what he stole from Nova, and what he might have taken from his interactions with the Aetherstone.” He hesitated before adding, “There’s also the connection Nova and Aleks developed. As often as their powers worked together, and as close as they were to one another…”
I averted my eyes, hating the way he spoke of us in past tense.
“What of it?” my brother pressed.
“…Their magic was so intimately intertwined that it’s not all that surprising Lorien was able to find his way back to her. I imagine it was simply like returning to himself.”
Thalia let out a curse. “We should have anticipated him being able to do this.”
There was a long, weighted pause, where we all seemed to be trying to steady ourselves against all the wars approaching from every direction.
How could we possibly guard from every angle?
“This connection between us…” I trailed off, taking several deep breaths before continuing. “Is that why I keep hearing Lorien’s voice in my head when I’m alone? Why I sometimes see his face whenever I close my eyes?”
“Likely so,” Eamon said.
Another line between my nightmares and reality, blurred.
Eamon appeared to be searching for an optimistic light to shine on the situation; it took a long moment before he settled on one. “I don’t think you’reconstantlyconnected, though, as the Vaelora of old might have been. Lorien is a corrupted entity, after all. And you came into your powers much later than normal. So he may be able to exploit the link, but the bond between the two of you is not absolute, I’d say.”
“I don’t like him havinganysort of bond with her,” Thalia said.
“What about Aleks?” Eamon asked. “You hear him sometimes, too, don’t you?”
I nodded numbly.
“Well, that may be the very thing that’s keeping him from fully succumbing to Lorien’s hold. Perhaps he can hear you through the bond as clearly as Lorien can. And as long as he acts as a sort of wedge between you and Lorien…”
My heart unclenched a bit at the thought.
“I’m not convinced a connection to Aleksander is any safer than one to Lorien,” my brother said.
The back of my neck burned, but I kept my voice cordial, busying myself with cleaning up the broken painting as I spoke. “You trusted him, once. You told our allies as much. Don’t you remember what you said all those weeks ago?He has sworn his allegiance to Nova. That’s good enough for me.”
“Of course I remember.”
“And do you remember how he fought for this realm?”
