Epilogue
XERES
I shifted uneasily on my chair.
Darius and his mate would be here soon, and I didn’t know how they were going to take what I had to tell them.
I rubbed my hand over my face. Shifters… they were so unpredictable. This was one of the reasons I kept my distance from the pack. This… and others.
I knew they were on their way. I didn’t need magic for that, my hearing was good enough, and besides they made a racket whenever they were together, either smooching and carrying on, or messing around.
Despite his sullen attitude when he first came here, Xander had turned out to be very playful once he and Darius had got their shit sorted.
The voices grew louder.
“Come in,” I said, not waiting for them to knock. I knew Xander could read the runes anyway. Today they said ‘Enter at your peril’. I liked changing them around, even if no-one could read them. Only now, someone could.
I took a breath, pulled my cowl over my head, and steeled myself to tell my Alpha about his mate.
The door swung open noiselessly. Darius and Xander hesitated on the threshold; they were holding hands. I sighed. Would they still be holding hands when they walked out of here?
“Come in,” I repeated, wanting to get this over and done.
The pair exchanged an uncertain look. It was certainly a rare day when I summoned anyone to my study, much less the Alpha and his mate. There was a moment of awkwardness on all our parts, then…
“Hi Xeres,” Xander bounded forward and hugged me .
Over his shoulder I noticed Darius’ raised eyebrows.
Stunned, I managed a faint pat on Xander’s back.
This was not the customary way of dealing with mages – we were respected and feared for the most part, with the emphasis on the latter.
I didn’t know quite what to do with this display of emotion.
“Greetings, Xeres,” Darius said, more formally, as his mate finally let me go and stepped back. “You wanted to see us?”
“Greetings Alpha, Alpha Mate. It might be best to be seated.” I waved towards a pair of high-backed wooden chairs upholstered with dark leather cushions, which seemed to materialize out of nowhere. In fact, they had always been there but were often overlooked in the gloom of my room.
When we were seated, Darius broke the awful silence. “What did you want to talk to us about? I’m assuming it’s serious?”
I exhaled.
“A better word would be significant .” I’d thought and thought about how best to approach the subject, but then as now, I really hadn’t been sure of the best way to do it. Maybe just wade right in.
“Some aspects of Xander’s kidnapping and recovery need to be discussed,” I began.
Xander leaned forward in his seat, alert. From the expression on his face, he might have had a few questions of his own.
“Which particular aspects?” asked Darius.
“The main one is the magic used to collapse the house,” I began.
“That was magic?” Both Xander and Darius looked intrigued.
“Yes, it was magic. And magic has a very specific signature, depending on who wields it, which means…”
“You can tell who destroyed the house from the magic’s signature!” interrupted Xander, excitement written on his face.
“Precisely.”
Darius intense brown eyes had latched onto mine. “Who was it?” he demanded.
Instead of answering, I turned to Xander.
“Xander, when did you find out that you’re a mage?”
Xander spluttered, jumping to his feet with an outraged thud. “ What? A mage? No, I’m a shifter!”
Darius put a calming hand on his mate’s arm. “Xeres, he’s definitely a shifter. I’ve seen his wolf. I think you have too.”
“That’s true. He is a shifter. He is also a mage. I have long suspected it, but the… incident … at the house has proven it. As soon as we entered that house, I felt Xander’s essence in the magic’s signature.”
“Couldn’t that just be because I was in the house and you smelt me mixed in with the magic?” Xander asked, frowning.
I shook my head, the cowl flapping annoyingly.
“No, that's not how it works. Your magic signature is quite distinct. It doesn’t smell like you, it is you. Now that I’ve seen your magic at work, it’s unmistakable. I detect it even now, just in lesser degrees.”
“Are you sure?” queried Darius, though from the look on his face, he already believed it was true. After all, in all our experience together, he had never known me to be wrong.
“I’m positive. Xander can do things a normal shifter can’t.” I turned to Xander, “What does it say on the door today?”
Xander's voice, when finally he answered, was uncharacteristically subdued, barely audible. He cast a sideways glance at his mate that told me he knew Darius couldn’t see the runes.
What had I displayed on the door that first day, I wondered.
I couldn’t remember now, but Xander had obviously noticed that his mate hadn’t registered it.
“ 'Enter at your peril',” he mumbled.
“You can read the runes,” I told him, “because you’re part-mage. A full shifter wouldn’t even see them. Am I right, Darius?”
The alpha nodded his head, looking disconcerted. “Yes, that’s true. I had no idea there was anything written on your door.”
“So you’re saying I was responsible for the destruction of the house?” Xander looked confused. “But how? That’s crazy. I don’t know how to wield magic!”
“I don’t have all the answers – yet. But I would guess that you come from a line of very powerful mages, and although you have no formal training, you must have some innate abilities.
I’d suggest that something to do with your emotions at the time were responsible for tapping into those abilities and triggering your magic.
Did you notice that the destruction of the house ceased once you were free? Darius was there, you were no longer chained up, and you had left the dungeon itself. I don’t know which of those factored into it, but your emotional outburst calmed, and the effect of your magic extinguished with it.”
“But if this were true, then surely I should have been able to unchain myself? And why couldn’t I telepath with Darius? Our link didn’t work at all.”
“I don’t have all the answers,” I admitted, “but as far as any shifter powers that you have – they were likely being interfered with by the silver embedded in the walls.”
“There was silver in the walls? Is that why it felt so cold? It literally burnt me when I touched it.”
“That would disrupt the telepathic link,” agreed Darius.
“And it possibly destabilized your magic. That might be why it exploded like that without you calling on it. But there is no doubt you are a mage.”
“How do you feel about this, Xander?” Darius’ voice was soft with concern, but it also held a note of wonder. I was relieved there would be no problem with the alpha. Rather than being repulsed that his mate was part-mage, he seemed proud.
“I… I don’t know. It’s a lot to take in,” Xander’s eyes found those of his mate. “I guess I’ve always had an interest in spells and magic. I never thought I had any abilities in that direction though.”
Xander looked away. “How… how does this affect us?” his voice broke a little as he said, “do you feel any differently about me, now we know this?” He looked up at Darius, the corners of his eyes glistening. I had the sense that he’d lived a life of rejection and was expecting more of that now.
Darius was in front of him in an instant, his large hands cupping the smaller man’s face. The look he gave his mate was filled with tenderness, before he answered him by wrapping him in his arms and stooping to softly, tenderly, cover his lips with his own.
It was an act of such gentle intimacy, that I felt compelled to look away.
Unfortunately, that sort of love was not for the likes of me.