“Telling me what?” Xane asks.
“The child that Xerxei lost was yours, my son,” she says gently. “I’m sorry.”
There is absolute silence.
“What?” he whispers with dread. “How do you know this?”
“There is only one way to fight black magick,” Xanthe says, avoiding his eyes.
Yes, there is only one way: with black magick. “You…you used…”
“I had to,” she says. “It was the only way. Do not worry about your bond with Xerxei now. Go to her and tell her. You will be united in your grief.”
Xane swallows. “It was really mine?” he asks softly. He thinks back to when they could possibly have conceived, and it comes to him. It has to be the time they spent right after she was reverse-turned. They made love after she flirted with Xander and he felt something different with her. Something special.
Xanthe nods. “Yes,” she says.
He sits heavily in his chair and spins around to face the wall. He has tears in his eyes, and he doesn’t want his mother to see this weakness in him.
“It is okay to grieve, Xane,” she says softly. “It was your child.”
He just nods and gets himself under control. “I need to go,” he chokes out. “Be safe, Mother, I have ensured that you are nowhere near this. Tiamat will not question your loyalty.”
He Astraports out to his bedroom to gather his things. The time is here for them to leave and if he had his doubts before about this being the right course of action for him and his Kingdom, they have all been washed away. Xerxei needs to know about their child. He no longer fears about his weakening bond with her. Xanthe has given him precisely the right ammo to ensure that they stay connected until she can fix the damage that her younger son has caused.
The Underworld, August 2014 - Xanthe
Xanthe stares at the space her son just vacated for a long time. She feels guilt at the lie she just told him. She has no idea if the child Xerxei lost was in fact Xane’s. She hit a brick wall with that particular mission, and it is frustrating to her. But there is no way that she was going to let him leave with this concern hanging over his head about Xander. She needed to give him something to go to Xerxei with so that she still has time to fix this almighty mess.
She is more determined than ever now to get through to Xander. Unfortunately, there is only one way. She was hesita
nt to cross this line before when she thought she had more time, but Xane’s leaving has pushed up this timetable and now she has no choice.
She leaves Xane’s office and slowly walks up the stairs, taking her time as she doesn’t really want to do what she must. She pauses outside of Xander’s bedroom door and then takes in a deep breath.
Everyone thinks of her as the strong one. The one that gets things done around here, and for the most part she is, but ever since black magick got thrown into the mix it has stalled her in her efforts. She pushes the door open and Xander looks up weakly from his place on the far wall. He is chained to it with magick that he can’t escape and Xanthe’s interrogation of him has left him drained. She pushes aside the concern for her son for the greater good. Xane and Xerxei belong together. With her Power, Xane will reach greatness and that is all that she cares about as she walks steadily over to Xander and stops in front of him.
“Mother,” he croaks. “There is nothing I can do, I swear it. I can’t tell you anything. Please stop this.”
Her heart squeezes to hear his plea. If it were over anything else except this, she would let him go because she knows he is telling her truth. He is unable to tell her anything about why he corrupted Xerxei’s marking. But that doesn’t mean that she can’t find out another way.
“I’m sorry, my son,” she whispers and holds her hands up.
“No!” Xander shouts, shaking his head. “No, Mother, don’t do this!”
“I have to,” she says over his cries of fear. “I have to know so that I can fix it.”
“No!” he screams as she places her tips of her fingers on either side of head, just over his temples. Her stomach turns as she calls the darkest magick to her and the wind whips around her as her fingertips sink into Xander’s head.
He shrieks in agony and writhes against the pain she is causing him, but she continues to burrow into his brain, into his thoughts.
She closes her eyes and concentrates as all of Xander’s thoughts flash past her. She cannot make out anything that she needs to know. She sees Xander touching Xerxei and the mark flaring up, but she can’t get past his conscious thoughts.
She swallows and wiggles her fingers a little bit and it makes her nauseous to hear the screech come from her son. But it served its purpose. He has passed out and now she can get into his unconscious thoughts. That is where she will find what she needs.
She digs through the murk of his foggy brain. Unconscious thoughts are tricky to find at the best of times, but when something like coercion has been used it makes it ten times harder. She is glad that Xander isn’t awake to feel the pressure of her tunneling through his brain. She squeezes her eyes shut even more and then she sees it.
She sees Xander colluding with Remiel. She had her suspicions about it being him. She knew that the child he had with Xerxei still lived, and she has half expected that he would come for her eventually. It was he, after all, who gave her the vial of Tiamat’s blood to rid Xerxei of the Vampire in her. Xanthe didn’t know how he procured it or that it was all a part of a bigger plan, a plan to get her all for himself.