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“We’ve done alright,” I said defensively.

“Not as well as you could be doing,” he spoke to me, then returned to Dom. “She’ll be safer with this knowledge. It could be the difference between her living or dying, I promise you this.”

He was clever. No one could sniff out a weakness in others quite like a telepath.

Sven looked my way and waved in Dom’s direction. “You’re with that one, right? The druid Arch? You’re on his mind constantly.”

It took me a moment to recover from my shock. I hadn’t expected him to start talking about my love life. Also the on his mind constantly’ part was a bit distracting.

I was almost blushing. I took a calming breath.

“Yes,” Dom said when it took me too long to answer.

My brother just kept looking at me. “Well, say you end up together. Say it works out, and you need to go into a sleep for a few months, years, hell, decades. I can teach you how to bring him with you. There are benefits to our trances, not the least of which that you wouldn’t have to leave him every time you needed a recovery phase.”

It was times like these that I realized my lack of knowledge about myself and my kind was vast. There were big, gaping holes that left me ignorant. I hadn’t even known that we could choose when to go into one of the deep sleeps.

I hadn’t thought Dom was still listening. He was turned away, talking to one of his people, but he turned suddenly, striding right up like he’d been part of the conversation all along. “How?” he asked my brother, voice cold and determined.

I blinked at Dom. What was even going through his head? He could never leave for long periods of time. He had too much responsibility to even consider a short-term leave.

Sven smiled at him. “Let me loose and I’ll tell you. I’ll work with you, and with her, on whatever you want in exchange for my freedom. Give me a geas. Make it airtight. I know you’ve been plotting it out in your head. Just do it so we can get to work.”

And just like that, I knew he had Dom convinced.

Sven looked at me. “Your son is a telepath.”

Fucking mind-reader. I glared at him.

“It’s a challenging gift to master, but he doesn’t have to do it alone. It doesn’t need to be a curse for him as it has for me. It took centuries but I’ve mastered it, and I can teach him, guide him as no one else can. Let me help you. Let me help your son.”

And just like that, he had me too.

We were traveling back to town, errant brother in tow, when he said casually, “I’ll join the guys getting to Drake. If we can get past his guards, I think I can make him talk without bloodshed.”

“It’s rude to read the minds of your allies,” Christian told him with a very British sniff.

Sven shrugged. “It’s hard to stop it, and you project your thoughts like you’re blowing them out of a cannon. That’s as much your fault as mine.” He pointed at Caleb. “He doesn’t project at all, but his mind is very scary so I plan to stay clear.”

Caleb looked fascinated. “What did you see?”

“I don’t even know. No one here is human, strictly speaking, but you’re… something else entirely. Not like a human at all. Like looking inside of a spider’s brain.”

Caleb smiled and it was not at all pleasant. “Staying clear is a good plan for you. Wander around in my mind again, and I just might trap you there.”

I looked at him. I didn’t think he was joking. “You can do that?”

He stared.

I changed the subject. “Anyone have Tianlong’s number? Let’s set this thing up. The sooner the better.”

“I’ll set it up myself,” Dom said firmly.

“I’m not sure he’ll like that,” I said.

“All the better. I’ll take care of the details.”

Of course he would. Telling Dom about a plan was as good as setting him in charge of it.