Marcus didn’t move.
I didn’t need to be an empath to sense his frustration. I could only wait and hope the Storm Lord wouldn’t do anything rash.
At times like this, I wished my cousin and I had traded assignments. The Prince of Fire had been a handful, and the Earth Lord was a definite challenge. But in my mind, neither prince compared to Marcus.
Icy, calm, collected, and difficult to read, the River Prince had given me a headache from day one. Watching over Tessa Sheridan for six months didn’t help matters either. I’d formed an attachment, a surprising friendship for the human, one I feared would be the death of me.
Marcus suddenly glowered at me. Terrific. As if Sin Garu weren’t enough to worry about, Marcus still didn’t understand my place in all this. Apparently, the Earth Lord had yet to share it.
A glimpse at Cadmus showed me nothing. Either Cadmus didn’t believe me, didn’t want to trust me, or hadn’t understood what else I had sent him before they’d arrived.
Further study of the Wind Mage, Aerolus, summed a communal nothing. The Storm brothers had collectively shut their minds to anyone but themselves. Fuck. I really could have used at least Aerolus’ help on this.
At this point, I had no choice but to take on Sin Garu.
The love Marcus felt for Tessa would stay her well. Both the Storm Lord and his affai were evenly matched. If by chance they produced the next Royal Four, life in Tanselm would prosper.
The chance for a new Djinn way of life would continue to exist.
I turned my gaze back to Sin Garu to find the sorcerer looking smug. If that one assumed the overking’s throne, the Djinn would forever be ensorcelled, trapped beneath the weight of Sin Garu’s long-reaching hands.
Gritting my teeth, I gathered my power and the latent darkness around me, releasing Tessa from my thrall as I prepared myself for the pain sure to come. I couldn’t afford to let Sin Garu have Tessa. But more than that, I didn’t want to see this fragile new love destroyed.
“Just great,” I muttered, drawing everyone’s attention. “A little time spent among them and I’m turning soft.”
Wrenching away my hold on this mortal form, I engaged my power and started to shimmer.
Chapter 36
Marcus
I stared with shock as Jonas Chase, Tessa’s annoying boss, transformed into a glowing, dark-aura Djinn.
Using the diversion, Aerolus teleported to Tessa and stole her out from Sin Garu’s hold, too fast for the mortal eye to follow.
He deposited her behind a wall of elemental magic, a combination of Storm Lord protection behind a couch shielding her from the sight of the battle to come.
“Go,” I ordered Aerolus.
“No. I’m needed more here, as is Tessa.”
I didn’t have time to argue. Besides, if my brother said they were needed here, then they had to stay. Aerolus knew things, and I trusted him.
I faced Sin Garu and kept Jonas under watch as well.
More than angry at our interference, Sin Garu hissed profanity and curses upon Storm kin.
I raised my hands and blinked in astonishment when a web of black enveloped them.
As one, the room turned to Jonas. I’d seen Djinn in their true appearance, in-truth as they called it, only once before, during a legendary battle for the river region south of the eastern kingdom. That had been an extraordinary occurrence, and one witnessed from a league away.
But now I had a front-row seat to a powerful Djinn.
Jonas kept a man’s form, yet where once was flesh now burned a glittering, golden light surrounded by black flame.
The sight of a Djinn in-truth was spectacular. But what truly transfixed me wasn’t his transformation, but his attack on Sin Garu.
The Djinn pointed his hands at the sorcerer, his fingers outstretched, and a visible stream of dark matter surrounded and pushed through the sorcerer.
