He nodded. “Obviously it has, or we wouldn’t have fought a Djinn and a Nocumat.” He crossed his arms and widened his stance, as if bracing for battle. “If I’m not mistaken, the Nocumat is Shadren, correct?”
“Yes, he is.” With just that one question, he subtly reminded me just how far apart our worlds really were. What he considered a monster, I considered a friend. Well, maybe not Oxcen, but his sister certainly.
“You controlled it — him — easily.”
“Actually, the threat of his mother controlled him.” I couldn’t help a satisfied smirk. The little creep. Maybe next time, Oxcen would think before helping a Dark Lord.
“I fail to see the humor in the situation.” Aerolus stood rigid. “Oxcen nearly killed my brother.”
I waved away his anger. “A childish prank. Oxcen was only being himself. You want to blame someone for the River Prince’s near miss, blame the Dark Lord.”
“Sin Garu.” He stared down at me from that impressive height, his brows drawn in thought. “The Aellei fought alongside the Dark Lords in Tanselm.”
“A thousand years ago.”
“Together, nonetheless. Dark Lords and Shadren, and now Djinn and wraith as well.”
“Now hold on a minute.” I glared at him. “My people may have fought with the Dark Lords in the past, but a lot has changed since then. I don’t dispute that the Dark Lords grew tainted under too much raw magic.”
“And the Aellei and Djinn?” The hard, judging look in his eyes had passed, replaced with a tangible curiosity and interest in our shared history.
This Aerolus I knew very well, the scholar and sorcerer in training.
“In our past, many cultures clashed. Many worlds collided. What you Light Bringers failed to understand was that because of so much upheaval, the Dark Tribes split.”
“I know that, Alandra.” My name on his lips made my blood tingle. “The Aellei vanished, rarely heard from anymore. But your brethren, the Shadren, turned against all things Light, as did the Djinn and the wraiths.”
“Technically, you’re not talking about wraiths but about ice wraiths. And no, the Shadren didn’t turn against all things Light.”
Oh hell. I was done feeling uncomfortable in my soiled clothing. I moved to a small cabinet in the corner of my sanctuary and removed a clean dress.
Without regard to Aerolus, I slipped easily out of my soiled clothes, murmured a spell to clean myself, and slid into my new white dress with a sigh. “That’s much better.” I turned to face him.
The odd look on his face stopped me. Surely he wasn’t going to act funny about a little nudity, not after what we’d just shared.
I frowned. “What?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing.”
“Where was I?” I strolled to my most comfortable chair, an overstuffed ball of nor seed covered in a soft, brown hide I’d found in Seattle. With a nod to the small ring of stones on the floor, I watched a green blaze appear, soothing as well as warming my tired mind and body.
With a small wave of my hand, I commanded a similar chair to appear near me. Aerolus lowered himself into it with thanks. The guy was never less than a gentleman, which made his earlier behavior intriguing. He’d been so sexual, so commanding, that —
Stop that train of thought. Right now.
“You were talking about how I was wrong about the Shadren, and I suppose, the ice wraiths and Djinn?” he encouraged, as if talking to a child.
“Don’t patronize me, Aerolus.” I sighed, wanting to snuggle into my seat. I felt so relaxed, so at peace here under the warmth of Aellein fire with him by my side. All the restless nights of the past few months, the lack of sleep, the large energy expenditures transporting between worlds, despite the Mir charm, they all seemed to come crashing down on me as I struggled to focus on the here and now.
Aerolus stared at me, his face inscrutable. Then he smiled, an honest, open expression of emotion that would have jolted my heart had I not reminded myself to remain detached.
Distance, I must remain polite but distant. No more sex, and definitely no more shows of vulnerability in front of the Storm Lord.
“What?” I asked when he continued to grin.
“Nothing. Just that purie seems even more fitting now. That chair fairly swallows you whole.”
I grimaced, once again feeling as if he’d somehow gotten the upper hand in a game I thought I was winning. “I’m going to forget you said that. Now, do you want to know the truth about your supposed enemies or not?”
