But maybe I shouldn’t have laughed.
I could see his magic, and red pulses of rage burned in Arim’s aura. He wasn’t playing around. The sorcerer meant to destroy me. What had I been thinking to knock him around, and with wind, no less?
I had no idea where that had come from. I was no warrior. Truth be told, I leaned toward scholarly with a penchant for mischief.
“You’ll die for that,” Arim warned.
Hurriedly constructing a shield of Shadow, I jerked under a massive beam of Light.
Arim struck me over and over with too much magic to absorb. His anger, his Light, overpowered me. My shield was cracking, and I couldn’t concentrate past my fear to figure out what to do.
I understood, too late, just whom I had dared attack: Arim the Light Bringer, Killer of Shadow.
Arim raised his arm and spread his fingers as he gathered the latent magic around him. His eyes had turned from black to myriad colors pulsing where his eyes should be.
So totally foreign from anything I’d ever seen that fear became my world as I stared into the face of my death.
“What’s going on in here?”
I spun around to see Aerolus. Arim turned as well, his eyes still doing that funky kaleidoscope thing. Not sure if he was fully in control of himself, I instinctively darted between him and Aerolus, the impulse to protect my lover greater than my need to protect myself.
In that instant, Arim attacked.
I screamed, barely able to think as ice burned a hole in my chest and spread to my limbs, freezing any attempt to flee, to plead, to even care anymore. My bones stretched, and my flesh shriveled, the cold drying me from the inside out.
Cracks fissured the skin around my eyes and mouth, the pain of so many tiny cuts added to the agony of the beams of Light spearing through me.
Yet amid all the pain and the fear, thoughts of losing Aerolus tortured me more than the knowledge I was dying.
Chapter 12
Aerolus
“Arim, stop!” I tried, but my uncle was oblivious to everything but destroying Alandra. Her face twisted in pain, and her eyes sought mine, not with a plea to make it stop, but with a strange regret.
“By the Light, Uncle, cease!”
Arim blinked, a sign he’d finally heard me but didn’t stop his attack.
Making a snap decision, I stepped between him and Alandra, freezing as Arim’s power sought a hold on me. Under the magical onslaught, I recognized the spell and tried to relax. My uncle used a counter-Shadow spell, one that shouldn’t have caused me much pain. A bit of discomfort perhaps, but no more.
Yet my anguish grew as the Light hurt me. Instead of the heat I would have expected, a frosty fist of cold made my breath catch and my body stiffen. Pain froze everything but my mind.
“Aerolus. What the hell are you thinking?” I dimly heard Arim shout.
He pressed a hand to my heart, increasing the ache in my chest. Gradually, the pain stopped. The aggravating prickles of ice faded into a comforting warmth.
“That really hurt.” I stumbled to my knees and turned to Alandra. “Purie,” I said sharply, alarmed at her lack of color. I scrambled to her side and reached the spot below her heart to feel for her aura, swearing when I felt nothing.
“What are you doing with an Aellei?” Arim’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Don’t tell me you slept with her?” He stared hard at Alandra, exhaling with an odd sound of relief. “At least she’s female. Though I suppose we’re overdue for a princely consort. Though technically, it doesn’t matter either way. You could always adopt.”
“I don’t even want to know what you mean. Heal her, Uncle. Tell me what I can do, and I’ll help.”
“I —”
“Just do it!” A strong wind shook the cabinets left hanging in the kitchen as my stress hit the breaking point. Churning energy broke what dishes and glasses remained intact.
But the air around Alandra fluttered gently, stroking with warm laps of wind.
