“Well, what the hell else do you think Ellie is?” I uttered in a voice thick with pain. “You’re the one who told me how much I must love her. What do you think an affai is but the embodiment of a Storm Lord’s true passion?”
Lexa shot Jonas an amused look, and he sighed. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”
She placed her hand on my jaw, then on my chest. I immediately tensed as my bones and muscles knit, but the pain didn’t bother me anymore.
I sighed with relief. “That’s amazing.” I couldn’t help thinking what a mistake Arim must have made so many years ago. Lexa had so many facets. Sure, she was Dark and no doubt lethal, but there’d been an odd shine of Light that speared her when’d I looked into her past.
The visions I’d seen earlier were brutal and confusing but contained a foreign taint I’d yet to encounter. I knew for a fact Lexa hadn’t committed the terrible murders I’d seen. And I had a feeling Lexa and Arim’s major falling-out stemmed from those killings.
“Thank you.” She withdrew her touch. “You’re the first Light Bringer to ever believe in my innocence.”
I stared in surprise before belatedly raising my mental shields.
“Now, go to your affai and gift her your love. She’ll need you now more than ever. Soon, Cadmus, the time will come when tests and trust meet truth. Cement your bond with Elliara before evil has a chance to rip it asunder.”
She stepped back, studying Jonas and me with eerie intensity. “We don’t have a lot of time. Sin Garu and the Netharat are coming. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it this time. Not by myself.”
Chapter 19
Arim: Guardian of Storm
“I can’t believe you three called me back for this.” Once again in Tanselm, I glared at my nephews, wondering if I’d regret temporarily turning them into stone for a few days of relative peace.
“You’re kidding.” Darius’ red eyes blazed with anger. “No ‘thank you’? Hell, Arim, we just found Cadmus for you. Ellie Markham.” He shook his head. “I worked with her for months. Right under my nose. I never would have guessed.”
I sighed and knew I had only himself to blame. “Cadmus has been staying with Ellie Markham, a Djinn. What I don’t know is where he’ll be when I return. He said he’d be at Ellie’s, but I know a hunted look when I see one. And then there was that unexpected conversation with Ellie’s father.”
“Ethim il Ruethe.” Aerolus nodded. “Alandra filled me in yesterday.”
“We’re really going to have work on your communication skills,” Marcus said coolly. “That’s the second time you’ve been holding out on us, Aerolus.”
“Yeah,” Darius added, his expression grim. “I think you’re taking yourself a little too seriously. All that mage crap is turning you into a sanctimonious know-it-all, a little too much like…” He paused as everyone glanced at me. “Never mind.”
“You know, Uncle, it wouldn’t hurt for you to tell us what you know. That way we wouldn’t be stepping on your toes so often,” Marcus offered, his gaze sharp. “You look tired, and we’ll need you at full strength to withstand the next Netharat onslaught. It’s been too long since their last attack. Though I haven’t found anything to worry about, I can almost feel them readying to battle.”
I rubbed my eyes. I’d felt the same, that Sin Garu and his minions were biding their time, waiting. Unfortunately, I had a bad feeling their wait had to do with Cadmus. So, yes, I worried. I was tired and troubled that my magic didn’t thrive as it should. Almost as if Ethim had cursed me. Since our conversation, each time I reached out to Tanselm, the land pushed me away, back towards the Between.
Now when I used my magic, I felt spots of nothingness where Light had always flourished. In the past years, the spotty condition had been hit or miss, and the frequency of such anomalies within me used to be low. Now, I felt Tanselm losing its spark with my every call to power. In a pending battle against true evil, weakness could not be tolerated. What had that annoying Sarqua done? I swore the next time I saw Ethim il Ruethe, heads would roll.
Furious that I still had no answers, I mentally searched for Cadmus but couldn’t find him in the mundane plane. Knowing my stubborn nephew, Cadmus could be anywhere right now. The sex-starved fool had grown obsessed with Ellie Markham, so much that even his return to Tanselm wouldn’t surprise me.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Aerolus asked, his eyes bright, his voice deep, echoing within the stone walls. A haze of Shadow filtered through the air between us, seeking truth as it tried to infiltrate my magic.
Astonished, I quickly thrust my nephew to the far corner of my room. “You would seek to breach my safeguards? In my own home?” I glared at Aerolus, my festering frustration and worry coalescing into rage, obliterating my infamous control.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Darius growled at a now wide-eyed Aerolus.
“Arim,” Marcus said calmly. “Do you think we could ignore Aerolus for a minute and focus on Cadmus?”
“No, Marcus, I don’t.” Reaching out, I hauled Aerolus to me with a magical yank that had all three brothers eyeing me warily. Aerolus finally looked worried, and he had reason to be. Gripping my nephew’s collar in a tight fist, I shook him to make sure I had his full attention.
“Now, Arim —”
“Now, Aerolus,” I mocked, my emotions seething. “I don’t have time for this. Keep your Shadowy parlor tricks out of my mind and out of the castle. We still don’t know how vulnerable your mother is to a Netharat threat, and any use of Dark magic within the keep could summon Sin Garu, whether we want him here or not.
“I’m fine,” I added with a snarl at my nephews until they dropped their gazes to the floor, one by one. “More than powerful enough to feed you three to the Next if you don’t stop acting like children instead of the princes you should be. I have too much to worry about without stroking your precious egos. You found Cadmus, great. Next time, have Darius tell me telepathically, and save me the time and energy of a return trip. Focus on protecting your mother, your affai, and Tanselm. I’ll worry about our last missing Storm Lord.”
I could tell the negative power I emanated made the three princes uncomfortable, but I did nothing to stem my displeasure. Aerolus had actually tried to infiltrate my private thoughts? My nephews thought me too weak to withstand the minor sacrifices a warrior made when approaching battle?
