“You are?” Jonas didn’t sound convinced. He kept staring from Ellie to me, as if waiting to see something between us.
“I am. And I really am glad to see you again, Cadmus.” You stupid, self-righteous Light Bringer. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like.” You’re out of here as soon as I can make it happen. “And I hope you’ll be comfortable.” Bastard.
Talk about not holding back, I sent her.
Instead, I nodded. “I’m glad we can catch up. Jonas, don’t you have some place to be?”
The Djinn scowled, his expression causing him to physically darken. Despite having seen the Djinn in truth more times than I could count in the past few weeks, a Djinn’s natural state never failed to instill awe.
Jonas’ golden skin glowed brighter and brighter, until all that remained was a mass of energy with the outline of a man’s face. Eclipsing much of his brightness, a visible aura of black flame surrounded his entire body. The dark fire licked at the shadows in Ellie’s small apartment.
“What the hell are you looking at, Light Bringer?” Jonas snapped and deliberately turned to Ellie. “Keep an eye on him. From a distance. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He glared at me. “You treat her with the respect she deserves.” He grinned with evil intent. “Or I’ll bring my friends back to play with you again, and this time I won’t save your sorry ass.”
“She’d never allow it.” I shrugged, as if unconcerned. My disinterest made Jonas’ skin glow brighter under the outline of black flame.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about her. If you play your cards right, you won’t learn her rules the hard way.” With a nod to Ellie, Jonas vanished.
After a few tense moments of silence, Ellie cleared her throat and met my gaze. “Who is ‘she’?”
“I’ve been sworn to silence. Ask your cousin, if that’s who he really is. Talk about a secretive bunch. You Djinn are all about conspiracies and stories on top of stories.” I smirked.
She glared, but I could see the smile she tried to hide.
“Ellie, I —”
I don’t know what I would have said, but she cut me off.
“Yeah, we Djinn are full of it.” She yanked my dirty work boots off her coffee table. “Let’s get something straight, Your Highness.” She leaned over me to poke me in the chest.
I stopped grinning, not so amused. She seemed honestly angry.
She continued, “You’ve got more Darkness inside you than I’ve ever had, so cut the crap. You need a place to crash, and apparently I’m the only game in town. Keep yourself out of my business and you can stay. I’ve got things to do with my life. Things that don’t involve Tanselm and Storm Lords and freaking Djinn.”
I stared at her, picking up a few things she tried to hide.
How much she loved my brown eyes, that fluctuated from honey-gold to earth-brown. How she missed what she’d thought she’d had. And how she hated being part Djinn.
For years, Ellie had tried to live a normal life. No magic, no Dark versus Light, and no Dark Lords and their minion Netharat threatening death and dismemberment. But within a short span of time, she’d become involved in a life full of magic, excitement, and bitter heartache.
I felt badly for her, until her thoughts grew muffled and ended with What an utter asshole.
That kind of hurt, but so did the knowledge I’d caused that bitter heartbreak. My prejudices against all things on the Dark side of the spectrum had wounded her. But I was still grieving our losses back home.
I had no idea how to make it right. “Ellie?”
“Just keep to yourself and we’ll be fine, Storm Lord.”
Stomping from the room, she entered the only bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
I groaned, lost between wanting to make her feel better and respecting her need for space.
It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 3
Ellie
The next few days passed slowly for me. At ends now that I’d finished my job at Outpour, I had to create things to do that would keep my out of my apartment until late at night when I’d stumble into bed.
