Ellie’s lips muttered in a whispery voice, and Arim’s head snapped up and his eyes opened.
“Much better. Now, sister mine, why don’t you get down on your knees and beg for my forgiveness while I mull on the gift you’ve left me, hmm?” Sin Garu scratched a claw-like fingernail across Arim’s cheek, and Ellie felt Arim command his body to react. His head pulled back, affecting a weak flinch, but Sin Garu was too impressed with himself to notice the unnaturally jerky motion of Arim’s body.
“I won’t beg, not for you or for anyone. Not ever again,” Lexa said in a low voice, her eyes narrowed as they rested on her brother. “I think you owe me thanks. I took care of Balen for you.” She stared at Sin Garu and suddenly smiled. “He took to my compulsion to consume blood, and it vanquished him far better than you did. But then, you know of what I speak, don’t you?” She stepped closer to him, then glanced at Cadmus. “Been ingesting a little too much Storm Lord blood, brother dear? You look a bit peaked.”
He struck her so hard and fast it looked a blur to Ellie’s eyes. She could feel her body tense and wondered when Arim thought to interfere. But he waited, not playing his part. Damn it! By now he ought to have made his move, the way she had in Cadmus’ vision.
Sin Garu spat at his sister, “Because of your interference, I nearly lost my life in that last battle. Surprised, Lexa? Don’t be. I carried it off well enough, didn’t I? You never suspected I had just beaten Balen by the skin of my teeth.” He smiled, revealing a lethal mouth. “If only you’d pursued me, we might have ended this so much sooner.”
He leant down and grabbed her by the shoulder, digging into her bone and flesh until blood poured from the punctures.
“Help her. Arim, move!” Yet Ellie’s body remained still. “Shit. Where the hell is Jonas?”
Like an answer to her silent prayers, Jonas appeared in the air next to the wraintu and ripped the head off of one of the Netharat. He disappeared when as the Nocumat inside the wraintu consumed the body and vanished. Like watching The Blob but in a much more condensed, ugly version, Ellie thought, wishing she didn’t have to see this. But she couldn’t stop herself from watching.
The remaining two wraintu screeched. Sin Garu shot blue flame from his fingertips, an impressive arch of lightning that covered the sky.
Nothing happened to Lexa or Cadmus. Sin Garu leant towards his sister. “So you thought to use your puppet Djinn to distract me? What do you take me for?” With a twist of his free hand, he clenched his will around Cadmus, squeezing blood from the many bite marks on her Earth Lord’s body.
Ellie took a step in Cadmus’ direction and wanted to sob with thanks. But the more she watched her lover writhe in pain, the angrier she grew.
Ellie, keep calm, Arim warned.
She couldn’t help it. Before she knew it, she could see black flame surrounding her arm bathed in light. And then Arim finally took charge.
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Let him go.” The voice was Ellie’s, but the words belonged to Arim.
Sin Garu didn’t seem to notice more than what he’d been primed to see. “Ah, the affai. So good of you to join us, Darkling. Ellie al il Ruethe, as I live and breathe.” He held a hand to his heart, and his mock sincerity tempted Arim to rip the smile off his face. “How are your parents? Safe in Foreia, I trust?”
“I won’t ask you again.” Arim raised a hand and pointed a finger at one of the wraintu. Jonas appeared and struck the one next to it, while Arim felled the wraintu with a blast of combined Light and Dark energy. He watched with satisfaction as he and Jonas decimated Sin Garu’s small force. But just as Jonas moved to take Cadmus into his arms, Sin Garu blasted him with a Nocumat.
Jonas fell several feet out of the sky to the castle. The Nocumat tangled in his energy, and he burst in truth as he fought for his life. Through Ellie’s eyes, Arim watched the display in a new spectrum, Dark and Light, clear and surprisingly beautiful by Djinn standards.
“Do you really think I’d trust Lexa to give me Arim, the great Killer of Shadow, without a price attached?” Sin Garu shook his head. “Well, now, Sister. Who would you like to lose next, Arim or Ellie?”
“How about both?” she answered coolly as if her brother didn’t have his hand stuck in her flesh.
He squeezed her shoulder, and she flinched. Arim’s rage grew. The Dark around him drew Sin Garu’s gaze, and the Dark Lord frowned.
“Elliara? What is that burning in your fist? Not--”
Arim flew into the bastard, thrusting Ellie’s hands into Sin Garu’s chest as he physically pushed him from Lexa. Ellie’s energy drew Sin Garu’s, and as it did, the Dark sorcerer’s eyes grew wide with understanding.
“Arim,” he snarled, his eyes turning black with hatred. “I should have known this was too easy.”
“You should have,” Lexa agreed and shot blue flame through her brother’s belly, knocking him out of Arim’s grasp.
Sin Garu howled and flew into the air, his stomach literally on fire as he hovered above the wall. “I’ll kill you both! But not before I kill your precious Storm Lord.”
Before he could touch Cadmus, Jonas pushed a hand through the Nocumat and pulled Cadmus to him with a burst of Dark energy. Lexa waved at Cadmus and he disappeared. Thankfully, one of them found safety.
“Fine.” Sin Garu gasped as he fought to contain the fatal energy raging through him.
Blue flame, Dark energy and Arim’s Light had joined together to battle to own Sin Garu’s body. Lexa, he and Ellie kept their focused power directed into their enemy. Arim could see Sin Garu weakening. In just a few minutes more, the threat to Tanselm would be vanquished.
Eagerness surged through him, and he felt Ellie’s joy merge with his own as he kept his power on the Dark Lord. A sudden boom rent the very air, and Arim noted a great, gaping wound in the sky. Beyond the castle walls, a dimensional gateway through which hundreds of Netharat suddenly poured opened in Tanselm.
