“Stop acting so superior.” Sava sniffed. “I know she’s a handful. I’ve been around the woman since she was a child. Don’t tell me you think you know her better.” Sava glared.
His energy fed the Dark within me, and I warmed with delight. “Ah. That rage feels fantastic. Not that I’m encouraging your attitude.” I grew tipsy on Sava’s energy. “I tried to tell you she’d reject your help. You’ve known her for years, but you’ve spent little time with her recently. Why do you think I didn’t grab her when I sensed her at the mall?”
“Because she might have killed you if you had?”
I chuckled. “There is that. I knew she didn’t want to deal with Arim yet. Not until she’s fully healed.”
Sava’s mood grew bleaker, enriching his energy. I forced myself not to absorb any more from the Aellein king and concentrated on the wrongness I could see in his flickering aura.
“Sava? What aren’t you telling me?”
He blew out a breath. “We have a major problem, Jonas. My people and yours have felt Tanselm’s rumblings for weeks now.”
I nodded. That’s how he and I had first met. Tanselm clearly had a thing for the Aellein king and for me, though I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Flattered, of course, but also a little worried. The sentient land had a way of loosening her magic.
Suddenly, Storm Lords were marrying Darklings. And lately, Sava spent more time in Tanselm than in Aelle. Again, Dark mixing with Light. Night help us all if I would be forced to wed a Light Bringer.
Sava continued, “For all that our presence here is soothing the gaping wounds left by these idiot Light Bringers, Tanselm needs more. I’m just a visitor, but I can feel the land clawing at me to stay each time I leave.” He rotated his shoulders with discomfort. “The perfect answer to our problems is hiding out in a distant plane, pretending she’s going to heal all by herself.”
I recalled how stubborn my Dark Mistress could be. “I agree. I sensed it the minute I stepped foot on the land. Lexa belongs here, the same as I do. Tanselm wants her. But Lexa’s strong, Sava. She’ll be fine. The things I’ve seen her do…”
“What you don’t know is that Lexa won’t heal, not unless we involve Arim. She’s missing a part of her soul, one ripped out and kept caged by the Malinta demons deep in the heart of Malern.”
I paled. “You’re shitting me.”
Sava raised a brow. “Nice turn of phrase. I see you’ve been spending a lot of time among those of the Earthen plane. Slumming, Jonas?”
“Cut the crap, Sava. Just tell me how serious it is.”
“Very. Lexa, like you, is a true creature of Dark. The demons that took a vital part of her essence are draining her life with each breath she takes. I can’t help her with this, and neither can you. She needs a strong presence of Light to combat the growing threat within her. And not just from any Light Bringer, but from the strongest in the land.”
“Arim? You think he’ll agree? I don’t know. He wants her back, badly, but I don’t think it’s to help her.”
“So he wants you to think. There’s a lot of history between those two.” Sava’s smug grin put me on edge. “Things you’re not aware of.”
“So tell me.”
Sava studied me.
I felt fingers of magic trying to peer through my mind. “Cut it out.” I sent a blast of Dark energy Sava’s way.
He easily deflected the mass, dispersing it into the air, where I easily reabsorbed it. But the distraction broke the tentative hold Sava had placed on my mind, as I’d intended.
“My loyalty is to Lexa. She brought the Djinn back into Tanselm. For that, I’d be her slave forever.” If she’d let me.
“This information is sensitive. I trust it will stay here?”
I nodded, feeling the small bubble of Shadow Sava projected around us to stave off eavesdroppers.
“Several hundred years ago, Arim and Lexa, as well as myself and a few others you’ve never met, attended University together in Tanselm’s Great Hall, where sorcerers, Dark and Light, used to study jointly. It was thought that a combination of the Light’s spectrum could only help our ability to harness particular magics.”
No wonder Sava knew so much. He’d been here when it had all gone to hell.
“Lexa grew up in Tanselm, a fact many don’t know. She was found abandoned as a baby in the Between by a Light Bringer named Muri. Muri was an enchanting woman with a giving heart. Her family took Lexa in and raised her as one of their own. It naturally followed that as Lexa matured, she would take her place at University. She showed remarkable potential to harvest Dark energy from an early age.”
“And the Light Bringers welcomed a Dark Lord in their midst?” I didn’t believe it.
“They did. Such was the strength of Muri and Esel’s love for their adopted daughter. Both Light Bringers were extremely powerful sorcerers and more open-minded than most. Tanselm treasured the pair, gifting them with an enchanting child named Sercha. Lexa was most fond of him.” A ripple of pain crossed his features. “There’s been much speculation about Lexa’s part in their murders.”
