Leya shot to her feet. “Gandalf?” she breathed, nearly choking on the muffin.
“Hello, my dear.” He stopped a few feet from her, the breeze tugging loosened strands of his white hair. “It’s good to see you again.”
Again? She’d never met the man—this immortal—in her life!
“You were hurt when I put you in a stasis,” he explained, reading her confused expression correctly. “Mortally wounded.”
Oh, right.“Thank you for what you did.”
“It was my pleasure.” Those eyes, dark as an obsidian sky studded with stars, studied her quietly. “You are well?”
“Yes, I feel so much better than before.”
He nodded. “It’s what immortality does, my dear. Heightens all your senses. Everything will be sharper, clearer.”
Ohhh, that’s what all those sounds were?
A smile brightened his pale features. “And who might this Gandalf be?”
She gave a wry laugh. “He’s a book character. An Earth thing.” This immortal didn’t look as wrinkled and tired, but he doubtless was eons old.
“So, you are the new Chosen? I never got to ask Prince Aerén.”
“No. My sister is.”
Leya explained how she’d given blood to Hana to save her, and about the magic transferring.
“This is odd.” His brow furrowed. “But you are Prince Aerén’s mate, yes?”
“Who are you, exactly?” she finally asked.
“Forgive me. I am Allatus, Mage of Empyrea.”
Crap,hewas the mage everyone spoke of in awe?
“It takes a rare being to put her life on the line, to fight a powerful, immortal sorcerer to rescue another immortal.”
Leya’s cheeks heated. “I couldn’t let anything happen to Aerén or his father.”
“You have a good heart, child.” He touched her shoulder. “Now, I must take my leave of you and meet with the princes.” He vanished in a blink.
Wow, she sat again and shook her head.
She ate the remaining cake, and licked the sweet liquid center from her fingers. Her attention flickered back to the islands. Did one of them sink in the last storm season?
Leya braced her arms on her knees, watching the islands. The wind grew, and the clouds above darkened ominously. She should make tracks back to the castle before the storm hit—
An intense emotion swept through her, striking deep in her chest, and she gasped, warmth flooding her. One of joy.
She rubbed her chest, breathing hard. Man, how odd. She turned away. Something whistled past her ear—
Jesus! Leya crouched as a thwack sounded. She glanced back, and at the sight of an arrow embedded in the rock behind her, she growled, “For hell’s sake, not again!”
Her heart pounding, she didn’t dare rise and give the ass a direct target.
A bald male took form in front of her, aiming a bow with a nocked arrow straight at her chest. This was the same skinhead ass who trapped her in the cave in Dregarus. Saij!
“You won’t escape a second time,lupa,” he said in a voice so cold, a trickle of fear slid down her back. “Get up.”
