Aerén could do nothing, not with humans still about on this freezing night. He’d dealt with these scums often enough, and this one would stir trouble soon enough. The moment he could, he would end the fucker.
With all the civil wars the rebels had drawn his people into, their mystical world of Empyrea was dying, unable to survive the negativity as their arcane magic faded rapidly.
Just the thought of what his people faced—realms buried under snow, scorching deserts, tundra, and others with sinking landmasses—amped up the pain hammering within him from his unspent powers.
“You can’t trust theseishkhens,”the rebel’s taunt drifted to him in the night air.“Who knows what this one would do if his temper’s stirred? Violence runs in his family. The oldest was banished for killing his youngest sibling…”
Aerén froze. Even millennia later, hearing it still gutted him.
Choking down his fury, he got his limbs moving and stalked along the shadows of the buildings. Once clear of humans, he flashed across the narrow side street. His target took flight, dematerializing.
Aerén propelled himself forward at preternatural speed, latching onto his prey’s disappearing molecules, causing him to reform midair. They hurtled down, colliding with a massive dumpster lid and crashing onto the asphalt.
The rebel plowed a fist into his face.
Aerén grunted, pain exploding through his throbbing skull. He welcomed it, but he didn’t let go of the fucker. Dagger summoned, he pressed the tip into the scum’s throat, piercing flesh. Blood seeped. “Why are you following me?”
The male groaned.
“Talk, or I will kill you. In this world, they will thank me for getting rid of a vermin like you. In Empyrea, they’d applaud me louder.”
“I’m here for my female,” he protested. “And you attacked me.”
The urge to rip him apart, limb by limb, gripped Aerén by the gorge. He didn’t trust this asshole or his dirt-poor excuse. Rebels only lived to bring about Empyrea’s downfall. “No female in their right mind would want a vermin like—”
The rebel slammed his head into Aerén’s. His brain jolted at the blow, stars careening through his skull.
“Murderous royals!” Thecaenidisappeared in a flash.
Aerén leaped to his feet, fury raging through him. It took every bit of willpower he possessed not to follow and gut the bastard, to remind himself of what was important.
The Chosen.
He rubbed his achy temples. Maybe he should have Ground properly while on Empyrea instead of a few hours. Just the thought of being entombed for days beneath dirt and gravel to expend the buildup of his powers, and every muscle in his body tensed.
The irony didn’t escape him. Empyreans were people of light, not meant to be trapped beneath the ground. But to survive their own overwhelming powers, they had no choice.
Boot steps echoed in the silent alley. Several goths with spiky black hair and an explosion of facial and ear piercings stomped past, casting him sullen glares. One openly ogled him—
A rush of emotions crashed through him, causing his empathic nature to go haywire, splintering his mind. A snarl broke free, and the humans scampered off, reeking of fear.
Fuck! Aerén slammed shut his psychic shields, and his awareness of everything around him dulled, his emotions trapped in the recesses of his mind where nothing moved or stirred. A gargoyle he certainly was in this body he inhabited, mimicking a smiling prince.
He needed coffee.
Dagger dismissed, he headed up the alley to a bustling street in Lower Manhattan. He’d get the human beverage he’d taken a liking to, then start the hunt for the hard-to-find Chosen.
Aerén rubbed his bristly jaw, studying the busy street. Humans bypassed him, huddled in their warm coats against the deep chill of the evening, heads burrowed in their scarves and hats.
He removed his beanie from his jacket pocket, tugged it over his noticeable hair, and cut through the idling cars waiting at the red light. As he neared the opposite side of the road, an odd sensation crawled through him. He slowed to a halt on the sidewalk, a block from the coffeehouse.
Frowning, he perused the busy walkway.
Several females hurried past him. A few threw him sultry glances. Hell, he’d shut down his species’ allure and concealed his hair, but the damn allure all Empyreans were imbued with, like that of the divine angels, seeped through. He moved into the shadows of a nearby building—
A brush, like butterfly wings against his senses, had him going dead still, the touch light, effervescent, tantalizing in its caress. He scanned the place, trying to locate the source.
Eyes narrowed, his gaze settled on the giggling females further up the sidewalk, but another cut by them, bundled in a long, dark red coat. She entered Caffeinated Books.
