* * *
The rage boiling in his veins demanded retribution as Aerén reappeared at the river bank. A female he cared about, an innocent and possible Chosen, had almost died.
They should have been celebrating. Instead, they would kill her.
He wasn’t one to keep punishment delivered behind closed doors when it came to something like this. He released the denizens from his freeze-hold. Voices rumbled. The noise grew as he stalked over to the scowling male flanked by Thiorr and Lykon.
Not a rebel or a lower-power denizen, but a lord of the realm and one he knew. Jehel. Sibling of his best friend, Drav’n.
Eons later, Aerén still couldn’t comprehend how two brothers could be so different.Fuck!Drav would be wounded by what was to come. And it made Aerén grit his teeth harder.
Thiscuzzonhad been vocal about upholding the rules of their world, but Aerén had let it pass.Now this.
Aerén stopped in front of him. Jehel glared with flat-out hostility, his wrists manacled with black, power-muting bracelets.
“Why?” Aerén asked, trying to keep his cool when he wanted to ram his fist into the cowardly bastard’s face.
Silence.
The heat beating down on him, Aerén nodded to his enforcers to release the male.
“There’s a reason our rules are rigid,” he said, and Jehel made no attempt to defend himself but stared haughtily at Aerén.
Because the male was centuries older than him?
Jehel would learn the truth soon enough about whom he faced.
“With powers like ours comes a certain responsibility. Never to be used for harm is the first rule, especially not in a dying realm like ours,” he said, tone like shards of ice. “But you would kill an innocent? A mortal who is without power or means of protecting herself?”
With his mind, he let his deadly ability free, and it swept into Jehel. The traitor’s eyes widened as Aerén directed all the blood in the male’s veins to his head. An ability he rarely used, but to seek justice for her? Oh, he fucking would.
Jehel’s face reddened. Blood vessels broke, spreading into the whites of his eyeballs.
“Why?” Aerén snapped, relaxing the pressure a little so the bastard could speak.
Blood dripped from his eyes and nose. “I heard the rumor. The weakest of species would pollute our bloodline?” he hissed. “We don’t even mate with the lower-level peasants here, but the High Lords of the other dominions are doing so. Even the Darkrean warlord!”
“Those human females are the Chosen, selected by the mystical magic of the seven sacred Stones of Light of our world,” Aerén growled.
“They are mortals!” he snapped it like it was a curse. “Now Elyon Anedaén has made it a decree for humans to mate with us! If the old king were here, he would never stand for this sacrilege!”
It took all of Aerén’s restraint not to kill him. “No one is forcingyouto mate any of the Chosen.”
“No? What about Eregen?”
Aerén narrowed his eyes. “What about him?”
“He promised he wasn’t mating any of those weak females, then he says he would mate this puny one!”
A commotion stirred. Drav’n appeared. Color leeched from his face when he saw the black bands on his brother’s wrists. “What have you done, J?”
Aerén cast his enforcer a flat look. “He thought killing Leya would keep the Empyreans safe from her.”
His friend froze. “What?”
Jehel spat, “We will break all that is sacrosanct, and the laws our Creator put in place for us, if we mate with those weaklings. It will dilute our purity. Drav, you see my point, don’t you?”
Drav appeared as if carved in stone. “Through all your ramblings, I warned you to take heed—”
