19. Arim Guardian of Storm

"I can't believe you three called me back for this." Once again in Tanselm, I glared at my nephews, wondering if I'd regret temporarily turning them into stone for a few days of relative peace.

"You're kidding." Darius' red eyes blazed with anger. "No ‘thank you'? Hell, Arim, we just found Cadmus for you. Ellie Markham." He shook his head. "I worked with her for months. Right under my nose. I never would have guessed."

I sighed and knew I had only himself to blame. "Cadmus has been staying with Ellie Markham, a Djinn. What I don't know is where he'll be when I return. He said he'd be at Ellie's, but I know a hunted look when I see one. And then there was that unexpected conversation with Ellie's father."

"Ethim il Ruethe." Aerolus nodded. "Alandra filled me in yesterday."

"We're really going to have work on your communication skills," Marcus said coolly. "That's the second time you've been holding out on us, Aerolus."

"Yeah," Darius added, his expression grim. "I think you're taking yourself a little too seriously. All that mage crap is turning you into a sanctimonious know-it-all, a little too much like…" He paused as everyone glanced at me. "Never mind."

"You know, Uncle, it wouldn't hurt for you to tell us what you know. That way we wouldn't be stepping on your toes so often," Marcus offered, his gaze sharp. "You look tired, and we'll need you at full strength to withstand the next Netharat onslaught. It's been too long since their last attack. Though I haven't found anything to worry about, I can almost feel them readying to battle."

I rubbed my eyes. I'd felt the same, that Sin Garu and his minions were biding their time, waiting. Unfortunately, I had a bad feeling their wait had to do with Cadmus. So, yes, I worried. I was tired and troubled that my magic didn't thrive as it should. Almost as if Ethim had cursed me. Since our conversation, each time I reached out to Tanselm, the land pushed me away, back towards the Between.

Now when I used my magic, I felt spots of nothingness where Light had always flourished. In the past years, the spotty condition had been hit or miss, and the frequency of such anomalies within me used to be low. Now, I felt Tanselm losing its spark with my every call to power. In a pending battle against true evil, weakness could not be tolerated. What had that annoying Sarqua done? I swore the next time I saw Ethim il Ruethe, heads would roll.

Furious that I still had no answers, I mentally searched for Cadmus but couldn't find him in the mundane plane. Knowing my stubborn nephew, Cadmus could be anywhere right now. The sex-starved fool had grown obsessed with Ellie Markham, so much that even his return to Tanselm wouldn't surprise me.

"What aren't you telling us?" Aerolus asked, his eyes bright, his voice deep, echoing within the stone walls. A haze of Shadow filtered through the air between us, seeking truth as it tried to infiltrate my magic.

Astonished, I quickly thrust my nephew to the far corner of my room. "You would seek to breach my safeguards? In my own home?" I glared at Aerolus, my festering frustration and worry coalescing into rage, obliterating my infamous control.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Darius growled at a now wide-eyed Aerolus.

"Arim," Marcus said calmly. "Do you think we could ignore Aerolus for a minute and focus on Cadmus?"

"No, Marcus, I don't." Reaching out, I hauled Aerolus to me with a magical yank that had all three brothers eyeing me warily. Aerolus finally looked worried, and he had reason to be. Gripping my nephew's collar in a tight fist, I shook him to make sure I had his full attention.

"Now, Arim —"

"Now, Aerolus," I mocked, my emotions seething. "I don't have time for this. Keep your Shadowy parlor tricks out of my mind and out of the castle. We still don't know how vulnerable your mother is to a Netharatthreat, and any use of Dark magic within the keep could summon Sin Garu, whether we want him here or not.

"I'm fine," I added with a snarl at my nephews until they dropped their gazes to the floor, one by one. "More than powerful enough to feed you three to the Next if you don't stop acting like children instead of the princes you should be. I have too much to worry about without stroking your precious egos. You found Cadmus, great. Next time, have Darius tell me telepathically, and save me the time and energy of a return trip. Focus on protecting your mother, your affai, and Tanselm. I'll worry about our last missing Storm Lord."

I could tell the negative power I emanated made the three princes uncomfortable, but I did nothing to stem my displeasure. Aerolus had actually tried to infiltrate my private thoughts? My nephews thought me too weak to withstand the minor sacrifices a warrior made when approaching battle?

Lack of sleep and rigorous physical exertion were at times necessary to properly prepare. Nothing about this coming bout with Sin Garu seemed out of the ordinary, or at least, it shouldn't to the Storm Lords. They had no way of knowing my magic weakened every time Tanselm rejected my aid.

"Arim," Aerolus began, trying to break from my grip. But before he could say more, my face crumpled in a mask of pain.

Stunned, I watched as Darius and Marcus soon fell to their knees, gasping for breath.

"Cadmus," Aerolus whispered, shaking at the pain. "He needs us, now."

I used every last breath of energy in my body to overcome the Djinn magic masking Cadmus' whereabouts. For a heartbeat, I clearly saw him in the grip of extraordinary pain and under a Dark haze of power. Then the pain ceased as if it had never been.

Marcus and Darius shook off the hurt, and Aerolus sagged in my grip. Gently lowering Aerolus to a nearby chair, I tried again to fix on Cadmus but could not.

"He's not dead," Darius announced in a hoarse voice. "The pain's gone, that's all."

"By the Light, what could cause that kind of pain? And how the hell is it affecting us this hard?" Marcus wanted to know.

I grimaced, recalling all too well the wounds I'd once suffered at the hands of Dark Lords. My mind whirled at the possibilities, and the conclusions I drew made me sick with fear. That, coupled with Tanselm's sudden need for me to leave her lands, told me more than I wanted to know.

"I'm going to find your brother. But I need the three of you to be strong here. Hear me, Sin Garu's going to attack soon. He's going to do it from within the grounds. I can feel it."

Marcus frowned. "But how —"

"We'll find the threat," Darius promised, and Marcus nodded.

Aerolus nodded as well, his gaze piercing as he stared at me. "Mother and Tanselm will remain safe, but for how long, we can't promise. You need to return as soon as you're able. And you need to fill in those holes," he added cryptically.

To fill those vulnerable voids in my magic. Well, well. So the whelp did sense my susceptibilities. Aerolus' marriage to Alandra had yielded far more than love and Shadow magic, but an incredible insight as well.

"I will, thanks," I added sarcastically, my mood lightening a fraction at the knowledge the Storm Lords were indeed well-armed, even without me. "Don't call me again unless it's an emergency."

They hastily murmured their agreement. Then suddenly, as one, they tensed.

"Cadmus?" I asked, silently raging with the need to protect my family, to punish those responsible for these attacks.

"Yes, but it's not as bad as the last one. This feels like a physical beating." Marcus shook his head.

"One that little asshole probably deserves." Darius clenched his jaw, trying to breathe a bit of humor on a worrisome situation.

"Little?" Aerolus grinned as their expressions eased. "The only thing little about Cadmus is his tolerance for you two."

I stared at the three of them, wishing they were four. At least Cadmus had faced this present danger and survived. But how much longer could he withstand that kind of hurt before fading into the Next?

"Arim, I know you're in there." A woman's clear voice filtered through the door, causing all four of us to stare at each other with dread.

Recognizing my sister, I prayed for Tanselm's guidance as I readied to leave. "That's my cue. Remember, don't call me unless it's a matter of life and death."

My nephews nodded, and as the door opened, I teleported myself back to Ellie's apartment.

* * *

AEROLUS

"What the hell's going on?" Darius growled. "I've never seen Arim so angry or so off his game."

"And Cad—" Marcus stopped himself at a glance to our mother. "My stomach is giving me fits."

I frowned, staring thoughtfully at my mother as she joined us in Uncle Arim's room. "Mother, I think you need to tell us about Arim's connection to Lexa Van Norsen."

Ravyn stared, wide-eyed. "Lexa? I haven't heard that name in over three hundred years."

"Well, we need to hear it now. Alandra and I have been rehashing our time in Aelle, and we've both concluded that Lexa has an important role to play in Tanselm's future." From what I now knew, I thought it probable Lexa had been the one responsible for saving our lives after their battle on Aelle. Without her aid, I know I would have died.

But that meant Lexa had been in Tanselm. The land openly shuddered when evil touched its soil, such as it had when Sin Garu and the Netharat first invaded. Tanselm rejected the presence of evil but obviously welcomed Lexa, since none of us had had an inkling she'd arrived.

But if Lexa had saved me, a Storm Lord, why had she openly assisted the Dark Lords in Aelle? What exactly was her agenda in all this?

And why did I have the feeling my uncle knew a hell of a lot more than he was saying?