Prologue

Tanselm, Two Years Ago

T he sentient land of Tanselm mourned along with the battered heartbeats of lovers long parted. Light and Dark were the most basic components of life imbued in her chosen champion and the woman he'd once, and still, loved.

Some of her inhabitants had an inkling of what Tanselm truly was, but most lived in oblivion of the gift she'd given them. They walked on her grasses, cut down her trees, and breathed in the sweet air tinged with the perfume of pink leraffes, flowers that bloomed year round.

Tanselm was the earth that fed their flora, the stone with which they made their homes, and the waters which washed away their sins. Partial to neither Dark nor Light, she needed both to flourish. A land of feeling, she held the feminine need to bear fruit, both in nature and in her mortal children.

A thousand years ago, the Dark Lords had ruled her. Blood spilled, war encroached, and the Light Bringers took control. Gentler than the Dark Lords, they still devoured her magic as greedily as their enemies. Years passed, and the divide between Light and Dark grew stronger. Shadows barely whispered over her lands, giving her little respite from a steady drain on her magic.

Recent battles for dominance over what she would have freely given hurt her greatly. She weakened more as Dark and Light continued to fight. Yet she held out hope her champion would do what she needed him to.

But he couldn't do it alone.

"Damnation. That I hadn't expected." Her champion gripped his sorcerer's staff and stared in shock at a woman who appeared from out of nowhere.

Tanselm couldn't contain her relief, and the wind sighed through the trees. Right now, in her fertile woods, Light and Dark fused between these two people who had the capacity for greatness if only they'd listen to their hearts.

Her champion: Arim, a stubborn Light Bringer Warrior, the most powerful of his generation. And Lexa: a Dark Lord full of cold magic and a love needing to be let loose. Both formed the pieces of a puzzle long denied their perfect fit.

Tanselm welled with love, feeling a kinship to the slight female and her connection to the Dark.

Lexa called upon the Darkness Tanselm poured into her without reservation. The land felt Lexa's joy and returned the sentiment whole-heartedly.

"My lucky day," Lexa snorted. "The Guardian of Storm and Killer of Shadow. I'm humbled." As petite as Arim was large. Pale of skin where he had a dark tan. Solitary as opposed to Arim and his family.

Equals in every sense, if they'd let themselves just be.

"Light's breast. You have balls showing yourself here." Light arched from Arim's staff to his free, upraised hand. He wore his power well, a sorcerer and warrior with strength to spare.

Yet Tanselm knew he'd felt her wavering support these last centuries. She had tried, but she couldn't spare him all her pain.

"More balls than some," Lexa said with a sneer. She sounded harsh, but her feelings vibrated with passionate energy, a calling to her other half, the man she wanted to deny.

Years ago, Lexa and Arim had been inseparable, the answer to Tanselm's divide. Then innocent blood had tainted her grasses, destroying her tenuous solution to bridge the gap between Light and Darkness.

Arim and Lexa had fought. Lexa left. Arim remained. They both mourned.

Life moved on, and it remained the same. Damaged, declining. Tanselm could feel the sense of loss in both her chosen saviors. To survive, they needed each other, whether they knew it or not.

"You come to me on my own lands. To what, apologize?" Arim sounded incredulous. "Still small-minded and cold-hearted, eh, Blue?"

Under the words lurked pools of deep hurt. So much pain covered in a murky blanket of anger. Yet Tanselm thrived on the darker emotion, balancing so much Light. So when Lexa reached deep inside herself and further into Tanselm, the land gave of herself freely. Lexa thrust her hands forward, blue flame leaping from her fingertips toward Arim.

He absorbed the blow and remained standing. Ice encrusted his front and his skin turned blue with cold. He stood vulnerable, but Lexa didn't attack again. The part of her that still hoped waited, and Tanselm felt hope as well, that the woman and the man might come to some accord.

Then Arim melted the ice, tapped his staff, and shot Light straight at Lexa's heart. She narrowly avoided that blast and the next, and the two danced around each other as if choreographed.

Tanselm hummed with pleasure as their energy tangled, shared, and grew stronger. Beautiful. Wonderful. Healing.

"Why did you return?" Arim asked before hitting Lexa squarely in the chest. He took her off her feet, and Tanselm felt Lexa's pain as her own. Arim frowned and took a step back. He doesn't know why he cannot press forward, and therein lies the problem . "You can't be here. This is sacred land. Why didn't Tanselm warn me of your coming?"

Because you would have prepared to destroy her, the land thought.

If he knew how often Lexa had visited since her "banishment" several centuries ago, he might destroy Lexa in truth. Tanselm had masked Lexa's visits, welcoming the headstrong female's healing Darkness.

"The land warned you," Lexa said with an arrogance she didn't feel. "I felt it. But my energy combined with yours when I entered through the void."

A truth of sorts. Unlike most Dark and Light energy that canceled each other out, Lexa's Dark and Arim's Light attracted each other. A perfect union, if only these stubborn fae would accept Tanselm's appointed roles.

Lexa recovered while Arim experienced, once again, an unbidden lust for her, a distraction that cost him. She blasted him, stealing his breath, and kicked him to the ground. Her foot held him in place while he fought her powerful Dark magic.

"Your precious Storm Lords will die one by one when Sin Garu wins. A Dark Lord once again in charge of Tanselm. He'll kill everything you love, everything that is pure and Light in this land. And he'll do it because you aren't man enough to see the truth."

"In your fucking dreams." Arim fought her hold, but Tanselm made no move to help him escape.

Finally. Someone understood what she'd been trying to warn her children about for years. As if the divide in the spectrum wasn't bad enough, Sin Garu, a scourge upon the living, had only grown more powerful with each passing year.

In the last century, the evil Dark Lord had amassed an army of Darkness. His Netharat : wraiths, Djinn, and monstrous Shadren, creatures that walked in both Darkness and Light, waged war on anything Light they could get their claws into.

"Yes, Sin Garu will kill us all. You need to make changes. But you're too bigoted to see what I clearly can."

"Oh? Is your perspective so much better from Malern?"

Tanselm flinched, and the ground under the pair rippled. She wasn't the only sentient land. Malern, the Dark Lords' homeworld, was too steeped in Darkness to create balanced fruit. Too often, his children killed and destroyed with ease. Foreia, a Shadowed world, was better. Krell too. Poor Earth had all but died out, its magic nearly depleted by the greedy humans who dwelled there.

"Malern?" Lexa scoffed. "No, I'm talking about Earth, where I've been living on and off amidst those hapless humans. Being of no magic make perfect victims for powerful Dark Lords. Imagine what Sin Garu will do to Earth once he has Tanselm under his control. Your suffering is just the beginning."

Yes, tell him, child. Unfortunately, Tanselm felt Arim's resistance. Instead of heeding Lexa's warnings, he took them as threats.

"I'll kill you for this," he warned through gritted teeth.

"Promise?" she teased. "Maybe next time you trample a girl's heart and banish her from her own home, you'll think about the repercussions. Send your sister and nephews my regards."

She vanished into the Between, the void between worlds. Lexa left no goodbye, only a pool of Dark energy where she'd been standing. Tanselm absorbed it, as well as Arim's pain. His anger did her some good. He'd always manifested his darker emotions in swirls of energy, feeding Tanselm though she knew he was unaware he did so.

Offering him what comfort she could, Tanselm wept her sorrows, rain pelting the land. He stubbornly refused to go after Lexa. No matter how much she tried to push him to seek what he truly needed, what she truly needed, Arim couldn't hear her.

As time wore on, she lost hope.

Months, then years passed.

Sin Garu's attacks began. Storm Lords died. Light Bringers and Netharat bled on her lands, poisoning her with their hate. Chaos grew, until only four Storm Lords, the queen, and Arim remained to heal her wounds.

Two of the newest Storm Lords took foreign affai — foreign brides — from Earth. The other two, thank the balance, found a Shadow Dweller and a Djinn to love.

Still, the gap remained. For Tanselm to be whole, she needed equal amounts of Darkness and Light. She needed Lexa.

She needed a miracle.