17. Darius

Chapter 17

Darius

The Prince of Fire

Tanselm, the Northern Territory

I threw another fireball at an encroaching wraith. The monster screeched and combusted into ashes, floating over fifty or more Netharat . "You know, Cadmus, when you asked us to come for a visit, I thought it was for a relaxing supper, just the four of us. A small breather to recoup from the nuttiness of the past few days."

I focused my gaze, and flame shot up in a wall in front of the large trees protecting the huddling farmers and their families on the edge of the northern kingdom.

Whips of tree roots thundered out of the ground at Cadmus's command, tearing through Netharat and enemy Djinn as they hacked at Tanselm's foliage.

"Truly," Marcus rasped as he forced a tide of water toward the red, gelatinous Nocumat, creatures only their Shadren brethren, the Aellei, could control, and only then somewhat. "I gave up my wife's very creative company for a night with you three. I have no intention of spending my time battling this filth."

"Blame me later," Cadmus snarled as he sent a ton of Tanselm's earth crashing over more wraiths streaming through a dimensional portal in the sky. Streams of red and putrid, glowing yellow surrounded the large black haze. Like a disease, Sin Garu's Netharat had surprised us all with a sudden appearance in waves that looked to have no end in sight.

"Why are they here, now?" Aerolus asked as he stood with the three of us, his hands waving, stirring up winds that swept the enemy back toward the gate through which they'd entered. "Why would Sin Garu's legion attack here tonight? Just a coincidence we happened to be visiting Cadmus, or something more?"

We continued to fight, most of our fellow sorcerers working to protect the Light Bringers without magic in the valley. Yet for all our efforts, the Netharat appeared to be gaining. Suddenly, the enemy slowed and then ceased their attack. I opened my senses, wishing I had the same ties to Tanselm Cadmus seemed to have.

"Cadmus?"

"I don't know why they're leaving." My brother frowned at the mass exodus. "Tanselm senses nothing amiss but our current battle, no sign of Sin Garu at all."

"We're here to help," Jonas shouted as he and dozens of ally Djinn appeared in the valley alongside the Netharat and their enemy brethren. They fought like demons, slaughtering their enemy kin while my brothers and I continued to battle. During a lull, I realized most of the enemy Djinn had fallen. A few ice wraiths and several Nocumat dotted Tanselm's fields, but that was all.

I stared at the "good" Djinn in fascination, still in awe of people with more energy than flesh. Jonas and the others looked like spirits, their white, pulsating bodies masses of energy that looked manlike, surrounded by black flames of pure Darkness. Even from my vantage atop the hill a good distance away, I felt the pull of Dark tugging at my inner Light.

Jonas disappeared and reappeared a few paces from my brothers, still burning in truth — his natural state. "We have them on the run. Do you want survivors? Or would you rather we sent the lot of them back through the gateway?" The light where his mouth should have been curled in a grin.

Inwardly, I flinched, a little spooked by the Darkling — not that I'd ever admit it aloud.

"Push them back," Marcus said.

I disagreed. "Kill them all."

"Let them go. We have enough dead," Aerolus stated calmly and muttered a spell under his breath. His affai appeared. A petite Aellei with hair so white it gleamed, Alandra looked so pure, she could have been an angel…with the eyes of a devil.

The tricky beauty stirred my instinct to protect even as I understood how incredibly powerful she was in her own right. I glanced from her to Aerolus, watching them smile at each other, full of love, and knew she matched my brother, a man with a subtle sense of humor and depth of power only a true creature of magic could withstand.

"Purie, control your kin, would you?" Aerolus nodded at the Nocumat breaking through the Dark bands of energy Jonas' Djinn threw at them.

"For you, anything." She blew him a kiss and laughed then gripped the charm around her neck and vanished, only to appear beside a few languishing Nocumat.

"I thought you took that charm away."

Before he could answer, the enemy distracted us again.

I shot another blast of fire at a dozen trying to creep over the leeward side of the hill toward Alandra and listened to their screeches with pleasure.

"Yeah," Cadmus said. "With that charm, she can disappear whenever you piss her off, which is probably about seventy-five percent of the time." He shoved more dirt at escaping wraiths. "Wish I had a charm to take away from Ellie. Unfortunately, she now understands how to harness the Dark within her and can teleport all over the place."

I wondered what it must be like to be married to a Darkling, though Ellie was in fact part human, like my wife. Thoughts of Samantha made me smile. She'd be pissed as hell when she learned what she'd missed tonight. Thankfully, Arim's ploy to keep her and Tessa with our mother remained a success. Though I had a feeling Samantha grew tired of remaining inside the kingdom, her presence was working wonders on Mother, who lately seemed better than ever.

"Darius, get your head in the game and fry some Netharat," Marcus yelled as a sudden blast of blue flame sent the four of us, and Jonas, scattering.

Regaining my feet, I caught sight of four unusual looking ice wraiths and realized they were a new hybrid of some kind. More spindly and taller than the typical wraiths we normally dealt with, these four had a bluish tint to their skin.

Oddly, they didn't appear to have any teeth.

" Fuck. " Jonas threw himself in front of Cadmus. He absorbed a ball of blue flame with ease and shot bands of energy into the nearest creature. It shrieked and struck back, fully engaged with Jonas when a rush of Djinn appeared out of nowhere.

"Friend of foe?" Marcus asked.

Jonas glanced over, still entangled with the blue-skinned wraith. "Friend," he and Aerolus — who apparently had some magical way to tell the difference — shouted.

Personally, I liked the idea of shooting first and asking questions later, because I still wasn't sure about the changes Tanselm had recently undergone. I continued my assault on the enemy with my brothers, even as my mind wandered elsewhere, compartmentalizing the battle.

Marriage to a human, even my cherished Samantha, had been nowhere on the agenda when my brothers and I had been forced to Earth over a year ago. I'd wanted nothing more than to return to Tanselm to defend our people. That and hunt down the evil that had killed Father and the other Storm Lords — my uncles, aunts, and cousins — leaving the four of us the last Storm Lords in existence.

On Earth, Marcus and I had found the brides Arim and our mother had hoped we'd find, strong women with enough magic to control our elemental power. Aerolus and Cadmus, my two troublemaking siblings, just had to marry equally provocative females. Not that I didn't appreciate both women, but Alandra was an Aellei, and that race was a royal pain in the ass. Ellie was a gem, but her father ruled the Sarqua Djinn. He was an arrogant dick at the best of times. I didn't understand how Cadmus could stand the guy. Knowing my brother, Cadmus probably got a kick out of irritating Ethim just by being his son by marriage.

A loud shriek caught my attention. With my brothers, we concentrated our efforts on the Nocumat now surrounding Alandra.

The flare in the gray sky grew considerably smaller as the four of us and the Sarqua Djinn worked in tandem to overcome the enemy. Bit by bit, Tanselm absorbed the fallen into her grasses and earth, their Darkness feeding the land's supposed need for balance.

I still didn't buy into that crap, but Aerolus and our mother spouted it so often it had become second nature to just nod and agree. Anything to shut Aerolus up, at least.

"Finally," Alandra said from behind him, appearing in a wink of light. "I have to admit, the Nocumat Sin Garu's recruiting are too young for this kind of play."

" Play? " Marcus stared at her in horror. "I was almost eaten by one of those things. I can tell you there was nothing playful about it."

Obviously, Marcus hadn't forgotten his last run-in with Sin Garu and an overly hungry Nocumat. Not that I could blame him. I couldn't imagine being swallowed whole by a blob of red, living goo.

Overhead, a sudden flash lit the sky.

The portal contracted then disappeared. The gray sky returned to a healthy indigo-blue, speckled with stars and moonlight.

I turned to Cadmus and asked, "How about that meal you promised us?" I was tired, hungry, and furious that the Netharat seemed as strong as they'd been prior to our last major battle. Were any of these skirmishes dwindling their numbers? Or did Sin Garu continue to reanimate the dead?

Aerolus stared at the sky. "We still need to find out why they attacked now, and why here. I can't put my finger on it, but I sense there's a reason behind this minor battle."

"Well, I'll leave you four to tinker with ideas. I'm hanging with the girls tonight at Mom's." Alandra kissed Aerolus, waved goodbye, and disappeared.

"She's really into that whole ‘Mom' thing. Hell, they all are," I grumbled, secretly pleased Samantha also loved my mother so deeply.

"And a good thing it is. Their love strengthens Mother," Cadmus said in a burst of rare insight. "I hate to admit it, but before Samantha and Tessa started staying with her, Mother seemed a little tired to me."

Jonas interrupted. "Remir and I will take the Sarqua back to the castle. I'll try to keep them out of the cinarum stores, but I can only do so much." He flashed back into his human form. "Later, fellas." He waved to his brethren, and they all disappeared.

"You don't find that disturbing?" I asked.

Cadmus sighed. "Not this again. Look, I wasn't sure of the Djinn at first myself. But Jonas is trustworthy. I'd stake my life on that."

"And the rest of the Sarqua?" Marcus asked what I wanted to know.

"Most of the others are okay." Cadmus looked into the distance. "Sin Garu has his hands everywhere. Our territories are no exception."

"Nor is the Church," Aerolus said quietly. "I wish Arim were here. I'd like his take on this."

"On what?" I asked. "Spill it, egghead. We're not going anywhere anytime soon."

Aerolus allowed a small frown, a major concession of emotion from a man who, until he'd married Alandra, had barely shown surprise at anything. "‘Egghead?' I think you spent way too much time in the mundane plane."

"On Earth . Yeah, but it was mostly in a bar with ale and good-looking women. Can't complain." Especially since I'd met Samantha there. "So why do you need Arim's opinion? We're smart enough to come up with something." I glanced at my brothers. "At least, I am."

Cadmus scowled. Aerolus ignored me.

Marcus flipped me a rude human gesture with his hands and said, "What's going on with our uncle, anyway? He's hot on Lexa's trail. If I didn't know better, I'd think he's got a thing for her."

"Of course he has a thing for her." Cadmus snorted. "First of all, she's almost as beautiful as Ellie, and that's saying something. When she turns those icy eyes on you, it's downright scary. Even for a Dark Lord, the woman can make a man lose his mind."

"As if you had one to begin with," Marcus muttered.

Cadmus talked over him. "If you knew anything, you'd know Arim and Lexa were a pair a long time ago. Lovebirds, in fact, until Lexa's foster parents died, and she was blamed for killing them."

"What?" I blinked in surprise. "I've never heard that."

"No, because Light Bringer history is revisionist in nature," Aerolus said dryly. "Especially when documented by the Church."

"So how do you know all this?" I asked Cadmus.

"Had a weird vision where I saw the past."

"Not the future?" That was a new one. Normally, Cadmus saw the future.

"No. I know, weird. But in that vision, Lexa was seriously whacked out, covered in blood and crying. She looked younger than she is now, which isn't saying much, I guess. She was really torn up by her family's death. For the record, she didn't do it."

I frowned. "You're sure?"

Aerolus nodded. "Someone else killed them, and it wasn't Sin Garu." When all of us stared at him, he shrugged. "Alandra and Sava were talking about it yesterday when I overheard."

"Overheard?"

"Okay, I eavesdropped. But the bottom line is that Arim and Lexa have a history, and we need Arim to defeat Sin Garu."

Marcus sighed. "So what? Get to the point, Aerolus. You're giving me a headache."

Aerolus gave him a dark look. "We need Arim, so we need Lexa. Once we find her, he'll follow. Arim will never admit it, but he needs closure on the past. It's all about balance. Ask Cadmus. Tanselm has been telling him the same thing for months. The time, my brothers, has finally come."

I waited for Cadmus's response, not disappointed when he rolled his eyes at Aerolus and his dramatics. "Yeah, well, the time can wait. I was going to mention needing Arim and Lexa after we'd eaten. Tanselm has waited this long. I think she can wait until we've had some food."

"Cadmus." Aerolus tapped his foot. "We need to hear everything you saw."

"Oh hell. Fine." Cadmus sighed. "Lexa's going to help Arim. In my last vision, I saw them together, and they were definitely not fighting."

I snorted. "For as much as he nagged you and Aerolus about having Dark affai, our uncle is involved with a Dark Lord? That takes balls."

Cadmus snickered. "Yeah. I can't wait to throw that in his face."

"I won't argue with you on that. But first we need to find Lexa and bring her back here. I think we should start —" Aerolus broke off and stared at the ground near Marcus. "Marcus, is there something wrong with your shadow?"

We four studied his shadow, which was more than a lack where moonlight should be, but a Dark spot upon the ground. As I readied my flames, the Dark spot took shape.

A familiar presence separated from the shadow and coalesced into human form.

Marcus drenched him with a wave of his hand. "Damn it, Jonas. This is a private discussion."

Jonas slicked his hair back. "Thanks a lot."

"I hate when you do that."

"Me too," Cadmus agreed.

"Sorry, but someone has to keep you four out of trouble." Jonas looked at Aerolus. "Help a Djinn out?"

My brother folded his arms across his chest and said nothing.

Jonas sighed. "Look, Sava and I have this under control. You four need to focus and keep that crooked Church of Illumination in check. They're awfully close to working up a spell to kill Darklings." Aerolus frowned at that. "The Netharat are going to keep on coming until Sin Garu gets what he's after. Sava's not sure, but we think the Dark Lord's looking for something. Something or someone."

"Is that all?" I growled, more than annoyed a Djinn had the nerve to order four Storm Lords around on our own land.

"Not yet." Jonas flipped me the finger, and Marcus had to restrain me from launching myself at the Djinn. "Arim will be out of pocket for the foreseeable future. If you need him anytime soon, get in touch with me or Sava."

Angry, I broke through Marcus' hold and launched myself at Jonas. Unfortunately, he teleported off the hillside before I could reach him. "Do you believe this shit?"

"Actually, I do." Aerolus sighed. "I'm going to have a good, long talk with my affai about her bothersome uncle. She had to know Sava was up to something. She warned me in that subtle way she has that always precedes trouble."

"You need to beat her," I seethed, only half-joking.

"I already do."

The three of us stared at Aerolus, the quietest of us all. To our further astonishment, the Wind Mage gave us a large grin before breaking out in laughter.

"If you could see your faces. Now let's grab something to eat before we wither away to nothing." Aerolus prodded Cadmus to get him moving, then added as if an afterthought, "Alandra only likes it rough now and then. But I find I have an aptitude for it."

Which had me dumbfounded for the first time in forever.

As we tiredly walked back to the castle, I had to hand it to Aerolus.

You always had to watch the quiet ones.