1. Arim

Chapter 1

Arim

Philadelphia, Present Day

I clenched my jaw as I glared at the saturation of eager shoppers crowding the festively decorated mall. I'd finally had Lexa in my grasp. With all that had been happening at home, her capture was the one goal I could meet, the one thing I'd looked forward to more than any other.

I'd had her within reach…only to lose her when she'd teleported right out from under me. By the Light's Mark! The time had come for answers, and to take that final step into annihilating Sin Garu to free Tanselm from the threat of ever-present destruction.

Tanselm — a parallel world with its own sentience, a land filled with magic, vibrant color and abundant life. As opposed to this…Philadelphia.

City of brotherly love, my ass.

"Well now, looks to me like you could use my help."

I turned to face the bearer of the smugly uttered words, barely refraining from turning the Djinn, a creature of Dark, into a dirt stain over the grouted tile underfoot. Jonas Chase looked like any other shopper during this harried season. Tall and laden with muscle, he wore his light-brown hair cut in shaggy waves over a chiseled face.

His brown eyes danced with humor, and he crossed his arms, clad in a blue knit sweater over snug denim jeans. He could have passed for human, like many of the others looking for bargains around us.

Though most of those shoppers appeared human, my magic allowed me to spot of few of the magir, what a certain faction of magical creatures in this mundane world called themselves. Though none of them hailed from Tanselm, several had come from parallel worlds and now called Earth their home.

I spotted a few sprites and witches, a mage or two, and there, in a tech shop, a lycan trying poorly not to be noticed. A difficult feat considering his size, though I supposed the dark glasses were supposed to make him look less threatening.

And yet I had to deal with a Djinn from my world, his powerful black aura one only a sorcerer of my caliber, from my world, could see.

I sighed. Had I been reduced to needing help from what I'd once considered the enemy, a creature of Dark? "If you want to help, tell me where to find Lexa. And trust me when I say you want me to find her before I lose my temper."

"In like what, the next two seconds?" Jonas scoffed. "And everyone says Darius has the temper in the family."

He wasn't wrong there. Of my four identical nephews, Darius, the Prince of Fire, had a temper.

A cute blonde walked by and gave Jonas the eye. He grinned and winked, apparently not at all inconvenienced by this out-of-the-way trip to Earth.

Right now, I should have been in an important meeting with my sister, Tanselm's overqueen, and with my four nephews, Tanselm's last Storm Lords. Also known as the Royal Four, now that the rest of the Storm Lords were dead, my nephews sat poised to become kings, each commanding one of Tanselm's territories.

Besides surviving the upheaval of so many of our family dead, the princes had recently taken royal brides. On top of that, they had problems aplenty just trying to keep the land hale and hearty.

They had enough on their plate without losing track of our "friendly ally" Dark Lord, Lexa.

I growled beneath my breath, ignoring Jonas' smirk.

Trying to find Sin Garu and finally destroy him before his evil army killed any more of our people was priority number one. Until the next overking was chosen, protecting the affai of the Royal Four ran a close second. But since each of my nephews had finally come into their own power, the responsibility to protect their brides fell on them, I supposed.

I glanced around me again, still wondering how two of the four affai had come from this mundane world yet still possessed the wherewithal to handle their husbands' elemental magic — the heart of the Storm Lords' power. Most of the population on this plane didn't even believe in magic, let alone possess the capacity to manipulate it.

Jonas's deep chuckle broke my train of thought, and I watched as the Djinn seduced a phone number out of an attractive brunette before she walked away, a sway in her step.

"Lexa has a tendency to breeze through Sophie's anytime she's in town." Jonas pointed to a nearby upscale lingerie shop. "Why don't I check it out?"

Disgusted with the whole mess, I snapped back, "Yes, why don't you?"

Unperturbed, he strolled into the store, frilly clothing and eager young women swallowing him from sight.

I took deep breaths and counted to ten, resisting the urge to turn Jonas to stone. While the thought held appeal, I knew I needed Jonas. And much as the thought disgruntled, I at times liked the sarcastic bastard. Besides, Jonas and Lexa had developed an odd friendship that would aid in Lexa's recapture.

I paused at a surprising flare of anger, puzzled over its source.

It wasn't that Lexa and Jonas's friendship bothered the hell out of me. No, I wasn't jealous, or so I kept telling myself. Any feelings I'd once had for Lexa had died centuries ago when I'd caught her literally red-handed, her palms covered in the blood of her foster family.

But recently, I'd reevaluated the past, wondering about my memories of that heinous event. Once, Lexa had been my whole life. My love, my future, my best friend. The hurt I'd suffered at her hands had nearly crushed me and taught me a valuable lesson.

Could I really think she'd changed after three hundred years of bringing chaos and death? Darkness into a world needing Light? She'd kicked my ass in a skirmish a few years past. I expected no love from the Dark Lord.

So I had no excuse when, a few months ago, I'd gone soft in the head and taken care of the petite sorceress while she recovered from a wound suffered in our joint battle against our common enemy.

Like a fool, I'd thought she might be different. Unconscious, vulnerable, and so achingly beautiful, she'd fooled me into thinking she might not be the treacherous Dark Lord I knew her to be.

And then she disappeared right in front of me. The slippery little witch.

No. I simply felt a responsibility for a temporary ally. Though we'd had our battles throughout the years, she'd never put her life at risk to save me. Not until that fight, when she'd thrown herself between me and her brother — Sin Garu. She never referred to him as her brother, and I found I could respect that much of her wishes.

A blight upon creation, Sin Garu and his sorcery tainted everything he touched, his magic both draining and malevolent. For all her faults, at least Lexa had severed her ties with a Dark sorcerer out of his mind with bloodlust.

A commotion drew my attention. Several women waved as Jonas left the lingerie store, his easy stride annoying me all over again.

Jonas reached me with a loud sigh and ran his hands through his hair, seemingly more from frustration than vanity. "She was here a few months ago. But since time passes much more quickly in this plane, the timeframe fits. Weeks missing in Tanselm, months spent in Philadelphia. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she shows up again. If not in the mall, then around her old stomping grounds."

"And you know this how?"

Jonas snorted. "You know, Arim, to you Lexa is a Dark Lord. To me, she's my Dark Mistress, a woman worthy of respect, affection, and a healthy dose of fear. Hell, I'm Djinn. I'm not stupid. She can kill with the touch of her hand, so I like to keep on her good side. But apart from all that, she's still a woman. I know what she needs."

Irrational rage filled me. "You do?"

"Yeah, I do. She likes to talk, and I like to listen." Jonas shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Here in this plane, Lexa blends in. She can be like everyone else. Accepted. Not like the pariah she is at home."

" Home , is it?"

Jonas scowled, finally showing the same irritation I had been feeling all day. "She was right. You are a condescending dick." I glared, and Jonas sighed. "Tanselm is now my home, Arim. Just as it's home to dozens of other Darklings and Shadow Dwellers. Face it, Tanselm needs both Light and Dark to thrive. Though you don't want to admit it, you know Lexa's right. Your magic felt stronger when she was there, didn't it?"

Damn, but it did. Not that I planned on giving Jonas the satisfaction of being right. I wasn't prejudiced against the Dark, not anymore. But thoughts of Lexa riled me, to the extent that I started grouping everyone not Light under the flat of my irritation. Jonas didn't help matters by beating the topic to death.

I pinched the bridge of my nose as the Djinn continued, repeating what one of my nephews liked to blather on about.

"You like to think Tanselm belongs to the Light Bringers. To creatures of Light. But the Dark belongs in Tanselm's fields, villages, and mountains, too. If you'd listen to the land, you'd hear it."

" Enough . Now you sound like Aerolus, always analyzing, dissecting Tanselm's magic. In case I haven't mentioned it before, the trait's extremely annoying."

"Say what you will. We both know I'm right." In a lower voice, Jonas added, "As usual."

"I see why Cadmus volunteered your services. You're beyond irritating."

Jonas chuckled and punched me in the arm. "That's just what your nephew says about you. Now why don't we try the food court. I know Lexa likes the cinnamon bun place."

"We're not here to fill your bottomless stomach."

"Arim, you wound me. I just thought Lexa might be feeding her sweet tooth. She loves cinnamon and chocolates and —"

I shoved him out the way of attack with one hand while throwing up a shield of Light with the other. People screamed and ducked for cover as a mass of wraiths, members of Sin Garu's hated Netharat, suddenly swarmed above us, appearing out of nowhere.

Nearby, a witch tucked a group of children under an obfuscate spell, while a few Lycans rushed over the railing onto the second floor to attack a new group of Netharat near a water fountain below.

This shouldn't be happening. Not here. I called on Tanselm's magic within me, immediately decimating two nearby wraiths by turning them to stone. Then I crushed them with my will into dust.

The others shrieked, their howls like the scratchy echoes of a newborn's cry. Covered in rags, their bodies seemingly frail with nearly insubstantial shades of skeletal mass and thin, ropy sinew, the creatures fed on fear.

And on the living tissue of those they killed.

Their lumpy heads, covered in a sickly yellow skin mottled with bruises, looked monstrous. They had high-set pointed ears, large, white eyes, and gaping mouths filled with rows of black, blade-sharp teeth. With no nose to speak of, they couldn't smell the constant stench of death they emitted wherever they went.

One wraith grabbed a small child, gnashing its teeth in hunger, and Jonas quickly reached out with a band of Dark magic and yanked the boy from its taloned grasp, sending him into my arms. When the wraith would have attacked me, I shot a bolt of Light into its face, killing it instantly, and tucked the child's face into my chest.

I killed a few more while a mage and witch worked together to melt, for lack of a better term, several Netherat.

Jonas dragged another two wraiths from the air, protecting the cowering humans watching with wide eyes. He slammed one creature through the floor, leaving only its head above ground, its body meshed with the steel girders, cement, and supports holding up the second level of the mall.

He lashed another beam of Dark at the wraith and decapitated it while a nearby mage chanted a spell I recognized as fae in nature. A memory taker.

"Go, wizard. We'll handle things here," he said to me. "They won't remember any of this."

Apparently, the magir in this world wanted to remain in hiding.

Not my problem, since I would soon return to Tanselm. But I couldn't help thinking that Earth needed more magic. Even the promise of a Light and Dark battle was better than nothing at all.

I took care of the remaining Netharat, sent out a probe to detect none living below us — defeated by the lycans — and teleported what was left of all their remains into the Between. The scavengers passing through the voids would clear the mess in no time.

"Oh, thank God." A frantic woman with tears in her eyes rushed to me and yanked her son into her arms. She hugged him so tightly he squawked in protest. "What did I tell you about playing near the railing? You could have fallen over, Matthew! Thanks so much for saving him."

A glance at the mage showed him nodding at me before slipping away into the masses, who'd returned to shopping, none the wiser.

In case the mage had missed the many recording devices in the area, I sent a magical surge through to wipe the last half hour of footage from everything in the shopping plaza.

"Well, that was less than pleasant." Jonas looked annoyed.

Before he could say anything more, I latched onto his arm and sent us through the Between toward Tanselm. That the Netharat had broken the covenant protecting the mundane worlds from open, magical intrusion meant something had seriously gone wrong. A powerful law had been broken. Which laid other worlds at risk.

By the Dark's own hell. What else could we expect? And how close was Sin Garu to mounting yet another invasion into Tanselm? For weeks, we'd experienced only minor skirmishes, nothing like the Dark Lord's previous massive assaults.

It seemed I would not be venturing after Lexa just yet.

I ignored the uncomfortable urge to go after her despite the danger to Tanselm. Lexa was my prey. My Dark Lord to exact revenge upon if needed. Besides, she needed someone powerful enough to contain her and keep an eye on her.

Memories of her bewitching eyes and sly grin made my heart race. I could never let her know how much she still mattered to me. As what, I didn't know. And I couldn't afford to care just now.

The sexy Dark Lord would have to wait until I'd informed the Storm Lords and my sister about this latest development. My nephews needed to be aware and Tanselm's allies warned before they suffered similar attacks. Lexa would keep. I ignored the irrational worry for her that constantly chafed.

She and I have unresolved business between us, and neither Light nor Dark will stop our coming confrontation .

We arrived in the hallway outside the Royal Four's current meeting.

And I gathered one final resolve.

One way or the other, Lexa will answer to me.