Gale Season

Chapter Fifteen

Aerolus shook Cadmus’ arm and winked, surprising Cadmus at the open sincerity in his silver gaze.

“I look forward to your return as well, brother. Alandra sends her best.”

Cadmus nodded, still stunned that his reluctant sorcerer of a brother had not only found but fully accepted his affai. He watched as Aerolus shook Jonas’ hand and thanked him before teleporting back home, back to his love and his future, one Cadmus knew for a fact included at least one daughter.

By the Light, when would life make sense anymore? Darius and Marcus had fallen hard, but he expected as much from those thick-skulled control freaks. Aerolus he’d thought would stay the course. And now understanding his brother could have returned home at any time since they’d left Tanselm, he was doubly shocked that Aerolus accepted an affai when he hadn’t really needed one.

“Are you done daydreaming or what?” Jonas asked in a bored voice.

Cadmus glared at the Djinn, wishing he’d left his ass in the dust long ago. Jonas was harder to shake than a tick, and his ability to read Cadmus like a book grated.

“What do you want now, Jonas?”

“It’s time to go. You can’t afford to stay here any longer, and you know it. Too many Dark Lords and Netharat out there know where you live.”

Cadmus knew he was right. But damn, this had been his home for a year, a place apart from Tanselm where he and his brothers had argued, laughed and shared as only quadruplets could. He felt sorry for himself, being the last one left behind, and knew the feeling to be an unworthy one. At least he had the warmth of joy inside him, feeling his brothers’ happiness at being home with their affai.

He’d never realised how much pleasure could be found in true love, having never experienced the sensation himself. Loving one’s parents and siblings was quite different from loving a woman, and his brothers treasured every second with their mates. He could feel it in his bones.

“Last but not least, eh, Earth Lord?” Jonas asked with a smirk.

Cadmus sighed. “Shut up, Djinn. Now are we going back to Ellie’s or not?” He tried to act disinterested, keeping his tone casual. But his body tensed at thoughts of the tempting female.

Lust he understood. Cadmus was an Earth Lord, after all, and his passions had always run deep. But this obsession he felt for Ellie, for a damned Djinn, eroded what little sense of self he had left.

Jonas frowned. “You can forget about Ellie, Cadmus. Her part in this is finished, and truth be told, the only reason she came on to you the way she did is because she was trying to help her father. Now take my hand, and we’ll teleport to Foreia. It’s been a while since I’ve been home, and there’s something there you need to see if you’re ever to defeat the Dark Lords.”

Cadmus nodded, glad to finally have something to do other than remain locked up with a babysitter. But thoughts of Ellie refused to leave his mind even as they entered the cold between.

She’d come on to him to help her father? Not likely. She’d been too hot for him, too eager for his touch to have accepted him merely to aid her father. No Djinn female writhed and begged and spread herself for a man at her father’s request, and especially not for a Light Bringer. Having learned more of the Djinn than he’d ever wanted to these past few weeks, he knew there was no way in hell Ellie’s father wanted or even knew exactly what his precious daughter had done with a Storm Lord.

A silent shimmer later and he landed in Foreia, a place covered by an alien shadow, lavender clouds, an ocean of dark blue grass and giant, red-leafed trees. The foreign landscape intrigued him, as did the sense the land tried to touch him, licking at his energy with a need to know more.

“Don’t worry, the pain will pass,” Jonas offered.

“It doesn’t hurt.” Cadmus knelt and reached beyond the grass into golden soil, pleased when it responded to his touch by offering up more.

Jonas stared open-mouthed as Cadmus laughed, joy at once again finding himself refreshed and an Earth Lord too much to hold within. Unbidden came the image of Ellie, of her blue eyes twinkling with delight behind the bar, of her golden hair shimmering like spun silk under him as he took her hard and deep, her magic as strong as any the earth could give.

He gripped the dirt between his fingers and rubbed it into his palms, renewed and redirected. He had much to learn here, much to understand about a land he once thought to be evil incarnate, about a people he had come to understand had the same foibles and riches as the Light Bringers, but lived life in Darkness rather than Light.

A sudden memory hit him, of Ellie parking her car in her driveway in the early light of dawn one day, of sunlight washing over her hair and figure, illuminating her with white flame as if she were in truth instead of just caught by a piercing ray.

She’d smiled when she’d seen him watching her and had eagerly joined him in bed again, loving him with her mouth and her magic, the very soul she tried to hide behind common work in a magicless world.

So Ellie thought her part in Tanselm’s war was finished, did she? He stood and dusted his hands off on his jeans, his brown eyes glowing with determination.

Ellie might not know it, but she was far from finished with Tanselm’s Earth Lord. He would do everything in his considerably charmed nature to find the key to the puzzle she presented, until memories of her touch, of her scent and laughter, plagued him no more.

Satisfied now that he’d come to a decision about Ellie, he took Jonas aback with a chuckle. “Come, Jonas, introduce me to the Dark side of life. It’s time I saw whatever it is you think will help us defeat the Dark Lords.”

Jonas shook his head, clearly not ready to trust the new and accommodating Cadmus. No matter. It was only a matter of time before—

“Holy shit!” He stared at the figure waiting for him surrounded by a dozen Djinn warriors and knew he’d been betrayed. “I saw you die.” He turned to Jonas for validation, but Jonas said nothing, merely stood waiting with his arms crossed.

“Fine, be a dick.” Frustrated at Jonas, at Ellie and the sorry hope he’d had for something he could never quite grasp, he clenched his hands tight. His death would crush his family. He only prayed it wouldn’t kill Tanselm’s bright future. “Kill me if you want. But I’m taking as many of you to the Next with me as I possibly can.” Golden soil began groaning beneath them, shocks of energy fisting around his hands as he demanded Foreia’s aid.

The figure in the midst of the still warriors stepped closer, giving Cadmus his only answer—a smile slow in coming.