Marie Harte - Gale Season

“Enjoy the Night, Wind Mage.” Evil laughter covered Alandra’s shrieks, and as Aerolus struggled to free himself from the malevolence suffocating him, he could only pray Alandra would not be further harmed. “Come and get her when you’ve got the rest of your family to back you up.” The intruder snickered. “We’ll be playing in the shadows.”

A pop sounded, and Aerolus recognised the sound of the Mir charm at work. Alandra was gone, captured by the enemy using Aellein magic.

Sudden worries of his affai undergoing torture by her own kind, and all because she’d helped protect him and Tanselm from the worst kind of evil, stirred the terrible rage within him to a Dark, thickening mass of power. The lingering darkness over him vanished. The air hissed its displeasure as trees and grasses were torn from their roots. Clouds gathered and a funnel of bleak wind loomed while boulders flew as if weighing nothing.

Alandra was gone. Taken from him as easily as if he’d given her away. He’d been unable to protect her in his world, a land that used to stand for peace and prosperity. Another tree cracked and protested its ripping from the ground, and Aerolus struggled to focus his rage on the ones responsible, on the Dark Lords behind this abduction. He deliberately allowed his storm to build in containment, feeding it with the retribution he owed the Dark Lords and the Djinn traitor who’d put them all at risk.

Aerolus quickly spelled himself clothed in battle dress, armed with a sword strapped to his back and a mage staff in hand, and studied the area for telling signs. The kidnapper was the walking dead, as far as he was concerned, but he further pledged should one more mark befall his beloved, he would not allow any of the enemy to live. And the Light bless those who thought to stand in his way.

“He said three hours.” Darius frowned, glaring at Marcus and Arim talking calmly on the couch.

Arim wanted to groan. He’d seen the impatience on his nephew’s face edging into anger. By the Light, it wasn’t easy for him either. It was all he could do to wait when two of his nephews were suddenly involved with the Dark side of creation—not only the Aellei, but the Djinn as well.

“Dammit, I was two seconds away from convincing Samantha to leave well enough alone with our defensive perimeter when you ripped me out of there. Do you have any idea what that woman is capable of when I’m not around?” Darius threw up his hands.

Marcus lifted an arrogant brow that had Darius curling his fingers around a fireball. “Perhaps if her mate had any semblance of understanding when it came to women, she wouldn’t feel such a need to interfere with warrior’s work to get his attention.”

Snarling, Darius let loose his fire, only to find his efforts countered by a wave of Marcus’ hand. Water suddenly doused the fireball, somehow managing to drench Darius in the process.

“Darius, Marcus, please,” Arim nearly growled. His patience had worn thin an hour ago, and the worries these two carried weren’t helping. He knew neither liked leaving his affai and kingdom while the Netharat circled Tanselm like hovering vultures. But they simply could not leave until he had all four Storm Lords together. He knew with a certainty that all four brothers must work together if there was any hope at all for Tanselm’s future.

“Ah, Arim? Your eyes are doing that weird thing again.” Darius coughed and grudgingly backed down.

“Then distract me before I turn one of you to stone,” he snapped. “What do you think of Alandra?”

He’d told them what he knew of her and her kind, of her participation in the last battle with ‘Sin Garu, and how Aerolus had nearly killed himself trying to save her, after she’d done the same trying to save him.

“I don’t know,” Marcus said thoughtfully, tapping his lower lip. His blue eyes darkened, his words both cool and surprisingly fair, not at all like the man who’d once considered himself better than the world around him. “I kind of liked her. She snapped at Darius quick enough, and looking at her is no hardship. Interesting that the most unassuming of us picked such a striking female.”

Darius growled, “Trust you to go straight to a woman’s looks.”

“I’m married, not dead. What, like you didn’t notice her appeal? Please.” Marcus snorted. “That face? Those curves? You’d have to be dead not to notice those, ah,” he paused at the hard look Arim gave him. “I was going to say eyes, those beautiful violet eyes.” His lips quirked.

“And that great rack,” Darius offered with a chuckle. No subtleties there, not that Arim would have expected any from him. “Damned nice to know Aerolus is as normal as the rest of us. Hell, the entire time we were here he lived like a monk, never even looked twice at a woman.” His eyes danced as he glanced at his brother. “Oh, wait. He saw Tessa naked as the day she was born, didn’t he? And from what I heard, he liked her well enough.”

“You’re such an asshole.” Marcus’ words were cool. “Who told you about that?”

Darius shrugged. “I know everything, little brother.”

“Not that again.”

Arim didn’t bother to hide his amusement. Surprisingly, the familiar sibling squabbling eased some of his tension. “If I didn’t know you two were brothers, I’d think you were married.”

“Ha, ha,” Marcus muttered.

“Personally, I’m not sure how I feel about Alandra.” He thought about the mischievous creature that had so captured Aerolus, and Darius and Marcus turned to him as one. “She is an Aellei, a creature of Shadow, and though she’s done much for Aerolus, I still don’t understand why she left her world in the first place.”

“She told us. She didn’t like her aunt’s play for Tanselm.” Darius shook his head.

“Yes, but why?” That still bothered him. Arim knew he was missing something, but what? “She’s an Aellei, of a race known for their devious nature. I don’t know if you noticed, but she’s pure magic.”

“Pure? I thought you said she was ‘of Shadow’?” Marcus asked.

“She is. But magic, at its core, is neither good nor evil. And I’m beginning to wonder if being aligned with Shadow isn’t necessarily a bad thing.” Though somewhat suspicious of her motives, Arim couldn’t justify reproaching Alandra for saving his nephews. Nor could he condemn all the Djinn when Jonas Chase and Ellie Markham had done much to aid Tanselm’s cause. To hear Aerolus and Tessa tell it, without Jonas’ help, ‘Sin Garu would have killed not only Tessa, but Marcus and his brothers as well.

“The Aellei are different from us. We Light Bringers are human, men and women that wield magic, a people in tune with our homeland and the elements, but human nonetheless.”

“And Alandra…?” Darius prodded, standing with his arms crossed.

“She’s not human.” Arim smiled grimly. “Oh, thousands of years ago her ancestors might have been, but in the interim the shadow dwellers, or Shadren, began to change.”

“I thought the Shadren and Aellei were two different races.” Marcus sat, puzzled.

“Actually, they’re the same,” Arim explained. “The Aellei refuse to acknowledge closer ties because of their curious penchant for being surrounded by beauty—which much of the Shadren do not possess—or so I was once told. I’m sure Alandra can explain it better, but that’s not really important right now.

“In the beginning, Tanselm was home to many of the Dark Lords, the Djinn and the Shadren. But when the Dark Tribes split, we noticed how different the tribes had become, not only from each other, but from the Light Bringers as well.

“Alandra’s roots may have started out human, but over the years her people became more and more fused with both the Light and the Dark, creating a new race of beings, a people of magic.”