Marie Harte - Below the Surface

Aerolus’ lips curled slightly and Cadmus laughed. “Yeah, Marcus, I told you you had a stick up your ass. Even Tessa noticed it.”

“Anyway,” she cut in hurriedly when Marcus’ eyes darkened to a dangerous blue-black, “imagine my surprise to find that Marcus was the source of my newfound power. I even controlled a bit of it against those creatures we fought.”

“Yes, you did,” Marcus replied tightly. “I was reluctantly impressed that you had the gall to fight the Netharat , considering how strange and frightening they must have seemed.” She opened her mouth to refute him, but he held up a hand to ward her off. “ Frightening is not an insult, Tessa. Grown spellcasters fear the wraiths.”

“He’s right,” Cadmus agreed. “That you two survived a surprise attack is a blessing. How many were there?”

Marcus described the attack, and Tessa relived it along with him. Once he finished, several pending questions she’d had swam to mind.

“Explain to me how you drowned those wraiths. You said you were a Storm Lord?” The more she heard about him, the more she needed to know. Fascinating didn’t begin to describe Marcus. The hot sex was incredible, but finding someone with an odder past than her own was worth its weight in gold.

“Storm Lords possess elemental magic, an ability to command the elements. For example, I control water.” Marcus cupped his hand and held it out to her. She dipped her finger in and felt a tingle race through her where water lapped the digit. “Water responds to my call, from a well inside of me. I command it whenever the need arises.”

“I control the earth,” Cadmus added, his mood quiet, clearly indicating his respect for the discussion. He held out a hand and she felt a ripple of, well, something, nearing her. “Normally I cause shocks in the earth, in rock, anything to do with the land. But lately I’ve been experimenting with the gravitational forces intrinsic to the earth. Did you know how much potential energy is just waiting to be tapped? If I curl my mind around it just so, I can—”

“Cadmus, we get the picture,” Marcus drawled. “We don’t need a science lesson.” He continued. “Darius, our absent brother, controls fire. And as you can see, Aerolus summons the winds.”

She watched in awe as Aerolus channelled air, waving it past her and around her in lapping touches of wind as he flexed his hand.

“Amazing,” she said, thrilled at their gifts. While hers hadn’t been an easy life, she’d never taken her talents for granted, or failed to appreciate her extraordinary abilities. She could truly value what the Storm Lords could do. “So does that tie into your telepathy?” she asked Marcus.

“Actually, that’s something else entirely. A gift from my mother’s people,” Marcus said.

“Since arriving in your world, we are each discovering the fulfilment of our latent abilities,” Aerolus added.

Your world . Her euphoria at finding kindred spirits, people who would understand what it meant to be different, faded. Though Marcus could equate with her abilities, he was completely out of her league. She could deal with the whole royalty angle—hell, she considered herself the queen of weird—but she couldn’t compete with another world . She ignored the wrenching emptiness that suddenly yawned before her.

“Then you all have different abilities?” Tessa clutched at the new thought, anything to distract her from an unwelcome attachment to Marcus. As if he sensed her withdrawal, he narrowed his gaze on her and she hurriedly continued. “I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to pick up on them, like I did Marcus.”

“Can you focus on an individual and deliberately pull his or her powers?” Aerolus seemed to ponder something. “Try me.”

“And what is it you do, exactly?” she hedged, not as comfortable with Aerolus as she was with the others. Despite the fact he’d seen her half naked, which she was still coming to grips with, Aerolus seemed more intent, somehow set apart from his brothers.

“Just try it, Tessa,” he said, his calm soothing.

“I’m not sure—” Marcus began, when Tessa interrupted.

“Okay, but control has never worked for me in the past.”

She closed her eyes and looked inward, focusing on her inner self. As she did, she sent out a piece of her being, a tendril of thought to grasp at Aerolus. Something clicked and she felt heavy, as if a sudden weight pulled her down.

“Now think hard about Marcus’ bed, envision it in your mind. Don’t question it, just do it,” Aerolus said, as if from a great distance.

The minute she did, her body and mind snapped free of Aerolus. She felt a large pressure squeezing, making it hard to breathe. Everything grew dark, a flash of light caused her to blink, and then… whamo . She stared in astonishment at Marcus’ bedroom.

Footsteps sounded and the door burst open. Marcus and his brothers entered quickly.

“Excellent, Tessa,” Aerolus said with a wide grin. Caught off guard by his enthusiasm, she smiled, trying to catch her breath. Her heart was still racing from the odd experience of being ‘squeezed’ between places, and she was sure she had more questions if she only knew where to start asking.

“Nice going.” Cadmus gave her a thumbs up.

When she turned to Marcus, however, he wasn’t smiling. In fact, his eyes were downright icy. The look made her blood hum, her nervous excitement churning into anger.

“That was foolish,” he said coolly. “I’m surprised you didn’t land on the other side of the state.”

“Oh really, prince charming?” she asked sarcastically, still unnerved by what she’d done. She didn’t need his help wondering what might have gone wrong. “Want to show me how to do it better?”

“I don’t teleport.” He enunciated each word and closed the distance between them. “And neither do you. You’re merely borrowing Aerolus’ talent. Don’t forget it.”

Gone was the lover who’d sensually fulfilled her every desire. Marcus Storm, Cool Blue, had returned with a vengeance—the golden boy from the office trying to remind her of her ‘place’. It shouldn’t have surprised her, but it hurt to feel betrayed by the return of his distant personality.

Did the smug bastard have to sound so degrading? At least if they’d been alone she might have handled it better. But he’d insulted her in front of his stunned brothers, and she could feel her temper spiking exponentially. Mess with a redhead, feel the burn .

“You know, Marcus, you might be hot shit at the office, but having met your brothers, I can see you’re not as special as you like to think. To me, you’re just a…” she paused as energy slithered over her.

“Pray continue.” Marcus folded his arms over his chest and watched her with icy rage. “I’m dying to know what you really think.”

She grappled with the foreign sensations running through her. “Don’t you feel it?”

“Feel what? Foolish for allowing this trite conversation? I shouldn’t have allowed this to go as far as it has,” he murmured as if to himself.

He rambled something else but the energy surrounding her made it hard to hear.

“Tessa.” She saw Cadmus mouth her name. “Don’t worry, it’s only—”

“Get down,” she yelled at Tomanna’s golden boy, her once-in-a-lifetime lover. Mentally shoving him to the floor, she teleported instantaneously to the dark plane coalescing to solid form and psychically attacked with all her will.

“By the Light’s own heart,” Aerolus said in awe. “She’s attacking Arim.”

Marcus pushed himself to his feet in time to see Tessa attacking Arim’s still-materializing shape. And she was doing a decent job of it. The wily sorcerer couldn’t fight as effectively between states, for which Marcus was at this moment eternally grateful. He had no doubt were Arim at his best, Tessa would now be dead.