Prologue
Tanselm, Two Years Ago
The sentient land of Tanselm mourned along with the battered heartbeats of lovers long parted. Light and Dark were the most basic components of life imbued in her chosen champion and the woman he’d once, and still, loved.
Some of her inhabitants had an inkling of what Tanselm truly was, but most lived in oblivion of the gift she’d given them. They walked on her grasses, cut down her trees, and breathed in the sweet air tinged with the perfume of pink leraffes, flowers that bloomed year round.
Tanselm was the earth that fed their flora, the stone with which they made their homes, and the waters which washed away their sins. Partial to neither Dark nor Light, she needed both to flourish. A land of feeling, she held the feminine need to bear fruit, both in nature and in her mortal children.
A thousand years ago, the Dark Lords had ruled her. Blood spilled, war encroached, and the Light Bringers took control. Gentler than the Dark Lords, they still devoured her magic as greedily as their enemies. Years passed, and the divide between Light and Dark grew stronger. Shadows barely whispered over her lands, giving her little respite from a steady drain on her magic.
Recent battles for dominance over what she would have freely given hurt her greatly. She weakened more as Dark and Light continued to fight. Yet she held out hope her champion would do what she needed him to.
But he couldn’t do it alone.
“Damnation. That I hadn’t expected.” Her champion gripped his sorcerer’s staff and stared in shock at a woman who appeared from out of nowhere.
Tanselm couldn’t contain her relief, and the wind sighed through the trees. Right now, in her fertile woods, Light and Dark fused between these two people who had the capacity for greatness if only they’d listen to their hearts.
Her champion: Arim, a stubborn Light Bringer Warrior, the most powerful of his generation. And Lexa: a Dark Lord full of cold magic and a love needing to be let loose. Both formed the pieces of a puzzle long denied their perfect fit.
Tanselm welled with love, feeling a kinship to the slight female and her connection to the Dark.
Lexa called upon the Darkness Tanselm poured into her without reservation. The land felt Lexa’s joy and returned the sentiment whole-heartedly.
“My lucky day,” Lexa snorted. “The Guardian of Storm and Killer of Shadow. I’m humbled.” As petite as Arim was large. Pale of skin where he had a dark tan. Solitary as opposed to Arim and his family.
Equals in every sense, if they’d let themselves just be.
“Light’s breast. You have balls showing yourself here.” Light arched from Arim’s staff to his free, upraised hand. He wore his power well, a sorcerer and warrior with strength to spare.
Yet Tanselm knew he’d felt her wavering support these last centuries. She had tried, but she couldn’t spare him all her pain.
“More balls than some,” Lexa said with a sneer. She sounded harsh, but her feelings vibrated with passionate energy, a calling to her other half, the man she wanted to deny.
Years ago, Lexa and Arim had been inseparable, the answer to Tanselm’s divide. Then innocent blood had tainted her grasses, destroying her tenuous solution to bridge the gap between Light and Darkness.
Arim and Lexa had fought. Lexa left. Arim remained. They both mourned.
Life moved on, and it remained the same. Damaged, declining. Tanselm could feel the sense of loss in both her chosen saviors. To survive, they needed each other, whether they knew it or not.
“You come to me on my own lands. To what, apologize?” Arim sounded incredulous. “Still small-minded and cold-hearted, eh, Blue?”
Under the words lurked pools of deep hurt. So much pain covered in a murky blanket of anger. Yet Tanselm thrived on the darker emotion, balancing so much Light. So when Lexa reached deep inside herself and further into Tanselm, the land gave of herself freely. Lexa thrust her hands forward, blue flame leaping from her fingertips toward Arim.
He absorbed the blow and remained standing. Ice encrusted his front and his skin turned blue with cold. He stood vulnerable, but Lexa didn’t attack again. The part of her that still hoped waited, and Tanselm felt hope as well, that the woman and the man might come to some accord.
Then Arim melted the ice, tapped his staff, and shot Light straight at Lexa’s heart. She narrowly avoided that blast and the next, and the two danced around each other as if choreographed.
Tanselm hummed with pleasure as their energy tangled, shared, and grew stronger. Beautiful. Wonderful. Healing.
“Why did you return?” Arim asked before hitting Lexa squarely in the chest. He took her off her feet, and Tanselm felt Lexa’s pain as her own. Arim frowned and took a step back. He doesn’t know why he cannot press forward, and therein lies the problem. “You can’t be here. This is sacred land. Why didn’t Tanselm warn me of your coming?”
Because you would have prepared to destroy her, the land thought.
If he knew how often Lexa had visited since her “banishment” several centuries ago, he might destroy Lexa in truth. Tanselm had masked Lexa’s visits, welcoming the headstrong female’s healing Darkness.
“The land warned you,” Lexa said with an arrogance she didn’t feel. “I felt it. But my energy combined with yours when I entered through the void.”
