A truth of sorts. Unlike most Dark and Light energy that canceled each other out, Lexa’s Dark and Arim’s Light attracted each other. A perfect union, if only these stubborn fae would accept Tanselm’s appointed roles.
Lexa recovered while Arim experienced, once again, an unbidden lust for her, a distraction that cost him. She blasted him, stealing his breath, and kicked him to the ground. Her foot held him in place while he fought her powerful Dark magic.
“Your precious Storm Lords will die one by one when Sin Garu wins. A Dark Lord once again in charge of Tanselm. He’ll kill everything you love, everything that is pure and Light in this land. And he’ll do it because you aren’t man enough to see the truth.”
“In your fucking dreams.” Arim fought her hold, but Tanselm made no move to help him escape.
Finally. Someone understood what she’d been trying to warn her children about for years. As if the divide in the spectrum wasn’t bad enough, Sin Garu, a scourge upon the living, had only grown more powerful with each passing year.
In the last century, the evil Dark Lord had amassed an army of Darkness. His Netharat: wraiths, Djinn, and monstrous Shadren, creatures that walked in both Darkness and Light, waged war on anything Light they could get their claws into.
“Yes, Sin Garu will kill us all. You need to make changes. But you’re too bigoted to see what I clearly can.”
“Oh? Is your perspective so much better from Malern?”
Tanselm flinched, and the ground under the pair rippled. She wasn’t the only sentient land. Malern, the Dark Lords’ homeworld, was too steeped in Darkness to create balanced fruit. Too often, his children killed and destroyed with ease. Foreia, a Shadowed world, was better. Krell too. Poor Earth had all but died out, its magic nearly depleted by the greedy humans who dwelled there.
“Malern?” Lexa scoffed. “No, I’m talking about Earth, where I’ve been living on and off amidst those hapless humans. Being of no magic make perfect victims for powerful Dark Lords. Imagine what Sin Garu will do to Earth once he has Tanselm under his control. Your suffering is just the beginning.”
Yes, tell him, child. Unfortunately, Tanselm felt Arim’s resistance. Instead of heeding Lexa’s warnings, he took them as threats.
“I’ll kill you for this,” he warned through gritted teeth.
“Promise?” she teased. “Maybe next time you trample a girl’s heart and banish her from her own home, you’ll think about the repercussions. Send your sister and nephews my regards.”
She vanished into the Between, the void between worlds. Lexa left no goodbye, only a pool of Dark energy where she’d been standing. Tanselm absorbed it, as well as Arim’s pain. His anger did her some good. He’d always manifested his darker emotions in swirls of energy, feeding Tanselm though she knew he was unaware he did so.
Offering him what comfort she could, Tanselm wept her sorrows, rain pelting the land. He stubbornly refused to go after Lexa. No matter how much she tried to push him to seek what he truly needed, what she truly needed, Arim couldn’t hear her.
As time wore on, she lost hope.
Months, then years passed.
Sin Garu’s attacks began. Storm Lords died. Light Bringers and Netharat bled on her lands, poisoning her with their hate. Chaos grew, until only four Storm Lords, the queen, and Arim remained to heal her wounds.
Two of the newest Storm Lords took foreign affai — foreign brides — from Earth. The other two, thank the balance, found a Shadow Dweller and a Djinn to love.
Still, the gap remained. For Tanselm to be whole, she needed equal amounts of Darkness and Light. She needed Lexa.
She needed a miracle.
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.
