His brown eyes danced with humor, and he crossed his arms, clad in a blue knit sweater over snug denim jeans. He could have passed for human, like many of the others looking for bargains around us.
Though most of those shoppers appeared human, my magic allowed me to spot of few of the magir, what a certain faction of magical creatures in this mundane world called themselves. Though none of them hailed from Tanselm, several had come from parallel worlds and now called Earth their home.
I spotted a few sprites and witches, a mage or two, and there, in a tech shop, a lycan trying poorly not to be noticed. A difficult feat considering his size, though I supposed the dark glasses were supposed to make him look less threatening.
And yet I had to deal with a Djinn from my world, his powerful black aura one only a sorcerer of my caliber, from my world, could see.
I sighed. Had I been reduced to needing help from what I’d once considered the enemy, a creature of Dark? “If you want to help, tell me where to find Lexa. And trust me when I say you want me to find her before I lose my temper.”
“In like what, the next two seconds?” Jonas scoffed. “And everyone says Darius has the temper in the family.”
He wasn’t wrong there. Of my four identical nephews, Darius, the Prince of Fire, had a temper.
A cute blonde walked by and gave Jonas the eye. He grinned and winked, apparently not at all inconvenienced by this out-of-the-way trip to Earth.
Right now, I should have been in an important meeting with my sister, Tanselm’s overqueen, and with my four nephews, Tanselm’s last Storm Lords. Also known as the Royal Four, now that the rest of the Storm Lords were dead, my nephews sat poised to become kings, each commanding one of Tanselm’s territories.
Besides surviving the upheaval of so many of our family dead, the princes had recently taken royal brides. On top of that, they had problems aplenty just trying to keep the land hale and hearty.
They had enough on their plate without losing track of our “friendly ally” Dark Lord, Lexa.
I growled beneath my breath, ignoring Jonas’ smirk.
Trying to find Sin Garu and finally destroy him before his evil army killed any more of our people was priority number one. Until the next overking was chosen, protecting the affai of the Royal Four ran a close second. But since each of my nephews had finally come into their own power, the responsibility to protect their brides fell on them, I supposed.
I glanced around me again, still wondering how two of the four affai had come from this mundane world yet still possessed the wherewithal to handle their husbands’ elemental magic — the heart of the Storm Lords’ power. Most of the population on this plane didn’t even believe in magic, let alone possess the capacity to manipulate it.
Jonas’s deep chuckle broke my train of thought, and I watched as the Djinn seduced a phone number out of an attractive brunette before she walked away, a sway in her step.
“Lexa has a tendency to breeze through Sophie’s anytime she’s in town.” Jonas pointed to a nearby upscale lingerie shop. “Why don’t I check it out?”
Disgusted with the whole mess, I snapped back, “Yes, why don’t you?”
Unperturbed, he strolled into the store, frilly clothing and eager young women swallowing him from sight.
I took deep breaths and counted to ten, resisting the urge to turn Jonas to stone. While the thought held appeal, I knew I needed Jonas. And much as the thought disgruntled, I at times liked the sarcastic bastard. Besides, Jonas and Lexa had developed an odd friendship that would aid in Lexa’s recapture.
I paused at a surprising flare of anger, puzzled over its source.
It wasn’t that Lexa and Jonas’s friendship bothered the hell out of me. No, I wasn’t jealous, or so I kept telling myself. Any feelings I’d once had for Lexa had died centuries ago when I’d caught her literally red-handed, her palms covered in the blood of her foster family.
But recently, I’d reevaluated the past, wondering about my memories of that heinous event. Once, Lexa had been my whole life. My love, my future, my best friend. The hurt I’d suffered at her hands had nearly crushed me and taught me a valuable lesson.
Could I really think she’d changed after three hundred years of bringing chaos and death? Darkness into a world needing Light? She’d kicked my ass in a skirmish a few years past. I expected no love from the Dark Lord.
So I had no excuse when, a few months ago, I’d gone soft in the head and taken care of the petite sorceress while she recovered from a wound suffered in our joint battle against our common enemy.
Like a fool, I’d thought she might be different. Unconscious, vulnerable, and so achingly beautiful, she’d fooled me into thinking she might not be the treacherous Dark Lord I knew her to be.
And then she disappeared right in front of me. The slippery little witch.
No. I simply felt a responsibility for a temporary ally. Though we’d had our battles throughout the years, she’d never put her life at risk to save me. Not until that fight, when she’d thrown herself between me and her brother — Sin Garu. She never referred to him as her brother, and I found I could respect that much of her wishes.
A blight upon creation, Sin Garu and his sorcery tainted everything he touched, his magic both draining and malevolent. For all her faults, at least Lexa had severed her ties with a Dark sorcerer out of his mind with bloodlust.
A commotion drew my attention. Several women waved as Jonas left the lingerie store, his easy stride annoying me all over again.
Jonas reached me with a loud sigh and ran his hands through his hair, seemingly more from frustration than vanity. “She was here a few months ago. But since time passes much more quickly in this plane, the timeframe fits. Weeks missing in Tanselm, months spent in Philadelphia. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before she shows up again. If not in the mall, then around her old stomping grounds.”
