The overqueen winked. “Give them my sincerest blessings on their pregnancies.”
A light hum filled the room. Tanselm’s pleasure radiated through the doom and gloom saturating the Storm Lords. One issue solved, at least, I thought bitterly.
A possible new overking could be chosen once one of the affai birthed four identical princes. Great. A joyous occasion. Right before Sin Garu found out and began annihilating royal affai. “I’ll tell them. Now about Arim —”
“Oh, and to you as well, Lexa. My humblest felicitations.”
“For what?” The look on Ravyn’s pale, near-transparent face made me lightheaded with anxiety.
No. No way. Ravyn couldn’t possibly mean —
“On your forthcoming children, of course.”
Chapter 25
Lexa
Blindsided, I stuttered, “W-What?”
“Lexa, we’re losing him,” Sava urged, pulling my attention.
Ravyn stroked her brother’s face. Arim’s skin glowed where she touched it, and then she faded from sight, a sad smile on her face.
“Focus on the power that beats within you.” Sava sounded so grave I looked up at him. I wasn’t used to seeing him so serious, so ancient, and his intensity helped clear the cobwebs of confusion from my brain. “Call upon your feelings for Arim, that love you dare not mention but can no longer ignore.”
I didn’t like admitting to the emotion that made me so vulnerable. It went against everything ingrained in me from the time I’d learned what it truly meant to be a Dark Lord. But I couldn’t turn away from Arim, not when he needed me most. I had so many questions, but now was not the time.
Taking a deep breath, I once again lost touch with the physical and stared into a Darkness shimmering with Light — the core of me. The demon taint no longer existed. Instead, love, an iridescent rainbow of feeling, throbbed in my soul, a testament of Arim’s power so generously shared.
I could do no less than pass it back to the man I couldn’t live without.
Freely and without hesitation, I shared my love with his soul, which flared so brightly it hurt to look at…until I noted the black speck at its center. That part of Arim he wanted to deny but couldn’t called to me on a level I understood.
Possession, desire, and raw need filtered through me back to him, and I allowed the Darkness he’d given me to seep back into his being. Traces of his gift of Light refused to leave me, though, and I instinctively held on to what my mind told me I couldn’t afford to let go.
As I shared the moment with Arim, my heart fluttered, knowing that I truly loved him as I never would another.
Sparks of energy shot through us, tying us together in a way words never could. In a few seconds, I saw the immense void where Tanselm’s power had been, a boon the land granted Arim that Tanselm would never willingly give Sin Garu.
I realized the energy I had shared wouldn’t sustain Arim forever, but it would do temporarily. We would have to hope it would be enough to rid us of Sin Garu and free Tanselm from the Malinta demons’ touch.
Arim’s groan shook my concentration and severed our link. Shouts from behind me told me the spell holding the Storm Lords frozen had vanished.
I yanked Sava close and whispered, “Not one word about Ravyn’s visit.”
Sava placed a finger over his lips and whispered back, “Not one word, little mother.”
Clenching my jaw, I shot Sava a look to kill, irritated at the mirth on his face. Ravyn had to be joking. As I helped Arim sit up, my mind flashed with fears and hopes of possible futures that confused me, Sava’s teasing making my heart race. Little mother.
“What happened?” Arim rubbed his temples and stood with Sava’s and my help.
“Arim, are you okay?” Marcus and Tessa spoke at the same time.
Someone else said, “Damned Dark Lord.”
“Jonas, ease up!”
“What the hell?”
