“I know.” He flexed within her, amazing her that he could still think about sex when it felt as if her head had blown clean off with that last climax.
“No, Aerolus, we’re joined,” she said, urging him to look beyond what most could perceive. She cupped his chin in her hand and turned it to her arm, sharing with him her ability to see.
He stared, his handsome face curiously relaxed. “We’re joined,” he repeated. “As if our two halves are now whole.”
“What?” Alandra didn’t feel his calm. Far from it. She could feel an almost masculine energy pulsing within her, and the sense of intrusion, of overwhelming intimacy, spooked her.
She took advantage of his preoccupation with her aura and wriggled out from under him. Their bodies parted, and she waited for her aura to clear, to return to the playful peace that was Alandra le Aelle.
Shocked, she could only stare as she and he remained blurred, combined, imprisoned.
Chapter Seven
“Alandra, wait.”
She ignored him and raced into the adjoining bathroom, slamming the door between them. Frantically searching her image in the mirror, she studied her reflection now glowing with a strange light. Running her hands over her body, she was relieved not to feel anything physically out of place.
Testing herself, she shimmered into the images of Trudy Warner, Queen Lidra, even Arim the Light Bringer. Each persona looked like the real thing, and she breathed a loud sigh of relief that her magic seemed not to have diminished. To all outward appearances she was the same Alandra le Aelle. And yet, clearly, something had changed.
After a few moments her racing heart began to calm, the fear that she was somehow in mortal peril beginning to wear off as she noted, surprisingly, that the Light in her aura was actually becoming.
Fascinated, she couldn’t help reaching for the strands of Aerolus’ force. What should have hurt her didn’t. His energy soothed, strengthened, and surprisingly, aroused her simply by being there.
She stared at her reflection, turning left and right, looking over her shoulder to view her perfect backside still as lily white and round as before. She turned to the side again.
Peering closer, she thought she looked…taller. She beamed, a broad smile replacing the look of horror she’d shot Aerolus. She’d have to apologise to him for that.
She winced, knowing her actions weren’t exactly the stuff of romance. The sex with Aerolus had been indescribable, but her sudden panic at still being linked with him made her wonder just how she felt about him.
For a year she’d watched, studying him like a complex puzzle that wouldn’t quit her mind. No doubt one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen, he also possessed an intellect and an overt curiosity about everything that made her feel as if they shared several traits in common.
Alandra was curious, smart, and studied with a veracity that had surprised her fellow students. Unlike Aerolus, she enjoyed life openly, unafraid to show her emotions, risking a bit of pain in her quest for the ultimate pleasures life had to afford.
Funny how she’d almost thought herself in love with him. But seeing their auras entwined felt so…permanent. Though he wasn’t like most of his kind, she was a creature of Shadow. And what being of Shadow wanted to cling to the Light, especially since the Light Bringers were so intent on erasing anything with a hint of darkness from Tanselm?
Aerolus wasn’t like that. He was special, no matter the circumstances of his birth. Her damnable conscience, that irritating speck that had taken her from Aelle and made her the self-appointed guardian to Prince Aerolus Storm, refused to leave well enough alone.
Light and Shadow aside, Aerolus made her feel things she’d never felt before. He made her laugh. He aroused her beyond normal, into an entirely different realm of passion altogether. When they physically joined, she felt as if she’d come home, and the longing for Aelle didn’t hurt so much.
Startled to feel so deeply for him, when she really hadn’t even talked to him until a few weeks ago, she could only stare at her perplexed reflection shimmering with too much Light.
Their magic mingled, still flowed together seamlessly, as if neither had a beginning nor ending without the other. How could this be possible? She’d studied and knew why the Storm Lords had been sent to this world. To find their affai, brides of the Royal Four, to complete the Tetrarch necessary to the magical, much sought-after world of Tanselm.
Where would a disgraced, hunted, royal Aellei fit into Aerolus’ Storm Lord lineage? Hell, rumour had it that his people still battled the rebel Shadren lingering in the shadows of Tanselm’s MornMountain.
A foreign sense of sorrow hit her as the truth of her situation penetrated. There was no future for her and Aerolus, except for their attempt to rescue Tanselm from ‘Sin Garu’s threat. And she still didn’t completely understand why she cared so much about Tanselm, a world from which her kind had been banished over a thousand years ago.
Her aura sparkled like Christmas tree lights, and she couldn’t help admiring Aerolus’ magic—her magic now. But mingled magic could be remedied. A broken heart, on the other hand, she couldn’t handle again. Sadness was not a natural state for an Aellei.
Alandra lived with joy, humour, suspicion and frustration on a daily basis. But she couldn’t cope with true sorrow. When her parents had died many years ago, she’d grieved so hard her magic had all but consumed her. Only her parents’ good friend, Lord Sava, had helped her through the darkness.
Since in Aelle matings of the heart were readily discouraged, most Aellei felt only a passing sadness for departed mates and friends. Alandra, however, felt too much. She clung to loyalty when most Aellei considered fidelity to be a liability.
Already she cared way too much for the domineering Wind Mage. And that worried her.
Though they now stood apart, she could see him in her mind’s eye. He would be standing in the bedroom glancing at the bathroom door, a hint of worry around his eyes, while a burning intelligence lit his face as he calmly studied his own aura. He’d be processing and cataloguing all sorts of ideas about their change, and she couldn’t help admiring that about him.
Much as she knew this new malady she suffered could only lead to further intimacy with Aerolus and eventual heartache, she didn’t think she could ignore the temptation of being so near him. For a year she’d watched and waited for her chance to finally meet him, to feel the raw power he emanated from every pore.
Shadows, but when he’d finally entered her, the pleasure had been so intense she’d never wanted it to end. But the feelings, the raw emotion she felt between them, it made their relationship tangible, almost as if they had a future together.
She could still feel him in her, could still remember his concern and gentleness after Arim’s attack. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had come to her defence since Sava had taken her in a hundred years past. Certainly no one in the past five decades had interceded on her behalf for anything.
Frowning at the morose thoughts that began gathering like a dark cloud, she deliberately turned her mind to happy thoughts, that of pissing off Lidra by continuing to aid Aerolus. She started the shower and let the water soothe her. It was a secondary substitute for the balmy air that had lifted her earlier, but she was in no hurry to flex her wings again.
Just thinking about the crippling pain of losing a wing made her cringe. Closing her eyes, she faced the spray of warm water sluicing over her body and tried to figure out how best to tell Aerolus what he needed to know.