Page 9 of Above Cursed Winds

“You all seem so shocked.” Mockery was fully apparent in his tone. “You’ve forgotten who Nina is—what she is.” The humor evaporated. “Without question, she’s one of the most dangerous people on the planet, a predator clothed in a pretty package. While her pleasant nature may have helped you forget that fact, I assure you, she has not.”

Isaiah shook his head, his fingers trailing across Rukia’s bare forearm in a tender gesture. “None of us are victims here. None of us are easy prey. You’d do well to remember that. Nina’s recovering from childbirth—from twins, no less—and she’s still suffering from the massive energy drought that ensued afterward. Need I remind you that those of us who are destruction are far more prone to flares of anger when threatened?”

Rukia sucked in a breath, her eyes finding Jeremiah’s. A pretty chocolate brown, Rukia’s gaze was fixated on his as though she needed to convey something of the utmost importance. What he found buried beneath her surface level spite was fear.

For him.

“Don’t pull the tiger by the tail, Jeremiah.” There was no trace of humor in Isaiah’s voice now. “No one could protect you if she deemed you a threat. Not me, not Zeke, not Gideon. No one.”

Despite the prickling of anxiety that tingled across his skin, Jeremiah’s response was anything but. “Thanks for that riveting advice, Raeth. I’ll log that away in my ‘mind your manners’ mental folder.”

Leaping to his feet, Gideon surprised his wife who straightened suddenly. He began pacing a track back and forth between them, the subtle vibration of the earth beneath their feet indicative of how agitated the man was.

“Oh, just spit it out, Gid.”

Jeremiah used his monarch’s nickname, but it felt foreign in his mouth. It’d been ages since they’d been chummy, and it felt as though he hardly knew his best friend anymore. Jeremiah had lost him when Gideon was buried all those months ago.

Even worse was that Jeremiah had lost himself.

His monarch stopped pacing to glare at him, those inhuman eyes shimmering a molten gold. “What are you doing, Jeremiah?”

“Right now?” he asked. “Sitting. Doing my darndest not to fall asleep.”

Gideon’s scoff betrayed both his rapidly dwindling patience and his outrage at Jeremiah’s actions. “Why the hell are you intent on burning the world down with you? Has it not been enough to drown yourself in liquor and fate knows what else? Must you bring all of us down with you?”

A scathing laugh, dark and ominous, hissed from between Jeremiah’s lips. “Whoever said I was burning the world down? And what if I happen to like my liquor and an endless supply of ‘fate knows what else’?”

The lie came so easily it almost eclipsed the truth.

“Why are you compromising everything we’ve worked for? Why are you compromising yourself?” Gideon spat.

The rumbling below the House was dangerously active for an earth Elemental that could swallow the structure whole if he’d willed it. Jeremiah ignored it. Irate at the insinuation, he charged to his feet.

“Oh, I’m compromising myself? That’s rich coming from you, Gideon. You loathed vampires, hated everything they stood for, and now you’ve married one.” His glare turned on Rukia. “Do you remember what you said about Isaiah after our first meeting?”

Fury mounted in Rukia’s chocolate-brown eyes, clearly remembering the conversation, and willing him to be quiet. Jeremiah, glutton for punishment, would do no such thing.

“You said that Isaiah was the most infuriating man you’d ever met, and you’d rather die in a desert than speak with him again. Now guess what? You’ve popped out his kid.”

Rukia’s lip curled, but it appeared that Isaiah had taken no offense, and the smirk that curled on his lips only incited Jeremiah to spew more insults.

“Now, Paracel plays host to a werewolf who howls at the moon, a spiteful Raeth sovereign, and an ancient vampire who takes the blood—and ability—of the most powerful Elemental to walk the earth.” Finishing his diatribe, Jeremiah fisted his hands on his hips and squared off with Gideon. “Tell me again who’s compromising their values.”

A look he’d seldom seen shadowed Gideon’s features. If Jeremiah had to guess, a substantial portion of it was frustration. Disappointment, no doubt. But above all things, it looked as though Gideon was giving up.

“You’ll go to Hawaii, Jeremiah.”

It wasn’t a question; it was a command.

On its heels, contempt rose to the surface within Jeremiah. “Is that so, oh glorious Elemental monarch? Send the tech guy, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, huh? And that, of course, will be on top of being the only line of defense for air poisoning attacks. Because it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever be off-call from that.”

Gideon threw his hands in the air. “Well, it’s better than you staying around here, getting drunk every night and passing out in some random Iowa City motel room again!”

“Glad to know I’m wanted.”

Instead of responding, Gideon and Aidan shared a loaded look from across the room. It was clear then, as bright as day to him. Aidan had replaced Jeremiah as Gideon’s best friend. It’d been inevitable, looking back on it now.

Jeremiah was circling the proverbial drain while Aidan and Gideon were both mated and happy, living the best years of their lives. Now it seemed they were ganging up on him to deliver whatever type of intervention this passed for. It was a betrayal of the worst kind.

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