Page 8 of Above Cursed Winds

“If they use the air conditioning units to vent the silver or sunlight particles, will we be able to count on you, Jeremiah?”

Nina’s question captured his attention, and Zia breathed a soundless sigh of relief. Something about the intensity of Jeremiah’s gaze unnerved her.

A casual shrug. “I suppose.”

When he snapped his gum again, Nina’s eyes thinned, indicating her patience had waned. “Jeremiah.”

The underlying threat in her voice had the red-haired man’s posture stiffening. “Yes, Nina?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d prefer a keener answer.” Barely contained in each word was a primal threat that had ice frosting up Zia’s spine. “My twins, my babies, are barely teething, and we’ve a hundred more younglings who now live within walking distance of my home. My clan has never been under more direct threat than what the Citizens poses now, and we’re vulnerable in a way we’ve never yet had to defend.”

Her eyes turned glacial. “You’re the only immortal who has experience clearing the air of their poison, and the only one we can depend upon in an emergency. Jeremiah—” his name was a hiss on her lips, “—either you lose your flippant attitude with regard to my children’s lives, or I’ll be forced to remind you exactly how powerful my abilities are.”

An immediate and intimidating silence permeated the room. It coiled around Zia like a noose, its pervasive tentacles cinching tight along the column of her throat and suffocating her with every inhale.

Nina had just threatened him.

The most powerful female Raeth ever to have walked the Earth had just lost every ounce of her neutrality and uttered the words no one in their right mind ever wanted to hear.

Chapter Four

Fool . He was a fool.

He’d deliberately been defiant during the meeting, and acted flippant and lazy. He’d courted Nina’s wrath by responding so poorly to the question of her own clan’s security.

Jeremiah should have cared more, he should have been motivated by the danger they were all in, yet he somehow felt like an invisible wall was separating him from everyone else and their feelings. If they were putting their hopes in him and his abilities, then they were even bigger fools than he was.

Out of the corner of his vision, he watched as Zia’s mouth dropped open. For half a moment, his focus snagged on the Raeth woman. Undoubtedly, her head would reach a good foot below where Jeremiah stood at six foot four.

Cascading down her back were luscious waves dyed in colors similar to an oil slick. Reds, greens, yellows, blues; each hue could’ve been a trick of the light had they not shifted in her black hair as she moved. If anything, he’d been enamored with not only the chromatic effects, but also with her delicate features. A spark of her personality shone through in her eyes, because clearly, she stared at him as though he had a screw loose.

Perhaps two. Three, at most.

A double set of earrings pierced her ears and the barest whisper of a tattoo was peeking out from beneath the sleeve of her Henley. Blazing out of those pretty features was an aura of complete innocence.

No one would ever look at her and see a villain.

But that was unerringly what she was. Her incompetence could potentially cost the lives of hundreds. No matter what she did now, it would never fix the error.

Despite the fierceness of her resolve, it couldn’t overshadow the guilt she’d already admitted to. It was an expression he knew well—because he saw it in the mirror whenever he looked at himself.

Weakness. Incompetence. Guilt. He may not be able to cope with his own, but he could villainize her for it. Being cruel was simply a side effect of purging his own pain.

Beside him, Gideon shifted uneasily, instantly drawing Jeremiah’s attention back to the matter at hand. He found Nina’s gaze still trained on him, the clear malevolence in her eyes a warning. Without his conscious volition, the air around him began to churn with the weight of his power.

Not good.

“My apologies.” Forced, both words were swallowed like daggers. “I’ll be of aid when it’s necessary.”

Nina’s glare didn’t soften, and for a moment, he could’ve sworn he saw the blue of her eyes tinge red. Her mate, the Raeth called Zeke, gently curled an arm around her back, whispering something in her ear that made her attention—finally—move away from him.

“May I suggest a recess, Nina?” Gideon’s voice, placating and calm, sounded from beside him.

Conversation murmured around them, and suddenly the Raeths were leaving, followed shortly by the werewolves and several of the vampires. Other than his Elemental colleagues and their mates, only Aidan and Lucy had remained behind, the single other couple who lived in Paracel full time.

Glancing over to his cohorts, Jeremiah’s eyebrows rose. Not only had Gideon and Rukia adopted matching expressions of incredulity, but their wordless grimaces spoke to just how much they disapproved of his outburst.

Isaiah began chuckling. All eyes went to him, but it was Rukia who asked, “What is funny about this situation, Isaiah?”

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