Auraelia rolled her eyes but returned his smile before returning to Daemon, slipping her hand into his. “Come on, I’ll fill you in while we get ready.”
“You killed Kyra?” Daemon asked as he pulled his trousers over his hips.
After they’d gotten back to her chambers, clothes had been ripped and flung to opposite corners of the room, their bodies colliding like a wave crashing against the shore in a storm. They’d spent more time remapping each other’s bodies and drawing out their pleasure than they had talking. But they'd reluctantly pulled apart when the sun began to kiss the horizon, the last remnants of light bathing her room in a warm tangerine glow, and Auraelia finally told him everything.
“That’s putting it mildly, don’t you think?” she asked with a sheepish smile. She’d gone into more detail than was necessary, but as soon as she began, the words seemed to tumble from her lips like water spilling over a cliff.
“Are you alright?” he asked, his warm, callused hands sliding up and down her arms in a comforting rhythm.
“More so now than I had been. Aiden’s been helping me, even after I made him bring her body to the border.”
“Auraelia.” Daemon pinched the bridge of his nose and expelled a ragged breath. “Are you trying to piss her off?”
She opened her mouth to respond, but the way Daemon’s eyes snapped to hers—a littlevappearing between his brows—made her stop.
“What do youmean, Aiden’s been helping you? Helping youhow?”
“Jealous?” she asked with a chuckle.
“Auraelia.”
She palmed his cheek and gave him a small smile. “He told me.” Daemon’s brows pinched further together. “I know he’s an empath, Daemon. After I…eviscerated…Kyra, he numbed what I was feeling.” Daemon’s eyes shot wide, and she shook her head, a silent request to let her finish. “Slowly, over the next day or so, he let the weight of what I did settle back into me. Let me workthrough my feelings in small, manageable doses. He’s a great friend; I can see why he’s your right-hand man.” A small smile played on Auraelia’s lips as she watched her words sink in.
His eyes softened, and he brought a hand up to cover the one on his cheek. He leaned into it for a brief moment before he twisted his head to press a kiss on her palm. “Thank you for giving him a chance.”
“And for not killing him?” she asked jokingly.
Daemon snickered and pressed his lips to her palm once more. “That, too, my star. That, too.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Auraelia
The party was in full swing when Auraelia and Daemon made their way to the ballroom. Music filled the space, mingling in the air with trills of laughter and the clink of glasses as people reveled in the calm before the impending storm. Auraelia’s heart clenched in her chest—an ache radiating down into her very soul—as she stopped in the doorway to watch her people.
How many of them would live to see the sunrise in two days’ time? Would they survive to see their loved ones grow into the people they were destined to be? Make it through to have children at all?
Wouldshe?
She was as prepared as she could be. Trained until her muscles screamed for a break and her magic dimmed in her veins. But still, there was a lingering thought in the back of her mind.Would she be the one who walked off the battlefield victorious? Or would Davina come out on top, finally achieving the goal she’d set out to obtain by prying Auraelia’s kingdom from her grasp?
Daemon’s hand tightened around her own, and it was as if she could finally take in a full breath. She turned her face his way, and the love in his eyes sent flutters through her stomach. But then he smiled that crooked smile that always made her knees weak, and those flutters grew wings. The way he could read her body and sense every time she began to spiral into the darkest corners of her mind would never cease to amaze her. The way he always seemed to know just what to do or say to pull her back from that ledge. He’d always been able to read her, but as they grew closer, as their magic and souls seemed to meld together, it was as if a piece of him had seeped into her very being, giving him unfettered access to everything she was.
“Breathe, my love. They know what is to come and what they are fighting for.”
“That doesn’t make this any easier,” she whispered, turning her gaze back toward the people gathered.
“I know, but I also know that they would gladly die for you and your reign. As would I.” Auraelia’s gaze snapped to his, and his smirk shifted into a smile full of warmth. “Come on. Tomorrow will come soon enough, and I want to enjoy this night with you.”
Daemon tugged on her hand, gently guiding her further into the ballroom and the revelry around them, and she couldn’t help but return his smile. As they neared the center of the room, he pulled her flush to his body, his arm snaking around the small of her back as he pressed a kiss to her brow. “Dance with me?”
Auraelia tilted her face toward his, watching his eyes flick between her own as if he worried she would deny him that simple request. A soft smile pulled up the corners of her lips asshe cupped his cheek in her hand. “Until the stars fall from the heavens.”
It wasn’t until Auraelia stepped out into the garden for a moment of fresh, cool air that she realized how much time had passed. Stars filled the sky, twinkling against the velvety darkness that blanketed overhead with the absence of the moon.
A heaviness began to settle in her chest as reality attempted to creep in, but as she inhaled the crisp winter air, she pushed it down and smiled. Time sped by, seconds ticking into minutes and hours, and there was no stopping it—regardless of how much she wished to. But that night hadn’t been measured in the minutes that made up so many of her days. She measured it in the laughter that still echoed through the ballroom and filtered out the empty windowpanes. In the twirls around the dance floor wrapped in Daemon’s arms, and the drinks and stories that had been shared with her people.
Auraelia took a steadying breath as she stared into the moonless sky, its implications settling into her bones as resignation made its home in her soul. Dalia—the Goddess of Fate—had already decided how the battle would end. She’d decided who would walk away from the field victorious. And though Auraelia didn’t know—or understand—the reasons why, she had no choice but to accept the path that had been laid before her…she just hoped that the goddess was on her side.
