Auraelia tightened her grip on Daemon’s hand, tears forming in her eyes as she turned toward him. She’d never tire of looking at him. At the strong lines of his face and the way, his eyes shone like twin suns on a summer day when he let his magic go. Of the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he laughed or the smirk that drove her crazy. He was the love of her life, and that life was slowly coming to an unfortunate close.
But if this was her end, she wanted him to be the last sight she took with her to Arcelia.
Tears were streaming down her face when Daemon looked her way, but she gave him a watery smile and whispered, “I love you.”
Panic shone in his gaze, his mouth parting around her name as she turned her face toward the sky and closed her eyes. Inhaling deeply, she let herself sink into the final depths of her power. Streaks of lightning streamed down from the sky, illuminating the battlefield in a golden glow as they crashed into Auraelia. Sinking into her skin until she was nothing but the power within her veins. Then, with a vengeful cry, she let every last drop of hermagic go, channeling it into a ball of blinding white light as it hurled toward Davina.
As the glow of her assault faded, Auraelia swayed on her feet, the roots binding her cousin fell away as her body stilled.
“Auraelia?” Daemon questioned, wrapping his arm around her waist as his magic slowly pulled away from Davina and spooled back into himself.
Panic laced his tone when she didn’t answer as he repeated her name.
Warmth washed over her, blanketing her body in a heavy shroud.
It’s over.
Her vision darkened, and her limbs grew heavier with each passing second.
My people are safe.
She could feel her lungs struggling to draw in air as her heart began to slow.
“Auraelia!”
She wanted to stay. She wanted to see Daemon again, but his scream was the last thing she heard as she let herself drift into nothingness.
Daemon
Daemon screamed her name as she collapsed in his arms, sinking to the ground as he held her to him. Blood was tricklingout of her nose and ears, her breath coming in slow, ragged pulls as she lay limply in his lap.
“No, no, no. This can’t be happening,” he demanded, stroking the hair away from her face. “Auraelia,please. Open your eyes.”
His shadows stroked against the power that still glimmered beneath the surface of her skin, coaxing it to rise, to respond. To dosomethingto let him know she was still there. Tears landed on her cheeks as he pleaded with her to stay. To come back to him. But the time between the beats of her heart lengthened with each fall of her chest.
Then there was nothing.
The color of her skin began to fade as her heart slowed.
“No!” he screamed, shaking her roughly before pulling her tightly against him. “We were supposed to have more time. We…we haven’t had enough time.” Sobs wracked his chest as he held her to him. “Please, my star. Don’t leave me.”
“Daemon!”
He heard someone scream his name, but he didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore, not if she wasn’t there to share it with.
“Daemon! Look out!” He recognized the voice then, the shrill tone of Piper’s scream piercing through the shattering of his heart.
His magic responded of its own accord, wrapping around him in a protective shield just in time to deflect a knife thrown at him. The whistle of a blade sailed past him, the telltale sound of it landing in its intended target, pulling his gaze from Auraelia.
Anger surged in his chest as he watched Davina’s charred hands claw at the wound in her throat. There was only one way she would have managed to survive the onslaught of power he and Auraelia had funneled into her body. She’d taken the one thing that meant more to him than anything in this realm. Andsomehow, through her blood bond with Caius, she had managed to survive.
Daemon watched in disbelief as Davina pulled the dagger from her neck, blood pouring from the wound as she held his gaze and took aim. But before she could throw it, another dagger flew past his head and landed directly next to where the first had been.
As Davina’s body crumpled to the ground, the elation he thought he’d feel was absent. Instead, he felt hollow. It was over, but the cost had been too high. He’d lost too much.
Anguish and rage began to fill the hole that his heart had left, a sob wracking his chest as he silently pleaded with every goddess in Arcelia to give Auraelia back to him.
He was nothing without her.
