Chapter Forty
Auraelia
7 days since the war ended…
Everything was heavy.
Her eyes.
Her limbs.
Her heart.
But it was over, and Daemon was safe. He’d survived the war…even if she hadn’t.
Auraelia inhaled deeply, but instead of the easy breaths she’d had when she met the Goddess Rhayne outside the gates ofArcelia, pain cinched in her chest and radiated out into every fiber of her being.
It didn’t make sense.
She should have been bathing in the ethereal glow of the Goddess Realm. She should have been dining at Inara’s table with the rest of the fallen warriors of history or walking the endless gardens with her mother.
Instead, cool darkness shadowed her sight and cloaked her senses.
With each pained breath she took, the world slowly came into focus, sounds and smells tickling something in the recesses of her memory.
Auraelia urged her body to move, to do anything, but it didn’t obey.
Tired.
She was still…so…tired.
14 days since the war ended…
Voices bounced around the room, filling her ears with a cacophony of sounds that pounded around in her skull like the dull edge of a knife. But there was one that soothed the jagged edges.
One that her soul seemed to recognize, though she couldn’t place the who or why.
Auraelia tried again to move, but her mind and body still wouldn’t connect.
Slowly, she drifted back into the abyss that she’d become so accustomed to.
Let it wash over her in cold waves and drag her under.
18 days since the war ended…
A steady voice lured her out of the darkness that had enveloped her so completely. It was like listening to her favorite melody—calm and sweet, with all of the notes in the right places, washing over her like a gentle wave.
Something about it felt special, like watching the sun sink below the horizon or seeing a star streak across the sky. She basked in the warmth that voice brought to her heart, letting it sink into her soul and course through her veins.
A delicate touch ran across her cheek, and it was as if the veil had been lifted from her eyes, and everything came rushing back.
Heat flooded her system, like holding her hand close enough to a fire to feel its warmth but not so close that it burned. Tingles pricked her fingertips, and the pain that accompanied her breaths dulled to a manageable ache.
Though the voice was muffled, it floated through her mind, reminding her of crystal-clear waters beneath star-flecked skies, calming the storm that had begun to rage inside her.
“Auraelia, open your eyes for me. I can feel you there; just…open your eyes.”
The gentle caress on her cheek continued as each word landed heavily in her heart. She could feel the tears welling behind her eyes, her chest tightening as she finally realized why that voice settled the noise around her. It was the one she never thought she’d hear again. And yet there he was…just as he always had been.
