He did as the voice commanded. Sitting on the floor of the Moonstone Temple, he lifted his face to the sky once more and closed his eyes.
His mind filled with the deepest blues before clearing away to reveal the bearer of the voice. Staring back at him was a woman clad in sky-blue and dove-gray robes, with pearls and tentacles woven through the auburn waves of her hair and a fisherman’s net draped across her eyes. But when she pushed the veil aside, it wasn’t the blank eyes of lore that shone back at him. Instead, eyes the color of the ocean's depths locked onto his.
His eyes widened as he stared back at the woman.
At the Goddess Narissa, herself.
“Hello, Prince Daemon.”
“My Lady.” Daemon bowed low to the floor, his heart pounding in his chest. As far as he knew, the only people alive who saw Narissa were her priestesses. Everyone else had been lured to their deaths—or so the legends say.
“Rise, my son. You have no reason to fear me.”
Daemon rose and silently met her gaze.
“I’ve been watching you, Daemon. You and yourstar.”
“Why?” His voice was barely a whisper, and the Goddess smiled.
“That’s not the question you wanted to ask me.” Narissa began to take leisurely steps around the temple, weaving her way around the columns as she spoke. “Not the question that has plagued your mind and heart for months on end.”
Daemon’s heart clenched in his chest as he let the words tumble from his lips. “Why am I drawn to Auraelia? Why does it feel like my very soul fractures into pieces when I’m no longer near her? Why—”
Narissa appeared in front of him, mere inches from his face. “Because, dear boy, she is the other half of your soul. She is the one whose heart beats in time with your own. She is your soulmate, Daemon.”
“Soulmate?” Shock radiated through his body at her words. Shock and…clarity.
The Goddess spun away and continued her lazy rounds through the temple. “Yes, your soulmate. Yours is a love that has been destined for over five hundred years. Yours is a love that was meant to bring all of Ixora together. But your ancestor, King Erix, spoiled that.”
“The treaty,” Daemon muttered under his breath.
“Yes, the treaty. For centuries, the souls of both yours and Auraelia’s ancestors have been reborn. Given new life and a newchance at love. But they are kept apart in one way or another every cycle.” She paused momentarily, then turned toward him, her eyes full of hope. “You and Auraelia have a chance at happiness, Daemon. Have a chance to bring the realm together. You just have to take it.”
His shoulders dropped as he released a sorrowful sigh. “Auraelia doesn’t want anything to do with me or us anymore.”
“Do you honestly believe that to be true?” she asked, her tone skeptical.
He didn’t respond. Didn’t knowhowto respond.
Didhe believe that? No. And despite her best efforts to push him away, he knew she loved him. But he also didn’t know how to convince her of it either when she refused to let him in.
Narissa grabbed his shoulders, pulling his attention back to her. “The love between you is written in the stars, Daemon. Your souls are bound to each other, and onlytogethercan you do what needs to be done.”
He didn’t miss the stress she put on the word “together.” Didn’t miss the slight widening of her dark eyes as she said it.
Together? How the fuck is that going to work when she won’t even talk to me?
But before he could ask her what she meant—she was gone.
The deep hues that clouded his mind while he conversed with the Goddess faded away, and Daemon blinked at the brightness of the moon that took their place.
His head throbbed like it had the morning after he’d found Davina in his chambers.
What the fuck was that about?
Chapter Six
Auraelia
