His tone was lighthearted, and Auraelia had to stifle a laugh at the memory from the previous week of her lightning ricocheting off of Xander’s blade and singeing his hair. He now sported a cut similar to Daemon’s, though his was still long enough on top to pull back into a bun.
Her training had intensified over the last few months. Went from her usual rounds of sparring and light magic training with Piper to full-on, multi-partnered combat training.
Ser Aeron had seen the toll her newfound abilities had begun to take on her body and had insisted. Claiming it would be good practice for the impending battle with Davina and a good,healthyway for her to expend her magic.
He’d been correct—obviously. It gave her a healthy outlet to expel the magic that was built day by day and a way to work through the anger that followed her everywhere.
“Would you two—” Ser Aeron swung his broad sword at Auraelia’s head, “kindly shut the fuck up.”
She crouched just in time to miss the blade, and as her fist hit the ground, it trembled. Knocking the two males off balance enough that she could push them back with a strong gust of wind. As they fell to their asses outside of the muddy circle, Piper gave a triumphantwhoopfrom the sidelines.
Xander’s arms were propped on his raised knees, his eyes slightly wide. “Well, that was new.”
“Indeed.” Ser Aeron’s deep baritone voice echoed across the pitch. “Where did that come from, Auraelia?”
She looked down at her hands, one covered in mud and the other still tightly gripped around her the hilt of her short sword.
Wherehadthat come from?
“She’s always been able to do that,” Piper said from where she was perched on a bench, popping grapes into her mouth.
“What?” The two men asked in unison.
Rolling her eyes, Piper wiped her hands on her pants as she stood. “The day Queen—” she paused momentarily, then continued. “Thatday, when Rae’s magic was bleeding out of her in the ballroom, the ground shook. You don’t remember?”
The question was asked to the group, but Piper focused on her. And she saw it as she dug into the recesses of her mind, behind the wall where she’d tried to shove all those memories. She feltit.
Sheathing her sword in the scabbard strapped across her back, Auraelia trudged through the muck of the training pitch to the water table.
How many abilities are going to come out of the woodwork? Lightning, rain, wind, and now this?
She angrily took a sip from the water skin, then slammed it back onto the table.
Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t heard Xander creeping up behind her, so she jumped as his warm hand clasped her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
Auraelia leaned over to place her hands on the table. The wood scorched beneath her palms as her lightning settled at the surface. “It’s just one more thing for me to learn. One more thing that I need to be in control of at all times. I just—” she sighed and shook her head. “I’mtired, Xander. So fucking tired.”
Her brother gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I know. But, Rae? You’re the strongest person that I know. And I also know that the Goddess and the ancestors wouldn’t have blessed you with the amount of magic they did if they didn’t think you could handle it.”
“Goddesses.” A small smile pulled at her lips, and she turned toward her brother. “I’m blessed bytwoGoddesses, dear brother.”
Xander rolled his eyes and gave her a loving shove as Ser Aeron sidled up to them, a small smile on his face and a piece of parchment in his hand. “Seems we have a visitor.”
Auraelia furrowed her brows in confusion, took the small slip from his outstretched hand, and smiled.
Chapter Seven
Auraelia
“Lady Aesira!” Auraelia beamed at the woman standing in the throne room, deep in conversation with Ser Aeron.
Aesira turned and beamed right back, her smile bright as the moon against her dark skin. “Your Majesty,” she said as she bowed her head.
As the two women embraced, a little more tension ebbed away from Auraelia. Aesira had been one of her mother’s oldest and dearest friends and was like a second mother to her. Having her there, in Emerald, was like having a piece of her mother back.
But when they pulled apart, Auraelia saw heaviness in her eyes. “What is it? As happy as I am that you are here, you never come unannounced. Is something wrong?”
