With all the grace of a feline, Davina turned. There was a menacing smile on her face as her head slowly tilted to the side. “Hello,cousin.Come to play?”
Auraelia stiffened, and thunder clapped in the sky, drowning out the sizzle and hiss of water droplets falling onto the flames as the clouds released their heavy burdens.
The sound made Davina jolt where she stood, but that shock was short-lived.
“I’ve come to send you back where you belong,” Auraelia shouted. Bands of lightning wrapped around her extremities, cocooning her in incandescent light, while wind swirled aroundher in a protective barrier. It wasn’t until Daemon’s shadows joined the mix that Davina seemed to even notice his presence.
Tsking as she shook her head from side to side, her gaze narrowed in on where he stood behind Auraelia. “Daemon, Daemon, Daemon. Did you really think that you could come here and I wouldn’t know? That even here in Lyndaria, I wouldn’t have little birds relaying your every move?”
Auraelia felt—more than saw—him step up to her side. His body was poised for battle as his magic spilled from his fingers, pooling into swirls of shadows at their feet. She could sense the rigidity in his muscles as if they were her own, as if they had become so attuned to each other that they had become one.
The deep tenor of Daemon’s voice cut through the chaos around them as he answered Davina. “I am not yours to keep tabs on.”
“Our engagement would say otherwise,my love.”
Auraelia knew that she called him that to get under her skin.Knewthat Davina was doing it to see how she would react. Despite the rational side of her mind telling her not to, she couldn’t help the possessive rage that overpowered her rational thought.
The cresting glow of morning faded away as light, brighter than the sun itself, filled her vision. She could feel the static crackling in the air, the way her hair floated around her like she was suspended in water, as her magic spilled out of her. And as she spoke, the words more of a growl than anything else, the ground began to rumble beneath her feet.
“Get thefuckout of my court.”
The heat from her lightning was a warm embrace as it flared and coalesced in her hands, glowing like the evening star as it swirled into an orb of fiery light. But as she took aim at Davina, her cousin’s feline smile shifted into something much more sinister.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, dear cousin,” Davina chided. “You see, if you did, poor Xander here wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.”
Auraelia’s blood ran cold as Davina stepped to the side.
There, on his hands and knees, with blood gushing from his nose, mouth, and ears, was Xander. How she’d gotten past his shield, she didn’t know. But seeing her brother crumpled on the ground sent flashes of her mother’s death to the forefront of her mind.
“You’ll find, cousin, that I have many talents. Ones that not even your dear Prince Daemon has knowledge of. Did you really think that you could beat me?” Davina began slowly walking toward Auraelia as she spoke. “That you could sneak aroundtryingto get information about me without my knowledge? Seems I gave you more credit than you were due.”
Auraelia’s thoughts began to race. She needed to get Xander out of there. Needed to get him to Ser Aeron so that he could be healed. Buthow?
With Davina steadily approaching, there was no way for her to communicate with Daemon. No way to ask him to save her brother, or beg him to leave her there and save the last remaining member of her family.
A familiar cool caress slithered along her spine as if he had heard her thoughts. A simple acknowledgment that he knew what she needed without her having to say a single word.
When Davina was far enough away from Xander, Auraelia sucked in as much air as she could into her lungs, and as she exhaled, she whispered, “Now.”
Before she could even blink, Daemon was gone, his shadows devouring his form only to release him next to her brother. Then, within the next second, they had both vanished. She wasn’t sure how far Daemon could shadow-walk or how far away Xander needed to be before the effects of Davina’s magicsubsided, but at that moment, all she cared about was that they were both away from the bitch standing before her.
Davina’s head swiveled from Auraelia to the bloody mess where Xander once was, and when she turned back, she loosed a blood-curdling scream as she charged forward.
But Auraelia was ready.
Charged with rage and the need for vengeance, she released the hold she had on her magic. Wind and rain assaulted Davina from all sides while the quaking ground threw her off balance—but still, she persisted, fighting through everything Auraelia threw her way.
With her lightning once again swirling in the palm of her hand, Auraelia took aim as time seemed to slow to a crawl.
Red.
All she could see was red.
Crimson like the blood that poured from her brother’s face.
Hatred and rage led the charge in her need for retribution against the person who had irrevocably altered her life. For the one who facilitated the murder of her mother and threatened to destroy all that she loved. Who was trying to destroy theoneshe loved.
Daemon.
