Daemon slowly walked over to where she was crouched just past the door and knelt at her side. “Let me help?”
She turned her head and met his gaze, but it was like she was seeing straight through him. Her mind undoubtedly swirling through everything that they had learned that night, trying to make sense of it. Trying to find a way through the maze of information that had just been laid at her feet.
He gently pulled the rag from her hand and, with the other, brushed the stray strand of hair that had fallen from her braid behind her ear. Her eyes fluttered closed as she leaned into his touch, and a small sigh escaped from her lips.
“We’ll figure this out.Together,” he whispered, and she nodded.
Pressing a kiss to her brow, Daemon stood and turned to where Ser Aeron and Piper still stood in the small sitting area. “Care to lend a hand?”
The trip back to Emerald Castle was nearly silent, save for the sound of the horse’s hooves pounding against the dirt below. Each of them seemed lost in their own trails of thought, but none were as far away from the present as Auraelia.
Her back was near straight in the saddle, the hood of her cloak thrown back by the wind from the pace they set. Her hands were clenched so tightly around the reins of her gorgeous mare that if he could see beneath her gloves, he was sure they would be white. Daemon watched her the whole way back, but her eyes stayed straight ahead, never once glancing toward him or the others.
When they arrived at the stables, she dismounted and passed the reins off to the stablehand. Only then did she turn and finally meet Daemon’s gaze.
Her eyes flicked over his face like she would somehow find whatever answers she was looking for there. When her stormy-gray gaze finally met his, he let a tendril of his magic slip between his fingers, reaching out toward her until it wrapped around her hand.
He knew the moment she felt it.
A small contented sigh slipped between her lips, her eyes briefly fluttering closed as her shoulders eased away from her ears.
Daemon made his way toward her after passing off his borrowed horse—a chocolate stallion with white star marks flecked across his flank like a constellation that Xander had aptly named Orion.
He heard Piper say something about going to check on Xander and filling him in, though he didn’t believe that for a second since it was the middle of the night, and what they learned could wait until morning, but he kept his thoughts to himself. Ser Aeron muttered something, but his words fell on deaf ears.
His entire world was wrapped around the woman in front of him.
Shewas his priority.
And the only words he wanted to hear were the ones that came out ofhermouth.
“Walk with me?” Daemon asked, gently pulling a glove from her hand before lacing their fingers together.
Auraelia nodded, then led them away from the stables and toward the bench at the edge of the training pitch. It was the same one they’d sat at what felt like eons ago when the world was simpler, and the only thing that stood in their way was a piece of parchment signed over five hundred years ago.
Their walk was quiet—the only sound coming from the cold winter breeze that rustled through the naked branches of the trees—but he didn’t mind. He knew her mind was a jumble of thoughts, and he didn’t want to pressure her into talking before she was ready. Knew she needed to work through it on her own first before she said it aloud.
So he kept silent and let her lean against him as they walked.
Soaked in the feeling of her skin against his and the way his magic seemed to reach out for hers.
As they crossed the pitch, Daemon tilted his head toward the sky. The stars sparkled like diamonds overhead, the moon shining brightly against the velvety backdrop of night.
The longer he looked, the more pieces from earlier in the night fell into place.
When the moon is new and darkness fills the sky, that is when Davina is at her strongest.
Daemon knew the moon cycle like the back of his hand. As a sailor, he had to. But that also meant they had less than a month before Davina would undoubtedly attack.
“Fifteen days,” he muttered toward the sky.
“What did you say?” Auraelia stopped in her tracks, pulling him to an abrupt halt as well.
Releasing a heavy breath, Daemon turned toward her. “Fifteen days.”
“What’s in fifteen days, Daemon?”
“Caius said that when the moon is new, that's when Davina is at her strongest.”
