“Don’t do this.Please, my star. Don’t do this. Not again.” Disbelief clung to every word, his stomach twisting into knots.
Auraelia wrapped her arms around herself, eyes falling to the floor once more. “Daemon, please. I—” her voice trailed off like she couldn’t find the words she needed to say.
“No. I know you think you need to do this on your own, but you don’t. Let me be there for you,” he pleaded. When she still refused to look at him, Daemon angrily ran his hands through his hair, pulling on the strands until pain shot through him. He paced the floor a few times, then whirled on her. “Look at me, dammit!”
Gradually, she lifted her gaze toward him, the pain in her eyes piercing through his shattering heart. She was more than anything he’d ever wanted or needed, and he’d be damned if he let her push him away again. Let her throw what they had away.
Dropping his hands, he strode across the floor toward her. He didn’t care if he woke the entire castle; she was going to listen to what he had to say. “I know you love me, so stopfightingme! Stop pushing me away!” Daemon cupped her face in his hands, forcing her to look him in the eyes where tears threatened to spill over. “This? Us? We’ve been written in the stars for centuries—our souls bound together, destined to scour the realm until they could find each other again. But even without that, without fate deciding that we were meant to be, I wantyou. We have a chance to be happy together, Auraelia. Stop fighting it.Please.”
Auraelia eased his hands from his face, her voice barely a whisper as she dropped her gaze to his chest. “I can’t.”
“No, you can. You just won’t.” His voice was sharp as a blade. When she pulled her hands from his and took a step away, it was like a boulder dropped into the pit of his stomach. Like she couldn’t stand breathing the same air he did. “Why, Auraelia? Tell me why the fuck you arechoosingto do this to us. Not just to me but tous.I fucking deserve that much.”
Auraelia’s eyes shot to his as she screamed, “I’m doing thisbecauseI love you, Daemon. Fuck!” Turning away from him, she looked up toward the ceiling.
When her gaze met his once more, tears lined her eyes. Regret and devastation swirled in her blue-gray orbs as she stared him down, her nostrils flaring as she tried to rein in her emotions.
She closed her eyes and ran her hands down her face, holding them over her mouth for a moment like she was praying before she continued, her voice still raised and shaking with every word. “Don’t you understand?”
Glassy eyes met his once more, her voice softer as she continued. “I would bring this realm to its knees. Burn it to the ground until all that was left was ash and cinder if it meant keeping you safe. Keeping youhereby my side. But I can’t do that.” Tears streamed down her cheeks, but when Daemon reached for her, she held her hand out, took a step back, and shook her head. “I can’t think straight when you’re here. But I can barelybreathewhen you’re not. I have to think about my people,yourpeople, and the whole of Ixora. I willnotallow this realm to fall into her hands. I don’t care whether we’re written in the stars or in the sand. I will not lose you. Ican’tlose you… It would break me.”
They stared at each other for what felt like hours, though it had only been seconds.
He heard every word she said, but the one thing that played on repeat through his mind were those three little words he’d been dying to hear. The ones that kickstarted his heart into a gallop.
She loves me.
He’d known it to be true, but knowing and hearing were two very different things.
Daemon closed the space between them before Auraelia could even blink. Cupping her face in his hands, he gently wiped away the tears that continued falling. “I heard everything that you said, I did. But, Auraelia—” he paused, resting his forehead against hers. “I’m not going to ask you to say it again. Not because I don’t want to hear it—I want to hear it every day of my goddess damned life—but because I’ve been waiting for so long to hear it that even though you’ve said it while frustrated with me and this whole situation, it’s still the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard. And I need you to know, my beautiful, shining star, that I love you, too. More than there are stars in the sky, and it runs deeper than the depths of the sea. I need you more than I need air in my lungs. I am yours. In this life, the next, and whatever may lay beyond that. I am irrevocably in love with you.”
A choked sob slipped through Auraelia’s lips as she pushed up on her toes, her lips soft and forgiving beneath his.
Daemon let his hands fall from her face in favor of encircling her waist. Her body melted into his. Her hands snaked up his chest to wrap around his neck, fingers delving into the hair at his nape.
The kiss was unlike any they’d shared before.
It wasn’t rushed.
There was no frantic pulling of clothes or fumbling fingers.
It was like coming up for air.
Like stepping into the sunshine after days of rain.
When they finally parted, Auraelia looked up at him, and the world faded away until all that remained was her.
Love shone in the bright gray swirls of her eyes.
There was no mask.
No hiding.
It was pure and unfettered, and it was all for him.
“Take me to bed?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Daemon lifted her behind her knees, his lips melding against hers as he carried her into the bedchamber. After kicking the door behind them, he set her back on her feet, his hands finding her face again. He searched her gaze as his thumb swept idly across her cheeks. “I know I said I wouldn’t ask—”
