“I am, but I need you to stay here.”
“What? No.” Aiden recoiled, his nose scrunching as if he’d smelled something foul as he backed up a step.
“As a friend, I am asking you to stay. But as your prince, I amtellingyou to stay. I need someone I trust here with boots on the ground. I need you to watch after my girl, Aiden.”
“Fucking, Goddess.” Aiden breathed, running his hand through his neatly combed locks. “Fine.”
“Thanks. Now, I’ve got to go. I’m supposed to be meeting Xander at the stables. Keep her safe, Aiden.”
“Not that she needs it,” he scoffed.
“She’d certainly agree with your sentiment, but regardless. You’re my eyes and ears while I’m in Kalmeera.”
“Safe travels, brother.”
The men clasped their forearms before pulling each other into a quick embrace.
Daemon watched the early morning light dance along the water’s surface as The Nevermore pulled out of Lyndaria’s harbor.
“You alright over here?” Xander asked as he approached, leaning against the railing on the ship’s upper deck.
“It just feels…wrong. I can’t explain it.”
“She’ll be fine, Daemon…she has to be.”
The latter was barely louder than the beat of a butterfly’s wings, but Daemon heard it all the same.She has to be,not just for the sake of the realm and all of its inhabitants but for his as well. He couldn’t survive a world in which Auraelia didn’t exist.
Silence settled between them, and the only sounds around them consisted of the hustle and bustle of the crew combined with the crash of the waves against the hull as Lyndaria faded into the background. It wasn’t until the city was no more than a blip on the horizon that Xander spoke once more.
“So, I guess now is as good a time as any.”
“For what, exactly?” Daemon asked, crossing his arms as he turned his back to the ocean and directed his full attention to the prince.
“I know you both have feelings for each other, but what exactly are yourintentionswith my sister?”
Something between a sigh and a laugh escaped as Daemon eyed the man to his right.Feelings for each other?What theyfelt for each other went far beyond simplefeelings.It was soul-altering, bone-deep, and all-consuming.Feelingsdidn’t even put a dent into the enormity of what they had, and he decided to say just that. “I don’t just have feelings for your sister, Prince Xander. I’m not even sure if love is an adequate term. She consumes me. My thoughts, my soul. Everything I am is hers.”
“I see.” Xander’s head bobbed, his eyes locked onto the way the water crested against the ship. “What about your kingdom?” he finally added after a few beats of silence.
“What do you mean ‘what about my kingdom’?”
Sighing, Xander turned toward him and fixed him with stern eyes. “When all of this is over, what happens? Auraelia is already the queen of Emerald, and I don’t see her giving that up after fighting so hard to hold on to it. So,” he matched Daemon’s stance, his brows raised in expectation, “What happens when this is all over? Will you leave your kingdom to be with her in Lyndaria? Will you continue this long-distance arrangement until you’re both miserable and resent each other? What is yourplan, Daemon? Because I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces when this inevitably falls apart.”
The bluntness at which he laid it all out was both relieving and unnerving. Had he thought about it? Of course, but it had been pushed to the back of his mind while they focused on the immediate future. They needed to focus on saving the realm before they could figure out what to do about their future together—a future that he fully intended to have.
“Well?” Xander hedged when he’d taken too long to respond.
“Listen, Xander. I don’t have all the answers right now. Goddess, I wish that I did, but I don’t, and I’m not going to stand here and lie to you and say that I do. Iwilltell you, however, that I would never even dream of asking Auraelia to leave her throne or her people, and I can’t abandon my own either. But I refuse to spend my life an ocean away from her. Refuse to reduce what wehave down to clandestine meetings and letters. I would give her this realm on a silver platter if she wasn’t so determined to save it on her own.”
Small crinkles lined the edges of Xander’s eyes as a smile crept across his face. “That’s all I needed to hear. You both have a lot to figure out; I just hope you can do it before the world goes to shit.” Xander clapped his hand on Daemon’s shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze before heading below deck.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Auraelia
Sunlight filtered through the windows, bathing her cheeks in a warm glow. A languid smile stretched across her face as the gentle heat lured her from sleep, but as she reached her arm out for Daemon, all she found were cold sheets.
Her heart was heavy as she peeled her eyes open, but instead of the empty space she was expecting, she found the sunlight glittering off something on his pillow.
