At the sound of the door creaking open, Auraelia pulled her head from her hands.
“You ready?” Aiden asked, his face a mask of indifference. Nodding, Auraelia pushed up from her chair and gestured toward the door that led from the council room to her chambers. “What, no quippy response?” he asked, crossing the room to meet her at the door.
“Aiden,” she huffed out in exasperation, “I don’t have the energy for your sarcasm right now.”
“Too tired from trying to fry my ass?”
Auraelia scanned him from head to toe. She’d taken Ser Aeron up on his offer of turning Aiden into a live practice dummy, andthere was not a single scorch mark on his person or a hair out of place. The exercise had been educational and exhausting, but seeing the terrified look on the emissary’s face any time a bolt of lightning curved a little too close for his comfort had made the exhaustion worth it. A Cheshire grin spread across her lips. “Trust me, if I was trying to ‘fry your ass,’ I wouldn’t have missed.”
Turning away, she opened the door and headed toward her chambers, not bothering to see if he’d followed.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Daemon
The gentle lap of water against the shore did nothing to calm the storm that roiled within him. Daemon looked out over the Cerulean Sea, taking in the glittering water that had always been a home away from home and the thing that always brought him back to Kalmeera.
But home was no longer the city he grew up in, not in the ways that counted.
Home had become long, golden waves of hair. It was the smell of lavender and the warmth of an embrace. It was quiet nights and ones tangled in sheets. Conversations beneath the stars while fireflies danced overhead.
Home was Auraelia.
It had been for longer than he’d realized. The magic in his veins knew the second he laid eyes on her all those monthsago. But it hadn’t been until the Summer Solstice when she was dressed as a queen ofhiscourt, that he’d finally begun to understand.
Daemon closed his eyes and let the soft sound of water meeting sand remind him of what he had to lose if this all went awry. He’d lose the home he’d always known and the one that took its place, and he couldn’t let either of those happen.
“Is it always this warm?” Xander asked as he lifted his face toward the sun, his words pulling Daemon from the thoughts swirling through his mind since they ported the night before.
“It is a tropical island,” Yvaine laughed, shaking her head at the absurdity of the question.
“I’ve only been here once before, remember?” Xander shot her a sardonic look. “But I guess I was just a little surprised, is all. Even Emerald is unusually cool for this time of year.”
“It was damn near freezing when Davina was here,” Daemon scoffed, his hand rubbing at his sternum. It was as if the mere thought of her brought back the ice in his veins, stealing the breath from his lungs and causing his chest to ache.
Yvaine placed a gentle hand on his forearm, her eyes soft yet determined as they met his. “She will never set foot on our islands again, D. I’ll make sure of it.”
Placing his hand over hers, he gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We both will.”
“On that note, let’s get started,” Xander cut in, rounding out their little group into an awkward triangle. “Did you get what you need?”
Nodding, Daemon pulled a dark leather satchel from the bag he’d slung across his body. Having done this in Lyndaria, he knew he’d need sapphires…and a lot of them. The Sapphire Isles may have been islands, but they were large, and more than one needed protecting. After pouring some of the stones into his palm, Daemon looked up to meet the wide eyes of his sister.
“Did you rob the treasury? What the fuck are those for?”
“We need them to strengthen the runes that set the wards,” Daemon explained as Xander picked through the gems. “Just pay attention, okay? I’m going to need you to repeat this process on Malaena and Lunaria while I handle things here.”
“What do you mean, ‘handle things here’?” Yvaine asked, crossing her arms as a singular brow reached toward her hairline.
“I need to prepare the fleet and get the council on board. Unlessyouwant to deal with Lord Syrus and his rabble.”
Yvaine’s hands flew up in surrender. “Nope. Wards on the other islands got it. So how do we do this?” The latter was directed toward Xander, who had walked a short distance away to a where the grass tapered off as it met the sandy bank.
“Come on.” Daemon pulled Yvaine along until they reached where Xander knelt in the sand.
“You have to dig a hole deep enough to not be discovered but shallow enough that the magic can penetrate it easily.” The crunch of his spade piercing the wet ground mingled with the crash of waves in the distance and the cries of the birds overhead. When he finally finished, Yvaine squatted next to him to examine the hole. “Now—” Xander reached into the pocket he’d deposited the sapphires into, “you have to place the gems in the shape of the rune.” Slipping his other hand into the opposite pocket, he pulled out a small sheet of parchment and handed it to Yvaine. “Here, I drew it out for you. It has to bethisexact shape. It’s really simple, just a few lines that have to connect at the right points. Any deviation and the wards will not set.” Xander raised a skeptical brow, tapping his finger against the ink scrawled on the parchment. “Do you think you can handle that?”
Yvaine lifted her gaze from the slip in her hand to meet Xander’s, and Daemon blew out a breath through pursed lips as he rocked back on his heels.
