A tear slid down her cheek as she told him all she had been through—everything she had lost. The jealousy stirring in his chest faded away, replaced with sadness. She was ruling by herself. Even if he wished it had been him at her side, it didn’t make it better now that she was alone.
She talked about Annora, how she had a daughter named Avery who was the spitting image of her. How Annora became the council head for the Nocturna after Maliena and Neve retired.
“And I met a human—an artist that sells to Clara,” she said quietly.
“A human that still lives in Penyth?” he asked. “They must have a hard time with that.”
Evelina looked away from him, her eyes filling with sadness. The fire still burned beside them, keeping them both warm.
“I’m trying to show him that not all fae are so…difficult.” She sighed.
Daimon smiled, watching her talk. She told him everything, from Leda’s progress with her sword fighting lessons to Annora’s career as the Nox leader. He would never tire of seeing her like this, with the glow of the fireplace lighting up her skin, how animated she got when telling a story.
Her arms flailed around, telling him about how Iris got under her skin like no other council member. Even when she drifted off to sleep, he watched her until the very last second.
He could feel the Harvest Moon lowering; his time was almost up. If he tried to hold on much longer, the dream would fall out of his hands, slipping through his fingers.
With one last kiss on her forehead, he separated their connection, ending the dream.
He didn’t want to tell her goodbye—didn’t want to see her cry. At least this way, he felt like it wasn’t actually over.
Seventy-Seven
Evelina
Two Months Later
Evelina had woken up alone,barely certain the dream of Daimon had actually happened. She awoke in the Radix Room, tucked onto Ellerry’s brightly colored couch with a blanket thrown over her. When she asked Ellerry how she ended up there, Ellerry just smiled and made her a cup of tea.
Evelina went to the Radix Room every night after, hopeful the connection would still be there. She tugged at the tether, but each time felt nothing.
So she was forced to go back to normal. As normal as she could feel after a night like that.
Today she was sitting in her room with Annora, eating lunch as they often did together.
Annora watched her closely, then hummed. “You seem different.”
Evelina shrugged, her cheeks reddening. Shefeltdifferent. There’d always been an empty loneliness that filled her chest, but after seeing Daimon, she felt a little less hollow.
“Do I?” she said around a mouthful of herb chicken.
She took another bite of food, but the moment sheswallowed it down, it instantly soured in her stomach. She bolted out of the chair, running to the bathing room and emptying the contents of her stomach into a waste basket.
Annora rushed in after her and bent down to pull her hair out of the way. “Evelina?” She rubbed circles over her back as she heaved again. “Perhaps we should call for Gloriana. That’s the third time this week you haven’t been able to keep your food down.”
“There’s a lot going on.” Evelina waved her off, wiping her mouth. “I’ll be fine.”
Annora shifted and gave her a pointed look, fully unconvinced.
Something Evelina didn’t want to consider screamed in the back of her mind. She had been ignoring it all week, had ignored it when her cycle hadn’t come and all the times she was forced to swallow down the nausea she felt with every scent that filled her nose.
“Evelina,” Annora said gently.
She turned around and sat on the floor, her stomach settled for now. She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She couldn’t be pregnant—refused to believe it. The only person she had been with was Daimon, and that was in adream.Their bodies weren’t there, just their minds. So it couldn’t be possible…
A tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away.
“Evie,” Annora said gently. “It’s more than just a lot going on, isn’t it?”
