Chapter Twenty-Four
Auraelia
“Auraelia! Wait up!” Daemon yelled from behind her.
After her—albeit brief—conversation with the dead first queen of the Court of Emerald, Auraelia gathered the stones needed for their runes and left the treasury faster than she imagined possible.
As she skirted past them in the hall, she hadn’t said anything to anyone.
She hadn’t even bothered to make sure the treasury doors were closed as she attempted to run from the sound of Astraea’s voice, their soundless conversation ringing in her mind like a bell’s peal.
Why was Daemon allowed entrance?
“You know the answer to that question, young queen. You simply refuse to acknowledge it. Even after everything you’ve realized, everything you’ve let yourself accept, and everything you’ve begun to feel, you still deny the obvious in front of you.”
And what is that?
“That you and the young prince are destined for one another, just as his ancestor and I were. But as I said, you knew that already. Stop running from it, Auraelia. Let fate guide you, and let his love catch you. Your souls are bonded together, and the more you accept it, the sooner you accept it…the stronger you both will become. Don’t squander this. I am you, but you don’t need to be me.”
So lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t realized that she had reached the stables—or that Daemon had shadow-walked in front of her until she ran into his broad chest. His hands settled on the sides of her face as she peered up at him, his eyes swirling with worry and concern.
“What happened in that room, Auraelia?”
As she opened her mouth to respond, Xander and Piper reached the stables. “Damn, Rae. Where’s the fire?” Xander asked from behind Daemon.
Auraelia cupped Daemon’s cheek like he held hers, releasing a heavy breath, whispering loud enough for only his ears.
“Later, my love. I’ll tell you everything later.
” His brows furrowed as his eyes roamed over her features, but after a few moments, he nodded in acquiescence and pressed his brow to hers.
“Promise?”
“With all of my heart.”
After pressing a brief kiss to his lips, Auraelia pulled from Daemon’s embrace and faced her brother. “Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
The air was crisp, the wind chilling, as they stood in the low tide at the center of Lyndaria’s harbor.
Winter had fully and unnaturally settled into Emerald.
Frost crept along the edge of windows and blanketed the ever-moist ropes along the piers.
The normally crystal clear skies were shrouded in depressing gray clouds, promising colder weather to come.
It was an omen. One that Auraelia felt deep within her bones. Like the weather itself was trying to warn her of what was looming on the horizon.
“Ready?” Xander asked as he brushed the sand from his palms.
Nodding, Auraelia held out one of the brown leather satchels that she’d filled with emerald stones and shards.
Taking the bag from her hand, Xander carefully laid the first rune in the hole he’d just finished digging.
When he finished and the mark was buried, he stood and held out a slip of parchment with the rune sketched on its surface.
“Be safe, but be precise, Rae. One stone out of place, and this won’t work. ”
“The same goes for you both, as well. We’ll meet you back here and head into the city’s center together.” Xander and Piper nodded in unison, then wrapped her in a tight embrace before heading off to where their horses waited.
As she watched her brother and best friend ride off toward their first point, Daemon stepped up to her side and linked his fingers with hers, silently letting her know that he was ready whenever she was—and not just to place runes around her kingdom.
By the time Auraelia and Daemon reached their first mark, tension clung to the air like static. Silence reigned between them as she struggled to find the words that would accurately explain the thoughts warring in her head.
By the second mark, the one where she would have to construct the rune's shape in shards, it was so thick it felt like she’d been draped in a heavy, wet blanket.
And still, Daemon never pressed. Never pushed or prodded for information or let her ever-present silence get to him. He just let her…be. Let her find her own way, patiently waiting for the moment she would be willing to let him in.
Daemon dismounted first, unstrapping the shovel from where it had been secured on the saddle bag and tossing it to the ground before offering his hand to assist Auraelia from Jasira.
She’d never tire of the feel of his hands on her waist or the gentle way he let her slide down his body until her feet were firmly planted on the ground, setting every point of contact ablaze. He held her like he was afraid she would slip through his fingers.
After tucking a strand of wind-blown hair behind her ear and pressing a kiss to her lips, Daemon asked, “You ready?”
Auraelia nodded, pushing up on her toes to capture his lips once more before turning out of his grasp and heading toward the edge of the Amber Woods.
She knew these woods like the back of her hand.
Had traveled through them countless times and knew which direction would inevitably lead her to Nefeli Lake.
But there was a quiet stillness to them that set the hair on the back of her neck on end.
Even in the dead of winter, birds still perched on the naked branches and sang their songs.
Small animals still scurried along the blanket of leaves on the ground, rustling them beneath their tiny paws.
But this? This kind of quiet warned of danger and had Auraelia scanning her surroundings.
Looking for anything out of place. Releasing the hold on her magic, she let it spool down to her fingers, heat blossoming at the tips where her lightning settled beneath the surface.
“What is it?” Daemon asked when they stopped in a small clearing between the trees.
“I’m not sure. It just feels…like someone is watching us.”
Daemon dropped the shovel, his eyes widening as the gold of his irises expanded until it engulfed the mossy green. Shadows spilled from his hands, reaching beyond the trunks and slithering like snakes along their roots as if they were searching for whatever lurked beyond what their eyes could see.
Pulling in a deep breath, Auraelia pushed the air into a sphere around them, guarding them from all sides. “I don’t like this,” she muttered beneath her breath.
“Nor do I.” Tension radiated off of Daemon in waves as he reached down for the discarded shovel, his eyes swiveling around the forest as his shadows continued to snake between the trees. “We need to get this done and move on.”
Nodding once in agreement, Auraelia kept her eyes on the trees as Daemon began to dig.
There has to be a better way, she thought as the blade of the shovel pierced the cold, hardened ground.
Dipping into her magic, she searched for that part of her she hadn’t yet explored.
The one that connected her to the ground beneath her feet and caused it to shake, wondering if she could tug that thread and manipulate it into pulling the earth forward instead of pushing energy out.
Auraelia visualized her magic, threads winding deep within her, diving into the depths of who she was.
Saw the vibrant golden glow of her lightning, the wispy blue that represented her connection to the air, and the smokey gray of the storm, all woven together in a tight braid.
But as she began to pull them apart, a delicate line the color of the richest earth was nestled in the center; its presence was barely noticeable amongst the effervescent threads surrounding it.
Mentally wrapping it around her fingers, Auraelia gently gave it a tug.
At first, nothing seemed to happen, the ground remaining stagnant below her feet. But after another pull, a slow, steady rumble coursed through the ground, settling within the shallow hole that Daemon had made.
“What the—” Daemon muttered, his words cut short as he staggered back a step.
Auraelia dug her magic into the ground, severing its connection with the surrounding earth and forming it into a solid mass in her mind. But just as she was about to lift it from the hole, Daemon stiffened at her side.
“Auraelia.” Her name was a ground-out warning, Daemon’s shadows thickening at his fingers before pooling around his feet. “We have company.”
She heard it then. The crunch of dried leaves and the snap of a branch underfoot.
Auraelia released her grip on the earth, her head swinging to her right as someone stepped between the trees. Dressed in deep browns, making it easy for them to blend into their surroundings, they slowly made their way to the edge of the clearing, their cloak shrouding any distinguishing features.
“A little far from the safety of your castle, aren’t you, false queen?” The tone was distinctly male—deep and full of arrogance.
“I’d watch what you say if I were you,” Daemon said with a chuckle, his magic pulsing through the air, clearly amused with the audacity the man exuded.
“And whom do I have the pleasure of receiving insults from?” Auraelia asked, her head canting to the side with annoyance.
The stranger tossed back their hood to reveal a mop of auburn hair, sun-kissed skin, and eyes the color of cinnamon that matched the freckles peppered over their face. When those eyes met Auraelia’s, he smiled, and the malice behind it sent a chill down her spine.
“I’m simply a messenger.” He shrugged, pushing off the tree to take a step toward them.
“And what is the message you need to deliver, mister…?” Auraelia hedged, keeping her arms loose at her sides as he continued to take cautious steps forward.
There was a good twenty yards between them, but that didn’t mean he needed to be any closer to inflict damage.
Magic? No magic? Assassin? She knew nothing of this man. Knew nothing of his intentions.