Chapter Two
Daemon
He watched as the color slowly drained from her face while she took him in. She looked at him like she was seeing a ghost, instead of the man who told her he loved her before she walked away.
He’d been angry for weeks after that.
Angry at her for turning her back on what they had.
Furious with his parents for putting him in the situation they were currently in.
And mad at himself for letting her go.
Squaring his shoulders, Daemon walked across the space and took the empty chair next to Auraelia.
“Wha–what are you doing here? You can’t be here.” Panic laced her voice as her wide eyes searched his face.
“You’ll find that I can, Princess.” He smirked, and a faint blush crept across her cheeks. That simple wash of color made his heart race, and his shadows railed against the hold he had on them.
Noticing the way Xander kept clenching and releasing his fists, Daemon turned his attention to the couch. “Xander, Piper, good to see you both again. Now, if you’d excuse us. Her Majesty and I have some things to discuss.”
“Excuse me?” Piper and Auraelia said in unison.
“Piper, you know I would never do anything to hurt her. You both do.” The latter was directed toward Auraelia, but she turned away to keep from meeting his gaze.
As the minutes passed, he was confident that this wasn’t going to go according to his plan.
When he found Aiden sneaking onto the Nevermore right at nightfall, he’d cornered him and demanded to know what was going on. Once he knew he would meet with Auraelia, Daemon decided to hijack their meeting. Aiden wasn’t happy about it, but he’d get over it.
He needed to see her.
Needed to talk to her.
He was about to give up when Auraelia cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. Slipping on the mask of the queen she was always destined to be, regardless of what her bat-shit crazy cousin seemed to think.
“It’s alright. He wouldn’t hurt me; if he tried, there wouldn’t be much left to find.” She let a few ribbons of lightning snake between her fingers as she spoke. It was meant as a reassurance to her family, and a warning to him.
All that Daemon saw was a challenge.
He sat as still as a statue, watching as the ribbons of light danced between her fingers. Xander and Piper slowly rose from their seats and followed Aiden out the door.
When the latch clicked into place, Auraelia pulled her magic back into herself and took a deep breath. “What do you want, Daemon?”
Her icy tone would have chilled him to the bone without the small break in her voice as she spoke. Like she was using every trick she had at her disposal to keep from falling apart.
She refused to look at him, instead focusing on her fingers as she picked at the skin around her nails. Her leg bounced with nervous energy as silence descended between them.
Daemon stood from his chair and took up the space that Aiden had just vacated at the mantel. “I just want to talk.”
It was then that she finally looked up and met his gaze. The fire he loved and then watched get extinguished, once again burning brightly in her eyes. “Then talk. What do you know about Davina?”
He breathed heavily and then ran his fingers through his hair. “I, unfortunately, had firsthand experience with her power.”
Her eyes widened in shock, and she shifted in her seat like she was going to stand and approach him but settled once more and averted her gaze.
He hated that she wouldn’t look at him, at least not longer than a few cursory seconds.
He needed to stoke that fire in her eyes.
Needed to make her feel something, anything.
Even if it was hatred. He needed to see the woman who held his heart and was the missing piece to his soul.
But the woman who sat in front of him now was no more than a shell of the one he once knew.
Renewed anger at how she walked away those months ago resurfaced, and he continued when she didn’t say anything.
“After you sent me away—” venom dripped from his words, and the tiniest tick on her cheek let him know it hit his mark.
“I went home and confronted my father. I barged into his office and told him I wouldn’t marry Davina. ”
Auraelia shifted her gaze higher but still not to his face.
Progress, we’re making progress.
“Little did I know, she was also in his office and, needless to say, she wasn’t happy with my conclusion. So, when I told her that ‘over my dead body would she ever be a queen in this realm,’ she decided to show me that it was, in fact, a possibility.”
That got her attention. Her eyes flew toward his, wide and full of worry and anger.
There she is.
“What do you mean?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“What I mean is that she made my blood run cold. It felt like ice was in my veins, and the frigid temperature burned. I couldn’t access my shadows through the pain. Hell, I could barely breathe through it.”
Auraelia’s eyes grew wider with every detail, and the air in the room began to stir.
“Auraelia, breathe.” He made sure to keep his voice low and steady. He’d seen how powerful she was when she reached into her well of magic, but he had no idea how deep that well ran.
She stood abruptly and began pacing in front of the desk. Mumbling something to herself, she rubbed at the darkened green tips of her fingers.
“One, two, three–”
Is she counting?
Daemon slowly crossed the room and gripped her shoulders when she made it back to her starting point.
The sudden contact jarred her out of her trance, and she jumped out of his grasp.
“Don’t—” She closed her eyes briefly and took a quick breath. “Don’t touch me.”
The air around them was stirring the papers on the desk, and the hairs on the back of his neck were beginning to stand on end. “Auraelia, you need to breathe.”
He could see the panic rising as her breathing became heavier, and the look in her eyes turned frantic.
Daemon began to stalk toward her, but she took one in the opposite direction for every step he took.
“Daemon—” There was a warning in her voice, but it was one that told him she wasn’t in control. He didn’t care if she fried him to pieces; he just wanted to try and calm her down.
When her back collided with the wall, he placed his hands next to her shoulders. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and she was still muttering numbers.
“Auraelia, my star, you need to breathe.”
Her eyes popped open, and she focused on him.
The blue calcite of her irises was completely gone, replaced by a bright peridot green with streaks of champagne lightning coursing through them.
“Don’t call me that.” Anger burned in her tone, and every word was clipped. But anger was something that he would work with.
Anger was but a breath away from lust. And lust was but a step away from love.
He knew she loved him. She hadn’t outright said it, and it may have taken two months apart for him to realize it, but he knew in his heart it was why she sent him away.
And if he could anger her, maybe he could get her to admit that she loved him.
Then maybe they could solve this problem together.
Daemon let a sly grin creep across his face and leaned in until their breaths mingled. “You think you scare me, Princess? Do you think that a little wind and some lightning are going to deter me? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it won’t.”
He let go of the hold on his shadows. Let them weave their way around them, enclosing them in a cocoon of night.
“You sent me away. You let go of everything we had, and for what? What did it get you? I told you I loved you, and you still made me go. Why? Tell me why.”
Ribbons of lightning wove around her fingers and arm, and Daemon sent some of his magic to play with hers.
They twined together in a rope of light and dark.
Opposites that shouldn’t have worked, forming something new and beautiful.
He leaned in further, his body close enough that when she breathed, her breasts brushed against his chest.
“I hate you,” Auraelia seethed, the ferocity of her lighting ramping up as her emotions rose.
Daemon chuckled. “You know, I don’t think that you do. But I can work with hate. Hate is just on the opposite side of the coin from love. And whether or not you’re ready to admit it to me, even to yourself, we both know that you love me, Princess.”
Her magic flared around them, ricocheting off his before they tangled together.
He could feel the heat of her lightning as it danced with his shadows.
Could feel the cool caresses of her wind as it battered against the shell of magic surrounding them.
And it made all the blood in his body rush south.
Smiling, he closed the space between them until his body was pressing hers against the wall, and his leg was wedged between her thighs. Their gazes locked with a heat and intensity that could set the world ablaze.
Fuck this.
Daemon leaned down, but her hands flew to his chest when his mouth was but a breath away from hers.
“Daemon.”
His name was a breathy plea on her lips, and the heat from her hands on his chest was like a branding iron as burning streaks of light coiled around her fingers.
His eyes softened as he whispered, “I’m not afraid of you, Auraelia.”
Then he crashed his lips to hers.
There was a fraction of a second where she tensed against him, and he’d begun to regret his choice to push her this far. But the moment passed faster than it came, and she melted into his touch.
Her fingers tangled into the loose fabric of his shirt before migrating upward to the nape of his neck where she held him to her.
Daemon added pressure between her legs with his thigh, and he felt the moan escape her lips and travel into his own.
But as soon as his hands landed on her hips, a gust of wind slammed into his chest and pushed him back until he hit the desk.
They stared at each other, breathing heavily as magic clung to the air.
“That shouldn’t have happened.” Auraelia finally spoke. Averting her eyes and breaking the connection between them.
“Aurae—”
“Don’t. Just—don’t.”
“Fuck!” Daemon snapped as he ran both hands through his hair. Spinning around, he paced the length of the room a few times before coming back to stand a few feet from her. “Why? Tell me why, Auraelia. I fucking love you, and I know that you love me too, and you keep pushing me away. Why?”
Anger and pain filled every word, and he could see the walls crumbling down around her as his words hit home.
“Tell me!” he shouted.
“I can’t!” she yelled in return. “We can’t.”
“Why?” He wasn’t yelling anymore, but his voice was still raised and vibrated with all the pain he’d been holding onto for the last two months.
“Because of her! Goddess, Daemon. Do you not understand how hard this is? I can’t be in love with you because she will use that against me. She will use it against you, and your family, and your people.” Auraelia’s head fell back as tears trailed down her face.
Daemon watched as the wall he’d just begun to tear down got built back up brick-by-brick until she squared her shoulders and pushed away from the wall.
“We can’t do this. You shouldn’t be here. This was a mistake.”
“It wasn’t, and I can see that nothing I say will change your mind. But this—” he gestured between them, “isn’t a mistake. This is inevitable. We’re two halves of the same soul, and I know you feel it. So, you can send me away again, but I’ll be back. I’ll always come back for you.”
Daemon held her gaze for a moment more before turning and walking out the door.
The sound of it slamming behind him echoed down the hall as he returned to the stairs that led to the brothel below.
I need a fucking drink.