Chapter Six
Auraelia
In the two weeks since Daemon walked out of her life—again—Auraelia spent her free time doing anything, and everything, to drown the ache in her chest.
She threw herself into endless council meetings and trained harder than she ever had with Ser Aeron, but nothing was helping. Nothing masked the pain that came when she saw his eyes. Saw the anguish that stared back at her before he walked away again.
So, she’d decided to try something else.
As she sidled up to the bar inside Madame Sylvie’s, Vee’s eyes widened to the size of saucers.
“What are you doing here? Did you have a meeting tonight?” Vee whispered nervously, her eyes a constant swivel as Auraelia sat on one of the worn leather stools. Undoubtedly, she was looking for her usual companions.
“Calm down, Vee. I’m just here for a drink and a distraction.”
“No one—”
“No, Vee. No one is with me. Now, would you please pour me a drink?”
Vee’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, though her eyes still held a sliver of worry in their icy blue depths. “What kind of distraction are you after, girl?” she asked, her brows raising slightly as she poured Auraelia’s favorite honey whiskey into a tumbler and slid it across the bar.
Auraelia took a long swig from the glass before setting it back down and shrugged. “Anything will work, really. I’m not picky…” Auraelia let her eyes wander to the women who roamed the floor and the sheer gowns that trailed behind them, reminding her of Daemon’s shadows.
She wasn’t lying.
She would be perfectly content sitting at the bar drowning her sorrows, but she’d be just as fine following the gentle sway of hips into a dark room.
She’d been with women before and usually preferred it, especially since most of the males she’d been with were more interested in chasing their pleasure than tending to hers.
But that was before.
Before moss green eyes with twin suns burned their way into her soul.
Before calloused hands and pillowy soft lips marked her body.
Before Daemon, and the way that their souls called to one another.
She hadn’t been with anyone since him. Hadn’t wanted to.
But tonight? Grief was a cruel bitch that chilled you to the bone, and being wrapped in the warmth of another was as tempting as letting herself drown in the never-ending torment that plagued her soul.
Vee watched Auraelia through an intent, narrow gaze, then rolled her eyes and pulled a step stool from where it had been tucked behind the counter.
Climbing to the top step, she stood on her tiptoes as she reached behind the liquors on the highest shelf and pulled down a dusty, cobweb-coated, brown bottle.
Vee blew off the dirt, coughing as her feet returned to the floor. “Come on.” She jerked her head to one of the girls walking around the floor, a silent indication to watch the bar while the Madame tended to other business.
Auraelia slid off her stool and followed the petite woman down the hall that led to her office. When they reached the door, she blanched as the memories of the last time she’d been there tumbled through her mind.
Vee’s voice filtered out into the hall, “You coming or are you going to stand like a statue in the hallway all night?”
Steeling her spine, Auraelia stepped over the threshold.
The following morning was torture.
Her head throbbed in her skull, and her body ached.
What the hell happened last night?
Auraelia gingerly sat up, rubbing her jaw as she cracked her eyes.
She was in her suite, still fully clothed in her tunic and trousers from the night before. But the faint scent of clove and cinnamon clung to the fabric.
Oh, fuck.
Falling back onto the mattress, she groaned.
“Yea, you look about as shitty as you undoubtedly feel.” Piper’s usually sing-song voice was as frosty as the morning air, making Auraelia wince.
“Good morning to you too, Piper,” she said sarcastically, throwing her hand into the air in a mock wave.
Piper stalked across the room and tossed a towel onto her face. “Get up, you smell like tits and ass, and you have training with Ser Aeron in thirty minutes.”
Removing the towel from her face, Auraelia pushed into a sitting position again. “What’s got your panties in a twist today?”
Piper’s glare was as frigid as her tone, and Auraelia had to suppress the shiver working through her.
“What’s got my—” her friend inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring with annoyance.
“I’m pissed off because I got a letter from that tiny demon of a woman asking me to ‘kindly remove Her Majesty from the premises’ at nearly three in the morning.
What the fuck were you thinking, Rae? You’re lucky that the guards don’t open my correspondence—”
Auraelia’s eyes widened slightly as she bobbed her head in understanding, but her mind wandered as her friend continued her tirade.
So that’s how I got home.
Grabbing the towel, Auraelia crossed the suite to the bathing chamber.
The chill of winter had crept into the room, the cold tiles biting into her bare feet. At least she’d had the wherewithal to remove her boots the night before…or had Piper done that?
Piper was still raging in the bedchamber as Auraelia turned on the shower and stripped.
Just as she stepped into the warm streams of water, her friend barreled into the room. “Were you even listening to me?”
Auraelia tilted her face up into the warmth and sighed. “I’m sorry. I know that doesn’t fix it or make up for it. But I am.”
Her friend shook her head and crossed her arms. “Rae, I know you’re in pain. I know there is a lot on your plate right now. But you’re the queen. You can’t be sneaking off to brothels by yourself. At least bring me with you.”
Piper’s usual humor bled into the end of her speech, and though she suspected that they were okay, she needed to ask anyway. Needed to hear it directly from Piper’s lips to be sure.
“Yeah, Rae. We’re fine. Besides—” a sly grin formed on her friend’s face as she continued, “I don’t need to stay mad at you. One look at you, and Ser Aeron is going to drill you until you puke.”
Auraelia groaned as laughter flowed out of her friend.
As Piper turned to leave, Auraelia called after her. “Did Vee say if…if um—”
Piper’s head tilted to the side, a look of understanding filling her eyes. “Nothing happened, Rae. Vee said that she saw a look in your eyes, and that’s when she brought you to the office, plied you with goddess-only-knows-what kind of liquor, then sent for me. You didn’t betray him.”
“Not in that way,” The words remained unspoken between them, but Auraelia read them in her friend’s gaze. Felt them in the heaviness of her heart.
Auraelia’s lips turned inward as she nodded to her friend, then returned to the shower.
She washed quickly, not wanting to freeze in her shower before freezing on the training pitch. After conjuring a warm breeze to dry her hair, she let her mind wander as her lady’s maids readied her for the day.
Piper hadn’t been too far off in her assessment from the morning.
Ser Aeron had run her through the paces until she was on her hands and knees, dry heaving over the cold hard ground.
The sun had long since moved from its high peak in the sky, now heading toward the looming horizon, and still, the sound of metal crashing together filled the air around the training pitch.
Mud squelched beneath Auraelia’s boots as she spun to parry yet another attack from Xander while keeping an eye on Ser Aeron at her back.
Channeling her magic, she pushed a gust of wind toward Xander in an attempt to move him away from her, but he’d thrown up a shield. Their clash of magics had the air funneling around the shimmering dome.
“What’s wrong, brother?” Auraelia tried to keep the exhaustion out of her tone as she spoke. “Scared of a little breeze?”
Whirling around, she wove streaks of lightning tightly together in a makeshift shield. One that not even Ser Aeron wanted to go near.
Xander, just as winded as she was, smirked. “Wind? No. The sparkly ribbons of death that are currently twining around your forearms? Absolutely. I already had to cut my hair because of you.”
His tone was lighthearted, and Auraelia had to stifle a laugh at the memory from the previous week of her lightning ricocheting off of Xander’s blade and singeing his hair. He now sported a cut similar to Daemon’s, though his was still long enough on top to pull back into a bun.
Her training had intensified over the last few months. Went from her usual rounds of sparring and light magic training with Piper to full-on, multi-partnered combat training.
Ser Aeron had seen the toll her newfound abilities had begun to take on her body and had insisted. Claiming it would be good practice for the impending battle with Davina and a good, healthy way for her to expend her magic.
He’d been correct—obviously. It gave her a healthy outlet to expel the magic that was built day by day and a way to work through the anger that followed her everywhere.
“Would you two—” Ser Aeron swung his broad sword at Auraelia’s head, “kindly shut the fuck up.”
She crouched just in time to miss the blade, and as her fist hit the ground, it trembled. Knocking the two males off balance enough that she could push them back with a strong gust of wind. As they fell to their asses outside of the muddy circle, Piper gave a triumphant whoop from the sidelines.
Xander’s arms were propped on his raised knees, his eyes slightly wide. “Well, that was new.”
“Indeed.” Ser Aeron’s deep baritone voice echoed across the pitch. “Where did that come from, Auraelia?”
She looked down at her hands, one covered in mud and the other still tightly gripped around her the hilt of her short sword.
Where had that come from?
“She’s always been able to do that,” Piper said from where she was perched on a bench, popping grapes into her mouth.
“What?” The two men asked in unison.
Rolling her eyes, Piper wiped her hands on her pants as she stood. “The day Queen—” she paused momentarily, then continued. “That day, when Rae’s magic was bleeding out of her in the ballroom, the ground shook. You don’t remember?”
The question was asked to the group, but Piper focused on her. And she saw it as she dug into the recesses of her mind, behind the wall where she’d tried to shove all those memories. She felt it.
Sheathing her sword in the scabbard strapped across her back, Auraelia trudged through the muck of the training pitch to the water table.
How many abilities are going to come out of the woodwork? Lightning, rain, wind, and now this?
She angrily took a sip from the water skin, then slammed it back onto the table.
Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t heard Xander creeping up behind her, so she jumped as his warm hand clasped her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
Auraelia leaned over to place her hands on the table.
The wood scorched beneath her palms as her lightning settled at the surface.
“It’s just one more thing for me to learn.
One more thing that I need to be in control of at all times.
I just—” she sighed and shook her head. “I’m tired, Xander. So fucking tired.”
Her brother gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I know. But, Rae? You’re the strongest person that I know. And I also know that the Goddess and the ancestors wouldn’t have blessed you with the amount of magic they did if they didn’t think you could handle it.”
“Goddesses.” A small smile pulled at her lips, and she turned toward her brother. “I’m blessed by two Goddesses, dear brother.”
Xander rolled his eyes and gave her a loving shove as Ser Aeron sidled up to them, a small smile on his face and a piece of parchment in his hand. “Seems we have a visitor.”
Auraelia furrowed her brows in confusion, took the small slip from his outstretched hand, and smiled.