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The sun was growing lower in the sky, saddening it with fluffs of periwinkle. The Celestials and moon were starting to shine brighter with the lack of light.

“Of course it matters. You can trust me. I won’t tell anyone else.” I shot her an unknowing eye. I knew that I could trust her, but it wasn’t something I wanted to talk about. After going through what we did together, there was a special bond that we had that I could never form elsewhere. The thoughts and feelings that I had kept bottled up wanted to burst at the seams.

“What do you know? Then I will fill in the gaps.”

She knelt down, picking up scraps of discarded wood from the towering trees. “Well, I know that you guys definitely had something. I could see how he looked at you when I was…” Locked up in the cages, I wanted to finish for her, but didn’t. I simply nodded, showing her that I understood and that she didn’t have to say anything else about what happened to the both of us. “He is smitten, Lia. You better take that and run. I’m unsure why you are upset with him, but you must change that. The last thing you want is for a man to move on from you when he is so desperately and utterly in love with you.”

None of that was true. Warmth flooded to my cheeks, making me glance away. “It’s more complicated than that,” I explained. I wanted to share that his fiancée had died, and then he was going to kill me to bring her back.

But he didn’t.

It rang through my ears like a thousand bells going off simultaneously.

He had the chance to kill me, but he didn’t.

He had the chance to use the wish to bring back his dead fiancée, but he didn’t.

He saved me.

Why?

What did he see in me that I couldn’t see in myself?

What did he see in us?

With my left arm full of the branches and twigs, I glanced at the hilt of the dagger he had given me in my right hand. The blade was silver, the jewels twinkling different colors. He gave it to me because he wanted to protect me.He wanted to protect me. He never actually broke his promise since he saved me.

Clemmy saw that I was deep in thought and went over only a few feet away to collect some more pieces of wood. Her voice and advice continued to pierce my mind with exactness.

Maybe she was right. Maybe I needed to give Damian more credit than I was. But he was going tokillme.

“You better take that and run.”

1.Haxnau (Hah-nah-woo): Hell

Chapter fifty-four

AURELIA

“Curses, does she ever think about anyone besides herself?” Angie's voice carried through the dense foliage, reaching us clearly as Clemmy and I made our way back from our journey among the trees.

“What are you talking about? She just showed up,” Loker said, his voice quick to respond to Angie’s.

“She just shows up unannounced and then expects everyone to bow down to her royal majesty.”

“It’s not like that, and you know it,” Damian said in a deep voice, standing up for me. I smiled, reassured by his refusal to tolerate any form of mockery directed at me.

My stomach dropped at her comment. Was I just a burden to them? Angie’s comments made my stomach irk in a way that made me nauseous.

As we presented ourselves in the area, with Clemmy by my side, everyone went silent, knowing that they were talking about me, but didn’t have the guts to say it to my face. Theunfamiliarity and misunderstanding of Angie made me bite my tongue, waiting to thrash my words.

We reached the center, and everyone picked up their firewood at their sides, combining it in a large pile for us to use.

Abner's gaze lifted to the sky, his focus drawing the branches together overhead, shrouding us from prying eyes. With a determined grip on his fists, he shattered the uncomfortable silence. “We need to find the nest. We need to see what we are up against.”

“Agreed,” Loker said, stepping forward, about ready to call in his dragon.

“Wait, we all can’t go. We will get caught. We also need some of you here for backup. Stay here and get food ready as we go check it out. If we don’t make it back, then the duty is still on you to go to the kingdom, find the connection, and stop the Deathlies,” Abner stated.