Page 26

Aurora

I slammed the door behind me, causing Damian to spin in surprise.

“How does she put up with those cretins?” I hissed, shaking my hands free of imaginary debris. “I feel dirty just having been in the same room as them.”

Damian blinked owlishly, his eyes flicking to the door. “I take it you’re unhappy with Councilors Kerstun, Laurana, and Parun?”

We had just returned from debriefing the Sovereign about the breach in the shield, where the three slimy councilors had also been present.

“You think?” I snapped.

“Yes, I do.” He didn’t back down. “Are you done? Or is there more you’d like to say before we get to the councilors?”

I didn’t enjoy being called out, especially when he was so calm about it, like he had all the answers locked and loaded. It just made me angrier.

“No, I’m not done,” I said, forging ahead anyway, my temper getting the better of me.

“Didn’t think so.”

If looks could kill, he’d be melting into the floor. Instead, he just stood there, arms crossed, looking so impossibly sexy with his confidence that it was growing hard to stay angry at him.

Which meant I had to dig deeper.

“Don’t act so smug,” I said, stabbing a finger in his direction. “I just spent the past thirty minutes being accused of all the worst things again from your councilors, and I stood there and took it. Do you know why I did that, Damian? Do you?”

“Enlighten me.” He wasn’t fazed.

“Because after listening to their tirades, when all we were supposed to do was inform the sovereign of what we found regarding the guard and the shield, after all that bullshit, you stood there, and you agreed with them! ”

Damian nodded. Not that there was any point denying it. The meeting had just concluded, and I wasn’t twisting any facts.

“Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? All you had to say was ‘No, she wasn’t involved with stealing any of the scepters. I know her and trust her.’ That was it, Damian, but you didn’t say that. Instead, when they used their bullshit logic about ‘There were no attempts on another scepter while she was gone means we have no proof it wasn’t her either because it could be coincidence,’ you agreed. You didn’t call them out. You just said ‘Yes, it could still be her.’ That’s what you said. Do you remember?”

“I said it,” he rumbled. “Of course I remember.”

“So, why don’t you feel like a jerk about it?” I snapped. “You seem happy.”

He rolled his eyes. “Now, who’s the one spouting bullshit, Aurora?”

I was so utterly unprepared for his choice of language that my thoughts came apart like a crumbling house of cards, crashing into a million pieces as I tried to sort them out.

“There’s something you need to remember,” he said, taking a step closer. “When I am in that room, when the sovereign is present, when a councilor, or multiple councilors, is present, I am acting as the magistrate. I am the law. The law considers all sides without prejudice. That is what I must do. It is who I must be. Not because I want to, but because I am .”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s always choice. Don’t act like a politician, please. I am so done with them.”

“That’s part of why you’re so upset,” he said, nodding. “I know. You don’t like the strictness with which I follow the rules. You wish I would bend them. But tell me, what sounds more like a politician to you? Someone who follows the rules, or someone who bends them for a person close to them?”

He paused while I tried to come up with a good response.

“But there’s more, I think. More to why you’re angry. More to why I had to say what I did.”

“Like what?”

Damian came close until he was inside my bubble, my personal space, and didn’t stop. I backpedaled slightly, feeling my shoulders press against the wall as he loomed above me.

“Even if I wanted to defend you, which I did, I had to take their side, despite knowing better. If the councilors got a hint that there was something going on between us, anything , then they will use that information. They will use it to accuse me of being compromised and unable to do my job. They might even use it to take you away from me.”

His voice wavered for the first time with the last sentence.

“They know you were spotted outside your room on another floor. I have already bent the rules by not telling anyone where I initially found you, so close to the chamber where the scepter was held. I have put my trust in you, and I ask that you please return the favor.”

It was my turn to feel guilty. After all the words I’d hurled at him, he was right. That was a big breach, and I knew it was bothering him to keep it secret, but he was doing it for me.

“Okay,” I said, nodding slowly. “That’s a fair argument. I’ll try to remember it.”

“Thank you.” He was still right in front of me, forcing my head back to be able to look into his face. “That leaves one more issue about why you got so mad.”

“Another reason?” I sighed. “I’m getting tired of you being in the right here.”

“Then you aren’t going to like this,” he said.

“Hit me,” I drawled. “Let’s just get it out there.”

“The final reason you’re angry I didn’t defend you isn’t because I know you’re innocent. It’s because you like me, and you didn’t enjoy hearing me not act the same.”

I stared into his eyes, unwilling, or perhaps unable, to come up with a good reply.

He thinks I like him. Do I?

The answer wasn’t the immediate negative I assumed it would be. Instead, my brain paused, like a computer taking time to, well, compute.

“I like you?” I said, grabbing onto the only lifeline I had, which was to deflect. “What about you? You’re the one who was just getting worked up about the councilors taking me away from you. I think maybe you like me!”

“Maybe I do,” he concurred. “But I’m not ready to let them know that. Because I’m not sure what I know.”

“You know you didn’t want me taken away.”

“True,” he said, nodding. “I don’t want them to take you away. But I also don’t want you to keep yourself away. I did not enjoy having to say what I did back there, Aurora. I need you to believe that.”

“I believe it,” I said, watching his face as he spoke and seeing no sign of duplicity or deviousness. He was telling the truth.

“Then why are you still keeping the wall here?” he said, gesturing to the few inches of space between us.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, well aware of that last barrier. “It’s just … you were so cold about it. I thought you did believe that I could still be guilty.”

“I do,” he said, then held up a hand to stop my outburst. “Using logic, and logic alone, they are correct. Which is what I must use when I am the magistrate.”

“But—”

He pressed a finger to my lips. “Don’t confuse what I think up here with what I feel in here ,” he said, touching his head and then his heart. “It is my job to be impartial, to not use emotion, so justice can be applied equally and fairly to all. Without bias.”

“I guess.”

“I believe you had nothing to do with it. That you are innocent, and I am working to prove that innocence. But I won’t do anything that will see you put into their custody until the issue is resolved.”

“Because you believe me?”

“Because I want you here. With me,” he said firmly. “While we figure out just what ‘this’ is.”

He gestured back and forth between us.

“Oh.”

I didn’t have any better way to define what was going on between us either. We’d shared a kiss, yes, but that had been it. Nothing more. That could mean nothing more than I thought he was extremely attractive and, in a moment of vulnerability, had given in.

Or it could mean—

I shut the thought down before I gave it words, even if they were only in my head. That was insane. Falling for a dragon? Liking him? Damian had called me out on it, said I did, but was he right?

“Can you be okay with that, Aurora? The two sides of me, the magistrate and Damian? I have to be both until the ones behind this are discovered. That means treating you as if you could potentially be that person. At least in public. Can you handle that?”

I chewed on my lip. There was so much extra weight to that question. Answering yes implied I could not only handle his dual personalities, but it also was tantamount to admitting that yes, I did like him, and I wanted to continue finding out more. To see what was there. What it meant to me, to him.

A dragon and a human? It could never work.

“I don’t know,” I said at last, the words heavy in the air between us.

Damian’s shoulder’s dipped slightly. Only for an instant, then he was back in control, but I saw it, nonetheless.

“Very well,” he said stiffly, backing away. “I understand. We should get some sleep. This mystery won’t solve itself. Goodnight, Aurora.”

Then he was gone. Closing the door behind him, he left me alone in the common area to wonder if I’d chosen the right option. The one that I truly felt and believed in my heart.

In the silence that followed, doubt began to set in.