Page 66 of Of Storm and Emerald
“Are you seriously going to look me in the face and tell me that Ididn’tsee something fall to the floor? And then subsequently watch you stareatsaid floor for goddess only knows how long before you picked up whatever it was?” Piper chided, her eyes laced with annoyance.
Auraelia sighed. “It was a letter.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, a letter.”
“Damn, Rae. You’re really making me work for it this morning.”
“It was from Daemon, okay? I haven’t opened it yet. I’m not even sure when I got it.”
“Wait…What do you mean you got a letter from Daemon?Howdid you get a letter from Daemon?”
Shit.
Auraelia pressed her fingers into her temples, massaging the area in hopes of staving off the growing tension headache that was forming. She sighed, then began to tell her friend of the sapphire Daemon had given her and imbued with his magic. Giving them an open line of communication without the breach of privacy that came with traditionally sending letters to or from a royal.
When she finished explaining everything, she pulled the sapphire from behind her shift. Showing Piper how the shadows of Daemon’s magic danced within the stone.
Piper sat still as a statue. Then, ever so slowly, she dragged her eyes from the stone in Auraelia’s hand up to her face.
“You keptthatfrom me? Of all things to keep from me, you keep a magic necklace that a drop-dead gorgeousprincegave you?!” Piper all but yelled at her friend, her hands firmly grasping the arms of her chair, turning her knuckles white.
“Piper, come on. It hasn’t even been a day, and I didn’t even know if it worked until I saw his letter this morning.” When she was met with silence, Auraelia leaned back and crossed her arms. “So, are you ready to tell me what happened with Aiden, or are you still deflecting?”
Piper choked on her sip of coffee. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, you heard me. You’ve been hounding me for details about my time with Daemon. Now it’s your turn. So spill.”
Piper sat in silence, chewing on her lip as she fiddled with the napkin that was draped across her lap.
Eventually she sighed, resigned to the fact that Auraelia wasn’t going to relent.
“The night of the masquerade, do you remember when Xander asked me to dance?”
Auraelia nodded, not wanting to say anything in case it spooked Piper into stopping her story.
“Well, after our dance, he escorted me from the floor back to where we left you, but you were no longer there. He offered to stay with me, but I told him that I could find you on my own, so he bowed and left me to my own devices. I admit, I didn’timmediatelylook for you.” Piper stopped a moment, a shameful look crossing her features, but it was gone faster than it appeared. “I knew you wanted to experience the ball from the perspective of anormalguest, so instead I walked toward the refreshments table.”
A small flush crept across Piper’s cheeks, staining them crimson, as a smile tilted up the corners of her mouth with whatever memory she was reliving.
“Piper?” Auraelia’s voice was low, but it still pulled Piper out of her daydream with a jolt.
“Yes, sorry.” Piper’s flush deepened with her embarrassment. “While walking to grab a drink, I bumped into a very tall, very solid man. Our eyes locked for a moment, and I drowned in the two pools of honey that stared back at me. And, Rae, when he smiled–” Piper sank down into her chair, tilting her head back as her eyes rolled back in their sockets, fanning herself.
Auraelia laughed. “Piper, you’re worse than I am.”
“Maybe. But the moment only lasted a few seconds and then he disappeared into the crowd.”
“Wait…what?”
“Hush, I wasn’t finished.” Piper waved off her friend, and Auraelia threw her hands up in mock surrender.
“As I wassaying,he disappeared into the crowd, so I turned and went to fetch the drink I was after, then I started meandering around the room in search of you. But that’s when I saw you withhim.Mister tall, dark, andsmoking hotwas spinning you like a top around the dance floor, and I don’t think I’d ever seen you so…so…intrigued? Happy? Maybe both? But either way, I decided to watch from the sidelines.
“Eventually, you left the dance floor, and I watched as Daemon pulled you toward the garden doors. I had taken one step in your direction, when a hand encircled my wrist, and spun me away from you and into the very firm chest of the man I had collided with earlier in the night.”
“I’m assuming that was Aiden?”
