and watched him.
He stared at his bare upturned palm, his gaze distant. Miniature ice sculptures formed on his hand. Was he aware of the shapes he was making with his power? He looked as if he was staring straight through them, lost in thought and unaware of the world around him.
She edged closer, proving that to herself when he didn’t stir, not even when she reached the arched wooden bridge that spanned the pond.
The air was colder here, had her breath fogging in front of her face, and she looked at Daimon’s feet, unsurprised to see frost flowers blooming across the boulder. Whatever he was thinking about, it was upsetting him.
The ice melted and then reformed, taking on the shape of a woman.
Her?
The belly of the curvy figure swelled.
Megan?
No emotion touched his face as he ran a lone finger over the belly of the woman, but Cass could feel the turmoil beating in his heart.
A sorrowful edge crossed his features as he continued to touch the ice sculpture, as he lifted his hand and stroked her face. There was affection in that caress.
His mouth moved, his whisper so low she couldn’t hear what he was saying to the woman. In response, the ice sculpture shifted, touching her stomach first and then extending her arms towards Daimon.
His shoulders tensed beneath his turtleneck and he drew a shaky breath and then released it, shuddering as he did so.
He whispered something else.
The statue shattered, raining shards of ice like diamonds onto the rocks at his feet.
She should go.
She knew that deep in her heart, but that same heart needed to know the things Daimon wouldn’t tell her, the things he had buried deep—the cause of the barrier he kept lifting between them.
The source of the pain that often shone in his eyes.
Cass told herself again to go, not to intrude when he clearly needed some time alone.
But she couldn’t bring herself to move.
Couldn’t ignore the burning need to know why he was sitting alone with an ice sculpture of a pregnant woman.
“You’re a very talented artist,” she whispered, afraid of disturbing him, unsure how he would react.
He didn’t look at her.
Didn’t say anything.
“Is it someone you know?” She braved a step closer and rubbed her arms to keep the chill off them as the temperature dropped another few degrees.
He barely dipped his head in response, his ice-blue eyes fixed on the melting ice fragments around his feet. She had never seen someone look so alone. So lonely. So in need of someone to hold them together.
Cass wanted to be the one to reach out and hold him, to wrap her arms around his strong shoulders and ask him to tell her about the pain he was holding caged in his heart.
All this time around her, he had looked strong, almost invincible, even when pain had shone in his eyes. Now, he looked so vulnerable, and she couldn’t bear it.
“Is she waiting for you back home?” she murmured.
“No.” A shaky inward breath. “Yes.”
Which was it?
She looked at the ice littered around his feet and it dawned on her. His home was the Underworld. The woman was dead. That was why she was there, waiting for him still.
Her experience of consoling people boiled down to taking care of Mari when they had lost Eric, and Eric when Mari’s mother had died during childbirth. She wasn’t sure she had done a good job on either of those occasions. She wanted to console Daimon, but feared she would only make things worse.
That fear held her back, had her keeping her distance when all she really wanted to do was hold him.
She looked down at the melting ice. Had Daimon’s woman died in childbirth?
“She was beautiful.” Cass wasn’t sure whether hearing that from her would make him feel better or worse.
He was silent for so long that she was on the verge of leaving him alone when he finally spoke.
“It wasn’t a true representation of her.”
Maybe the woman hadn’t been so beautiful.
He lifted his head, his pale eyes hollow and cold, bleak and edged with darkness. “She wasn’t showing when daemons killed her and our unborn child.”
Before she could ask about it, before she could even think to reach for his hand to comfort him, he was gone, only swirling black smoke left behind.
Twin emotions filled her heart. Jealousy that he had loved this woman and still mourned her, clearly wished she was still alive and he’d had the family they had been building together.
Sorrow that he had