Or perhaps it was simply that he’d caught her off guard. He could still feel the softness of her skin beneath his calloused fingers, the silkiness of her damp hair. The scent of her soap lingering in the air between them, pulling him closer. He imagined the invitinggap between her parted lips, the temptation to fill it with his own almost overwhelming.
He despised her for all of it.
Des admired strength, integrity, loyalty. He would never marry as a member of the Iron Guard, but if he were to find a companion, she would be everything Aurelie was not. Disciplined and self-sacrificing, not idle and self-indulgent. Someone who wouldn’t spend their time doodling by the fire with a porcelain tea service at their side.
And so what if Aurelie’s scent and softness had triggered a response in him as well? True, it was unusual for Des to feel... well, anything. But novelty could illicit arousal. It wasn’t any sort of indication that he wasattractedto her.
And even if hewas, physical desire was a need to be met as efficiently as hunger or exhaustion. Aurelie likely wanted the same things as all the tittering civilian girls: romance; chivalry; love letters; flowers. All things that Des had neither the time for, nor the interest in pursuing.
To think he’d gone there with the sincere intention of apologizing. He should have trusted his instincts all along. He’d pass this drawing over to Commander Yew and get back to work, like he kept saying he would.
He swore when he saw Daisy leaning against his bunk. He hadn’t told her where he was going, which was an error in hindsight. If he’d told her he was going to train, she wouldn’t have questioned it.
“Where have you been?” she asked, glancing at the sketch still clutched in his hand. He’d meant to go straight to Yew’s office, but his feet had taken him to the barracks instead. Odd.
Des knew he could lie, and he also knew that Daisy would know he was lying and then pester him for the truth for the rest of the day. “I went to visit Aurelie Blake.”
Daisy’s eyes went wider. “Again? My word, Des, two visits in less than twenty-four hours. You’ve got it worse than I thought.”
He shouldered her away from his bunk, where he pretended to remake the corners of his already perfectly made bed. “I went to apologize.”
Daisy barked a disbelieving laugh. “Hell froze over and Imissedit?”
“Har-har. I threatened her last night. It was wrong. I wanted to make it right.”
“And did you?”
Des collapsed on his bed, undoing all his tucking and straightening. “I doubt it. But it did get more interesting.” He handed the paper to Daisy, still staring at the bunk above him. “I stole this from her.”
Daisy was quiet as she perused the sketch. “What is it?”
“No idea. But she was drawing it when I got there. She seemed... rattled by my presence.”
“Rattled?Impossible. Why would she be nervous around the enormous member of the Iron Guard who threatened her last night?”
Des ignored the jab. “What do we know about her, Daisy?”
Daisy settled down next to him, holding the paper up so they could both look at it. “She’s a scientist. She likes understanding how things work.”
That was a generous assessment. “She rarely leaves the university, but when she does, demons follow. She’s not afraid of them, or of us. She’s clearly hiding something.”
They turned their heads toward each other. “Is she... ?” Daisy began.
Des felt his stomach drop. “She wouldn’t bethatfoolish. Would she?”
Daisy’s mouth twisted to the side, implying that she just might be.
Demons take him, was the girl inventing?
Commander Yew said the demon problem was worse all over Wisteria, not just in the capital. Even if Aurelie was making minor inventions in her office, it couldn’t explain everything. But what if there were more people like Aurelie scattered throughout the kingdom: intelligent but naïve, far enough removed from the days of demon slaughter to forget it ever existed? People with far too much time on their hands?
Des tore the paper from Daisy’s fingers, studying the sketch closer, but he couldn’t make sense of the door-like structure, or the illegible scribbles in the margins. “I need to take this to Commander Yew.” He turned to her again, a sliver of doubt worming through his gut. “Don’t I?”
“He’ll know you went to see her again, even though he took you off Aurelie duty.”
“But this—”
Daisy took the drawing from him gently. “I’ll turn it in for you, Des. He won’t care that I went to see her. He hardly knows I exist.”