The answer was obvious, even if it infuriated him. If she admitted she’d faced demons, she’d have to admit to whatever illicit activity she was participating in. And how could she when the truth would land her in jail?
None of that mattered now, though. Hehadto turn her over to the Iron Guard. It wasn’t just her on the line anymore—maybe it never was. He’d be culpable if she was caught, right alongside Daisy. They’d let the other guards know there was a malenatiaon the loose, but Commander Yew would need a full debriefing as soon as possible. Des had been right to take that drawing, to tail this girl from the first night he met her. She was dangerous. All the more so for looking like she did. Small. Scholarly. Beautiful.
Brave.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Daisy said, forcing him to look at her.
Before he could respond, a maid returned with the smelling salts and water. Daisy took them and asked her to fetch some tea, which Des was fairly certain was another excuse to get her out of the room, though the fact that she’d asked for sugar didn’t bode well.
Daisy opened the tiny vial of smelling salts but didn’t immediately move to Aurelie’s side. “We’re going to hear her out before we make any decisions. Do you understand me?”
Normally, Des would have argued, but not tonight. Not whenhe’d almost gotten Aurelie killed. He found himself saying a silent prayer that she had a perfectly good explanation for all of this, but his stomach twisted with doubt. What explanation could there possibly be?
Aurelie regained consciousness the moment the salts were placed under her nose. She gave a strangled little gasp, trying to sit up. Daisy pressed her back against the pillow gently.
“Easy, now,” she murmured. “You fainted outside the gates. Des carried you to your house. You’re safe.”
Aurelie’s eyes skittered to Des, and he remembered the way she’d looked at him at the café, finally meeting his gaze and daring him to look away first.
He’d never backed down from a confrontation in his life, but he had surrendered to Aurelie Blake. Staring back was too vulnerable when faced with her sharp, indecipherable stare. Did she despise him, as he had been so sure he did her? Or did she, too, feel an inexplicable pull between them?
“You carried me here?” she asked, then covered her face with her forearm. “Blood and bones, this is mortifying.”
Des couldn’t help the smile that curled his lips. There had been nothing mortifying about her fainting. He had seen grown men faint dead away in front of demons,withoutfighting them first—let alone stepping in front of an Iron Guard. Something in him kept returning to that moment. Was it pure instinct, or was she truly trying to protect him?
Daisy helped Aurelie sit up, though she insisted she was fine. “I just need some sleep,” she said, turning so that she was facing Des. “Thank you for bringing me home.”
Had she forgotten all the explaining she had to do? What they had been speaking about less than ten minutes ago? “Aurelie—” he started, but Daisy cut him off with a glare as the maid bustled into the room with a tea tray.
“Oh, thank heavens, Miss Blake. I’ll tell the others. We were all so concerned about you.” The maid glanced at Des beneath her lashes and blushed. “How fortunate Lieutenant Whitlow was here to help.”
Aurelie’s mouth slanted in a wry smirk at Des when the maid left. “Fortunate, indeed.”
“We do need to talk,” Des said.
“I know,” she replied. “But surely there’s time for tea. And then... I’ll tell you everything.” Aurelie glanced up at him, all lashes and pouty lip, and in that moment, he had the terrible, sinking feeling that he would do anything she asked. That he’d find time for tea and whatever else this brazen creature had in mind.
He’d never been more afraid in his life.
Thirty minutes later, after a lackluster explanation that Aurelie had been taking demon defense classes, they had put on their coats and stepped back out into the snow. Aurelie led them across the campus to the hall Des had seen her disappear into before, ostensibly to prove that she truly had nothing to hide.
It was surreal to be on this side of the gates, to walk in the literal footsteps of a girl whose life was impossibly different from his.
Their only similarity was that they were both orphans. But even in that, their circumstances couldn’t be farther apart. Even if he’d had a wealthy uncle like Aurelie did, he still would have cometo the Guard, given the circumstances of his parents’ death. The king’s decree made it seem like an honor for a demon-orphaned child to have the opportunity to avenge their parents’ deaths, but he knew plenty of guards who would have preferred to be raised by civilian relatives or friends.
“What is this place?” Daisy asked as they entered the building. It was old, that much was clear, with imposing stone columns and gilt-framed oil portraits of stern-faced men and women lining the hall.
“This is Easton Hall. One of the oldest on campus. I don’t spend much time at my uncle’s cottage anymore. Not since I turned eighteen. My office is this way.”
This was where Aurelie belonged, with her tidy notebooks and prim dresses, not flitting around noisy cafés with the elite. Yes, she was smug and self-satisfied to a profoundly obnoxious degree, but at least she was occupying her time with more than flirting and day-drinking.
She led them to a stairwell and they descended two floors. Only a few of the gas lamps were lit here, and the hall had an abandoned feeling. He couldn’t imagine choosing this over her uncle’s house. For just one moment when they’d been sitting there the other day, surrounded by books, a fire crackling in the hearth, he’d felt as though he had stepped into someone else’s life. Someone who talked to his wife over tea and looked after her when she was injured. Someone who had a lovely home to return to at the end of a day.
Someone who had a home.
“I need a moment to tidy up,” Aurelie said when they reached a doorway that looked no different from the others lining the longhallway. Before Des could say anything, she had smiled, unlocked the door, and disappeared inside.
While she’d sipped her tea—strong and black—Des had insisted she show them where she studied. Daisy, whose cup was filled with more sugar than tea, had elbowed him and asked Aurelie politely. Des knew she wanted to believe Aurelie was innocent, perhaps more than he did.