The Invisible Ring

Warlord would have to think twice about.
    It took several tries before he got the water to the temperature he wanted, too mentally and physically drained to get even the simplest spell right the first time.
    Finally, he got in the tub and let the hot water soak away the sweat and grime, the ache in his muscles, and the tension that had ridden him hard since he’d seen the brass button among the boulders.
    By the time he returned to the bedroom, a square wooden table and two straight-backed chairs were positioned in front of the fire. The table held two steaming bowls of beef stew, a small loaf of bread, a dish of butter, cheese, fruit, a bottle of wine, and two glasses.
    Daemon sat comfortably in one of the chairs, smoking one of his black cigarettes. “You’re almost recognizable now,” he said as he flicked the cigarette into the fire. “Come and eat.”
    Jared went to the bed first to check on Lia. He noticed a cup on the bedside table.
    “A healing brew,” Daemon said.
    “She woke?” Jared leashed the emotion that bubbled up before he had a chance to identify it. Before he had to acknowledge it.
    “No. I brought her up out of the healing sleep enough for her to drink, but she wasn’t aware of anything.”
    So she didn’t know he hadn’t been in the room. Didn’t know it had been Daemon who had held her and coaxed her to drink.
    Feeling his body relax, Jared joined Daemon at the table.
    “Eat,” Daemon said, picking up his spoon.
    They concentrated on their food for a few minutes.
    “Will she be all right?” Jared asked, carefully buttering a thick slice of bread.
    “You’ll know by morning.”
    Jared forced a mouthful of bread past the lump in his throat. Right now, he couldn’t bear kindness or understanding from Daemon. “Could you tell anything else?” he asked.
    One of Daemon’s eyebrows rose. “Do you have something specific in mind?” He sounded amused. “Could I tell she’s still a virgin? Considering how many centuries I’ve been playing bedroom games, it’s a little insulting if you think a detail like that would slip past me. Or did you mean, could I tell that she’s recently injured her knee and hasn’t stayed off it enough to let it fully heal? Or that she hasn’t made the Offering to the Darkness yet? Is that what you meant?”
    Jared dropped his spoon. His body went ice cold. “What?”
    “She hasn’t made the Offering to the Darkness yet.”
    “You can’t—” Jared raked his fingers through his hair. “You can’t be sure of that.”
    “Jared,” Daemon said patiently, “you wear the Opal and the Red. I can sense both levels of strength in you. I only sense one level in her—the Green—and the . . . potential . . . for a much darker strength. If nothing interferes when she makes the Offering, my guess is she’ll wear the Gray.”
    “No one can tell beforehand what Jewels a person will wear after the Offering,” Jared protested.
    Daemon mopped up the last of his stew with a piece of bread. “She carried off the masquerade of being Grizelle so successfully, no one had doubted they were seeing a Gray-Jeweled Queen.” Mild irritation flickered across his face and was gone.
    “She had good illusion spells,” Jared argued.
    “An illusion spell wouldn’t have hidden the truth from someone who wears a Jewel darker than the Gray.”
    There was something in Daemon’s voice that told Jared that was as far as he would go toward acknowledging the rumors that he wore the. rare Black Jewel.
    “Which means,” Daemon continued, “that there must be something in her that resonates with the Gray in order to complete that illusion. That’s why I think Lady Arabella Ardelia is a Gray-Jeweled Queen who hasn’t taken the final step necessary to actually wear the Gray Jewels.” He paused, gave Jared a considering look. “But you had sensed the illusion before she revealed the truth. How?”
    Frowning, Jared ate a spoonful of stew. It was a guess that hit the target. Since he didn’t want to admit it was his body not his brain that had picked up the signals, which he then dismissed as being wrong, he mumbled, “Maybe it’s because of the Invisible Ring.”
    “Yes, I imagine it is,” Daemon replied dryly. Before Jared could say anything, he added, “Why don’t you tell me how you ended up here.”
    So Jared told Daemon everything that had happened since he left Raej. Well, almost everything. He couldn’t bring himself to mention the Fire Dance and the rut. But he told Daemon what he knew about the others. He told him about Thera’s