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Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2) Chapter 7 Scarlett 13%
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Chapter 7 Scarlett

CHAPTER 7

SCARLETT

B riar had whisked her away so swiftly she didn’t even have a chance to note which turns he took or hallways they went down. She didn’t care anyway. She should have had Sorin summon Briar right away. Why she had thought Callan would understand, she didn’t know. He had said she seemed different. Of course she did. He only knew bits and pieces of her. If he knew the whole, if he knew her entire being… Well, if he’d known her entire being, things never would have happened the way they did.

Briar was silent as he led her up some stairs. She eyed him in his sea green tunic and gray pants. His shoulder length hair was tied back. As if he could feel her gaze on him, he turned those twinkling, icy blue eyes to her in question. Scarlett looked away quickly and continued to follow him in silence.

After another few flights of stairs, he led her down a hallway and stopped before the second door down. With his finger he drew a symbol on the door in icy snowflakes, and it clicked open. They stepped inside, and she quickly made to go to the bedroom.

“Sometimes it is easier to take off a mask in front of someone who knows nothing of you.” His tone was gentle and soft.

She halted and slowly turned to look at him. He had followed her and now stood a few feet away, leaning back against the dining table, his hands braced on the edge. Her shadows reached out to him, and he did not flinch. They swirled around him, searching him, feeling him out. “Do not pity me,” she finally said. “I deserve what was said to me today.”

“My dear Scarlett, the only pity I feel for you is that you have to deal with Sorin and his whiny Court,” Briar said with a grin and a wink, then turned serious once more. “But no one deserves to have another wave slam into them when they are still struggling to recover from a storm.”

“And when the storm is unending? When the waves are unrelenting?” Scarlett asked quietly.

“Rage, Scarlett. Rage and scream and cry and fall apart. You are allowed to feel and do all those things, but you do not stop fighting. You do not give up. You become a bigger storm,” he answered. He did not reach for her. He did not try to comfort her or tell her what Callan said was wrong. He did not try to make it better.

Scarlett turned and continued to the bedroom. “It’s funny. I always thought there needed to be water to feel like you’re drowning, but there really doesn’t need to be.”

“You only drown if you stay in the river. Let him pull you to the shore. It is okay to let yourself be rescued sometimes, Scarlett,” Briar replied.

She shut the door behind her.

S ORIN

Sorin entered his sitting room as the bedroom door clicked shut. He glanced to the closed door, then to Briar, who was leaning against the dining table.

“Did she say anything?” Sorin asked. Rage was pulsing through him, and embers filled his vision.

“Very little,” Briar answered. There was a swirl of snow, and a sword appeared in his hand. It was pure silver, the hilt gleaming with a large, glimmering sapphire. Ice Razor, the sword of the Water Prince. “She needs a minute, Sorin.”

“Are you intending to keep me from my twin flame?” Sorin asked dangerously, flames appearing at his fingertips.

“Of course not,” Briar replied dismissively. “But give her a second to breathe, my friend. And give yourself that, too. Come spar and let out that anger before you go to her and help her deal with her own. Five minutes.”

“Fine,” Sorin ground out, his own black sword appearing in his hand. A water portal appeared, and he followed Briar through.

They came out into a private training room on the top of the palace. The ceiling was fire glass like the bridges, and it let in the autumn sun. Fall was thick in the air, and being high in the Fiera Mountains, snow flurries already graced them some days. Samhain was in just two weeks, and the thought sent him into motion as they entered the sparring ring. Briar parried and deflected, pushing back with his own weapon.

There would be a Samhain feast and ball. Sorin had no doubt preparations were already under way. He would have to go. He’d been absent for three years. His people would be excited and expecting to see him once more. But Prince Callan was here. He would be invited, of course. And Scarlett? A Samhain ball was where Callan and Scarlett had first interacted outside of notes and books. It was the first time they’d danced. It was when their relationship had taken a huge leap forward.

His blade clashed with Briar’s once more as he gritted his teeth. Flames danced along his sword as ice shards swirled around Briar’s. “You are out of practice,” Briar said with a slight smirk.

“I’ve been training mortals for three years,” Sorin replied. “Not much training in that for me. I trained Scarlett I suppose, but unbeknownst to me, she held back her true abilities.”

“Is that the reason, or are the effects of taking that Mark without a companion already coming into play?” Briar asked as they clashed again and jumped back from one another.

“Enough,” Sorin said. Without missing a beat, Briar sheathed his sword on his back, and Sorin sheathed his own. He crossed to one of the benches around the edges of the room and sat, leaning his head back against the wall. Briar walked over, sitting beside him without a word. “I cannot tell her. Not now. Not yet. She’s…”

“She is lost,” Briar finished. “But she doesn’t realize she has already found her way. She doesn’t know she’s found you.”

“I cannot force her to accept this. Not when I have been the cause of so much of her brokenness. I cannot ask that of her when she is swimming in shadows,” Sorin replied.

“Yes, those are interesting,” Briar said contemplatively. “Do you know what they are?”

“No. She has rarely spoken of them to me. She calls them the darkness.”

“I will see what I can find out from Ashtine when I see her again,” Briar answered.

Sorin nodded his head in thanks, although he wasn’t sure the Princess of Wind would be much assistance in the matter with her mystical speech and queer personality.

“I should go to her. Make sure she has not drowned,” he said grimly. Briar raised his brows in question. “When she is in shock and trying to process something, she goes under the water. But she stays under too long. I thought I was going to have to pull her to the surface this morning while she bathed. Another has had to haul her from the tub in the past,” he added, remembering the story Scarlett had shared of that night a little over a year ago.

A knowing smile came across Briar’s face. “She may have fire in her veins, Sorin, but her heart is all Anahita. She will not drown. She can breathe underwater.”

“What?” Sorin asked, jerking his head to stare at his friend.

“She can breathe. I promise you. She will not drown.”

“But when she comes up, she is gasping for breath,” Sorin argued.

“If she is gasping for air, it is not due to being submerged. She can create pockets of air under the water. Her body does not know that, so it reacts as it would to survive,” he said simply. “She needs to train, not just physically, but with her magic. She needs to learn to control her power.”

“I know,” Sorin answered with a frown. “I’ve tried to tell her. She even said she was ready when she knocked me on my ass with a jet stream of water from her palm earlier today.” Briar barked a laugh at the words. “But I know her. Callan just shoved her back into a dark place. I’m hoping she is still willing.”

“Maybe she needs to see why?” Briar ventured carefully.

“No,” Sorin said firmly. “I will not take Scarlett to her. Not now.”

Briar nodded reluctantly. “Has she shown any signs of accepting her bloodline?”

“No,” Sorin sighed. “In fact, she has adamantly refused wanting anything to do with it.”

Briar stood now, a water portal appearing nearby. “She will need to see and meet her sooner than later, Sorin. At least let it be on our terms. See you at dinner.” He stepped through before Sorin could reply.

Sorin left the private training pits, walking back to his chambers and taking the various stairs and hallways to give himself a little more time to prepare for what he might find back in his rooms. He opened his door, the wards recognizing his touch. The sitting room was empty, so he crossed to the bedroom. He found her not in the bathing room but curled on the balcony. She was lying on the ground, her cheek pressed to the cool stone floor. Her shadows swirled around her like a cocoon. They were so thick he could hardly see her. He rushed to her side, dropping to his knees. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was uneven, too fast.

He reached for her and when his hand touched her mass of shadows, her eyes snapped open. The blue of her eyes had turned nearly grey, a muted silver. “Come, Love,” he said, reaching for her again. “Let’s go inside.”

“No,” she whispered. “It is too much.”

“What is?”

“All of it. I cannot get up right now.” She had retreated to wherever she went inside her soul. Her eyes were distant, looking through him.

“Then I will carry you,” he replied, preparing to scoop her off the ground. It was warm, but snow had indeed begun falling. Small sporadic flakes stuck to her hair where they slipped through the shadows.

“No,” she said.

“Scarlett—”

“I said no.” Not angry. Not upset. Just a statement. She closed her eyes and began tracing the stones of the balcony with her finger. Her chest continued to rise and fall rapidly, like she couldn’t get a full breath down.

Sorin laid down on that stone balcony, facing her. She did not even open her eyes when she reached for him, her hand resting on his chest. He stilled for a moment. She didn’t move, but her breaths began to even out. They began to match his own.

After several minutes, she opened her eyes and looked straight into his own.

“What do you need, Scarlett? How can I help you?”

“Do you still see the light?” she asked quietly, barely audible.

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Because I know where to look,” he answered gently.

“Then I need you to show me where to find it.”

She closed her eyes once more, and they laid on that balcony in the falling flurries. They stayed there for nearly an hour, her breathing now perfectly in sync with his own. Her shadows slowly crept over him until he was part of her darkness. She did not remove her hand from his chest. He did not reach for her. He just sat with her in the dark.

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