Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2)

Chapter 16 Scarlett

CHAPTER 16

SCARLETT

T hey were in the training courtyard on a bench along the entrance. Sorin was sitting with his legs stretched out before him, his ankles crossed. She was on her back, stretched along the bench, her head resting against his thigh, staring up at the sky. When he had stepped through the portal last night and set her down, she had silently walked to the dressing room, changed into a nightgown, and crawled into bed. After a moment, she heard him shuffle to the bathing room, and a while later, the bed shifted. Neither of them spoke. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep. After nearly an hour, Sorin silently got up and walked to his bookshelf, came back to the bed, ignited a soft flame, and read to her. She had no idea how long he had read, likely an hour or two, before she’d finally fallen asleep.

He let her sleep in this morning. She did not even feel him get out of bed. When she did finally wake, she did not go down to breakfast with the others. Camilla had come to clean their room, and she had sent her away, nestling down in the blankets. Her shadows seemed to overtake her.

Then Sorin had returned to the room.

“Up,” he demanded, throwing open the curtains.

“You don’t give me orders,” she had growled, pulling the covers over her head.

He had proceeded to pull the blankets off the bed. All of them. “Up.”

She threw him a vulgar gesture.

He had sauntered to the side of the bed, his hands in his pockets. He’d leaned over her and smiled. She knew that smile. That smile meant hell awaited her in training. That smile meant he was going to kick her ass by either making her run until she puked or make her actually try in weapons training. “Up, Princess. We leave for the courtyard in ten minutes. You can either get into training clothes, or you can go in that.” He gave a pointed look at her nightgown.

True to his word, ten minutes later he brought them here. He’d walked straight to this bench and sat. She had narrowed her eyes at him, followed him to the bench, and here they were.

“If we are just going to sit here all damn day, I could have stayed in bed,” she grumbled to him, toying with her shadows at her fingertips.

“I cannot decide,” he said through his teeth, “whether to discuss my Second, who got drunk off his ass after bringing up Thia last night, or to ask when you were going to tell me godsdamned Mikale made contact with you again.” His golden eyes were flame, and Scarlett sat up, swiveling to face him.

“You are upset with me?”

“Why did you not tell me of Mikale?”

“You were busy, Sorin,” she sighed. “I wanted you to enjoy the feast, your people. You’ve sacrificed so much for them.”

“I am never too busy for you,” he said, the flames banking in his golden eyes as they searched hers.

“You are a prince with responsibilities. I get that. I’ve lived with that for the last two years.”

“I am not him. It is not fair of you to compare us. Our lives are very different. Our responsibilities are very different.”

“Yes, they are. You have even more responsibilities.” Sorin opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. “How is Cyrus?”

“Cyrus is hungover,” he replied, his lips thinning. “So naturally he is in the training ring with Eliza working off a temper.” Scarlett grimaced. “He rarely speaks of her.”

“Did you know her? Thia?” Scarlett asked, her eyes falling to her lap.

“Yes. She was a very powerful female. She was arrogant and a smart ass, and I’ve never seen anyone else so thoroughly have someone wrapped around their finger.” He paused for a moment before saying, “The mission to save your mother. Do you remember in that story that Cyrus and I had a fight? He had wanted a very powerful female to stay on our side of the border, but I had pulled rank and she…”

Scarlett’s eyes snapped back to his as her heart stuttered. “The female was Thia? Your bad call…” She trailed off, unable to say it.

Sorin nodded, pain and sorrow filling his eyes. “I told you that one bad call had so many rippling effects… Thia was his twin flame.”

He seemed to be watching her carefully. “Those are real?”

“Of course they are real. Rare to find your own, even rarer to risk the Trials, but they are real.”

“How long were they together?”

“Nearly two hundred years.”

Scarlett started. “He still laughs and jokes and…”

“He did not. For many years. That he does so now is indeed remarkable. To lose your twin flame is to lose a piece of your soul. But I think his purpose in telling you of her, Scarlett, is that despite whatever hell you are forced to endure, there are still things worth living for.”

The stars are always worth fighting for.

Cyrus's words from the night before echoed in her mind.

“He will always be alone?”

“He is not alone. They are not just my Inner Court. They are my family. He is my brother. As for a partner, he has taken other lovers, but none have come close to Thia. No one likely ever will. He may find someone else at some point, but he is perfectly content with how things are for the time being.” When Scarlett did not reply, he said, “Tell me of Mikale.” He was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees now with his fingers interlaced, looking at the ground. She could hear him working to control his tone.

She swallowed. “He came to me in a mirror. When I was getting ready, he was there. He touched my reflection, and it was like he was touching me. I could feel him.” She shuttered remembering the feel of his fingers on her neck. “He does not know where I am. I mean, he knows I’m in the Fire Court, but not exactly where I guess. He tried to get me to tell him how you were hiding me and told me his source in the Black Syndicate was upset about the newly enhanced wards around the orphans. When I asked who his source was, he told me if I figured out who had my mother killed, I would figure out who was behind everything.”

“The Assassin Lord? You think he knows who I am?” Sorin said quietly.

“He wouldn’t have had my mother killed though,” Scarlett answered, toeing the dirt of the courtyard with her boot.

There was silence for several minutes. “I did not know you were there. When Eliné was killed.”

“I was nine. I do not remember much of that day. It had been an ordinary day, but I remember my mother tucking me in that night. She had lingered, hugging me extra long, telling me how very much she loved me. There were tears in her eyes. I remember thinking it was strange, and I couldn’t fall asleep after she left my room.

“I went to find her, to ask her for some warm milk, and saw her leaving down the front walk in her cloak. Normally, this wouldn’t have been odd. She was often called out for healing services at all hours, but she did not have her bag of supplies with her. I grabbed my own cloak and followed. She turned down an alley and when I followed, she heard me. She went pale and rushed to me. She asked me over and over what I was doing there. Tears were running down her face. Then she stilled, as if she heard another noise. She slid her ring onto my finger, hid me inside a trash bin in the alley, told me to close my eyes and not to make a sound.

“But I heard everything. There were two men. One asked where her ring was, how she would fight without it. I didn’t know what it meant. Then he asked where she had hidden me. He had gone to the healer’s compound for me first, but I was gone. I could see out of a little hole in the side of the can. I couldn’t see the man who was speaking, but the one I could see was all in black, even had a mask over his face. He drew a dagger from his side, and my mother backed against the wall. The dagger was completely black, blacker than your own blades.

“I will spare you the details of how he took her apart. How she screamed. How I clamped my hands over my mouth to keep him from hearing me. I couldn’t look away. I watched everything. He left the alley when he was done. Left her in pieces there. I vomited over and over in that trash can and sat in there for I don’t know how long. Cassius eventually found me, somehow. He took me to the Fellowship where I was hidden away by the Assassin Lord, until everything began happening with the orphans. But now I wonder, if she had had her ring, if she could have fought.” Her voice cracked in her throat as Scarlett tried to hold back the tears. “If I had not followed her, maybe she would have been able to save herself.”

“No, Scarlett,” Sorin breathed. “You cannot blame yourself. He said he came for you first. Had you not followed, you would have both been slaughtered.”

“But she would have had a chance with her ring.” Scarlett spun it around her finger. “She could have come home, to you and Talwyn, and fixed whatever the hell had gone wrong.”

Sorin tilted her chin up with a finger. “No one gets to see what could have been, Scarlett, but you cannot focus on what is behind you if you want to move forward.”

“Perhaps,” was all she said, laying back down on the bench, resting her head on his thigh once more. The sky was clear blue, not a cloud to be seen. “Few know the details of that night. You officially know all of my secrets, Sorin Aditya.”

Sorin began playing with her braid. “You have endured much in your short life, Scarlett Monrhoe.”

“I am tired, Sorin,” she said softly. “So, so tired.”

“I know, Love, but you’re not alone. You can rest here.”

“Can I? Even here am I not still drowning? Is Mikale not finding me? Are the orphans not still sitting ducks? Do you not wish me to take a throne and take on the problems of two entire Courts?”

“Scarlett, you are alone in none of those things. Mikale cannot have you. We will figure out the orphans, and as for the Courts, that choice is yours. If you do not take the throne, nothing will change about how I look at you. If you want to move to a house in the mountains and live out your life there, I will make sure you are safe and fulfilled.”

Scarlett fell silent as she looked up at Sorin, who was still fiddling with her braid. This day was absolutely perfect. Sitting with him, talking and being real. It was just perfect and wonderful, and she could breathe.

“Sorin?”

“Yeah, Love?”

“I don’t blame you. For my mother’s death. You are not responsible for that.”

Sorin stilled, clearly not knowing what to say, but then he stiffened at the same moment she felt it. It was like an icy breeze with no wind. The hair on her arms stood on end, and gooseflesh appeared. They were both instantly on their feet. The boulders in the courtyard seemed to vibrate until one of the smaller ones exploded. A shield of flame from Sorin instantly surrounded them and bits of rock bounced off of it.

“Shit.” His voice was pure dread. Scarlett watched as, with a finger, he drew some sort of symbol with flame that disappeared as quickly as he drew it. His eyes came back to hers, and he said, “I am so sorry.”

“For what?” Scarlett asked, her eyes widening.

But Sorin turned to face the entrance to the courtyard, shoving Scarlett behind him.

“Hello, Prince of Fire.”

Talwyn stepped into view, and Scarlett paled. Her radiance was even more profound in person. Talwyn’s hair was braided to the side and over her shoulder. Bits of ivy and purple flowers were interwoven into it. She wore brown pants and a white tunic with fighting leathers over the top. Daggers and weapons adorned her, including twin blades strapped to her back. On her finger, she saw her ring, the twin to the one on Scarlett’s own finger. Scarlett balled her hands into fists, trying to hide her ring from view.

“What are you doing here, Talwyn?” Sorin’s tone was vicious.

“I told you our conversation was not over,” Talwyn replied, her own tone as malicious as his.

“Then we will discuss this elsewhere. I will come to the White Halls. You have my word,” Sorin replied.

“Your word means nothing to me,” Talwyn drawled with a sneer.

A high-pitched whining sound reached Scarlett’s ears. It sounded like claws were scraping down the stones of the courtyard walls. Scarlett pressed her hands to her ears, crying out as she dropped to her knees, the sound excruciating.

“I do believe it is time we met outside of the Forest, don’t you?” Talwyn lilted.

“Stop this, Talwyn,” Sorin snarled. “This is between you and me.”

Scarlett could hear the panic in his voice. She had only heard that in his voice one other time— when he’d thought she was dying from the shirastone dagger wound in her side.

“It was between you and me until you brought others into it,” Talwyn sneered, her eyes flashing with ire. As if blown in by unseen winds, Callan, Finn, and Sloan appeared, bound with vines around their wrists and gagged.

“Callan!” Scarlett cried. She shot to her feet and made to run to them, but Sorin gripped her wrist, keeping her inside his shield. Finn’s eyes were wide as he beheld them all. Sloan’s face was twisted with rage, but Callan’s gaze was fixed on her. She couldn’t read his face, his eyes.

No. No! This wasn’t happening again. She flashed back to a cold dungeon cell when Cassius, Nuri, and Juliette had been led into the room to get to her.

The earth buckled beneath her feet, and Scarlett found herself stumbling outside of Sorin’s shield and towards Talwyn. She was ripped from Sorin’s grip, and she felt his flames reach for her, but the air was sucked from them.

“Don’t worry, Prince of Fire,” Talwyn crooned. “I am not going to do anything to her. We just need to talk.” Talwyn snapped her fingers, and Scarlett was trapped in a swirling vortex of wind with no way out.

“Sorin!” she cried, but her voice was carried away on the whirling winds.

Ashes and smoke appeared behind Sorin, and Rayner stepped from them, his blades drawn.

“Welcome, Ash Rider,” Talwyn drawled. “I assumed you would arrive shortly after I did.”

Rayner’s eyes went from Sorin to Scarlett and back.

“She is your concern, Rayner, not me,” Sorin yelled. He drew his own swords from his back, and Scarlett’s breath caught as flames ignited down the blades. He stepped towards Talwyn, but a gust of wind slammed into him.

Scarlett cried out as he was thrown backwards, but again her voice was carried away by the whirlwind she was trapped in. Rayner vanished into smoke and reappeared just outside the vortex.

“Rayner!” she cried. “Help him!”

“He can handle himself, Scarlett,” Rayner replied, his voice calm and steady, even though he was yelling to be heard over the raging winds. He was walking around the whirlwind, his hands up with smoke and ashes pouring from them, as if searching for any weakness in the vortex.

“She just threw him against a wall!” Scarlett cried.

Still focused on the tempest before him, Rayner shot a quick glance to Sorin. “He is not using the full extent of his power, Scarlett. He is barely tapping into it.”

“Where are Cyrus and Eliza?”

“They are coming as fast as they can,” Rayner answered. Then he swore under his breath as he realized there was no way to get to her.

“Go to Callan and the others. Help them!” she screamed at Rayner, but he made no move to do so.

“She has them in invisible wind prisons, Scarlett. They cannot hear anything that is being said. They can only watch it happen. We cannot get to them.”

“Tell her to give me that ring, and we can end all of this now,” Talwyn was saying to Sorin. Scarlett watched in horror as what she had thought was a bracelet began uncoiling from around Talwyn’s wrist like a snake. It sparked and crackled like lightning, turning into a whip that Talwyn now held in her hand.

“It is hers, and no one tells her to do anything,” Sorin growled. He stepped forward again, and this time when the winds blasted towards him, he held his footing.

A wicked smile spread across Talwyn’s lips. “Don’t waste your strength, Sorin,” she taunted. “We both know you are feeling a little…less than these days.”

Talwyn brought her whip back, but before she could bring it forward, it was wrapped around a flaming blade from behind. Talwyn whirled in surprise. Eliza stood behind her, holding that sword. It was the most gorgeous blade Scarlett had ever seen.

“I underestimated your speed,” Talwyn snarled.

“You underestimate me a lot, your Majesty,” Eliza tossed back.

If looks could kill, Eliza would have been dead from the glare that Talwyn threw at her.

Cyrus appeared at Rayner’s side, swearing viciously when he beheld what she was encased in.

“Cyrus, go help Callan!” Scarlett cried again, but he, too, made no move to do so.

Talwyn jerked her arm, and the whip came back to her. She turned back to Sorin. “None of this is necessary, you fool,” she growled.

“You are the one who accosted us, my Queen, ” he answered. The venom that dripped from the word queen was palpable.

“Enough of this,” Talwyn cried. With a sickening thud, Sorin and every member of his Inner Court were hurled to the edges of the courtyard on winds that would have ripped trees from the ground. Restraints of what appeared to be tree roots grew from the cracks of the stone walls pinning the others to them. Sorin was on his feet in an instant, but Talwyn was already on top of him, her whip coiled around his throat.

“I know who she is, Sorin.” Her voice was low and cruel. “I know why she has that ring. How dare you keep her from me. She is my own blood.”

Scarlett stilled inside the whirlwind. She knew. She knew they were cousins. How had she figured it out? How long had she known?

“I know you care nothing for me,” she continued to Sorin, “but do you truly hate everything and everyone in the White Halls that much? Did your love die with Eliné?”

Sorin was struggling against that whip around his throat. Flames surrounded his hands as he tried to wrench it free. His Inner Court was thrashing and cursing against their own restraints.

“Do it, Sorin!” Eliza cried from where she struggled.

“No! Don’t!” Cyrus bellowed.

Talwyn clicked her tongue. “What ever will you do, Sorin? Shall you waste that slowly draining well?”

Scarlett couldn’t focus on what they were saying. She couldn’t even try to decipher what they were referring to. Her breathing was ragged. Her shadows were whipping around her, slamming against the walls of the wind vortex. She could hardly draw a deep enough breath into her lungs, and she wondered if Talwyn was doing that, too.

Trapped. She was trapped. She was locked up. In a cage. Again. She was helpless as she watched them. She looked at Callan, eyes wide in disbelief. Sloan looked murderous as he struggled against his bonds. Finn was taking everything in, calculating. She looked at Eliza and Rayner. She looked to Cyrus, fighting with all he had not to get to Sorin but to get to her. His eyes were fierce as he locked them onto her own. “Fight!” he bellowed at her. “The stars are worth it!”

She turned and saw Sorin struggling. Sorin, who had not left her, who had come for her every single time. Sorin, who had come down into the pits of hell for her, coming back every time she slipped and slid back in. Sorin, her light in the darkness. She flashed back to laying on a cold stone floor. She flashed back to another wicked grin of victory, of eyes delighting in her misery and suffering. Not again.

Not again.

Not again.

The stars are always worth fighting for.

Flames, white as starlight, erupted all around her. The whirlwind blew apart. Talwyn screamed as she was blasted across the courtyard, the thick tree roots holding the Inner Court slackened. Scarlett landed on her feet, floating to the ground on her shadows. She needed a damn blade. She ran across the rocky ground of the courtyard, desperate to get to Sorin. She wasn’t even halfway to him, and Talwyn was already getting to her feet, shock and fury mixing on her features.

“Eliza! She needs a sword!” Sorin shouted.

Eliza cried out words in the Old Language. She was scrambling to her own feet, all of the Inner Court were, but none of them were moving fast enough to get to Scarlett before Talwyn.

Flames appeared before Scarlett, and when they were gone, a sword lay before her. The blade was the black metal that Sorin’s weapons were made of, but the hilt shone as white as the flames that had erupted from her moments earlier.

“No!” Talwyn screamed.

Scarlett had the sword in her hand before Talwyn could take another step. As soon as her fingers touched the hilt, the same white flames encompassed the blade. As she held that blade before her, she felt all the rage and fury and hurt and pain and loss that she’d experienced these last years come crashing into her. She had finally found a place she belonged. She had found someone who came for her. She had found people who did not fear her darkness but understood it. People who wouldn’t leave her alone. She had found home.

To hell with whoever tried to take that from her again.

She felt Sorin and the others racing up behind her, and she felt Talwyn rally her power to blast them back. She knew what to do in her bones. Her power was yanking at the leash, straining to take over.

So she let it.

She placed the tip of the blade to the ground, and a wall of that same white flame erupted between them and Talwyn, shooting towards the sky. Talwyn’s power could not cross it.

“How did you come across that sword?” Talwyn seethed, not at her or Sorin, but at Eliza.

“There’s that underestimating again, your Majesty,” she answered with a derisive grin. Scarlett could feel the hatred emanate off of Talwyn. She brought that whip of lightning up again, and this time when she brought it down, Scarlett met it with her own blade, stepping through her fire.

“Stay behind the flames,” she heard Sorin command his Inner Court.

“I know who she is, Sorin,” Talwyn crooned. Her voice had become lilting and calm again.

“Enough,” Scarlett said. Her voice rang out, pure and commanding. Talwyn’s eyes snapped to her own.

“You do not give orders here,” Talwyn replied, a thin smile forming on her lips.

“I think you will find everyone here would disagree with you,” Scarlett replied, matching Talwyn’s icy tone.

“Have you finally come to claim your throne at last?” Talwyn asked, as a ball of the same lightning energy of her whip appeared in her hand.

“Scarlett!” Sorin cried, his voice full of warning. She felt him step beyond her wall of flame, and, as if in slow motion, she saw Talwyn send that ball of energy hurtling towards him. She had no idea what she was doing or how she did it, but a ball of her white flames met Talwyn’s orb of energy in the air, and the impact of those two powers meeting sent a blast through the courtyard that sent every one of them flying into the high walls surrounding them.

Scarlett stifled a scream at the cracking of bones in her forearm as she slammed into the stone wall. Sorin was at her side in an instant, a shield of flame surrounding them both. Rayner appeared out of smoke and ashes beside them, holding the sword that Eliza had summoned for her. He added his own shield to Sorin’s and a few moments later, Cyrus and Eliza had joined them, reinforcing with their own shields. Sorin helped Scarlett to her feet, and she choked down a scream at the stabbing pain in her abdomen. She knew that pain. Her ribs were bruised at best, broken at worst. As Talwyn approached them, Scarlett pushed past that agony, adding a layer of white flames to their shields.

“This is a family matter,” Talwyn hissed, her face white with rage.

“ This is my family,” Scarlett replied. The pain in her arm was sharp, and her vision was blurring as she tried to breathe around the pain in her ribs, but her voice did not waiver. Her knees did not buckle.

“There is so much you do not know,” Talwyn answered, and Scarlett could have sworn there was a hint of panic in her voice.

“I know enough,” Scarlett replied, and frost began creeping up the walls of the courtyard.

Talwyn’s attention turned to Sorin, hatred filling her eyes. “You have failed yet again, Prince.”

“Do not speak to him like that,” Scarlett snapped, and a dagger of ice appeared at Talwyn’s throat.

Talwyn merely brushed it aside. The dagger clattered to the floor, shattering. “Best to stick to fire tricks in the Fire Court,” Talwyn replied sweetly. “And what of your mortal lover?” She turned, advancing on Callan, Finn, and Sloan.

“Leave them alone,” she seethed at Talwyn. She made to step from the shields, but Sorin gripped her arm.

“I will get them,” he panted.

“No,” Scarlett said coolly. She speared her shadows out from herself. They slithered along the ground straight to Talwyn. Scarlett wrapped them around her ankles and yanked, sending Talwyn sprawling to the ground.

This time, when she made to step from the shields, Sorin let her go. She strode quickly to Callan and the others. With a thought, the vines encompassing them were burned to ash, along with whatever invisible shields were around them. Talwyn was back on her feet, winds whipping around her and lightning flickering at her fingertips. Flames surrounded Callan and his men, shielding them from Talwyn.

“How did you do that?” she demanded.

A smile, as serpentine as Talwyn’s had been, formed on her own lips. She took a step towards the Fae Queen. Her shadows curled around Talwyn, sliding up her body, wending around her throat. “I know more tricks than fire and ice,” Scarlett purred. She watched Talwyn wince as the shadows bit into her skin. “If you ever come near Prince Callan or his guards again, I will kill you.”

“You could try,” Talwyn replied, her voice low with challenge.

Scarlett only gave her a bone-chilling smile, and let those shadows bite a little farther into her skin before reeling them back into herself.

Talwyn’s eyes slid to Sorin where he still stood behind Scarlett’s flames. “Prepare her well, Prince. In the little time you have remaining. She needs to control it to wield it, not just throw a magical tantrum when her life is in danger…or the lives of those she loves.”

Then, just like the night Scarlett had watched from Sorin’s balcony, Talwyn disappeared, as if she’d never been there at all.