Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2)

Chapter 17 Callan

CHAPTER 17

CALLAN

C allan lurched for Scarlett as Talwyn disappeared. Sorin and his Court were across the courtyard racing towards them. He caught her before she slumped onto her clearly broken arm. Things had gone wrong. So horribly wrong.

“Are you all right?” she rasped, pain contorting her features as she cradled her arm to her body. And her eyes. They were silver and shimmering with unshed tears.

“I am fine, Scarlett,” he whispered, brushing sweat-laden hair from her face. There was a cut along her cheekbone, and blood was trickling from it. “I am so sorry.”

“For what?” Confusion flitted across her face, but before he could explain, the Fire Court stood before him.

“Go, Rayner,” Sorin ordered. “Find Beatrix quickly.”

Rayner stepped into smoke and ashes, and Sorin opened a fire portal before the rest of them. Callan stood, scooping Scarlett into his arms as he did so. She stifled a scream. Sorin stared at him, his eyes narrowing slightly, and his hands curling into fists at his sides. He couldn’t possibly know he’d been with Talwyn last night, could he? Callan glared back, hugging Scarlett to his chest a little tighter. Her face was pale as she breathed through her teeth around the pain. “Go through,” Sorin said with a jerk of his chin to the portal.

Callan stepped into a bedroom, Finn and Sloan right behind him. When Sorin stepped through last, the portal snapped shut. “On the bed,” he said. Callan moved across the room and laid her down as gently as he could onto the huge fluffy comforter. She hissed at the movement.

“What do you need?” Callan asked, sitting on the edge of the mattress beside her, gripping her other hand tight.

“I’m fine, Callan,” she said around a grimace. “You are truly all right? She didn’t hurt you?”

“Not a scratch on me, my Wraith,” he murmured soothingly, rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand. She closed her eyes, tears leaking from the corners to mix with the blood on her cheek. He looked at Sorin to find hard eyes gazing back at him. Eliza and Cyrus were dispersed throughout the room, looking rather uneasy, their eyes warily darting between him and Sorin. “I thought Fae could heal themselves?” Callan ground out to the Fire Prince.

“She can, but her bones are broken in more than one place, and she just used more magic at one time than she ever has before. She hasn’t built up enough stamina and power reserves to dive that deeply so quickly and still have magic to heal herself,” he snapped. “Our Healer will be here momentarily.”

Her breathing was becoming uneven, and she tried to sit up, biting down on a scream at the pain. “Scarlett, a Healer is coming,” Callan soothed, trying to push her back down. Her eyes were darting frantically around the room.

“She is going to be sick from the pain and from being shoved so deeply into her magic,” Sorin said tightly, sending a trash basket to him on a flame. Scarlett immediately vomited into it. She sat up, trying to catch her breath, clutching her abdomen. Her whole body was trembling now. Callan ran a hand down her back. Her body was like ice, though flames danced at her fingertips, swirling amongst the shadows. Smoke furled from her mouth as she vomited not the contents of her stomach but ice and water. She cried out in pain with every convulsion.

“Breathe, Scarlett. Breathe. The Healer is coming,” he murmured.

Helpless. He was utterly helpless to help her. Her shadows were thickening with each ragged breath. The magic she had displayed moments ago? Holy gods. It had been a hundred times more powerful than what she’d done on the day they’d arrived here.

“You need to let me near her.”

“What?” Callan turned to Sorin, who seemed to be trembling himself. With restraint, Callan realized. “No. She is here because of you! Why did you not protect her?” he snapped

“Let him take your place, Prince. Her magic is raging, and she will not be able to control it much longer. Her magic will run wild, not caring what it costs her,” Eliza said, her tone a warning.

“No.”

“Either move your ass willingly, or I will do so for you,” Cyrus growled from near the balcony doors.

“What can he do? He said himself we are waiting on a Healer.”

“This is not a pissing contest, Prince. Move your ass,” Cyrus snapped, beginning to prowl towards him.

“Callan,” Finn hissed.

With a glare at all of them, he reluctantly moved from the bed. Sorin was beside her faster than Callan could blink. He watched as he took her uninjured arm, placing her hand flat against his chest. “Breathe,” he soothed, stroking her hair with his other hand. “Focus. Make us match. Like we have done every other time.”

Every other time. They had done this before. Sorin had helped her through whatever this was before.

“Where is the Healer?” Scarlett gasped out between breaths.

“She is coming. You can do this. You’ve been through worse. I’ve put you through worse. Do you remember that time I made you run so long you vomited and then I made you run some more just because I could?”

“Do you remember the time I punched you in the face?” she muttered.

“There you are, Love,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Callan’s heart constricted as she leaned into him, her forehead going to his chest, just above her hand. “Breathe, Love.” Sorin’s voice was so tender, so gentle. He loved her. Sorin loved her as much as he did. Callan suddenly felt like he was going to be sick.

Her trembling lessened while she sat, focusing on her breathing, Sorin’s hand soothingly rubbing her back. No one said a word as they watched the Prince steady the Wraith, her shadows brushing down his cheek, his arms. “None of today was your fault. Do you understand me?” Sorin said gently but firmly when her breathing had evened out, tilting her face up to look into her eyes. Callan could see the doubt flickering in them. “Scarlett, they are safe. They are unharmed. It was not your fault.”

There were running footsteps, and an older woman rushed into the room, Rayner a step behind her. She was the same Healer who had been there that first day here. She crossed the room to Sorin, took one look at Scarlett’s arm, and pressed a hand to her cheek. White light flared from her hand, and Scarlett was instantly asleep. Sorin gently laid her back on the pillows and stood back to let the Healer work. They were murmuring quietly to each other as she focused on Scarlett’s broken arm. Then she shifted her attention to somehow magically binding her ribs that had Callan gaping slightly.

While their focus remained on Scarlett, Callan took the moment to look around the room. The suite was huge. A desk and bookshelves lined the walls. Two overstuffed chairs sat in the front of the fireplace, a male’s cloak draped over one. His eyes drifted to the balcony doors where Cyrus still stood, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. There was a chaise beneath the window, and weapons lay strewn across it. Weapons he recognized. Her weapons.

He looked around the rest of the room. Were these her chambers or his? He glanced to Eliza, who stood by the bedroom door, whispering with Rayner, but she met his eyes. Her lips formed a grim line. To her right was an open door to a dressing room, and he could glimpse female clothing hanging. Her room then.

“She will sleep for a couple hours and be pain free, but she will need to take it easy the next few days. She will be sore, and those rib breaks will take some time. She is weakened from draining her magical reserves improperly,” the Healer said, her voice crackled with age.

“Thank you, Beatrix,” Sorin replied, bending to brush a kiss to the woman’s cheek.

“And you, Prince?” the aged Healer asked, a half smile on her lips. She raised her hand to his forehead where a gash was still healing, presumably from when Talwyn had thrown him against the wall. A flare of white light and it was gone. Not even a mark. “Anyone else?” The Healer surveyed the room. When no one replied, she took her leave.

Sorin’s gaze settled on him and his guards. The gleam in his eyes was half feral as he surveyed them. Cyrus and Rayner casually stepped between the two princes. “Another place, perhaps, Sorin?” Rayner said coolly.

“Take it to your sitting room,” Eliza drawled from the doorway. “I’ll stay with her.”

Sorin stalked past her, leaving Callan with little choice but to follow when Cyrus and Rayner looked at him expectantly. He entered the sitting room and immediately recognized it as the room they had come to when they’d first arrived in the Fire Court. This had to be Sorin’s private chambers. Not hers.

“How the fuck did she get past our wards?” Sorin seethed at Cyrus and Rayner, flames appearing in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” Cyrus answered bitterly, violence and rage dancing across his features.

“I already have spies looking into it,” Rayner added in his quiet, lethal voice.

“Not a single one of us felt her? That is not fucking possible.” Sorin’s gaze was murderous as he leveled it at Callan. “Where were you when she took you?”

“We were not at the palace,” Sloan cut in with a snarl.

“What do you mean you were not at the palace?” Sorin asked with a deadly, calm rage.

“As I recall, we are not prisoners and are free to leave when we wish,” Callan retorted.

“When? When did she come for you?” Cyrus cut in. Rayner had positioned himself between the princes once more. They were both tense as they glanced from one another and back to Sorin.

“Last night. We were going to the city to drink after you lot all left with Scarlett. She met us on the path. In fact, she knows exactly where your wards stop and would not cross it herself or allow her wolves to cross,” Callan answered.

“Her fucking wolves are in the mountains?” Sorin snarled.

Rayner was gone in smoke before the words had finished leaving his lips.

“If she would not cross the wards, then how did she obtain you?”

Callan swore. “I went with her willingly, all right?”

“You did what?” Sorin roared.

“Shit,” Cyrus muttered, putting a hand on Sorin’s shoulder.

“On it,” Eliza called from the other room, clearly having heard every bit of the conversation.

“You willingly went with the queen for what purpose?” Sorin ground out from between his teeth.

“She wanted information on Scarlett. She asked for my help. I did not know that it would turn into this. I would never have agreed to such a thing,” Callan bit back, working to keep his voice even.

“What kind of information did she want?” The venom in his voice made Callan flinch, and Finn and Sloan tensed, hands on their swords.

“Something to do with her ring. She said she had been trying to talk to her, and you had been preventing it. Having been in a similar situation, I could relate,” Callan replied tightly.

“For what purposes did she want the information?” Sorin was visibly trembling again. With restraint or rage, Callan didn’t know. Probably both.

There was a sound of swirling water and the Water Prince appeared. Why he was here, Callan didn’t know. Briar took in the scene, locking eyes with Cyrus for a moment. “She was hurt?”

“A broken arm and some broken ribs,” Cyrus confirmed grimly. Flames encompassed the room. “Beatrix was already here. She is sleeping and will be fine.”

“How?” Briar demanded

“Our beloved queen learned of one of her weaknesses and took full advantage,” Sorin replied. “She used them to bait her and shove her deep into her magic. When it collided with Talwyn’s, we were all blasted into the damn walls. Then I come to learn that he went with her willingly and that he gave her information.”

The Water Prince’s eyes snapped to Callan. “What did you tell her?”

“I know little, so there is little for me to tell her. I would never have knowingly put Scarlett in danger. You cannot seriously believe I would.”

“Your actions—” Sorin started, taking a step towards him.

“Sorin, let’s go to the sparring ring. We will figure it out,” Briar interrupted, a wicked-looking sword appearing in his hand amid a swirl of snow.

“Not until he tells us exactly what was said,” Sorin snarled. Flames now appearing at his fingertips.

“Sorin, I more than anyone know what is coursing through you right now, but you are in no condition to be expending this much power,” Cyrus said cautiously, a sword appearing in his own hand. “We will have them escorted back and discuss things later.”

“We will discuss them now,” Sorin seethed, and a blade wreathed in flames was in his hand.

“Eliza, we might need you,” Cyrus called.

“You moronic males,” the female chided, stalking from the bedroom. “This is why Drayce was summoned. So that I would not be needed.” She was still in the leathers she had been in at the courtyard, her magnificent sword strapped to her back.

“He is riding a very dangerous edge. Briar and I will not be enough,” Cyrus snapped.

“Cyrus, escort them back to the other side of the bridges. If I were you, Crown Prince, I would stay in your rooms the rest of the day,” Eliza said in a bored tone.

“You are locking us in our chambers?” Finn asked in disbelief.

“No. I am suggesting that should you want to avoid a fiery Fae temper tantrum, you may want to make yourselves scarce, but the choice is yours,” Eliza ground out.

“They are not dismissed, General,” Sorin snarled.

Eliza erupted. She was a living pillar of flames the color of her hair, and Callan was shoved to the ground by Sloan. “They are, Prince,” she snarled back, “or you and I shall have it out right here, and she sleeps in the other room, directly in the path of the destruction you and I would wreak. Or have you forgotten sixty years ago in Threlarion?”

Sorin bared his teeth as he stood perfectly still, glaring at her. Callan had seen Scarlett move through the world as a Wraith of Shadows. He had seen Death’s Shadow herself. And the female ablaze before him rivaled them both. He could not decide of the three, who was the most terrifying.

“Let them go to their chambers, Sorin,” she said calmly. “I will personally go to them and find out exactly what was said and report back.”

“No,” Sorin snarled.

Eliza’s face went positively vicious. “Briar, please stay with Scarlett,” she growled as she drew her blade from her back. “And get me a portal to the grounds.”

Instantly a water portal appeared behind Sorin, and Callan could only watch in horror and amazement as that female flung herself at the Prince of Fire, tackling him through that portal.

“They are in the front so we can monitor,” the Water Prince said gravely, crossing to the bedroom.

“You lot can get another escort or wait for me,” Cyrus said without looking at them and following Briar.

Callan pushed himself to his feet and trailed them. Scarlett was sleeping soundly, the Healer’s magic apparently putting her into a deep enough sleep that she had slept through all the commotion. Color had returned to her cheeks some, and her arm lay across her chest. She still wore the loose pants and tight shirt she had been wearing. The shirt was bunched up some, baring her midsection, and he could see where her abdomen was bound for her broken ribs.

He pulled his gaze from her to where the Fae males now stood out on the balcony. Finn and Sloan had followed them out and stood frozen, their faces pale. Callan quickly joined them and stilled as he watched the General and Fire Prince fighting on the front grounds. Each hit was precise. Their swords were blades of flames, sending sparks flying. He moved so fast, Callan could hardly keep track of him. Rage and temper fueled his every move. This was who had been training his father’s High Force?

And Eliza? She flipped and twirled and moved in ways Callan didn’t know were possible. Maybe the movements weren’t even possible unless one was Fae. She held her sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, and for every thrust and attack and parry Sorin came at her with, she countered it with her own.

A ring of flames radiated from them as their blades met again with a force that shook the palace grounds. Callan could feel the faint vibrations from where he stood. “What exactly happened sixty years ago?” he asked, not entirely sure he wanted the answer.

The Fae males didn’t take their eyes from below as Cyrus answered, “Sorin and Eliza had a disagreement. They leveled an entire neighborhood in Threlarion.”

“You mean figuratively, right?” Finn said slowly.

“No, Sentry, I do not. It was an abandoned neighborhood, and they had enough sense to ensure it was empty before they got into it. But when they were done, they were both so bloody you could hardly recognize them, and there was nothing but rubble around them.”

“They won’t get that far today, will they?” Callan asked, unable to pull his gaze from the lethal beings below.

“I do not think so. It is why Eliza removed him from the palace itself, but should they seem close, Briar will intervene. Briar and Eliza together will be able to restrain him if necessary,” Cyrus explained. “However, the fact that Scarlett lies sleeping in this building will prevent him from touching his deepest wells of power for that kind of destruction.”

“This is all because of Queen Talwyn?” Finn asked.

“No,” Prince Briar answered. He sounded distant, and his icy blue eyes were glowing. “This is because someone he cares deeply for was put in danger and hurt.”

“Fae may be civilized and powerful, but in many ways, we are just as primitive as the wild animals of the forests and mountains,” Cyrus cut in. “We can become just as feral when those in our charge, when our family, are in danger, and when it is one’s— Well, when it is someone we care so deeply for, the urge to protect and defend can overtake us, despite our discipline and control.”

There was a deafening boom as the blades below met again. Palace guards were standing around, watching the two. Callan couldn’t smell fear like the Fae could, but it was tangible in the air around them. “Sorin needs to cease this,” Cyrus murmured to Briar. “Until she accepts it, he can not expel this much power.”

“I am tunneling into my power as quickly as I can,” Briar replied. “I have been doing so since Eliza’s message.”

“Then do so faster,” Cyrus bit back. “Unless we have Beatrix wake her…” Those glowing blue eyes turned to Cyrus.

Callan couldn’t have heard right. Or maybe he misunderstood? They weren’t seriously talking about waking Scarlett, were they? There was no way she could fight right now. The Healer had said she would sleep for a few hours and then needed to rest for a few days. They couldn’t wake her up and expect her to pick up a sword. They wouldn’t do that to her.

When another blast of power shook the palace, Briar turned to Cyrus. “Summon Beatrix. I could stop him, but it will get messier. She will stop it immediately.”

Cyrus drew the flame message, and a few minutes later, the Healer rushed in. “We need you to wake her,” Cyrus said, not bothering with formalities or explanations.

“She will be in intense pain,” the Healer warned.

“Then it shall pull him from this madness faster,” Cyrus ground out.

“You will use her for this purpose?” Callan demanded. “You will make her suffer even more?”

Briar turned those icy blue eyes upon him, and Callan forced himself not to squirm under the intensity. “We would, and perhaps you should see why.”

Beatrix and Briar strode through the doors and back into the bedroom. Callan made to follow, but Cyrus stopped him. “Stay. Watch, Prince.”

So he did. He watched as a few moments later, a water portal appeared on the grounds below. He watched Briar emerge, cradling Scarlett in his arms, the Healer with them. He watched as Briar gently set Scarlett onto her feet in the grass, supporting her as she cradled her middle. Eliza saw them, too, but too late to stop her next blow. Flames radiated from them, and Briar sent out a blast of water, dousing the flames and shielding Scarlett, the Healer, and himself. He watched as Sorin whirled and stopped short, his flames vanishing into nothing but wisps of smoke.