Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2)

Chapter 21 Scarlett

CHAPTER 21

SCARLETT

S carlett lay awake, staring at the ceiling. Sorin was sleeping beside her, as he had been every night since she had asked him to stay. Nothing else had happened since that night either, which both relieved and slightly disappointed Scarlett. He had let her and Eliza have time to themselves nearly the entire afternoon, and Eliza had helped her bathe since she had still been in the clothes from the courtyard.

When Sorin had returned, he had hovered like a mother hen. And had continued to do so for the last two days. He brought her meals and wouldn’t let her out of the bed unless she had to see to her needs, at which point she had to shut the door in his face.

He had tried to explain it to her, that Fae males felt an instinctive drive to serve and protect. Guilt, she had realized. He had felt guilt at what had happened to her in the courtyard.

“Sorin, in this very room, you looked at me and told me none of what happened was my fault,” she had said quietly.

“It wasn’t,” he had replied quickly, worry flickering across his face.

“Nor was any of it yours,” she had answered gently.

“Not being able to protect you—”

“I do not need protecting, Sorin,” she had cut in.

“That is not what I mean, Scarlett. You do not need protecting or rescuing.”

“Read to me?” she had asked then.

He had, for nearly two hours, until she could tell he was exhausted. He had fallen asleep almost immediately, and here she was, going more than a little stir crazy. She needed to get up, to move around. She needed to get out of these rooms. She was trained in the damned Black Syndicate. She could be stealthy, even with an injured arm and ribs. They were healing quickly anyway. She was mostly just sore at this point.

She sucked in a breath, bracing herself as she gently eased herself to a sitting position. She slid from the bed with expert quiet. She was in loose fitting training clothes, which were fine for walking around the palace. She slid her feet into slippers. Sorin hardly stirred. She supposed he was used to her waking screaming or thrashing from nightmares, not from her silently slipping from bed. Now to get out the door.

She pulled the door, grimacing at the abdominal muscles she had to use to do so. The door mercifully was silent as it slid open, and she slipped out. She braided her long hair back while she crossed the sitting room and strapped a dagger she found near the door to her thigh. She was in the hallway a moment later, and she let out a long breath. It had been a long while since she had had to sneak anywhere.

She silently padded down the hallway. The palace was silent at this hour, everyone asleep, save for the night watch guards stationed here and there. They nodded to her as she passed. She moved slowly across the bridges, not really wanting to tackle stairs tonight. Another left and a right, and she found herself before the level’s library entrance.

As she walked along the balconies of the massive library, she could see various levels below, lit by torches and candles. She heard a noise ahead among the stacks and froze. She did not really want to interact much with anyone, but it was too late as a figure emerged from between the shelves. She instinctively protected her healing ribs as they nearly collided.

“My apologies,” a man yelped, dropping the books he was carrying. “I did not know anyone else was in here.” He had stooped to grab his books, but Scarlett knew who it was before he stood upright.

Callan’s eyes widened at who stood before him. “Scarlett.” He scanned her, noting her wrapped middle and arm. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a library,” she said with an eye roll. “I’m here to get a book.” She realized a moment later that with that sarcastic comment, she had not put on the mask she usually wore with the prince. Then again, he’d been seeing plenty of things that went far beyond that mask these days.

“Of course.” He shifted on his feet. “How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” she admitted with a weak smile. “Are you okay? Did Talwyn hurt you?”

“No. Nothing like that,” he said in a rush of words and a peculiar look.

They stood awkwardly together in the silence, neither knowing what to say. “Well, this is stupid, hmm?” she finally murmured.

He huffed a laugh. “We can finally converse in the open, and we do not know what to do with ourselves.”

“What are you reading?” Scarlett asked, glancing at his stack of books. “Hopefully something to keep your interest? Unless you are looking for something to help you fall asleep?”

“No, I—”

She reached out with her good arm and plucked a book from the top of the stack. The Heart of the Beginning . She looked up at him with a quizzical look.

“I figured since I am to be king one day, I should know as much as I can about our land and relations, so I have been studying the history of the Fae,” he explained with a small shrug.

“Smart. Have you learned anything interesting?” she asked as she thumbed through the book.

“Some, yes. Listen, can we walk somewhere so I can set these down?” he asked, lifting the stack of books in emphasis.

“Of course. Sorry.” She followed him to a little alcove with a table. More books and papers littered the surface. “How much research have you done exactly?” she asked with a raised brow as he plopped the books onto the table.

“I have some time on my hands here,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He turned to face her fully. “I am sorry. About what happened in the courtyard.”

“What could you possibly have to be sorry for?” she asked.

“Sorin did not tell you?” Again he had that peculiar look.

“Tell me what?” she asked slowly.

He took a deep breath. “The Fae Queen did not kidnap me. I went with her willingly.”

Scarlett stilled. She could hardly draw a breath as she said as evenly as she could, “Why would you do that?”

“It had seemed like a good idea at the time, to get to know another leader of the lands. To build relations.”

“Oh, Callan.” She didn’t know what else to say. When she’d asked how Talwyn had crossed the wards to get to Callan and the others, Sorin had only said they were working on it and that it wouldn’t happen again.

He swallowed. “She had questions. About you.”

“I’m sure she did,” Scarlett muttered.

“Why?”

Scarlett waved the question off. “What kind of questions?”

“She commented on your ring, about how it is a Fae family heirloom. She wondered how you obtained it. Then she asked if you had any of the tattoos the others have.”

“She asked if I had any Marks?” Callan nodded. “How curious,” was all she could say as he looked expectantly at her.

“Which part? The Marks or the ring?” he asked, running a hand down the stubble along his jaw.

The action caught her off guard. How many times had she watched him do that when they were strategizing in the same hours of the night in his own private rooms?

“All of it, I suppose,” she said with a sigh. She eased herself into a seat at the table. “Tell me what you’ve learned.”

Callan took a tentative seat opposite her. “You are not at all curious about her questions?”

“Not tonight I am not. Tell me the most interesting thing you have discovered.”

Callan studied her. “There used to be two Fae Queens who ruled the Courts. They were sisters, but some say there was a third sister. That Esmeray was that third.”

“So I’ve heard. What did you learn of them?”

Callan shrugged. “Most accounts say that Deimas and Esmeray tried to overtake the Courts to get to the mortals. I am not surprised that their history books are so different from our own, I suppose.”

“Most accounts? Are they not all the same?”

“No,” Callan said, leaning back in his chair. “One book I read said the Fae Courts were just caught in between a bigger conflict between Esmeray’s territory and Avonleya. It claimed that Deimas and Esmeray were seeking something across the sea, and Avonleya refused to let them even come to visit. That such a slight would ignite the Great War seems a little far-fetched though.”

“Yes, but did it ever say what they were looking for? Or what Deimas was?”

“What do you mean what Deimas was? He was mortal, wasn’t he?” Callan asked with a raise of his brow.

“But he had magic. How else did he and Esmeray lock away the Avonleyans? If Esmeray was as powerful as the Fae Queens, that explains that. But what of Deimas?” Scarlett pressed. She chewed on her bottom lip as she pondered this. Callan was quiet, and after a few moments, she realized he was staring at her. She cleared her throat and straightened in her chair.

“What else have you discovered?” Scarlett asked, leaning forward to look at his various notes and books.

“Myths and legends mostly. It’s all so different from the history we were taught. It paints the Fae as mortal protectors, not as a race seeking to enslave us.”

Scarlett pulled one of his pages of notes towards her, skimming his neat and precise handwriting. Handwriting that was so familiar to her. “And what are you inclined to believe?”

Callan shrugged again. “Honestly, I do not know what to believe any more. Some things seem so far fetched. There was one book that spoke of something called a World Walker who was apparently a being that could walk between the worlds somehow.”

“Interesting,” Scarlett murmured, flipping through his pages of notes. She stilled as she read the page title. Twin Flames and Soulmates . “What is this?” she asked, tapping the paper with her fingernail.

“More research,” Callan said, reaching to take the papers, but she grabbed them, twisting out of his reach. She stifled a cry at the pain in her abdomen from the movement as she read his notes.

“Why are you researching this?” she asked.

“I heard of the twin flame bond mentioned in passing and wanted to know more about it,” he said cautiously.

“This is old blood magic, Callan,” she said, her eyes moving rapidly over the pages. She saw her name jotted in the margins with a question mark beside it. “Why is my name written here?” She brought her eyes to his in time to see him wince.

“I am trying to figure out how you fit into their world, Scarlett,” he finally conceded with a sigh. “No one will give me straight answers about anything, so I decided to take it upon myself.”

“You think I am one of these? To whom?” she demanded, waving the page of notes at him.

“I do not know, but it would explain why you fit in so well among them.”

“I fit in among them because I am Fae , Callan,” she said shortly.

“I know, but you interact with them as if you have known them for years. You are more comfortable around them than you were around me when we were sharing a bed for a year, and you have only shared quarters with him for a few weeks.” His eyes widened as the words left his lips.

Scarlett stared at him, blinking slowly. Without a word, she extended her hand with the notes back to him. “Why are you really researching all of this Callan?”

“Everything I said was true, but also to help you. Why can he help you and I cannot?” he demanded, his eyes hardening as he took the papers from her hand.

She studied him a long moment. All of him so familiar to her still to this day. “All right then,” she said, pulling a book towards her.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s my history. Maybe I should learn some of it too, don’t you think?” she asked, flipping the book open.

“You are going to sit here and read with me?” There was wariness in his tone.

“Unless you have some objection to it?”

It was his turn to study her.

“I do not have an objection. I can think of another who might?”

“He is not my keeper,” she said simply, and she began to read.

It was hours later when she crossed the bridges again, slipping silently into Sorin’s rooms. She silently closed the door behind her, padding across the sitting room. She was sore. She knew she had overdone it sitting at that table for so long with Callan, each of them offering interesting bits of history or research they came across. The space between them was still tense, but it was something she supposed.

She carefully pushed open the bedroom door and stepped inside. Sorin still lay in bed where she’d left him. She unbuckled the dagger from her thigh and slid her feet from her slippers. Then she stood, debating whether a hot bath would ease her aching middle.

“Take the tonic on the nightstand for the pain,” came a voice from the darkened room. She scowled at him in the darkness, and he chuckled, rising from the bed. He grabbed the vial from the bedside table as he came to her, uncorking it and extending it to her.

“When did you learn I was gone?” she asked, tipping back the vial, its honey taste trying to mask the bitterness of it.

“Love, I felt you get out of this bed,” he replied with a smirk she could just make out in the glow from the hearth.

“You did not,” she scoffed, handing him the empty vial.

“I did. Granted, I thought you were going to the bathing room and did not want the door slammed in my face again. When you did not return after an hour, I sent word for a pain relieving tonic to have ready for you. She added a sedative to help you sleep.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes, making to move towards the bed. Dammit. She was so damn sore.

“I’m surprised you didn’t try to stop me when you heard me leave the room then,” she ground out, trying and failing to hide her grimace of pain. She didn’t fight him as he gently lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.

“Scarlett, I understand it is hard for you to let yourself be taken care of. I understand that Fae protectiveness is new to you and takes such a thing to a whole new overbearing level. It took every shred of self-control to let you leave this room tonight and fight that urge to make you stay in bed, despite knowing you would come back in this state,” he said pointedly, pulling the comforter up and around her. “I am trying though.”

“The mother hen look is not good on you,” she said softly, feeling the tonic begin to take effect.

“I’ll try to remember that,” he said with a soft chuckle, as he climbed back into the other side of the bed.

“I just couldn’t sleep. I was getting restless,” she murmured into the dark.

“I know, Love, but maybe one hour in the library would have been wiser than three?”

“You know where I was?”

“I am the prince of the palace, Scarlett, and you are, for all intents and purposes, a princess. I was sent a message by every night watch you passed.”

“Why did you not tell me Callan went with Talwyn willingly?” she asked. She wanted to roll onto her side and face him, but knew that would be impossible, so she turned her head.

He seemed to know though, and propped himself onto an elbow, looking down at her. It was somehow more intimate than kissing, laying in the dark, staring into his golden eyes. “He told you?”

“He did. Why didn’t you?”

“Because I know he is important to you. I did not want this to fracture your relationship with him further.”

“I think he is still hoping things will return to how they were,” she said quietly, feeling the tug of sleep.

“I think you are right,” he agreed, gently stroking soothing lines down her cheek, along her jaw.

“I do not know how to tell him that…that I do not know if I will remain in Baylorin when we take him home,” she said, her eyes growing heavy.

Sorin’s finger paused its movement for a split second before continuing. “Oh?”

“He is researching things. In the library,” she murmured. She hardly knew what she was saying any more.

“What kinds of things?”

“Mainly history.”

She heard the smile in Sorin’s words as he said, “Is he now?”

“Yes. He is also researching twin flames and soulmates.”

Sorin’s fingers stilled completely this time. Her eyes fluttered open at the interruption, and she found him watching her closely. “What has he learned?”

“We didn’t discuss it much.” She couldn’t read his expression, although her mind was so muddled from the tonic, there was probably nothing to read there, anyway. She was just babbling at this point. “He said he thought someone here might think I am their twin flame or soulmate, and that’s why you all are so protective. I couldn’t tell him the truth.”

“Which is what?” Sorin asked slowly.

“That you all think I’m a princess and that’s why you’re so fussy,” she answered with a half smile.

“You are a princess,” he said, resuming his soothing stroking on her face.

“I think you might be mine though,” she said, as sleep finally overtook her.

“Your what?” she heard him press, but sleep pulled her under before she could reply.