Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2)

Chapter 27 Sorin

CHAPTER 27

SORIN

I n between bouts of hurling his guts up, Sorin managed to send fire messages to his Inner Court and Briar. They appeared almost instantly in his rooms.

“Where the hell is she?” Eliza demanded, looking around the room with wide eyes.

“She Traveled,” Sorin answered hoarsely.

“You said she hadn’t learned how to do that yet,” Cyrus said slowly.

“She has done it one other time. It is how we got out of the Lairwood House.”

Rayner was gripping his arm, helping him to his feet as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Vomit coated his tongue, his mouth. Briar handed him a glass of water.

“Then how did she do so now?” Cyrus pressed.

“We… Emotions were high,” Sorin ground out. “As you can imagine.”

“Where the hell is she?” Eliza demanded again.

“I don’t know.”

“Then find her,” Eliza spat.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t? You’re her twin flame. Find her,” Eliza ordered, her words cool and clipped.

“I. Can’t.” Sorin said again.

Cyrus's eyes went wide as he reached out and snatched Sorin’s left hand. He swore at the sight of the faded Mark. “What did you do?” he whispered in horror.

“Where is she?” Eliza demanded once more.

“He can’t feel her, Eliza,” Cyrus said, disbelief in his voice. “He can’t find her.”

Eliza stalked from the room, the door slamming behind her.

“I can’t feel her. I do not know where she is,” Sorin’s eyes went to Briar’s. “Which means my enchantments are down.”

This time Briar swore viciously. “I cannot help, Sorin. Not without knowing where she is.”

“Rayner,” Sorin started, turning to him.

“I am already on it. All of our resources are combing every territory,” he said softly.

Sorin swallowed. He tried. He braced himself and looked inward, down that bond between their souls, but the threads connecting them had all but snapped. There was only one left, and it was stretched tight. He didn’t know how long it would last.

Thick silence fell in the room, no one knowing what to say. And in that silence all he could hear was Scarlett screaming at him, pain and hurt entrenched in every word.

You broke this! You broke us!

“She said there was no fixing this,” he said quietly to Cyrus. “You are the only one who has had a twin flame. Is she right?”

“I don’t know, Sorin.” His voice was somber, still in shock. “Thia and I had fights. There is no denying that, but we had been Anointed. Our bond was firmly in place and was always stronger. We weren’t in the Trials. You aren’t even in the Trials. You are the only one with a Mark.”

Silence fell again.

I trusted you with all of me, and you used it against me. You shut me out.

He had shut her out. Talwyn had berated him all afternoon about his failures. About Eliné not trusting him with information about where she was going. About his failure in the mission to recover her. About those that were lost in that mission. Then she had started in on how he was continually failing her, starting with keeping Scarlett from her. He had pushed Scarlett away, not wanting Talwyn to be able to use her against him. He had shut her out, knowing she was a weapon that could and would be wielded against him. He had done it to protect her…and if he were being honest with himself, to protect himself as well.

Eliza burst back into the rooms, Prince Callan and his guards in tow.

“What is he doing here?” Sorin growled. Briar had used his magic to clean up the vomit from the floor, but at the sight of Callan, Sorin thought he would hurl all over again.

“Tell your fucking pride to take a seat,” Eliza snarled. “You two are the two people in this Court who know her best. Where the hell is she?”

“He cannot find her,” Cyrus said. “We’ve already discussed this.”

“Yes, he can. He knows her. Where would she go?” She turned to Callan. “Where would she go, Prince?”

“To Cassius,” Callan said firmly. Sorin didn’t know how much Eliza had told him, but apparently it was enough that he grasped the gravity of the situation. “She would go to Cassius.”

Sorin shook his head. “That’s where she would want to go, but she knows it’s not safe. There are wards around the Tyndell Manor. He might not even be there right now.”

“Nuri?” Finn supplied.

“No. She would not go to Nuri,” Sorin said darkly.

“You males are so dense,” Eliza seethed. “Where would she go to feel safe? Before coming here, where did she last feel safe?”

“That woman hasn’t felt safe in years,” Sloan grunted from the far wall. “Why else would she be constantly in the shadows? I had never seen her unarmed until dinner last night.”

Everyone turned to him. This guard, who had always showen such animosity toward Scarlett, seemed to know her better than they thought.

“Except once,” Callan said slowly. “The day we surprised you two at your apartment. She was completely relaxed and comfortable and completely unarmed…and came to you for protection.” He could see the dread on his face as he looked at Sorin.

“Baylorin?” Cyrus said in shock. “Could she even Travel that far without proper training?”

“I do not know the depths of her power,” Sorin said, shaking his head. “She was…upset enough to unknowingly dive deep into her magic.”

The mortal kingdoms. He could portal to the border, but it was over a day’s ride nonstop to get to Baylorin. He would never get to her before Mikale tracked her down. He needed to Travel, and he only knew two other Fae who could do so.

“We need Talwyn and Azrael,” Rayner said quietly from where he stood near the balcony doors, always separate from the others.

“Ashtine could go,” Briar cut in.

“And report everything back to Talwyn? Take Scarlett back to Talwyn instead of here? I don’t think so,” Cyrus growled.

“She would not take her to Talwyn—”

“But she would tell Talwyn everything she learns,” Sorin cut in.

“The only other options are Talwyn or Azrael,” Briar drawled. “I would rather take my chances with Ashtine.”

“But Ashtine won’t be able to get her out. She’ll only be able to find her swiftly. We still have to get to her,” Eliza cut in. “We should leave right now. Sorin and I can go. We’ve done this before.”

Callan and his guards stood by silently, not being able to contribute anything, but the mortal prince looked sick with worry.

Were Talwyn and the Earth Prince really his only options? Sorin ran his hands through his hair.

“There is another way,” he said slowly. A very risky other way.

“What other way?” Eliza demanded.

Sorin’s eyes slid to Briar. “It lies beneath the Black Halls.”

Briar’s eyes went wide in shock and fear. “Absolutely not.”

“She could do it. She could get us there and back,” Sorin argued. “Talwyn would never need to know.”

“You are not seriously suggesting we let her out to ferry us across the border to the mortal lands, are you?” Briar demanded. “I know you are in a panic right now, but for fuck’s sake, get your head out of your ass.”

“She wouldn’t need to be let out. We would just need her to create an enchantment to get there and back,” Sorin argued.

“Please, for the love of Anala, tell me we are not talking about the Sorceress,” Eliza said, her face going slightly pale.

“More like for the love of Arius if we’re talking about her,” came the muttered response of Cyrus.

“Who is the Sorceress?”

Everyone turned to Callan. Sorin had forgotten the mortals were even in the room, but before he could explain, Briar spoke. “The Sorceress is not from this world. No one knows where she came from or how she got here. She was incredibly powerful until she was caught hundreds of years ago and imprisoned beneath the Black Halls in the Underwater Prison.” He turned back to Sorin as he finished. “A prison that only I can access and allow others to enter, and I will not do so now.”

“Instead, you will bring Talwyn into this? You will hand her over to Talwyn who will not care what she does to her as long as her revenge is completed?” Fire ignited in Sorin’s veins, and he knew his eyes had turned to embers. Briar’s were glittering like ice as the princes squared off.

“Blood magic is forbidden for a reason, Sorin. The costs are too great.” Briar’s tone was as icy as his eyes.

“No cost is too great for her!” Sorin bellowed.

“She will use that exact attitude to her advantage,” Briar argued.

The entire room fell silent. Rage and panic were emanating off of Sorin, and the others were hardly daring to breathe, let alone move.

“We cannot release her without Talwyn, Sorin. You know this. I may control who enters the Underwater Prison, but the queen’s blood is keyed to the cells,” Briar said slowly.

“I have already told you that I do not want to let her out. I just need her to create an enchantment.”

“Then go to the Witches. Go to Hazel,” Rayner cut in quietly, still leaning against the wall near the balcony.

“The Witches do not practice blood magic. Their spells will not be powerful enough, or I would ask Beatrix. It must be her. You know this. Briar, please.” The longer they debated this, the closer Mikale would be to discovering her if she were indeed in the mortal lands.

Briar looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, and he shook his head in disbelief when he said, “You promise her nothing. You give her nothing. We talk to her, and see what she has to say. That is it, Sorin.”

“Fine. Agreed. Yes,” Sorin said in relief as a water portal appeared behind Briar.

The two princes stepped through directly into the Underwater Prison. Sorin could see the merfolk who guarded the compound swimming in the waters beyond the windows. Briar led the way quickly down various halls and down into the depths. Neither prince said a word as they walked. Magic could not be used beyond the point they had just entered as an added security measure against the inmates.

Sorin had only been in the Underwater Prison a handful of times accompanying Eliné when she’d needed to speak with prisoners. He honestly didn’t even know how many were imprisoned here, let alone why. He only knew the foulest and deadliest of the world’s creatures were sent here if they were ever captured, and once you entered a cell, you never came back out.

Briar paused before a staircase. “Her cell is down these stairs. She is the only one on this level. Are you absolutely sure about this, Sorin?” Briar had placed a hand on Sorin’s shoulder. A friend concerned for his friend.

“I am,” he answered. “She is worth it, Briar.”

“Give her nothing,” was all Briar said as he turned and descended the stairs.

The set of stairs was short, only twenty or thirty steps, and they found themselves standing before a cell. The bars of the cell were made of shirastone from the Shira Cliffs in the Wind Court. Immune to magic and deadly to magic wielders. Sitting in the corner of the stone cell was a thin woman. Her knees were bent up, her arms encircled them. Her forehead rested on her knees. The woman’s jet black hair fell around her like a drape of midnight sky. She wore a plain beige shift, but her skin was so pale, even that was stark against it.

The Sorceress slowly lifted her head at the sound of their approaching footsteps, and her electric violet eyes settled on them. Her mouth twitched up at the side, and her head tilted in curiosity.

“Visitors? How unexpected.” Her voice was smooth and even, elegant yet tinged with a hint of madness. The Sorceress studied the princes, those violet eyes moving slowly over them. “A Prince of Fire and a Prince of Water and Ice.” She pushed herself to her feet, uncoiling from the ground like a giant serpent. “Those were not your titles the last time I had visitors. The thrones you now sit upon were occupied by others.”

She came to the bars of the cell and raised her hands like she would wrap her long fingers around them and then stopped herself, seeming to remember just what those bars were made of. She inhaled deeply, as if she were breathing in fresh air, and her eyes fluttered closed. “Such power you wield. Yet you, Prince of Fire, there is something extra in your blood. Faint, but it is there.” Those eyes of hers fixed on him, and her half smile grew slightly.

“I am not here to discuss my power nor the Water Prince’s,” Sorin replied, finally finding his voice and stepping forward.

“Then what would you like to discuss, your Highness?” she purred.

“I am in need of your…expertise,” he answered carefully.

“My power was stripped from me when I was imprisoned in this wretched cage. Surely you know this?”

It was true. The Avonleyans had used ancient blood magic to strip her of her magical abilities and had given them to others, creating entirely new bloodlines— Shifters and Witches.

“Yes, but they did not take your knowledge,” Sorin answered, taking another step closer.

Her half grin became a full one. “No, they did not. What do you require of me, Prince?”

“I need an enchantment to carry me and two others to and from the mortal lands.”

“Are there no longer horses outside these walls? Your legs seem to be working just fine. Surely you can walk there?” she answered coyly.

“I need the speed of Traveling,” Sorin answered.

“And your queen will not aid you? Her mother’s abilities run in her veins, do they not?”

“The queen is not to be part of this,” Sorin replied through gritted teeth.

“Interesting,” the Sorceress mused. “What is it you seek in the mortal lands, Prince of Fire? For if you are seeking my help, it is something great indeed.”

“My business there is none of yours,” he snapped.

“An object of power?” she asked, as if he hadn’t spoken at all. “If it is power you desire, Prince, I can help with that. Bring me to your side, and the world will be yours.”

Her words made the hair on his arms stand on end. “I do not desire power.”

“No? Then only one other thing would drive you to seek my help,” she mused once more. Her eyes met his as she said, “Love.” When Sorin didn’t answer, she continued. “After all, love is what drove Eliné and Henna to seek my help.”

“What?” Sorin asked, the word escaping him before he even knew what he was saying. “Eliné and Henna never came to see you.”

The Sorceress laughed, a cold and chilling sound. “Love drove them to me, Prince of Fire. A fierce love of their people, their kingdoms. They beseeched my help to defeat Deimas and Esmeray.”

“And you denied them?” Briar asked, speaking for the first time.

“They were unwilling to pay the price for my aide,” she said simply. Then that eerie smile formed on her lips once more. “Unfortunately, your parents became the cost for refusing my offer, although maybe not so unfortunate for the two of you, given the thrones you now sit upon.”

Sorin shoved down the images of his mother and father being butchered in front of him in the city center. “Enough of this,” he ground out. “We do not have the time.”

“I have all the time in the world, young prince,” the Sorceress scoffed, looking at her nails and scowling. “In fact, I am rather enjoying the company.”

“Will you help me or not?” Sorin ground out, stepping closer still to her cell bars.

“The Fae Queens were unwilling to pay my price. What are you willing to pay?”

The Sorceress stooped and began drawing in the dirt of her cell.

“What is your asking price?”

“Sorin, we give her nothing,” Briar hissed from behind him.

The Sorceress looked up at them under lowered lashes. “What is it worth to you?” She stood then, studying him once more. “You say it is not power you seek, but what you seek does have power. What you seek is power and love and…death.” She smiled fully then, and it was terrifying. “A twin flame. How unexpectedly intriguing.”

“Sorin, let’s go. She will not aid us,” Briar said, gripping his arm to pull him back.

“I did not say I would not aid you,” the Sorceress cut in. “I asked what you are willing to pay.”

“And I asked your cost,” Sorin bit back.

The Sorceress stooped and began drawing in the dirt once more. “I am intrigued, young prince, so I shall make you a deal. I shall require no payment right now. Your debt to me can be fulfilled at a later time.”

“And what will that debt entail? Your freedom? Because if that is the case, the answer is no, and we are done here.” He may be desperate, but he wasn’t that desperate.

“Do you know what nourishes me, Prince of Fire?” the Sorceress asked, continuing to scrawl in the dirt.

“I imagine whatever food you are provided,” Sorin drawled.

“That food feeds my body, yes, but it does not nourish me. No, my nourishment is far more refined.” This time when she smiled, her teeth appeared, and Sorin saw sharp elongated canines like his own and like a Night Child’s.

“Blood? You want me to get you blood?” Sorin asked. That could be accomplished easily enough. Hell, he’d bet Callan would give a cup of his own mortal blood if it meant getting to Scarlett quickly.

“Not just any blood, young prince,” she crooned. “In exchange for my services, you shall provide me with the blood of a god.”

“A god? Even if I found one, they are formless. They have no bodies to supply blood from,” Sorin argued.

“Then you have nothing to fear, do you?” she asked, her drawings becoming more intricate and precise.

“Sorin, no,” Briar warned. “We promise her nothing. ”

Finally, she stood and came to the edge of the cell. “Here is my offer to you, Prince of Fire. I shall supply you with an enchantment that will allow you to Travel to and from one location, carrying two companions. In exchange, you shall provide me with the blood of a god to be brought to me.”

“So you can kill a god?”

“Who said anything about killing a god? I just want a drink of something divine after centuries of starving,” she said coldly, her eyes darkening.

“And what if I never find a god to fulfill such a request? What if I should die before my end of the bargain is fulfilled?” Sorin asked.

“Then I suppose the joke is on me, Prince of Fire,” she replied, that half-smile returning. “But, should you indeed find the blood of a god, I get to decide when I call in the debt.”

Sorin stood still. The blood of a god? That was impossible. What she was asking was impossible. Even still, if he somehow managed to find one, how would she even know? The deal seemed like a godsdamn trap and yet—

“Time is of the essence, is it not, young prince?” The Sorceress was at the bars again, and this time she did wrap her fingers around those shirastone bars. They hissed and steamed under her hands, but she hardly flinched at the magic burning her palms. “What is she worth to you? Would you damn the entire world to save her?” she purred softly.

“Sorin, do not do this. It is a trap,” Briar called, pulling him back from the bars, but Sorin dug in his heels. “We will find another way.”

Sorin wrenched free from his grip and came to the edge of the bars. “What do you know that you are not sharing?” he growled.

“I know that those who seek her are not mortal, young prince,” she whispered softly. “I know that should they secure her before you do, your world is damned anyway. I know that she will be used in ways you cannot even comprehend. I know that she will suffer in ways you cannot even fathom.”

“She is playing you, Sorin, exactly as I said she would,” Briar cried, but he could do nothing here. His magic could not be accessed this deep in the Prison.

“How? How can you know these things?” Sorin asked, ignoring his friend. He felt like he’d so often seen Scarlett look, as if he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs.

“I may be locked in a cell, but as you said, my knowledge was not stolen from me like my gifts were. Make your choice, Princeling. My offer will not last forever,” the Sorceress snapped, stepping back from the bars.

“It is a bargain,” Sorin said. “Give me what I need.”

“Sorin!” Briar roared from behind him, but it was done. As the words left his lips, there was a faint burning on his left forearm, and he looked down to find a new Mark there. A flame with three diamonds surrounding it. A Bargain Mark, to remain until the debt was fulfilled. But rather than being black like his other Marks, this one was a deep red.

“Give me your blood, young prince,” the Sorceress said, extending her hand to his.

“My blood?”

“It is blood magic , is it not? The name would imply that blood is needed. The enchantments of my cage do not allow me to access my own blood, for obvious reasons, thus I need yours. A slice along the palm will do just fine,” she said simply. Her eyes glimmered with anticipation.

Sorin pulled a dagger from his side and sliced a gash along his palm, blood instantly welling. The Sorceress inhaled deeply again, as if the smell of his blood were as fragrant as flowers. “Such interesting tales your blood tells,” she mused as Sorin extended his bleeding hand to her through the bars.

She gripped his wrist, her fingers freezing against his skin, and twisted his arm sideways. The blood ran down his arm, dripping onto the symbols she had drawn there. She moved his arm so his blood imbued each one, then she released him. He snatched his hand back out of the cell.

“Until next time, Prince of Fire,” she said, her chilling grin returning.

He felt Briar grip his arm right before he was pulled through a rip in the world.