Lady of Shadows (Lady of Darkness #2)

Chapter 59 Scarlett

CHAPTER 59

SCARLETT

“H urry, baby,” Eliné said, gripping Scarlett’s hand. “We are almost there.”

“Mother, I’m tired,” Scarlett complained, rubbing her eyes. “Can’t we go to the beach in the morning?”

“You love the beach, Scarlett,” her mother said gently. “There is something very important we need to do tonight.”

Scarlett fell silent as her little five-year-old legs worked to keep up with her mother’s long stride towards the beach. It was so dark, but the sky was clear. The stars glittered and twinkled above them with a full moon reflecting on the sea as they finally came to the beach. Her mother stopped when they neared the water and seemed to breathe in deep, closing her eyes.

“Mother?” Scarlett asked tentatively in her small child’s voice.

Eliné stooped down to slide Scarlett’s shoes from her feet. “Go feel the sand between your toes, baby. They will be here soon.”

Scarlett didn’t know who they were waiting for as she ran along the waves gently rolling to the shore. She giggled at the cool water spraying her legs, and she waded out farther, the bottom of her nightgown becoming soaked in the surf. She turned back to make sure her mother was still nearby and found her standing with another. The newcomer was wearing a cloak, the hood up and covering the person’s face. The giggles and smile instantly vanished as she quickly and quietly came to her mother’s side, hiding behind her skirts.

“It is all right, Scarlett. Sybil will be here soon with your Cassius,” Eliné said softly, running her fingers through Scarlett’s silver hair.

Scarlett nodded mutely, staring at the person standing beside her mother. Cassius was always assigned to watch over her when her mother had to work. He was so strong and always took her to pick pears in the grove. Everything would be better once Cassius got here.

“Her tonic?” the stranger asked. A woman. Her voice was feminine.

“I only gave her half so I could wake her. I will give her the other half when we return,” her mother answered. The woman nodded, and although Scarlett couldn’t see her face, she knew the woman was watching her.

A moment later, Sybil was indeed coming down the beach with Cassius in tow. Where was Juliette? Nuri? Why hadn’t they come?

“This is him?” the woman asked.

“This is Cassius, yes,” her mother answered. “This is the one you seek.”

“Give me your hand, child,” the stranger said, extending her own hand to Cassius. Cassius glanced from Eliné to Sybil, who both nodded to him. He did as they indicated, and in a flash, the stranger had a dagger drawn and had slashed a cut along his palm. Scarlett cried out, but Eliné was already comforting her. “It is all right, baby. Look. Cassius is fine.”

Indeed. Cassius had his teeth gritted, but he didn’t look scared. He wasn’t crying. Brave. He was always so brave. She could be brave, too.

The stranger dipped her finger into the blood pooling in his hand and sniffed it. “Has Ranvir appeared yet?”

“We have not seen him, but we have not seen Shirina yet either,” Eliné answered quietly. “I am assuming it is because we are in these lands.”

“You have confirmed who sired him, though?”

Sybil eyed the stranger. “Can you not smell it in his blood?”

“I can,” the woman answered. “It is just still a wonder to me. He never indicated he would ever take a lover, let alone one with whom to sire a child.”

Then the stranger was stooping down before Scarlett. She scooted back farther behind her mother’s skirts. Sybil’s hands came to Cassius's shoulders to hold him in place as he lurched for her. The woman reached up and pulled back her hood. Her silver hair glinted in the moonlight, and Scarlett’s eyes widened. “Your hair is beautiful, Little One,” the woman said gently with a soft smile. Her eyes were silver and glowed in the night. “Tell me, Scarlett, do you like the sun or the moon better?”

“The moon,” Scarlett whispered, “but I like the stars best of all.”

“Me too,” the woman answered. Her throat bobbed, and Scarlett wasn’t sure, but she thought the pretty woman might cry. “I have a secret to tell you. Can you keep a secret?”

Scarlett nodded her head, taking a step out from behind her mother, towards the woman. “The world will tell you that the night houses the wicked and cruel, but what they do not know…” And the woman paused as a flame of pure white glittered in her palm, cold as the space between the stars. “Is that the darkness is where the most beautiful things grow.”

Scarlett smiled at the woman, and without thinking, reached out to touch the flames in her hand. The woman smiled again, but even at the age of five, Scarlett could tell it was a sad smile. The woman took Scarlett’s little hand in her own, the flames vanishing. “I need you to do something for me, Scarlett. I need to make a cut on your hand like I did for Cassius. To keep you…” The woman paused, swallowing thickly again. “It will help keep you safe. Can you be really brave right now, Starfire?”

Despite the nerves in her stomach, Scarlett grinned at the name the woman had given her. “Yes,” she said, nodding in emphasis. She turned her palm over in the woman’s, extending her fingers.

“So brave,” the woman murmured.

Scarlett closed her eyes tight as the woman slashed her palm just as quickly as she had cut Cassius's. A moment later, she was tipping Cassius's palm into Scarlett’s, mixing their blood together. The woman swirled it in her palm with her finger. “Turn them,” she said to Eliné and Sybil.

The women turned to the children, and Scarlett felt her nightgown being lifted and the woman’s finger drawing in the middle of her back. She glanced over as the woman lifted Cassius's tunic and drew on his lower back, too. Two overlapping circles with a line through the middle of them. The red blood flared bright and then turned a pale silvery white against his skin.

There was another flash of bright white flames and a small cup appeared in the woman’s hand. She gently tipped Scarlett’s palm into it, the blood dripping steadily down until it was half full. “You each need to drink,” she said plainly.

“I’m not drinking blood,” Cassius quipped, crossing his arms across his already toned chest.

White flames appeared in the eyes of the woman, and Scarlett stepped back. “You will do as you are commanded, young warlord,” she ordered. “Drink.” She held the cup out to him. Cassius wisely did not argue this time and took a drink from the cup. His lips were bright red when he handed it back to the woman.

The flames were gone from her eyes when they settled upon Scarlett once more. “Can you do one more brave thing for me tonight, Starfire?” The woman extended the cup to her, but Scarlett stepped back into her mother’s legs. The woman’s features softened. “Can I tell you a story?”

Scarlett nodded, glancing at Cassius. Sybil still held his shoulders. He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it was tight and forced.

“Once upon a time there was a people who loved the night and the dark. They lived in a beautiful land with snow like diamonds in the mountains and waters as dark as the midnight sky by the beaches. There were special animals that lived in a magical forest there, and some of them chose to protect and serve some of the people.”

“What kind of animals?” Scarlett asked.

“Powerful and strong ones,” the woman said, and tears really did glimmer in her eyes this time. “A graceful owl. A pair of fierce dragons. A stunning snake. A beautiful panther. To name a few, but there were also people who chose a similar bond. Many times, the people in the kingdom’s armies were chosen for these bonds. These people were drawn to each other by fate. It was a sacred bond. A bond that was chosen which made it even more powerful, and it was a bond that was placed above all others, save for one. They became a Guardian of the one they were bonded to. The bond was blessed and honored by Sargon himself. Do you know who Sargon is?”

“The god of war, courage, and bravery,” Cassius cut in.

“Exactly right, young warlord,” the woman said, glancing at Cassius with a smile. Her eyes came back to Scarlett. “But the bond demanded great and powerful magic and required that the two people become connected by blood. So they mixed their blood and drank. Little Starfire, the Fates brought you and Cassius together so he could be your Guardian just like in that story, but I need you to drink.”

“What if he doesn’t want to be my Guardian?” Scarlett asked, looking at Cassius once more.

“Don’t be stupid, Scarlett,” Cassius huffed, shrugging out of Sybil’s grip and puffing out his chest. “Of course, I want to be your Guardian. I pretty much already am.”

Scarlett stuck her tongue out at him. “Don’t be a jerk,” she quipped bossily.

Eliné was about to say something, but Cassius stepped forward with a quick glance to her. He knelt down in front of Scarlett and a small smile kicked up on his mouth. “Tell you what, Scarlett, you take a drink of that, and I’ll swipe you some extra treacle tart tomorrow.”

“I want four pieces,” Scarlett demanded, reaching to take the cup from the woman.

“Then four pieces you shall have,” Cassius answered. “Drink up.”

Scarlett took a drink from the small cup and made a face. A coppery metallic taste coated her tongue, and she handed the cup back to the woman. It was warm as it traveled down to her belly, and a link seemed to settle in her that her five-year-old little mind wasn’t quite sure what to do with. She gave a questioning look to Cassius, who was watching her carefully, as he always did, scanning her for hurt and discomfort. The women around them were silent, watching them as Cassius reached up and tousled her silver hair. “Good girl, Scarlett.”

“Was there a princess in this kingdom?” Scarlett asked, turning to the silver-haired woman.

A sound almost like a cry seemed to come from her, but she quickly cleared her throat. “Yes, Scarlett, there is a princess in this kingdom.”

“I bet she’s really pretty,” Scarlett sighed, looking up at the stars. They seemed even brighter.

“They had a king and queen who loved to dance under the stars among the swirling shadows and blackest nights,” the woman said, her eyes going to the night sky as well. “They had two children, a boy and a girl, who were the prince and princess, and they loved them very much. The princess was as beautiful as the stars, and the prince was as wild as the beasts of the land.”

The two silver-haired persons, one woman and one child, stared at the sky. The others were silent around them. After nearly a minute, the woman brought her hand to Scarlett’s hair, winding her fingers through it. Eyes of icy blue met eyes of silver. “Always remember, Starfire, that hope is for the dreamers.”

Scarlett groaned at the throbbing in her skull. Had she been knocked unconscious or had she slipped into this state all on her own from expending so much magic?

She pried her eyes open, blinking against the bright sun. Her vision blurred slightly and then came back into focus. Before her lay the destruction of what she’d done. Piles of ashes and bodies. There had been one Night Child left, but there was no one in sight now.

Dirt and grass crusted her cheek as she tried to push up into a sitting position, but her arms trembled and gave out, unable to support her own weight. She collapsed back onto the ground and stifled a cry at the agony that blasted through her head. There was something wet on her lips, though. She brought a hand up and wiped the back of it across her mouth. When she pulled it back, red was smeared across the back. She was bleeding. How or why she couldn’t remember.

“She finally wakes.”

Scarlett twisted on the ground towards the sound of the voice to find a man sitting atop a rock. He had black hair the color of Prince Azrael’s and the same dark golden skin. Something tugged at the recesses of her memory, but her head was pounding too much to focus on much of anything right now. The man was flipping a dagger in his hand as if bored. A shirastone dagger.

Scarlett summoned her shadows, but none appeared. No flame. No ice. No water. Nothing.

The man laughed. “You did not get enough to summon any of your gifts.”

Get enough what? Sleep? Sorin had been warning her she was diving too deeply into her magic too quickly without replenishing her reserves. He had been telling her she needed to sleep more, rest more. There just hadn’t been time. Everything had been happening so quickly.

Again, she tried to push herself into a sitting position, but she couldn’t even get her arms underneath her this time.

The man laughed again. “Hasn’t Aditya taught you how to properly pull up your magic safely? You have been with him for months now.”

Aditya. He knew who Sorin was.

“Who are you?” she rasped. Her throat was dry and hoarse and a coppery yet almost earthy taste coated her tongue.

The man flipped his dagger again, studying her. “You are not the queen I was expecting to show up here. An unexpected but pleasant surprise.”

“You were waiting for Talwyn?”

“The Earth Court is her jurisdiction, is it not? I was not anticipating you leaving the side of your Fire Prince,” he answered simply, flipping that damn dagger again. “The Assassin Lord will be quite pleased to have you returned home.”

Alaric?

That had her forcing her arms underneath her and pushing up into a sitting position. The world spun before her, but she managed to get upright, pulling her knees to her chest. “You…” she panted. “You know the Assassin Lord?”

“I am wounded, your Majesty,” the man said with a fake pout as he leapt down from the rock. “You do not recognize me from the Fellowship?”

“I generally don’t remember forgettable wannabe second rate assassins,” Scarlett managed to get out around her breathing. She was fairly certain she was going to vomit.

“I have never understood what he finds so endearing about that godsdamn mouth,” the man snarled. “Although he did not find it so amusing the last time you were in his presence, did he?”

That was when she’d brought Sorin to the Black Syndicate. He must have been one of the men holding her before Alaric. She swallowed thickly. Gods, she needed some water.

“Who are you?” Scarlett demanded hoarsely again. She couldn’t hold her head up any longer. It fell forward, her forehead resting against her knees.

She saw his boots stop in front of her. An earthy smell of forest and soil filled her senses…and power. Some type of magic. She lifted her head and found his pale green eyes watching her. His mouth was tilted up in a cruel, amused smile.

“You are not a Night Child,” she ground out, again trying to summon any bit of her own magic to put a shield around herself, but there was nothing. She was completely and utterly drained.

“Don’t bother,” the man said again with annoyance. “You arrived here without your ring so I cannot access my magic like any other immortal being in the mortal lands.”

She sniffed again, taking in his scent once more. She could almost taste it on her tongue. Soil and trees and sand and—

“You are Fae,” she murmured. “You have earth magic.”

“Very good, your Majesty,” he purred.

“You are working with the mortals?”

Her head went back to her knees. Too much. It was too much information. She couldn’t process everything with the pain in her head.

“I am working with the Lords,” he said coolly.

“The Maraan Lords?”

There was a long pause of silence. “How do you know of the Maraan Lords?”

“My cleverness is why the Assassin Lord puts up with my godsdamn mouth,” she mumbled back.

The man chuckled. “And also why he kept you so sequestered for so long, I imagine.” He crouched down before her and waited until she lifted her head once more to meet his gaze. “Since you have figured out so much, Majesty, I think it is high time we are introduced. After all, we were almost family.”

The confusion must have been evident on her face because the small tilt of his mouth became a full, sneering grin. “I am Tarek. Queen Talwyn’s twin flame and rightful heir of the Earth Court.”