Page 137 of Lady of Starfire

Cyrus rubbed at the back of his neck. “There were three. One of blood. One of betrayal. One of time. I had to give her more blood. I have to keep supplying her with blood until I fulfill the bargain. She can reach me, even here. She said…” He glanced at Sorin. “She said to tell you that one was because your bargain was fulfilled by deceit.”

“By deceit?” Sorin asked, his brow furrowing. “How so?”

“Because you technically died?” Rayner asked. “Did that nullify the Bargain Mark?”

Sorin was studying his arm where a Bargain Mark had once been to solidify the deal made when he had needed to get to Scarlett in the mortal lands. “All of my Marks came back as before, but not that one. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No,” Cyrus said, shaking his head. “She said it was because of Scarlett. That she had ruined everything.”

Scarlett suddenly gripped Sorin’s arm. “What if it was fulfilled before you died? With everything else going on, we just didn’t notice the Mark was gone? It’s not like it was front and center.”

“I don’t know, Love—”

“When we went there and got the key. Don’t you remember what she said? ‘You have ruined everything. I have nothing anymore. No more debts to call in. Nothing.’ What were you to bring her?”

“The blood of a god,” he answered.

“Which flows in my veins,” Scarlett said. “I spilled my blood across her Marks to find the key. Technically, you fulfilled your end of the deal.”

“But you’re not a god,” Rayner said, rubbing at his brow with his thumb and forefinger. “If you go by that logic, any Avonleyan blood would have been payment.”

“Perhaps with a goddess as my mother?”

Rayner and Sorin didn’t seem convinced, but it didn’t matter. “Somehow it was fulfilled and not the way she wanted,” Cyrus said. “And that was why she demanded one of my payments be unlimited access to my blood until the bargain is fulfilled.”

“And the one of betrayal?” Scarlett asked. Her chin was propped in her hand as she watched him carefully, already calculating and clearly still thinking through Sorin’s fulfilled bargain.

“I am to deliver her spell book to her.”

Scarlett straightened. A moment later, a shadow panther appeared, a book in its maw. She took the spell book and tossed it unceremoniously atop the low table before them.

“Done,” she said. “What else?”

Cyrus gaped at her. “Just like that? You cannot simply give that back to her.”

“Actually, I plan to do just that. She just provided me with a reason to do so,” she replied. “What else, Cyrus?”

“I…” This was not how he had envisioned this conversation going. “I have to get something for her from the Black Syndicate.”

That had both Scarlett and Cassius going unnaturally still.

“Absolutely not,” Scarlett said. “How is that a sacrifice of time?”

“It will take time for me to find what she wants. Time and planning,” he said, fiddling with the seam of one of the sofa cushions.

“What does she want from there?” Cassius asked. His hand had tightened around Cyrus’s thigh, and Cyrus was sure he hadn’t realized it.

“Apparently, Alaric had something that allowed him to communicate with another realm. He believes it was destroyed when the Fellowship was burned, but Gehenna said it couldn’t be destroyed. Not by starfire alone,” Cyrus explained. “I am to find it and bring it to her when I bring her the spell book.”

Scarlett stood, beginning to pace back and forth. “What is it you are supposed to find?”

“I am not entirely sure,” Cyrus said. “Alaric mentioned it once when he was there. Was pissed you destroyed it.”

“She did not tell him it was not destroyed?” Rayner asked.

“Why would she when she wants it?” Sorin said. “But why? What does it do?”

Cyrus shrugged again. “Lets him communicate outside the realm, I guess.”

---