Page 153 of Lady of Starfire

She felt Sorin’s snarl of rage ripple through her as he felt all her emotions.

Mine, Scarlett. The crown is yours. This world is yours. But you? You are mine.

She opened her eyes, connecting with Alaric’s once more. “Yes,” she said, letting her voice soften. “Yes, that is what I desire most.”

“Then we have an agreement?”

“I give you this lock and stay to wield it. You let everyone else leave alive without further harm,” Scarlett said.

“Agreed.” A victorious smile tilted on Alaric’s lips, and he nodded to the seraphs to release Cyrus and Kailia. The Avonleyan Queen was gone among ashes in the next blink. Cassius was racing for Cyrus, but Rayner stayed at her back.

“Go,” she snarled at the Ash Rider.

“I cannot leave you here, Scarlett,” he argued.

“It is an order from your queen,” she snapped in reply, locking eyes with him. She could tell this went against everything he was, to leave her behind, but he did it. With a muttered curse, he was gone.

“This could have all been avoided if you had come to my side to begin with,” Alaric chided, again reaching for the lock she held.

“This could have all been avoided if you hadn’t come for a world that is not yours to take,” she retorted.

“But it is mine,” he said calmly, lifting the sphere from her hand and holding it up before him. Her magic swirled, just as the glyphs on the real thing had. “It has always been mine, just as it was always my father’s. When the beings who created this realm were defeated by Achaz and his armies, they lost their rights to this land. To the victors go the spoils, Scarlett. You know this.”

“Serafina and Arius were not defeated,” she countered, dragging up her starfire as quickly as she could.

“Ah, but nor did they create this realm,” he replied. He held the sphere out to her, the false glyphs fading in and out. “And this? This tells of all worlds, Scarlett. Every one that was, is, and is yet to be.” He turned, striding away from her as he continued speaking. “And this is how I will save you from Achaz’s wrath. With this, he can truly eradicate those who tipped the balance. His own princes can rule the realms, and he can finally rest.”

“All of this because Serafina chose another?” Scarlett asked, feeling her veins begin to crackle.

“That is only part of the story, Scarlett,” Alaric said, passing the false lock to a seraph. He turned back to her, extending a hand. “Come. Your sister will be glad to see you. The two of you can convince Juliette to come home, and with the three of you back at my side—”

But the gurgled cry of a seraph had him whirling around.

The seraph he’d passed the lock to was slumping to his knees, an arrow through his throat.

An arrow with a deathstone tip.

The false lock tumbled from his hand, jolting her magic. It was already unstable as she’d had to split her focus to dredge up every last bit of her starfire. The false lock shattered apart at the same moment Kailia appeared again, another arrow going through the skull of the seraph who’d held a sword to Cyrus’s throat. Then she was once again gone in smoke and ashes. The seraphs went up in flames of orange as two others fell from the sky encased in black flames.

She looked up at the same time Alaric did, finding Cassius setting another alight. She spun. Cyrus was at the cliff edge, the arrow gone from his shoulder and fire in his palm.

“The agreement said nothing abouthispeople,” Cyrus said, that mischievous smirk that often mirrored her own on his lips.

Then he leapt from the cliff. Before she could utter a cry of concern, Cassius appeared in the air, snagging Cyrus’s outstretched hand and Traveling them both out. They were gone. Her family had gotten out.

“That was not the lock,” Alaric snarled in a voice that was not of this world.

“But it was the lock we agreed on,” she replied, finally releasing her shadows. They rose up around her, a flood of darkness that blanketed the entirety of the cliffs. She shrugged. “And I suppose agreements can always be undone. You taught me that.”

She felt Alaric’s magic reach for her. Felt it trying to latch onto something.

And she let it.

She let it latch onto her Fae fire and water, and she let her Fae gifts bite back, sinking in just as deeply.

“How?” Alaric demanded.

“I think you should be more concerned with how you will survive this day,” she replied, starfire flaring to life in her hands so brightly, Alaric cried out a curse, turning away to shield his eyes.

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