Page 148 of Lady of Starfire

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Help me push some tables back.”

Carefully, they slid several tables off to the side until she had a decent-sized space in the center of the room. She pulled a dagger and pricked her finger before crouching down and beginning to draw in the dust and dirt covered floor. It was a locating Mark, but one she had been working on altering in small ways based on the differing texts she’d read and notes in the Sorceress’s spell book.

When it was done, she stood back, making sure it was perfect. Sorin had been quiet while she’d worked, flipping through more papers and books. She was fairly certain he’d sent a few to a pocket realm of his own.

“Are you ready?” she asked Sorin, shaking out her hands to ease some nerves.

“Not even remotely,” he replied, looping an arm around her waist and leaning in to kiss her soundly.

She smiled up at him when he pulled back. “What’s the worst that could happen, right?”

Golden eyes narrowed. “Let’s get this over with.”

He stepped back as she raised her hands before her. Shadows and starfire in one palm. Fire and ice in the other.

Powers of the gods and of the Fae. All in one vessel.

That’s what Saylah had said. Why it had to be Scarlett and no one else. One born of the gods who could harness the elements of the Fae.

She brought her hands side-by-side, letting the powers merge, and then she sent them to the Mark on the floor where her blood was still drying. It flared so brightly that Sorin was dragging her back, tucking her head into his chest to shield her eyes.

After a moment, she peeked out, and then she sighed. “I don’t think it worked.”

“It did something,” Sorin said, his hand still resting protectively on her back. “Magic does not react like that for nothing.”

She stepped closer to the Mark once more. It was still glowing faintly. She reached for it, her fingers nearly touching her blood when she heard it. A faint chiming? No. A lilted whispering? It was constantly changing.

Her head cocked to the side. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That…”

She didn’t know how to describe it. It wasn’t a song, although it reminded her of music. It was a beckoning of her soul.

“Is someone approaching?” Sorin asked, hand on a sword and eyes darting to the door.

“No, it’s not—”

It had gotten a touch louder when she’d pushed to her feet. The lilting had become a humming so deep it felt as though her very essence was vibrating.

“Scarlett, what is wrong?” Sorin demanded, tense and worried.

She waved a hand to shush him, taking a step forward. The humming became a lulling melody, then the sound of waves lapping at the shore. She took another step, then another. When she moved to the left, the sound lessened, fading away.

So she followed it, that ever-changing sound she could barely hear. She let it guide her across the expanse of the room, the sound fading if she veered too far off course. She followed it to a rack full of instruments, scales, and other contraptions. Dragging her fingers along the various shelves, the sound became a lover’s caress.

In the center of a shelf was a model of some sort. Scarlett didn’t have the faintest idea what it was supposed to be depicting, but next to it? She knew in the depths of her being what that was.

It was a sphere as dark as deathstone. Symbols and glyphs were fading in and out, moving across the surface in varying colors. Symbols that matched those on the door and those in the Runic Lands.

“Sorin?”

Her voice sounded odd. Mesmerized. Entranced.

“I see it, Love.”

He was right beside her, and she hadn’t even noticed.

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