Page 186 of Lady of Darkness

“Holy fuck.”

She whirled to see Callan staring at her with shock all over his face. Scarlett thought it might have been the first time she’d ever heard the prince swear. Sloan was at his side, guarding him.

“I need a dagger,” she yelled, and Sloan plucked one from his boot and threw it to the ground at her feet. She had in her hand the next second and turned back to see Sorin and Eliza sprinting down the path towards her, but she turned back to the one she had caught in the stomach.

He was back on his feet and making his way towards her, fangs bared and hissing. “That dagger isn’t shirastone, girl. It won’t kill me.”

“Maybe not, but it will still hurt like a bitch,” she sneered,cocking it back and hurling it towards him directly into the gushing wound in his stomach. The man went down again with a howl of pain.

Scarlett stalked towards him and, as she bent down to retrieve it, she dragged the blade across his stomach, slicing it wide open. His insides spilled to the outside. “Tell me, Son of Night, how long will it take you to heal from this type of wound?” Her voice was darkness incarnate.

Her voice was that of Death’s Maiden.

The vampyre screamed in pain as she stepped on his entrails that were lying in the dirt. “You’re wishing I had a shirastone blade right now, aren’t you? Then you could actually die,” she mocked.

“Bitch!” he hissed out. She drew her hand back to plunge the dagger into his mouth to cut out his tongue when a black ashwood arrow went into his head.

Scarlett whirled to see Sorin lowering a bow.

“I was fine,” she seethed at him

“We need to go, Scarlett,” he said, striding towards her. “There are more. We need to cross the border.” Eliza came up behind him on her mare, leading Eirwen by his reins. Sorin extended his hand to Scarlett. “We need to go,” he repeated.

“I will ride with Eliza,” Scarlett spat, taking a step towards the female.

“No, Scarlett,” Sorin said, shaking his head. “You will ride with me. Let’s go.”

“No!” she screamed, pointing her sword at Sorin.

“Scarlett, you will not win this fight. Not today. And it is not a fight we can have out here. We need to go. There will be more Night Children here any minute. We are only a few miles from the border.”

Sorin was taking slow steps towards her, like one would when approaching a wild horse they were trying to catch and break. She cocked her arm and threw her dagger at him. He caught it by the handle, just as he had that day in the training barracks, and she heard Sloan swear under his breath. Sorin merely dropped the dagger to the ground and took another step.

“Stop, Scarlett. I know you are mad at me—”

“That is the understatement of the century,” she spat.

“Scarlett, we really do need to go,” came Eliza’s voice from atop her mare. “I understand wanting to kick his ass, I really do, but wemust go.”

“Scarlett, he is trying to keep you safe.” Scarlett’s eyes flew to Callan. She couldn’t believe those words had just come out of his mouth. “We can figure everything out once we cross the border, but we need to go.”

That distraction was apparently what Sorin had been waiting for because while her eyes were on Callan, he darted forward, his arms coming around her. He pulled her back against his chest, pinning her arms to her sides. Eliza was off her mare in seconds and taking the sword from her hand. She kicked back, striking Sorin in the shin.

“Shit,” he barked. “Stop it, Scarlett.”

“Let me go,” she seethed.

“Once we cross the border, I will let you beat the shit out of me,” he said, hauling her towards Eirwen. “But until then, you need to stop.”

“You need to stop touching me.”

“Our agreement was I could touch you when it was necessary. This is necessary,” he replied, completely calm.

“I hate you,” she hissed.

“I have no doubt that will not be the last time you say those words to me today. In fact, I fully expect you to actually mean them by the end of it,” he said. They were stopped by Eirwen now. “Here’s the deal, Love—”

“Do not call me that!” she shrieked.

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