Page 12 of Lady of Shadows

Sorin leaned against the wall near the tub, trying to keep his eyes on her face. “The cost of the glamour to keep my Fae form hidden was that my Marks were also hidden and nullified.”

Scarlett merely nodded. He had seen a little of the real Scarlett break through in their light bantering in the drawing room,but she had retreated back into some sort of shell. The place she went to survive. He didn’t know if he should speak or remain silent. He chose the latter. She reached for some soap and washed her long hair, and when she surfaced from rinsing it out, she said in that same unsure voice, “This is not a dream.” Not a question, but a statement, as through trying to reassure herself.

“This is real, Scarlett,” he answered.

“How do I know? There was so much that seemed real before…” she trailed off, biting her bottom lip.

“Love, look at me.” Sorin waited until she brought those icy blue eyes to his own. “This. Is. Real. You are safe.”

“Safe? With you?” She tilted her head to the side, seeming amused. “Such an interesting word choice, Prince, but you’ve always been a master of wordplay, haven’t you?”

“Scarlett.” Her name was a plea on his lips.

She said nothing. Just slid under the water again, a few bubbles rising to the surface when she let out air before coming up again.

“I have so many things to say to you. So many things to scream at you. I can hardly stand to be in the same room with you,” she said quietly. Sorin felt as if her shadows were tightening around his throat again. That’s how much of an effort breathing became at her words. “And yet I again find myself without a choice because you are the only person who can give me any answers…providing you don’twithholdinformation.”

The venom and hatred in her tone was palpable, but gods, watching the water move around her, seeing her breasts, her bare body. He could hardly focus.

He swallowed hard. “Can we please discuss this anywhere else?”

“Why?”

“Because watching you in the water with nothing on is not easy, and you know that.”

A sensuous smile formed on Scarlett’s mouth. “You do not wish to join me?” she asked, tilting her head to the side again.

“That is all I wish to do. I wish to enter that tub and show you exactly how sorry I am. To make you believe that I would never intentionally hurt you,”he ground out. “But not when you…have just woken up.”

“Why was I naked when I woke up?”

“You burned through all your clothing. Repeatedly. When your shadows would allow anyone to try and clothe you that is.”

She nodded slightly, then she went under the water again, for much longer this time. He could see her, sitting on the bottom of the giant tub, her eyes closed. One minute. Two. Three. He was about to jump in after her when she pushed to the surface, gasping for breath.

“Scarlett, please get out,” he rasped. He was about to jump in anyway at this point, but she moved to the steps. She climbed out, water dripping down her bare skin. He grabbed a towel from the low table and walked the few feet to her, wrapping it around her shoulders.

He paused when she met his stare and held it. “Say it, Scarlett. I can take it.”

Instead, she stepped back from him, gripping the towel around herself. “Do you have any other clothes besides shirts for big muscled Fae?”

Sorin huffed a soft laugh. “Yes, Love, they’re out on the bed for you.”

“Don’t call me that,” she said as she left the bathing room.

He gave her plenty of time to get dressed before he finally walked out to his own bedroom. He found her on the balcony in a red, long-sleeve top that exposed her midriff when paired with the loose black pants that hung low on her hips. There wasn’t even a scar where she had been stabbed with a shirastone dagger. She seemed to be gripping the railing, her knuckles white, and her shadows had thickened again.

She looked over her shoulder as he approached, then back out to the Fiera Mountains that stretched before them. “How is it so warm out here?”

“I am the Prince of Fire. I can keep my home plenty warm,” he answered, leaning against the doorway. She stiffened at the mention of his title,and when she didn’t speak again, he asked, “You are suddenly afraid of heights?”

Scarlett seemed to realize she had a death grip on the railing and lowered her hands, fisting them at her sides. “The last time I was in such a high room, I was not permitted to leave.”

Realization slammed into him. Sorin closed the distance between them in a heartbeat. He took her face between his hands and said, “Scarlett Monrhoe, you are allowed to leave this room, these chambers, this palace, whenever your heart desires. In fact, once you have learned to wield your magic, you can leave these lands whenever you desire. You are no one’s object to be kept in a room.”

Those icy blue eyes locked onto his. “You’re touching me,” she whispered.

“It’s a necessity,” he answered.

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