Page 21 of Lady of Shadows

“Yes.”

“And now?”

She studied him, her stare penetrating, as she asked quietly, “Are you asking if I have fucked him, Callan?”

The river began to stir below them. The serene waters began churning and waves appeared as if they were rapids. Sorin glanced over his shoulder, and Briar leaned over the bridge, peering down at the water.He stretched a hand out over the side of the bridge, and the waves calmed, but the water still rushed through the palace faster than it had before, like the current had increased in the normally calm, peaceful river.

“Is that what you are asking me, Callan?” she demanded again.

He felt Finn grab his elbow and try to tug him back, but he shook him off. “Yes,” he ground out from between his teeth.

A serpentine grin formed on her lips, and her eyes narrowed at him. Shadows slithered and coiled around her arms, her wrists, her torso. She leaned forward, almost as if she were going to kiss him, and tendrils of those shadows reached for him. He flinched back. “You are the first and only person I have ever given myself to by choice,” she said with a venomous quiet. “Mikale, however, has also been between my legs, only he took what he wanted. About a year ago. Any other questions for me, Prince?”

Callan recoiled as her words hit him, eyes widening in horror. A year ago. When she’d stopped coming to him. When everything had changed.

“Scarlett,” Sorin said softly, placing a hand on her arm, the shadows seeming to embrace his touch. “Go with Briar. He will take you to your rooms. I will be there shortly.”

Scarlett looked at Callan, her face hard. “I may have loved you once, Prince, but now I do not know what I feel for you.” She turned on her heel and, without looking back, strode across the bridge to where Briar waited for her, his face grim.

“Scarlett,” Callan called, and stepped onto the bridge to go after her, but he stilled at the cruel smile that spread across Sorin’s face. A second later, Rayner stepped from smoke and swirling ashes behind him. He stepped to Sorin’s side and whispered something into his ear.

“Interesting,” Sorin said, sliding his hands into the pockets of his charcoal gray pants and leaning a hip against the bridge railing. “Rayner tells me you have been to the other side of this bridge once before?”

“Yes,” Callan replied coolly. “I was inquiring after her.”

“To call her a whore to her face the moment she woke up?” he asked, raising his brows mockingly. Cyrus appeared from a hallway on the other side of the bridge and stalked across it.

“No,” Callan retorted. “I did not mean to make her—”

“You did not mean to hurt her,” Sorin corrected. And then Eliza was coming up the stairs and making her way across the bridge. How did they all get here so damn fast? Briar and Scarlett had disappeared. He had not even seen which way they had gone. The river below them had calmed and was now serenely flowing once more. “You know,” Sorin continued, taking a step forward now, his Court falling into place behind him. Callan took a step back, off the bridge. “She would have come to you. Had you been patient and courteous and given her a little time, she would have come and explained what she could, but you just couldn’t wait.”

“You were keeping me from her out of spite,” Callan spat.

“I was keeping you from her so that this little scene did not happen the moment she opened her eyes, which by the way, was this morning,” Sorin said coldly.

“Mikale. He…” Callan couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

“Yes, he raped her, and yes, he would have done so again had we not gotten her out,” Sorin said, his lips forming a thin line. “Mikale knows she is Fae and desires her bloodline to merge with his own. That is all we know right now.” Callan didn’t know what to say as Sorin continued. “Scarlett was correct. You are not a prisoner here. You and your little posse,” he said with a smirk at Finn and Sloan, “are free to go wherever you wish. You are free to go to the city. You are free to leave these lands if you think you can make it out and survive amongst what lurks in these mountains without magic. You are free to go wherever you wish in the palace on theeasternside of the river. I highly recommend our library. Brush up on some history.

“But allow me to give you your first lesson. The rumors that swirl among the human lands about the Fire Court being the cruelest are true. Step foot on any of these bridges again, Crown Prince of Windonelle, and you shall learn exactly just how true they are.” His Court behind him all grinned, callous and wicked. Sorin took a step towards him.Finn and Sloan made to move in front of him, but Sorin raised his hand and flames encircled them. Sorin’s voice became venom. “Make her feel like a whore again, and you will learn exactly what it means to be a prisoner in my home. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” Callan said, his jaw clenched.

Sorin closed his fist, and the flames around Finn and Sloan disappeared. “Eliza, dear, show them to the library, will you?” he said as he turned and began to cross the bridge. He was not even halfway across it when a fire portal opened in front of him, and he stepped through, disappearing from sight.

“He is in a pleasant mood today,” Eliza commented, looking up at Cyrus.

“I thought the princeling was going into the river,” Cyrus said, disappointment on his face. “Did you see the Mark?”

“Yes,” Rayner answered.

Eliza was quiet.

Callan could only stare with his mouth gaping open like a fish at their nonchalant exchange.

“Eliza?” Cyrus hissed, his eyes narrowing at her. “When did you Mark him?”

“Who says I Marked him?” she snapped.

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