Page 40 of Lady of Shadows

Cassius was here. Cassius was sitting beside her at a table in the Fire Court. Scarlett still couldn’t believe it. Her hand was wrapped tightly in his as they continued discussing matters happening in Baylorin, and Scarlett kept glancing at him from the corner of her eye. That Sorin had arranged this for her…

She had woken still wrapped in his arms the morning after he’d erased so much of Mikale’s touch from her body. Her naked body had still been pressed against him. He’d been right. It hadn’t fixed a damn thing. Her darkness still pressed in on her. But he’d also been wrong. The phantom touches she felt on her skin now were his. His hands slowly exploring her skin. His fingers inside her. She didn’t regret one bit that she’d begged him to touch her.

When she’d opened her eyes, she’d found Sorin watching her. “Hey, Love,” he’d whispered.

“I still hate you,” she’d whispered back.

He’d pressed a kiss to her forehead as he huffed a laugh. “Good to know.”

Several moments passed, and then she had said quietly, “In my dream, Mikale said that they were close to breaking the wards to gain access to the orphans. Do you think that is possible?”

Sorin pulled back from her to see her face. “A month ago, I would have said no,” he had answered, “but now, I do not know. Cassius is powerful. The wards he created were impressive. I do not think they could unravel them in only a week.”

“Can we send them a warning?”

“We could send Amaré with a message.”

“Okay,” she had whispered and fell silent. A moment later, Sorin reached across the space between them and stroked a single finger down her cheek before he had disentangled himself from her. He’d gone out to the sitting room to give her privacy to get up and get dressed without the awkwardness of her having to leave the bed naked in front of him.

He had slept beside her every night since, but nothing else had happened. He was there when she’d wake screaming from nightmares and would stroke her hair or back until she had calmed and fell back to sleep, usually with her hand on his chest to remind herself she wasn’t alone.

Her eyes went back to Sorin now as he was telling Cassius what he had found to strengthen the wards around the orphans until they could figure out what the end game was and why. In a swirl of flames, books appeared on the table before them, all with various pages marked. Cassius reached for one with his free hand, as adamant to not let go of her as she was to not let go of him. She helped him flip pages, and he studied them briefly before going to the next.

“These are even more complex than the ones Lord Tyndell had me studying,” Cassius remarked, reviewing a page.

“I do not know where Tyndell got books for you to study from,” Sorin said, “but these are directly from the Witch Kingdoms.”

At the words, Scarlett noticed his entire Inner Court stiffen. “When did you obtain those?” Cyrus asked slowly.

“Not relevant,” Sorin said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“It most certainly is relevant,” Cyrus retorted, fire flashing in his eyes. “When did you go there?”

“Later, Cyrus,” Sorin said. “The Commander can only be here for a few hours, and I do not want to monopolize his time. You can take the books with you,just keep them hidden. Were you able to obtain any of the information we are hoping for?”

Cassius shook his head. Scarlett had helped Sorin draft the letter to him asking if they had learned anything since she and Sorin had left.

“Not as much as I would have hoped,” Cassius admitted grimly. “Mikale is furious. The Council is demanding to know where Scarlett is. The Assassin Lord is even more irate than Mikale. He is working closely with Lord Tyndell. How much he knows of the Lord and Mikale and everything that happened, I do not know. They believe that you enacted the wards with the use of Scarlett’s ring, locking Nuri away with the orphans. She does not leave the place where we have the orphans hidden for fear of being tracked down by the Assassin Lord. If he gets ahold of her, he can apparently force her to supply information. How he would do so, Nuri cannot or will not say. I do not go anywhere alone. They seem to think you will come for me because I am important to Scarlett. The number of things I had to do to come here was… It was a lot. Worth it, but I do not know that we could pull it off again. Not one orphan has been taken with the new wards though, so it’s working and that’s what matters.”

“Hiding is not a long-term plan,” Scarlett cut in. “You and Nuri being hidden away and constantly watched is no different than being locked away in a tower.”

“We are working on it, Seastar,” Cassius said gently, squeezing her hand. “We are figuring it out so you and Callan can come home.”

Home. She swallowed and snuck a glance at Sorin. He was speaking quietly with Rayner who had come to his side. With a nod, Rayner was gone in a swirl of ashes.

Sorin stood then. “Let’s end this for today. We can meet again tomorrow and continue discussing theories. Eliza, if you would escort the Crown Prince and his men back to the eastern side of the bridges.”

Eliza stood, and Callan looked none too pleased, but he and his guards followed her out. Sorin gave a slight jerk of his chin to Cyrus who took his own leave,a look of intense curiosity in his eyes as he nodded to her on his way out. Briar had left shortly after he’d brought Cassius, having matters of his own to attend. Sorin closed the distance between them. “He can only stay until late afternoon. I tried to get the others out as quickly as possible. Go find some stars, Scarlett.”

He made to leave, but Scarlett caught his arm. “On the eastern side of the bridges?”

“No, Love, you are free to go wherever you wish, as always.” Then he was gone.

Cassius turned to her. “The bridges?”

“Come,” she said. “Let’s walk. Tell me everything.”

Cassius filled her in on how Nuri and the orphans were doing. He told her of Drake and Tava. “Nuri must be going crazy being cooped up to avoid Alaric,” Scarlett commented as they meandered up a set of stairs.

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