Page 123 of Lady of Shadows

“I am fine, Rayner, but Sorin is not. We need to go,” Scarlett said, taking the sword he extended to her and sheathing it to her back.

“I cannot take you with me,” Rayner said, shaking his head.

“What do you mean? How will I get home?”

“How did you get here?”

“Shirina brought me, but she is gone. She left while I was still with Jul— the Oracle,” Scarlett cried, panic entering her voice. She looked around, desperately searching for help, and her eyes settled upon Hazel.

“The Ash Rider is correct,” the High Witch said sternly. “He cannot ride with a passenger. You, however, can Travel with one, likely several.”

“But I don’t know how to Travel. I haven’t learned yet,” Scarlett said.

“You’ve never Traveled before?” Hazel asked with a raise of a brow.

“Not on purpose, no. I don’t know how.”

“Of course you do,” Hazel replied harshly. “Did the Oracle not give you back your magic? Did she not release your power for you?”

Scarlett whirled back to Rayner. “How do you Travel in the smoke? Tell me what I need to do.”

Rayner shook his head. “I do not think it is the same, Scarlett.”

Scarlett closed her eyes, reigning in her breathing. She could do this. She had to do this.

She heard Hazel clear her throat. “Be sure and take the male with you,” she said with a nod towards Rayner. “We do not look kindly upon males who are unattended in our lands.”

“Understood,” Scarlett answered. “Thank you. For everything. I will return the clothes.”

“They are yours to keep.”

As Hazel turned to leave, Scarlett remembered what Juliette had told her. “Wait!” she cried. Hazel stopped and turned back to her. Scarlett closed the few feet between them quickly. “The Oracle said to tell you that I am the one you have been waiting for.” Hazel’s violet eyes widened in surprise. “What does that mean?” Scarlett pressed.

Tears welled in the Witch’s eyes, and Scarlett stepped back, stunned. “It means,” Hazel said, her voice softer than it had been all day, “that you know my son and that it is time for him to return.”

“Your son? But Witches don’t—” she stopped herself before she finished what she was going to say. The Witches despised men. Male children were looked at as a curse, not a blessing.

“You are right,” Hazel replied, as if she could read her thoughts. “We do not. But when he was born, I could not kill him. He was my child. My son. I enlisted the help of Queen Eliné, and she helped me smuggle him to another land. Where he went, neither of us knew. We couldn’t know, to keep him safe. But the Oracle told me that one would come who would know him, and when she came, he could return.”

“I don’t know your son, though,” Scarlett said gently.

Hazel stepped closer to Scarlett. She was so close she could smell a dozen herbs at once on her. “The Oracle is never wrong. If she says you are the one, then you know him. Think, your Majesty. Your paths are intertwined. They crossed at some point. He is powerful. More powerful than any of my sisters. It was why I had to send him away.”

“But I grew up in a land with no magic. I grew up in the human lands. Magic doesn’t exist there,” Scarlett protested.

“Magic is not readily found there,” Hazel corrected. “But there are exceptions to every rule if the give is great enough. You accessed your magic there, did you not?”

“Yes, but no one else…” she trailed off. Therewassomeone else. Someone who had created powerful wards. Someone who was being given a tonic to help him access his magic. “Cassius,” she breathed. “Your son is Cassius.”

The tears spilled from Hazel’s eyes. She took Scarlett’s hands in her own and squeezed them. “He is well?”

“He is my soulmate,” Scarlett answered, tears spilling down her own cheeks. “He saved my life, in more ways than one.”

“Go. Aid your twin flame.Then bring my son home,” Hazel said. She turned and walked down the path they had climbed up a few hours earlier.

Scarlett turned back to Rayner. “Where is Eliza? We are going to get her and then we are going to Sorin and Cyrus.”

“She awaits our return in your quarters,” Rayner answered.

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