Page 162 of Lady of Ashes

“I never said I wouldn’t take you there. I simply said tomorrow would be better.”

“Tomorrow we are meeting with Talwyn,” she argued.

“In the afternoon. We have all morning.”

“We train in the mornings.”

“Perhaps we should take tomorrow morning off.”

“Stop sayingperhaps.”

Another faint chuckle was her response.

“Seriously, Sorin. I want to see if there are any books on Avonleya there.”

“And we will. Tomorrow.”

She gritted her teeth in frustration, inhaling deeply through her nose before she said tightly, “And you think this is your call why?”

“Because, Love, we have something else to take care of tonight.”

“Which is what? Because if you’re about to suggest sex, you can take that thought and shove—”

She was reaching for her wine glass again when the scent that hit her made her still. It was luscious and metallic and … all-consuming. Her shadows rose unbidden, reaching out from her in tendrils, and embers white as starlight danced on the edges of her vision. She slowly turned in the direction her shadows were stretching, to ?nd Sorin leaning casually against the doorway of the dressing room, her dagger in his hand with blood dripping off the tip. There was a thin cut on the opposite forearm, a steady trickle of crimson seeping from it.

“What are you doing?” she rasped, forcing her eyes to move from the blood to his face.

“We are meeting with Talwyn tomorrow,” he replied. “But evenif we were not, your magic needs to be re?lled, Scarlett. You have avoided this long enough.”

“I have avoided nothing,” she hissed. “I think I would know my power reserves, my strength, mybody, better than you.”

“We will leave the argument about who knows your body better for another time,” he said with a ?ash of a smirk, “but you need to do this, Scarlett. I understand it is not ideal, but—”

“Notideal?” she scoffed. “While that is certainly true, it is not the point.”

He arched a brow, waiting for her to go on.

“Thepointis that I do not need to do that right now, and if and when I do need to, it will be my call, not yours.”

“Why do you refuse this, Scarlett? If this were Cassius you would be forcing Cyrus’s blood down his throat, which you have actually done by the way,” Sorin replied.

“To save his life,” she cried. “I should hope if I were unconscious with a foot across the Veil you would do the same.”

“I am trying to prevent that from ever happening,” he retorted.

“This is not your call to make,” Scarlett snarled.

“So I am supposed to … what? Watch you weaken? Watch your power drop more each day? Knowing I literally carry the answer in my veins?” Sorin asked, stalking forward. “And what happens when we go to the mortal kingdoms and things do not play out like they did today? What happens when we are required to ?ght, and you are not at your strongest? What happens when you are taken from me again because you refused this?”

“This is not your call to make,” she repeated.

The thin cut on his arm was already beginning to knit itself back together, and his grip tightened on the handle of her dagger.

“You recognize that if you do not do this, you will continue to weaken? You will begin to draw power and strength from Cassius, slowing his healing?” Sorin demanded.

Scarlett looked away from him, sucking on a tooth.

She felt his hand cup her cheek, a thumb brush along her cheekbone. “Talk to me, Love,” he said softly. “There has to be more to this than you simply not wanting to drink blood.”

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