Page 220 of Lady of Ashes

“Why there? Why would she bring me to the Black Syndicate? To an Assassin Lord of all people? She could have hidden me away anywhere.”

“I don’t know,” he replied, his cheek pressing against her hair.

“There had to be a reason that they chose there. Nothing was left to chance. Nothing was done without planning. Even you and I.”

“Maybe that’s why you were brought to Baylorin. Because I was already there,” Cassius supplied.

“Perhaps.”

The sound of rushing water had them both turning to see Briar stepping from a water portal. He stilled when he saw them.

“I apologize if I am interrupting.”

“You aren’t,” Scarlett said, pushing off the railing and going to him.

“You are sure about this?” Briar asked, pulling open one of the doors for her.

“I am.” The Fae around the table all turned to her, but her eyes landed on her twin ?ame’s. “Have you ?nished eating, Prince? We have a date with a Sorceress.”

“Do not get near her cell,” Sorin was saying as they traversed the halls. “Offer her nothing. Give her nothing.”

Briar seemed to choke down a laugh. “The irony of this moment,” he muttered.

Sorin glared at him over Scarlett’s head where she walked between the two princes. Cassius was at her back. Briar had portaled them into the Underwater Prison, and the feeling of her magic being forced quiet when they had crossed wards was unsettling. They had explained before coming here that their magic would be inaccessible, but actually experiencing it had summoned memories of being chained to walls, her gifts just out of reach.

After several minutes, they stopped at the top of a small staircase. Sorin gripped her shoulders, turning her to face him. “She is not from this world, Scarlett. She will say things that will make you question yourself, what you know. She is—”

“She is cunning and conniving and will do and say whatever she can to get out of there,” Briar cut in harshly. “There is a reason we rarely speak with her.”

Scarlett peered curiously down the dark stairwell once more. It might be all kinds of wrong, but she was genuinely intrigued at this point.

They quietly descended the steps and when they reached the bottom, the area illuminated by several lit braziers along the wall opposite her cell, she was standing just on the other side of her bars. They had told her the bars were made of shirastone. Apparently all the cells here were. There were small windows through which Scarlett could see the mer on guard outside her cell down here, sea water and sea creatures drifting by.

But Scarlett’s attention was ?xed on the woman standing still as a statue on the other side of those bars. Jet black hair hung to her waist, stark against her pale skin and beige shift. Bright violet eyes that seemed to radiate stared back at her, and the smile that was on her lips was nothing short of serpentine.

“I told you I would call in my debt when I was ready, Prince of Fire,” the Sorceress said, her eyes still ?xed on Scarlett. Her head tilted to the side. “Although I suppose it is King of the Western Courts now, is it not?”

The blood of a god. That is what Sorin had agreed to give her should he ever ?nd such a thing.

“I am not here to discuss my bargain with you,” Sorin replied coolly, his hand coming to the small of Scarlett’s back.

“No,” the Sorceress agreed, drifting closer to the bars. “You have come to make a new bargain.”

“There will be no bargains made this day,” Briar cut in sharply.

The Sorceress’s violet stare shot to him. “Prince of Water and Ice.” Her nostrils flared as she seemed to sniff the air, her smile curving upwards even more. “You smell of the winds.” Her eyes drifted to Cassius, and they seemed to widen slightly. “You, however, smell of other worlds.”

Scarlett stepped forward at that, drawing the Sorceress’s gaze back to her. “What world do you come from?”

“Release me from this cell, and I will show you.”

“Not happening,” Sorin said ?atly.

The Sorceress drifted away, moving about her sparse space. She dragged her hand along the stone walls of her cell. If her nails weren’t broken and cracked to nothing, Scarlett imagined the sound would have been horri?c. “Do you like stories, Lady of Darkness?”

Scarlett lurched forward, Sorin’s hand latching onto her arm and stopping her from coming any closer to the cell bars. “How do you know that title?”

“I know a great number of things,” she answered, her lips turning down in a slight pout. “Is that not why you are here?”

---