Page 32 of Lady of Ashes

“So you send me in,” the Shifter Beta interjected. She had been standing silently near Luan, observing everything taking place, listening and calculating. Everyone turned to look at the female, the beads on her braids clinking as she sauntered forward. “I will ?nd her, and then we can make a plan to get her out.”

“That would not be wise,” Luan cut in. “Your brother would be very opposed to this idea.”

“My brother is not here,” she countered, her eyes shifting to Sorin. “Let me ?nd your bride. That is why I am here, is it not?”

“This was not the part of the plan you were brought for, Lady,” Sorin replied, but the Shifter had a point. She could get in and out of wherever they suspected Scarlett was, likely undetected … Unless there were wards.

“I have never been asked to put up wards in the Syndicate,” Cassius said when Sorin posed the question. “Even if somehow there are wards, would he be able to tell the difference with Scarlett there? Or me? Or Nuri?”

“This is not a good idea, Sorin,” Luan cut in again.

“It is the best option that has been proposed,” Sorin retorted. “Unless you have another idea?”

“Do you really believe the two of us cannot handle a mortal assassin?” Luan countered, his doubt clear in his tone.

“He is not a mere mortal assassin. He runs the entire Black Syndicate,” Sorin answered.

“Again, a district of mortals.”

“Clearly not just mortals,” Nuri countered with a wicked smirk, toying with her knives.

Luan glanced at her brie?y. “That is a valid point, I suppose.”

“Is the Assassin Lord mortal, then?” Tava asked, drawing attention to her and her brother for the ?rst time since they’d arrived. Sorin had forgotten they were even here.

Cassius and Nuri glanced at each other, some form of silent communication passing between them.

“What?” Sorin demanded. “Do you know something?”

“No,” Cassius answered, shaking his head. When Sorin continued to stare at him in expectation, he sighed. “It would not surprise me to learn that he is not mortal at all.”

“You think he is what? A Night Child?” Sorin asked. Nuri shrugged. “Perhaps.”

“But you have your suspicions,” Sorin pressed. She shrugged again. “Perhaps.”

Cyrus’s hand was again on his shoulder, forcibly holding him back as he lurched towards Death’s Shadow.

“Perhaps,” Cyrus drawled, “you could share your suspicions so that we are better prepared when we go for our queen.”

“This is not your domain, ?restarter,” Nuri replied lazily. “I do not answer to any of you.”

“No,” Sorin sneered back. “You answer to a master who has my wife, my twin ?ame, and my godsdamn queen.”

“You forget that before she was any of those things she was my sister and his ward,” she shot back, with a jerk of her chin towards Cassius. “We have not seen her in months, and we desire to have her back just as much as you do.”

“Then why are you withholding information that could help us?” Sorin demanded.

“We are withholding nothing, Sorin,” Nuri cried. “We have told you that storming in there unprepared will kill us all. We are trying to tell you that every detail needs to be planned out meticulously. We were raised here. We are the nightmares on these streets. Not you and your merry band of Fae. We know its secrets. It is you that keeps refusing to listen to us. It is you that keeps refusing to accept the fact that our knowledge is superior here.”

Sorin ground his teeth together so hard it was a miracle he didn’t crack molars. Cyrus still had a hand on his shoulder, but his grip had loosened, waiting to see what he was going to do. Afterseveral moments of silence, Sorin said, “What do you propose we do then?”

Nuri glanced at Cassius again before she said, “If we can get your Shifter into the Syndicate, she could scout it out. Cassius and I can draw a map of the Fellowship. The problem will be getting her in, and it’d be best if she did not go alone.”

“The Lady is de?nitely not going into the Black Syndicate unaccompanied,” Luan cut in.

The Beta’s eyes ?ashed to his. “While I ?nd it adorable that you are so protective of me, Azrael, do not forget that I have just as much power as my brother. You would be wise to fear my wrath as much as you appear to fear his.”

“It is no slight to you, Arianna,” Luan countered with a bow of his head. “We are facing unknown forces. It is simply not wise to send any one person in alone, let alone a leader of the realms.”

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