Page 99 of Lady of Ashes

“Was your deception at least fruitful?” Eliza sneered when she had ?nished.

Scarlett shrugged. “Did I learn information about my own history and plans to kill the Contessa? Yes. Did I learn that Alaric is a Maraan Prince and the son of Deimas and Esmeray? Yes. Was itworth my capture, being chained to a wall for days on end with little food and water, being forced to sleep next to Mikale, and watching Cassius be tortured nearly to death? I guess that remains to be seen. Do I regret my actions? Yes.”

Sorin’s head slowly turned to her. “I believe you failed to mention the sleeping next to Mikale part during our various conversations,” he gritted out.

“Yes, well, when you’ve kept so many secrets and spoken so many lies, I am sure it is hard to keep them all straight,” Eliza said bitterly.

“Watch it, General,” Sorin snarled, his head snapping towards her. Eliza rolled her eyes, crossing her arms and leveling him with a glare.

“Her actions put all of us in danger. She says she did this to keep our Courts safe? We just spent weeks away from our Court and risked our lives to get her out.”

Scarlett opened her mouth to say something, but Eliza wasn’t done. “You knew something was wrong,” she said, still speaking to Sorin and not to her. “We all did. You tried to get her to tell you, but she just sat there drawing that fucking Mark in the dirt.” Her grey eyes came back to hers, and Scarlett sucked in a breath to ?nd tears glimmering there. “You just needed to say something! We would have listened, Scarlett. We would have helped you!”

“I’m sorry,” Scarlett said softly. She wanted to look away from the general, but she forced herself to keep her eyes locked on hers. “I do not know what else I can say. None of my explanations are to serve as excuses, because there are not any excuses I can offer that will make what I did acceptable. I am sorry.”

“This will not work if you cannot trust us, Scarlett,” Briar said gently. “If you are going to insist on doing everything on your own—”

“I’m not,” Scarlett interrupted. “I know my track record says otherwise at this moment, but it was never my plan to intentionally exclude you. It was not some calculated plan to sneak away from you all, to block my twin ?ame bond, to face a clan of Night Children on my own. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and it was the wrong one. I made the wrong choice, and I am sorry.”

A heavy silence descended on the room, the tension still just as thick. “Is there anything in particular you would like kept from Queen Talwyn when we meet with her later today?” Briar asked,lifting a glass of water and taking a drink. Scarlett could only assume that while Nakoa and Neve were not here, they were watching on the other side of a water mirror.

“She needs to know about the Maraan Lords and their plans to kill the Contessa.” She glanced at Sorin real quick before she continued and said, “And she needs to know Tarek lives and is working with them.”

“Scarlett, we have discussed this. It cannot be her twin ?ame. There has to be another explanation for it,” Sorin said.

“I know you think that, Sorin, but I think you’re wrong. He ?at out told me he is her twin ?ame. The things he told me …”

“Then he is lying. Just like Alaric and Lord Tyndell have done to you your entire life,” Sorin argued.

Scarlett sat back, crossing her arms. “I guess we will have to wait and see, but I think you need to be prepared for the possibility of it being him.Talwynneeds to be prepared for that.”

Her gaze caught on Cyrus who hadn’t uttered a single word since she’d arrived here, and the thought suddenly occurred to her that if Tarek was alive, then …

“If it’s true,” she said slowly, “could that mean that Thia might—” “No,” Cyrus said shortly.

“But no one thinks Tarek could be alive either and—”

“She does not live, Scarlett,” Cyrus replied, his tone low and dark. “You do not feel your soul ripping apart the way I did at her death if half of it is not being torn away from you.”

Scarlett’s eyes had fallen to the table as he spoke, but they snapped back to his when he continued. “Nothingcould compare to the terror and pain and grief that I felt when I knew Thia was gone, when I knew she had been taken from me. But learning my queen had been captured, not knowing what you were enduring? Seeing my prince go nearly feral at not being able to ?nd you? To feel you? Gods, Scarlett! What the fuck were you thinking? Because it certainly did not have a godsdamn thing to do with our safety or the safety of these Courts.”

“Cyrus,” Sorin warned, but Scarlett held up her hand to silence him.

“Do you really not trust any of us that much? Me? Eliza? Briar? Yourgodsdamn twin ?ame?” Cyrus demanded. “You had every opportunity to say something. Fuck, you could have said something long before that day. You could have said something the day you foundthat chamber beneath the library that Sorin had to tell us about. You could have said something in any of the weeks between that night and the day you stood at our border and effectively told us all to fuck off.” He was on his feet now, bracing his hands on the table and leaning towards her. “We claimed you as one of our own. From the moment Sorin carried you across that border, we claimed you. You were ours just as much as you were his. Not when you became queen. Not when you accepted your place. That very day we risked our lives without question to see you enter the Fire Court with him. We claimed you, and you could give all of two fucks about it. If you had simply said something,anything, while we were all discussing these matters at the border, this entire situation could have been avoided.”

Tears were coursing down her face, and her hand was over her mouth to sti?e the sob that was clawing its way up her throat. She was shaking her head at his words because they weren’t true. They weren’t true in the slightest. He was her family. They all were.

“Cyrus,” she rasped. “Cyrus, I am sorry.”

But he said nothing. He glanced once at Sorin before pushing off the table and stalking from the room, the door banging shut behind him.

Give him a little time, Love.

She nodded, swallowing back more tears, her gaze dropping to the table.

“Let’s take a break,” Sorin said to the room. “She hasn’t eaten since she got here, and she wants to check on the children. Everyone take some time to cool down, and then we can meet again this afternoon.”

The room emptied out, until it was only her and Sorin left sitting at the table. She heard him slide from his chair and turned her own away from the table. He crouched before her, looking up into her face. He reached up and swiped tears away with his thumb.

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