Page 12 of Lady of Ashes

“This is not a vacation, Arianna,” Sorin warned, standing as well. “Those who hold her are not mere mortals. Night Children were involved in her capture.”

A dark look crossed her face, her lip curling up from her teeth. “Do I need to remind you, Prince of Fire, that I was killing alongside the Fae while you were still suckling at your mother’s tit?”

“You do not, Lady,” Sorin said. “I simply do not want you to be unprepared.”

She snapped her ?ngers, and the tiger at her feet shifted. Jamahl stood in his human form. Tall and muscled and as dark-skinned as his Beta. “Keep an eye on him while I pack a few things,” Arianna ordered.

“Yes, my Lady,” Jamahl answered with a bow of his head.

There was a ?ash of light, and Arianna had shifted into a red falcon soaring out of one of the terrace openings.

Sorin sat back on the settee, sipping his iced tea and going over his plan in his head again and again. Arianna Renatus agreeing to help him was the ?rst step of many. He hadn’t been worried. She was always eager to leave her lands, and her brother often kept her sequestered here while he handled other affairs. He knew she would leap at an opportunity to leave, and he knew coming directly to her and by-passing Stellan only aided his cause in convincing her to help him. The Alpha wouldn’t be happy with him, but he’d deal with that later.

Ten minutes later, the falcon ?ew back in through the same terrace opening, and in another ?ash of light, Arianna stood before him, a small pack dangling from her ?ngers. She had changed out of her thin silk dress and now wore loose pants that cuffed at the ankles. Her top was the same coral color as the settee, and the sheer sleeves cuffed at the wrists.

“You do know I live in the mountains and that the mortal kingdoms are in the winter months?” Sorin asked, his lips tilting up slightly in amusement. He knew she wouldn’t care. He’d spent enough time with the Beta to know her intimately in more ways than one.

“I assume you can keep your palace plenty warm, Prince,” she answered. “As for the mortal lands, it sounds as if I will rarely be in my own skin.” She turned to face Jamahl. “I have left a note for Stellan, but I am sure he will be unhappy I have gone without consulting him. You know what to do.”

“Of course, my Lady,” Jamahl said, bowing his head once more. “Good.”

Sorin opened a portal and gestured with his hand. “After you.”

Arianna threw him a sensuous look as she stepped through the ?re portal, Sorin a step behind.

CHAPTER 6

TALWYN

Ido not like this, Az,” Talwyn said as she paced in the private quarters of his Desert Alcazar. Azrael was putting two sets of clothes in a pack, along with a few other necessities. “I do not like that we do not know the plans. I do not like that we are not more involved in the particulars.”

“It is a mission, Talwyn. Nothing more,” Azrael said, ever the warrior, as he buckled more daggers and weapons to his body.

“It is not just a mission.”

“How is it not? Your cousin was compromised defending my Court. We owe them this debt,” he said. Striding for his desk, he took something from a drawer and put it in his pocket.

“We owe them nothing,” Talwyn snarled.

Azrael glanced at her brie?y before crossing the room oncemore to get something else. She wasn’t paying attention any more to what he was packing. “You are the queen, Talwyn. Do not let your emotions cloud your judgment. Aiding them with this will strengthen relations with your cousin. It will get us closer to our end goal.”

She paused her pacing then, turning to face him. Politics and tactical moves. That’s where Azrael’s head always was. The best moves for their Courts, for her as a queen.

He was bent over his desk once more, writing on several pieces of paper.

“What are you doing?”

“Instructions for Orestes,” he replied. “Things that need to be taken care of in my absence.” His charcoal continued to scratch across the parchment.

“I will still be here, you know,” she said dryly. “I can take care of things in the Earth Court.”

“You are already pacing like a child,” he said in response, unfazed by her tone. “You will not be focused enough to tend to my inter-court matters.”

“Do not speak to me like I am a little girl, Azrael Luan,” she spat, crossing to him and ripping the charcoal from his hand. “I am your queen.”

“Then begin acting like one, your Majesty.” Azrael rose to his full height. He was several inches taller than her, and his granite hewn features were hard and sharp. His earthy brown eyes met hers.

“I am thinking like a queen. I am thinking that it is stupid to ask you to do this when we could send another warrior who is just as capable. You could deliver them and wait for a message to go and retrieve them. You do not need to stay. Why are we sending another Prince of the Courts into this madness?”

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