Page 203 of Lady of Ashes

“You act like we run into dangerous places without thinking,” Nuri scoffed. “We always know what we are doing.”

“Are we in agreement?” Sorin asked again.

Scarlett patted his arm with a sympathetic smile, while Nuri gave him a feral grin.

“Let’s go, your Majesty,” Scarlett said, reaching for Talwyn’s hand.

A moment later, they were standing upstream of a river. She reached up, sending off a message among her shadows, something she’d taught herself to do, just as she’d taught herself mental shields. The shadow messages let Eliza, Rayner, and Briar know where theywere, on the off chance they would need back-up. Briar could have help here fairly quickly, and Rayner was around somewhere. Her gaze fell on a sprawling estate along the river a little over two miles off. It was larger than the villa they had stayed in last night. Tall, white pillars were visible even from this distance, and a veranda ran around the entire second story of the building.

“You have not checked here before?” Scarlett asked Auberon, scanning the estate.

“Of course I have. Multiple times,” Auberon retorted. “But the Contessa has a network of underground passages connecting her homes. She moves about unseen if she so chooses.”

“Then why have you not monitored these tunnels?” Talwyn demanded.

“Because they are warded so that only the Contessa can access them,” Auberon gritted out.

“That seems incredibly irresponsible in the case of an emergency,” Scarlett mused, tilting her head as she studied the estate more.

“Obviously,” Auberon muttered under his breath.

“You are seeing what I am seeing, yes?” Juliette asked, coming to her side.

“I am,” Scarlett con?rmed. “Nuri?”

“Yes. I will go up. You two do your usual?”

“No,” Sorin snarled, stepping into their path. “Explain.”

Juliette and Nuri moved away a few steps, giving her room to deal with the Fae.

“I need you to trust me on this, Sorin.”

“I need you to include us on this, Scarlett,” he countered.

Scarlett glanced back at the estate before looking back at him. “It is not that I do not trust you,” she replied. “It is that I have worked with them for years. Did you just witness our thirty second conversation? We already knew what each saw and were thinking. We already have a plan that does not need to be explained to each other. When we are down there, we will know how each will react.” Sorin tried to interject, but Scarlett raised a hand to stop him. “I know that someday, I will have that with all of you. Years from now, I will ?t with your Court the way I ?t with them now. But that day is not today. That time is not now. It is why I wanted them with us for this task.”

“You have been planning to exclude us this entire time?” Cyrus demanded.

Scarlett shook her head. “No. I am not excluding you. I am simply asking that you let us go ?rst.”

“You are aqueen,” Azrael sneered, as if that was argument enough.

Scarlett supposed it probably was. Who in their right mind would let the queen of two Fae Courts scout an obviously dangerous property for foul play?

“Do not allow this, Sorin,” Talwyn interjected. “Or this will end like it did for Thia.”

Scarlett whirled on her. “Do not try and make him feel guilty about that,” she spat, her ?nger pointed at the Fae Queen. “Thathas nothing to do with this. This is different in every way, and he does notallowme to do anything.”

She turned back to Sorin. “I will be able to communicate with you through the bond. If anything feels wrong, I will Travel us out immediately and we regroup.”

“This entire thing feels wrong,” Cyrus muttered.

Scarlett ignored Cyrus, holding Sorin’s gaze. Golden eyes searched her own. “You feel well enough? Your power reserves are full enough?”

“Yes.”

An arm looped around her waist, tugging her roughly forward, and she tilted her head back to be able to see his face. “You do not block the bond. Not even a little bit. And no Blood Magic.”

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