Page 205 of Lady of Ashes

“So just this window, then?”

They all turned to the window before them. They’d seen it from the hillside where the Fae were waiting. The slightest ?utter of a curtain. The window was cracked open the smallest amount. If it hadn’t been for that slight movement, they never would have known. Either someone had moved it inside, or a passing breeze had ruf?ed it. Either way, it meant someone was inside or the window was a way in.

“Ready?” Juliette asked.

Nuri and Scarlett nodded, and they moved forward. Juliette pulled her short sword, wedging the blade into the crack and pushing down, creating the leverage to lift the window just enough for them to squeeze in. Nuri quickly pushed the window back into place once they were inside.

We’re ?ne,she sent down the bond to Sorin.Juliette will be out in a minute to unlock the front gates for you.

You made steps. Out of ?re.

Scarlett snorted softly in laughter, Nuri and Juliette glancing over at her.Is that admiration I hear, Prince?

“Quit ?irting,” Nuri chided.

“How many times did I have to put up with you two ?irting and sneaking off on jobs?” Scarlett whispered back.

“She makes a valid point,” Juliette said.

They stepped from what was obviously a bedroom out into a hallway.

Doors lined either side, all of them closed.

“We need Auberon. He’ll know where these tunnels are,” Scarlett said.

“I’ll get the gates,” Juliette answered.

She peeled away, heading for the stairs. She’d ?nd the keys easily enough. People always kept them in the same places. Nuri and Scarlett began checking the rooms along the hallway. She didn’t expect to ?nd anything, but they could at least clear them before Auberon got here.

“Will you stay in Avonleya when you go there?” Nuri asked casually, opening another door.

Scarlett paused, her hand hovering over a door handle. “That is random.”

“I am assuming when you ?nd the keys, you will go there. That is your homeland,” she replied, poking her head into the room she was checking.

“I cannot imagine I will. I hold a throne here. I have responsibilities,” Scarlett said, eyes scanning her own room.

“That did not stop you from leaving the Syndicate.”

“Youaided Sorin in taking me from there,” Scarlett retorted, clamping down on the surge of irritation.

“Yes, but I thought you’d come back,” Nuri said, her tone the same.

Casual and relaxed, as though they were discussing books. “I came for the children, did I not?”

“Only because Alaric took you.”

Scarlett pulled her door closed sharper than she’d intended. The snap of it echoing down the deserted hall. “Just because I did not plan for the way it happened does not mean I was not planning to return. We were planning to leave, to come for you and Cassius and the others, two days from the day everything happened.”

Nuri didn’t say anything, moving to the next room.

“I was trying, Nuri. I was drowning and trying to stay a?oat and trying to get back to … I was trying,” Scarlett said.

“It was only a question,” Nuri said, closing the ?nal door as they came to the end of the hall.

But it was never ‘only a question’ with Nuri.

They were descending the stairs, when Auberon came rushing through the front doors. “The Witch is searching the grounds with the Fae. This way.”

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