Page 3 of Lady of Ashes

“Are you ready?” Talwyn asked, holding out her hand to the Earth Prince and ignoring his comment.

“To go verbally spar with Aditya and Drayce? Not particularly. They are no longer under your rule. They were insubordinate before Queen Scarlett showed up on the scene. Now they are going to be impossible, especially with Aditya’s wife and twin ?ame missing,” Azrael pointed out, his arms still ?rmly crossed.

“Maybe she is not missing. Maybe there is a perfectly rational explanation. Let’s go,” Talwyn said, motioning for him to take her hand so she could Travel them to the Fire Court.

“Too many things are not adding up, Talwyn,” Azrael replied, pointedly ignoring her outstretched hand. “We should sortthrough these things before we charge into a Court that is no longer ours.”

“For the love of Celeste, there is not time,” Talwyn said, her temper beginning to rise. “Those fools might already be doing something incredibly idiotic to get her back. Either take my hand or I am going alone.”

“This will not end well,” he muttered, ?nally taking her hand.

“It never does with Sorin,” Talwyn replied, as they disappeared into the air.

CHAPTER 2

SORIN

Sorin Aditya stared at the map of the mortal kingdoms before him. They were in his personal study at the Fiera Palace; his Inner Court and Briar’s Inner Court were debating amongst themselves where she could be. The same thing they had been doing for the last two days. Nakoa, Commander of the Water Court armies, had been left in charge of the Water Court border, and Neve, Prince Briar’s Third, had been stationed at the Fire Court border. Sorin’s own entire Inner Court would be accompanying him whenever they decided where they were going. The problem was, they had no idea where to even begin to look. She’d left no clues or indications of where she was going, and then she’d blocked their twin ?ame bond.

The most obvious place was the mortal lands, but there was no concrete evidence that that was where she had gone. Sorin could only assume she had gone to Mikale Lairwood, despite him adamantly refusing that being an option. They had never ?nished the argument though, and she would do whatever was necessary to protect those in her charge.

He had known something was wrong. Unease had ?lled him with each step he’d taken away from her. He should have sent Eliza and Cyrus over the border to speak with the vampyres. He should have stayed behind and watched with her until she had been ready to tell him everything she’d ?gured out; but she had already blocked him out by that point. She had already put some type of resistance on their bond, before she’d somehow enacted that Blood Mark in the dirt, her blood splashed across it, obstructing their bond.

Scarlett. Scarlett. Scarlett.

He kept throwing her name down the bridge between their souls, kept feeling his words slam into an ancient wall. One glimmer. That’s all he wanted. One ?icker that she was all right. One glimpse to get an idea of where she had gone.

Sorin glanced down at the twin ?ame Mark that ?owed over the back of his hand, down his thumb and ?rst two ?ngers, showing that they’d completed three of the ?ve Twin Flame Trials. It was still there. She had to still be living. Cyrus’s Mark had faded when Thia, his twin ?ame, had been killed. Talwyn’s had done the same when Tarek had died. Although hers had taken longer to disappear. He assumed it had been because they had still been in the Trials that needed to be completed to become fully bonded twin ?ames. If Scarlett was—

No. That was not a possibility. He would know. He would know if she were gone from this world.

And if she was, he’d rip apart everyone involved before he tore down every realm in existence to ?nd her beyond the Veil.

The entire room fell silent as the lit braziers roared higher, and Sorin clenched his jaw, reining in everything that was coursing through him. His hands were ?at on the table beside the map he was staring straight through. Embers rolled off of him, and he knew there were likely ?ames ?ickering in his eyes.

“Sorin,” Cyrus said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We will ?nd her. You’d know …” He swallowed thickly. “You’d know if she were somewhere you could not follow.”

“There is nowhere she can go that I will not follow,” Sorin snarled. Before Cyrus could reply, a breeze ?uttered through the room and Princess Ashtine stood before them all. She bowed to Sorin. “I apologize for coming unannounced and uninvited, Prince of Fire.”

Sorin blinked at the show of respect. Ashtine had always been incredibly considerate, but he could count on one hand the number of times he’d interacted with her without Talwyn present. Briar was striding for her, and it took Sorin a moment to remember that the Water Prince and the Wind Princess were involved. He glanced to his Court and found the same recollection crossing their faces. Sawyer Drayce, Briar’s brother and Second, however, was still focused on the maps before them. Clearly seeing his brother with Ashtine was not a rare occurrence for him.

“Ashtine,” Briar said, stopping in front of her. He reached upand stroked Nasima’s head, and Ashtine closed her eyes to the touch as if she could feel it herself. When his ?ngers moved from her hawk to her cheek, her sky-blue eyes opened to meet his icy blue ones. “Something has happened?”

“You do not know that your queen is missing?” she asked with a tilt of her head, her gaze ?itting around the room.

“Yes, my dear, we know this well,” he said softly. “Do the winds speak of where she has gone?”

“I do not know where she currently sits, but I know where she Traveled to when she left these lands.”

“Baylorin?” Eliza asked sharply.

Ashtine’s gaze fell on her with that piercing intensity. “No. She was seen closer to your other homeland.”

“The Earth Court?” Sorin growled. “Why?”

“The winds do not know why your wife traveled there, but Prince Azrael reports that she took on and defeated many Night Children in Toreall near the border. He and Talwyn will arrive shortly. I do not know what they plan to reveal to you.” She spoke swiftly and softly. Nasima clicked her beak, and Ashtine’s head tilted, listening.

Sorin glanced at his Ash Rider. Rayner nodded and disappeared in the smoke of the braziers, understanding the silent order to go and investigate the border himself.

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