Page 91 of Lady of Ashes

Sorin studied her for a long moment, before she felt so many emotions ?ood down that bridge between their souls she staggered under it.

Terror. Denial. Disbelief. Sorrow. Fury.

Pain. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal.

Scarlett’s hands ?ew to her chest, clenching into ?sts over her heart as she took it all in, every single thing he’d been feeling since she’d enacted that Blood Mark. Tears instantly cut a path down her face, but she held her ground. She held Sorin’s stare.

“We made vows to each other, Scarlett Aditya Semiria. You get all of me, and I get all of you. We do not shut each other out. We do not tell each other to leave. You chose me, and I chose you. And yet, with that one act, you created a you and a me. Mere days after saying those vows.”

Sorin’s chest was heaving, and his ?ngers were digging into the fabric of the chair so deeply, she was certain he was about to puncture the upholstery. Or set it alight, which was probably morelikely, considering the smoke unfurling beneath his hands. She didn’t know if he was waiting for her to respond or if he was preparing himself for his next strike, so she didn’t say anything.

“When did you ?gure it out?” he demanded. “How soon after Cyrus came to our rooms did you ?gure out what was really going on? How long did it take you to come up with a plan that excluded the rest of us? That put you in a position to be taken from me? To be used against your own Courts?” She swallowed thickly, her eyes falling to the plush rug under feet, but he called her out on that, too. “No, Scarlett, your eyes stay on me for this conversation. I need to see them to know if you are lying to me yet again or if you are telling me everything.”

“You’re one to talk, Sorin,” she snapped, her eyes ?ashing back to his. “You lied to me for months when we met. Then you lied about me being your twin ?ame. Oh, excuse me,” she drawled sarcastically. “You didn’t lie. Youwithheld information. How was this any different?”

Sorin shook his head again, huf?ng a hollow laugh of disbelief. “And I spent so many more months proving myself to you. Over and over again. And you are right. I did withhold so much from you. Maybe you ?nd you can never fully trust me because of it, and that is on me. But if you are going to hold that over me, if you are going to use that as an excuse for doing something likethiswhen enemies are at our doors, we are never going to pass the Trials, Scarlett. What we are will not survive if we are going to keep score about who has wronged who most. If that is the case, tell me now, and we will ?gure something else out.”

Scarlett lurched back as if he’d struck her in the gut. “You don’t mean that.”

“I cannot trust you, Scarlett! I cannot trust my wife, my queen, mytwin ?ame. Do you have any idea what you did to me when I stepped back over that border and found your marriage band ?oating there? When I could not feel you? When I could not ?nd you?” He had stepped from behind the armchair, taking a few steps towards her, embers sparking with each footfall. His voice had risen, lethal with anger and hurt. “This wasn’t the ?rst time, either. We agreed to no more secrets. You told me you would keep nothing from me, and the very next day, you led me down to a secret passageway in the library. And a mere few hours after that, you pulled this shit.”

He had stopped a few feet from her, the trail of ?ames still drawing a line between them.

“Are you saying you don’t …” She swallowed again, tears streaming down her face, but she forced herself to say the words. “Are you saying you don’t want this any more? Are you saying you no longer choose us? Choose me?”

The line of ?ames between them ?ared up, and Scarlett ?inched away on instinct. When she turned back, she found him standing directly on the other side of the ?re, his eyes as bright as the ?ames separating them.

“You are my necessity, Scarlett. I do not know how I can make it any clearer to you. I am yours. I choose you, and I will always choose you.”

“Then choose me, Sorin!” she cried. “Because it seems all you have done since I woke is pull away from me. You haven’t touched me. You haven’t—”

“I have not touched you because the moment I feel your ?esh beneath my ?ngers again, it’s over, Scarlett,” he snarled, and her breath caught in her throat. “The moment I taste your lips, the second I have you in my arms, the last shred of self-control I am clinging to will come apart. Do not think that holding you against me while ?ghting our way out of the Black Syndicate did not affect me. Do not think that it was in any way easy for me to sit in that room with Cassius, you mere feet from me, and not haul you off to another room when I have not seen you, touched you, felt you in weeks. I do not know what all you endured while there. I do not know if you are ready to be touched. I do not know how you are feeling, because you blocked our fucking bond, and the moment I touch you, I will lose that control.”

“Then lose control, Sorin!”

The words had barely left her lips when he had crossed that line of ?ames, his hands coming to her face and his lips landing on hers. It was a brutal, punishing kiss that had her knees instantly trembling. One of his hands slid from her face, wrapping around her waist, pulling her ?ush against him and holding her up. She gripped the fabric of his tunic, ?sting the material in his hands, as his tongue plunged into her mouth in desperation. Cloves and honey and embers danced along her taste buds, and the hand on her cheek slid into her hair, tugging her head back roughly so he could deepen the kiss.

“You left me,” he said roughly against her lips.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped as his mouth slid along her jaw, down her neck.

“It’s not good enough, Scarlett,” he snarled, his canines biting into the sensitive skin where her neck and shoulder met.

“I know,” she whispered, her hips bucking forward, feeling him press against her.

His hands slipped under the back of her thighs, lifting her off of her feet. She instantly wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him back frantically when his lips found their way to hers again.

“Can you Travel?” he demanded, nipping at her bottom lip, hard enough to draw blood.

“Yes,” she rasped, her ?ngers grasping at his hair, pulling herself closer to him. She needed to feel him. Skin on skin. All of him.

“Upstairs,” was all he said as he began walking, and for once, she did as he ordered. Between one step and the next, they went from the sitting room to the large bedroom. He dropped her onto the bed, releasing her to slide her pants and undergarments down her legs, her slippers coming with them. He pulled his own tunic over his head, and Scarlett whimpered in need, reaching for him.

“I should make you wait,” he said with a cold smirk, stepping between her legs where they hung over the end of the bed. His hands landed on either side of her waist, bracing his body over hers.

“You should,” she agreed breathlessly, looping her arms around his neck and trying to pull him down onto her, but he didn’t give in. Instead, he stood back up, pulling her with him so she sat before him. His hands skimmed up her sides, taking her tunic with them, and she let him pull it over her head. He dropped the tunic to the ?oor, his eyes glued to her bare skin. His hands came up and shoved her shoulders, pushing her back down onto the bed, but he didn’t follow. He stood, standing over her, his gaze trailing down her body, lust and hunger ?lling his golden eyes. Her blood was on ?re, and it wasn’t from any type of ?re magic, but then she felt his power sweep over her, searching for her own power, and she instantly sent her shadows and ice and white ?ames to wind with it.

Sorin groaned, his eyes closing and head falling back in clear pleasure, as their magic touched and connected in ways she was dying to do with their ?esh. His breathing was heavy as he held himself back.

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