Page 10 of Lady for Embers

“There is an issue,” Hazel said tersely the moment she stepped through the doorway, her eyes immediately going to her son. “Has he slept this entire time?”

“Yes,” Cyrus answered.

“Good,” she clipped, moving to the bedside, white light immediately ?aring and wrapping around Sorin.

“And this issue?” Eliza asked. They were used to letting her deal with the High Witch, seeing as how the Witches found most males to be an annoyance best dealt with by beheading.

The High Witch leaned back, withdrawing her hands. Violet eyes settled on them, her lip curling back in disgust. “There is a Night Child squatting in my kingdom.”

Cyrus’s brows ?ew up at that news. “Is it still alive?”

“For now,” the High Witch replied. “How much longer he will remain so, I cannot say.”

“He?” Eliza asked.

“He claims to know the queen. He claims Death’s Shadow sent him to me and that I would provide refuge until he could get to Death’s Maiden,” the High Witch continued, her voice soft and dripping with barely suppressed rage.

Cyrus was on his feet. “Are you saying Auberon Isra is alive and ?ed to your territory?”

Auberon Isra had been Contessa Rosalyn’s Second-in-Command. They had all assumed Nuri had killed him when she had killed the Contessa to take her place. If what she was claiming was true, Death’s Shadow had spared him, instead of allowing him to ?ee to a territory where no one would dare seek him out.

And what did that mean for her allegiance? He had been told of her blood vow, but if she had found a way to spare Auberon, were there other loopholes she could exploit?

“Yes,” the High Witch spat. “You have until sunrise to get him out, or I have given Arantxa orders to kill him.”

“Fucking hell,” Cyrus muttered. He turned to the other Fae. “Bring him here? We can’t really risk anyone else discovering he’s still alive. Not right now, with so much unknown.”

“Agreed,” Briar said. He’d moved across the room to one of the windows, watching the sun dip behind the mountain peaks. He hadn’t said much since the throne room, but Rayner had ?lled Cyrus in on what had happened between him and Ashtine.

The Water Prince turned to face them after another beat of silence. “I checked in on the mortals. We should not leave them alone at the Black Halls any longer.”

“We can’t bring them all here. There’s hardly enough room for us,” Eliza argued.

“I can move them to the House of Water for now,” Briar said. “Sawyer and Neve can watch over them until Sorin and Scarlett wake. I simply wanted to run it by you ?rst.”

“Did Luan contact you?” Eliza asked.

“He did,” Briar replied. “He is coming here tonight.”

“He’s what?” Eliza balked, and Cyrus had to agree with her. Sorin was already going to be pissy about all of them being in here, but Azrael Luan?

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Cyrus cut in. “We do not want it known that Sorin lives. Not until—”

“I know this,” Briar cut in. “But he has information that we need. He is also our only way of getting that information at the moment. I would rather he report here, in a location as secluded as possible.”

“And you believe we can trust him?” Eliza asked, her tone conveying her thoughts on that matter.

“We can,” Briar said. “Ashtine always spoke favorably of him.”

“Ashtine now sides with Talwyn,” Cyrus pointed out, earning a glare from the Water Prince, but he couldn’t deny it. “Who says Azrael has not done the same?”

“He did not,” Briar replied with an eerie calm that had Cyrus knowing he was close to overstepping with the prince. “If memory serves correctly, I was there. You were not. Furthermore, I have dealt with Prince Luan for decades. He may be as dif?cult as Talwyn is, but he was also the voice of reason in her ear when needed. If you do not trust him, you can trust my experience with him as a fellow ruler.”

“I did not mean any offense, Briar,” Cyrus said. “I just... ” He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes ?nding their way to his king and queen once more. “I don’t know what to do here. I don’t know what they would want.”

And didn’t that just make him a shit Second? He may have done this before when Talwyn had sent Sorin to the mortal lands for three years, but that had been different. Sorin hadn’t been on his death bed. He had communicated every so often through Amaré, Anala’s spirit animal. They hadn’t been about to go to war against Maraan Lords and seraphs whose power they could not even begin to predict.

He may have been in this role for decades, but there were still times he felt more like that kid on the streets of Aelyndee than he did a member of the prince’s Inner Court. There were still days he woke and wondered how the hell he’d made it from there to here. He’d thank the Fates, but they’d taken as much as they’d ever given. Why they found him deserving of moving from the streets to a palace, he’d never understand, but he certainly had the scars to show it wasn’t just handed to him. Scars that never let him heal quite right.

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