Page 103 of Lady for Embers

She started, turning to ?nd Callan looking up, and when she followed his gaze, she saw why.

Two ?gures were falling from the barely visible sky. Seraphs.

“Azrael, get everyone else back to the ship,” she called. “Leave Nuri.”

She tightened her grip on Sorin’s arm over the Source Mark. She looked up at him as she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he answered, shadows merging behind them. “You want to set the world on ?re? My ?ames are yours to do so.”

“Then let’s make some ashes, Prince,” she answered, her shadow dragon releasing a roar as she climbed onto its back, Sorin with her.

Then they were shooting for the sky, meeting the seraphs in mid-air. Another roar from the dragon had ?ames spewing from its mouth, immediately incinerating the closest seraph. The other had swooped beneath them, ?ring an arrow up through the shadows.

She shoved Sorin to the side while she leapt for the other, her connection to the Source Mark broken. The seraph smiled darkly as it watched them plunging back to the stones below, but it was nothing compared to the wicked smirk she sent back. With one hand, she sent shadows spearing for Sorin, wrapping around his torso and pulling him back to her. Her other hand had white ?ames tightening around the seraph’s neck, his wings turning to ash behind him as they burned away to nothing.

The minute she felt Sorin’s ?esh touch hers, she Traveled them out of there, but with so little magic left, she couldn’t be as accurate with where she took them. They emerged in the air above the ships, dark waters swirling beneath them.

She scrambled to get her shadows under them, to at least slow their descent, but it was useless. She had nothing left, and neither did Sorin.

They hit water so hard it forced the air from her lungs. Her lips parted on an involuntary gasp, water ?ooding in. She was trying to get an air pocket around her mouth while simultaneously searching for Sorin beneath the water.

No! They were not going down like this. Not in the Edria Sea so close to Avonleya. Not after they’d just pulled that off. Not like this.

Sorin!she screamed down the bond, her chest burning with the need to cough up the water she’d swallowed down.

Where was he? She wasn’t going to the surface without him. They would go together. Always together.

Sorin!

Then she was being wrapped in an icy bubble, rising to the surface. When it broke through the surface, she saw Sorin in a bubble already hovering over the nearest ship. Briar was there, saving both their asses.

She was deposited next to Sorin on the ship deck, already choking on the water in her lungs.

“I’ve got it, Sunshine,” Briar said, lowering down beside her. He brought his hand to her mouth where his magic pulled all the water up from her lungs. She heaved, sea water and bile splashing onto the deck, but she was already crawling toward Sorin where he was sitting against the side of the ship.

He pulled her into him, cradling her head against his chest, ?ngers combing through her wet hair. The bond immediately began calming the hysteria mauling every nerve in her body.

“I am here, Scarlett,” he murmured. “I am all right.”

“I’m sorry,” she rasped into his neck, clinging to his wet frame, sure if she let him go he would disappear from beneath her ?ngers.

“You fall, I fall, Scarlett,” he replied. “I will follow you up to the stars and down to the depths of the sea.”

She wasn’t sure when exactly she’d wrapped her legs around his waist, but she didn’t move when a hand landed on her shoulder, heat pulsing through her. She glanced up to see Eliza crouching beside them, a hand on each of their shoulders, drying their clothes, hair, and skin.

“Everyone else made it back ?ne,” Eliza said quietly, soft ?ames ?ickering in her eyes. “Cyrus is looking after Cassius.”

“He is all right?” she asked, her cheek pressing harder into Sorin’s chest where he’d tucked her head under his chin.

Eliza nodded. “Beatrix was checking him over, just to be sure. Do either of you need healing?”

She shook her head and felt Sorin doing the same. Eliza gave a small nod before standing and giving them some time alone.

It was some time later when she ?nally pulled back from Sorin enough to see his face. His eyes were closed, breathing deep and measured, as if he were trying to regulate it.

“Sorin?” she asked cautiously, bringing her ?ngers up to run along his face.

His eyes ?uttered open, a weak smile pulling on his lips. “I ?nally got to ride that damn shadow dragon.”

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