Page 113 of Lady for Embers

“And if Maraans acquire their gifts by killing someone and taking their power for their own... ”

“Let’s not go down that path until we speak more with Cethin tomorrow, Scarlett,” he said gently.

“How can I not? What if he killed another member of my family for those gifts, Sorin? What if... ”

What if one of her parents had those gifts?She couldn’t say the words out loud. Alaric was already responsible for Eliné’s death, awoman Scarlett had thought was her mother. Was he responsible for her actual parents’ deaths too? Was there ever truly an end to what the Maraan Prince had taken from her?

Hands on her hips were gently rotating her, water sloshing over the sides of the tub as she shifted so she was facing Sorin, straddling his hips in the water.

“We are here, Scarlett. We made it here, and here we will ?nd answers. But now we are going to bathe, and then we are going to rest so we can be ready for those answers when the sun rises.”

She nodded, swallowing down the knot of emotion in her throat, then she slid back and across the tub, motioning for him to go under and wet his hair. When he came back up, water running down his face and chest in rivulets, she slid back up his legs, reaching for the hair tonic.

“You are going to wash my hair?” he asked, a half-grin pulling at his lips.

“You take care of me all the time,” she answered. “I can take care of you every once in a while.” She leaned forward, working the tonic into his hair. As her ?nger combed along his scalp, she asked, “How are your power reserves after everything?”

He stiffened slightly against her. “They are full, as I would expect them to be after sleeping for two days straight.”

She nodded. “And?”

He sighed heavily. “They feel smaller.”

She wasn’t surprised. She had pulled from him a lot at the Eternal Necropolis, but hearing it spoken aloud still had her stomach sinking. She bit her tongue at the apology on her lips, knowing Sorin would chastise her for speaking it. He would willingly and gladly give every last drop of his ?ames for her. No questions asked.

But they had made it here, and here they would ?nd answers. Maybe they could ?nd answers for this while they were here too.

That’s what she told herself as he slid beneath the surface once more to rinse his hair. They would ?nd the answers she had been searching for. They would ?nd the answers Cassius had been searching for. They would ?nd the answers to win this war. And they would ?nd the answers to Sorin’s power too.

She wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Chapter 23

Cyrus

He was lying in bed in the room he’d been given in the manor. His shirt was off, one hand propped behind his head resting on a couple of stacked pillows. He was tossing a ball of ?ames in the air and catching it with the other hand. A few more hours.

A few more hours and the sun would rise, and he could ?nd something to do that didn’t involve sitting in a quiet room by himself with only his memories to keep him company.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked at it, the ?ames ?ickering in his palm, as he wondered who would be knocking on his door at this hour.

“Yeah?” he called out.

The door pushed open, Cassius standing on the other side. Still fully dressed, Cyrus could tell he hadn’t slept a wink in the two hours since they’d all gone to their own rooms.

“I need you.”

“What?” Cyrus asked, sitting upright, the ?ames in his palm extinguishing. “What’s wrong?”

Cassius ran his hand through his hair. “I need your help,” he amended, his gaze darting around the room. “Being here, my magic is... It feels different. It’s unsettling. I do not want to wake up Scarlett, and I ?gured you were awake, cursing the night, so I thought... ” He trailed off, his eyes settling on Cyrus’s.

And holy shit. They were both glowing the way Scarlett’s did, only his were a deep amber-red color. Both his pupils were more vertical than circular and wasn’t that interesting? That his injuredeye responded to his magic just as his good eye did. It had been beneath the patch on the ship. They wouldn’t have known.

Cyrus was already on his feet, reaching for the tunic he’d tossed across the desk chair nearby. He turned back to Cass, and he just looked so damn helpless. Cyrus had never seen him so out of sorts. Even when everything would go to shit, Cassius was the calm in the storm. Not only for Scarlett, but for everyone.

He was still shrugging into the tunic when he reached Cassius’s side, and he rested a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be ?ne. You just need to siphon off some of your magic. You haven’t touched it since that battle with the seraphs and that was a while ago. And now, being here, it’s getting anxious. It’s energy that needs to be released, Cass.”

“I can’t here,” he argued, shaking his head. “I do not have control over it.”

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