Page 14 of Lady for Embers

She rolled her eyes as she reached for Rayner. “Welcome back, your Majesty.”

“Stop calling me that,” she retorted, squeezing him tightly. “And thank you. For bringing him back with us that night.”

Rayner said nothing else. Just tightened his hold for another second before releasing her.

Which was good because she really needed to use the bathing room.

When she emerged from taking care of her needs, Rayner was coming back into the room, a tray of food in his hands. Cassius was seated in a chair by the bed, where she could only assume he had sat while she had slept for four days.

Four wasted days.

She climbed onto the bed, Cassius immediately passing her a glass of water as she settled cross-legged beside Sorin. After draining the glass, she asked, “Callan? Tava?”

“They are at the House of Water with Briar. Drake and Eva too. Briar will be here later tonight,” Cyrus answered, sitting at the end of the bed. Rayner moved closer, standing at the foot of the bed, his arms crossed, while Eliza began pacing on the other side.

Scarlett looked at Cassius. “And you? Are you okay after I... You know.”

“I am ?ne, Seastar,” Cass reassured her. “Cyrus has been giving me blood.”

“But whatexactlydid you do?” Eliza cut in.

Scarlett had a pear in her hands, turning it over and over. “I don’t exactly know.”

“What does that mean?” she pushed.

Scarlett sighed, setting the pear aside and looking up at her family. “I was desperate, lost to this nothingness that was in my soul, when Shirina did what she did.”

“You woke up with a new Mark,” Cassius said.

Scarlett’s gaze fell to her forearm, to the interlocking circles. “I don’t know what it does or did,” she said, tracing the Mark with her ?ngernail. “Only that he told me when I woke up, Altaria would be here with a vial. I needed to drink it and then give my magic to Sorin. I didn’t care how it worked. Only that it did.”

“The High Witch said there would be a cost for this,” Rayner said, his voice low and grave as always.

She met his swirling gaze. “It is one I would pay a thousand times over.”

“You can’t say that without knowing what it is,” Eliza said.

“Of course I can, and I would. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep him on this side of the Veil.” When the room fell silent, shechanged the subject. “What’s our next course of action? Callan and Eva are safe. What of Ashtine?”

The Fae looked amongst themselves while Cassius pressed a piece of dried meat into her hand, trying to get her to eat something.

“Ashtine stayed behind with Talwyn,” Rayner said. “Briar tried to argue with her.”

“She sided with Talwyn?” Scarlett asked, unable to hide her shock.

Another betrayal to add to her list.

“Not with her as the queen, but with her as a friend.”

“There is no difference,” Scarlett argued.

“Ashtine believes there is,” Rayner said.

Scarlett couldn’t exactly argue with that. The Wind Princess was odd and somehow wise beyond her years, partly due to the winds speaking secrets to her and partly due to the massive library beneath her Citadel where she spent her childhood. A library that held a mirror gate she would really like to get back to. She had so many questions for this Lord of Night.

“We’ll come back to Ashtine. Azrael? I’m assuming he is with Talwyn as well?” A tense silence settled over the room as she took a bite of the meat. “Someone just say it,” she sighed.

“Luan is hiding out... Here,” Cyrus ?nally supplied.

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