Page 154 of Lady for Embers

A small smile tilted up on Tybalt’s lips. “Point taken, your Majesty. However, I would be remiss not to come to his defense. Razik has faced his own trials and hardships. We were separated for centuries when I was trapped beyond the Wards, and his mother and father sacri?ced much, including being here to raise him. He has not had an easy life, as I am sure yours was not.”

The pained expression on the male’s face as his attention settled back on Cassius had Scarlett falling back into her chair. He was not what she had expected at all. She had expected a male as arrogant and stand-of?sh as Razik was. A harsh Commander like Lord Tyndell had always been to everyone aside from her and Tava. A male who did not care that he’d sired a son across the sea. But Tybalt... He seemed to truly care.

“I will answer any questions you have,” Tybalt was saying. “As best I can anyway, but I am hoping to also hear tales of your own.”

“The only good memories I have involve the woman—sorry, female— sitting next to me, and very few of those memories are happy ones,” Cassius said.

“Anything you are willing to share, I want to hear,” Tybalt answered. “I understand there is a dinner happening in a few hours, but I will be home for the foreseeable future. I will be around the estate, and I do not wish to have to avoid my son for the sake of avoiding awkwardness. I will, however, do as you wish and will understand if you wish to relocate to the castle or another manor.”

“You want us out?” Cassius asked.

“By the gods, no,” Tybalt said, bolting forward in his chair. “That estate is your home, Cassius. You will always have a room there. I told Magdalena to prepare a suite for you in the privatewing the moment Ranvir reported of you to me. All I am saying is if you need time, I understand. I do not want to do anything to make you unduly uncomfortable.”

“Scarlett, can I show you more of the castle?” Cethin asked suddenly. “This is, after all, your home, just as the estate is his.”

“Oh, I... ” She bit her bottom lip, looking at Cassius. She didn’t want to leave him. She was here for him, but he already looked far more relaxed than he ever was when Hazel was around.

“It is ?ne, Seastar,” Cassius said. “I think... this will be ?ne.”

“If you need me—” She paused as she got to her feet. “Actually, I do not know how you would send a message.”

“The same way your husband does,” Tybalt said with a smile a moment before there was a burst of dark ?ames near her head.

She reached up, plucking the parchment from the center and opening it to read:

Thank you.

She smiled softly, nodding once. Squeezing Cassius’s shoulder as she passed, she followed Cethin from the room.

As her brother pulled the door closed quietly behind them, he asked, “Is Sorin going to be upset that you are with me by yourself?”

“Probably,” Scarlett said with a shrug. “He will get over it.”

Cethin shook his head, guiding her to a set of stairs. “I feel con?icted at the moment, wanting this time with you while ­simultaneously understanding how he is going to feel when he learns of this.”

“Because you are just as much of an overbearing ass?”

“Says the female who was literally going to burn the world to ashes when her mate had a foot beyond the Veil,” Cethin said, a teasing note to his voice. “You are as overbearing and possessive as we are, Star?re.”

“I am not,” she scoffed, but yeah, she could see that she supposed. “Where are we going?” she asked when he motioned down a long corridor.

“I thought I would show you your chambers. Should you ever wish to stay here,” Cethin said.

He stopped at the end of the corridor in front of two large double doors. The wood was etched with silver stars and ?ames. “The entire ?oor above this is the king’s private ?oor, but this entire wing is for the princess.”

He pushed the doors open, and Scarlett stepped in and stilled, her mouth falling open. This was a receiving room, beautifully decorated in soft greys and a blue so dark it was nearly black. Silver accents were scattered throughout and when she moved beyond into the sitting room, it was all warmth and comfort and casual ease. Elegant and somehow simple all at the same time. Two sofas faced each other in front of a hearth, a set of four armchairs off to a side with a low table between them. Through another doorway she glimpsed a dining table.

“This is stunning,” she said, ?nally ?nding her voice as she moved further into the room.

“The staff did excellent work,” he agreed. “I do not know you well, so I had to guess on what you would prefer.”

“It is wonderful, Cethin,” she assured him, moving over to a bookshelf to look at the titles.

“There is a small washroom off this room,” he said, then pointed through a doorway in the back. “There are two bedrooms and a bathing room down that small hallway along with the master chambers and a private bath at the end.”

He was quiet, letting her explore the space, and when she came back out from the bedrooms, he was lounging in an armchair. He stood when she entered the sitting room. “Anything you would like changed or added?”

“No, Cethin,” she said with a huff of disbelief. “It is beautiful and perfect and completely unnecessary.”

---