Page 16 of Lady for Embers

Scarlett fell back against the headboard of the bed. Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse. How could they possibly prepare for this? They had no idea what magic they would be defending against.

The others were debating among themselves when Scarlett said to no one in particular, “We need to go to Avonleya.”

The entire room went silent.

“You want to go to Avonleya?” Eliza ?nally repeated.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice anymore,” Scarlett answered. “We can’t ?ght them alone. They’ve fought them before. They must know something we don’t.”

“Can’t you ask your dream friend?” Cyrus asked.

“First of all, fuck you. He’s not my dream friend,” Scarlett said, ?ipping him off at calling the Lord of Night that. “Second, I think we ?nish the plan that was set in motion in that throne room, and then yes, we sail west. Just as we were prepared to do if something went wrong. I would say Sorin nearly dying and Talwyn siding with them is something going pretty fucking wrong. This was always the plan. It’s simply time to go through with it.”

“But we’ve learned new information,” Eliza began.

“That changes nothing,” Scarlett said. “It only solidi?es the need to do this.”

“To clarify,” Azrael cut in. He hadn’t looked directly at Scarlett once since they’d all ?led up the stairs to this room when she’d refused to leave Sorin’s side. There had been a slight glimmer of surprise when he’d seen Sorin on the bed, alive and breathing, but nothing else from the Earth Prince. “You want all of us to get on ships and sail for a kingdom locked away? When they took the keys from you? How will we even get past the wards?”

“To clarify,” she said coldly, echoing his words. “They didn’ttakethe keys from me. It was deliberate that I had them with me that night.”

“Bullshit,” the Earth Prince spat. “Why would you willingly give him the keys?”

Her lip curled back as she studied him. Bronze skin, black hair, tall, and muscled. He ?nally met her gaze, earthy brown eyes locking onto hers. “Because I altered them, and he’s about to learn exactly what kind ofweaponhe created.”

“Here,” Cyrus said to Cassius, passing him a glass of blood.

“Thanks,” Cass answered, taking it with a nod from the chair where he sat beside the bed.

Scarlett only left the bed to use the bathing room. Otherwise, all meetings and discussions were had here, in this room where she could monitor her twin ?ame.

Hazel came every day. She didn’t say much to anyone. She’d look at Cassius, but he was too preoccupied with everything else to worry about his relationship with his mother right now. Scarlett wasn’t even sure if he still wanted to ?gure that all out. It was his deal to navigate. She was here when he needed to talk things out. And if they went to Avonleya, there was a very good possibility he’d be meeting his father as well. It was a lot for anyone to process.

Then there was the reason Cyrus was giving Cass his blood. She had no way to replenish her magic because her Source had nearly died and hadn’t woken up yet. Her Fae gifts replenished naturally with food and rest, but her Avonleyan gifts needed her Source. Once that Mark was put in place, blood from another Fae wouldn’t work. It was part of the Source bond, the trust required of each party to enter into such a thing.

Which made her only other option Cassius, her Guardian.

When her reserves got low enough, the Guardian bond would do its thing and detect the danger it posed, allowing her to draw from Cassius. Cassius fed from Cyrus, and she would draw from Cass. The problem was Cassius wasn’t Fae. Fueling her power that way wasn’t designed to sustain her like Fae magic would. More than that, Cassius couldn’t take enough from Cyrus to keep up with her never-ending well of power. If Sorin had actually died and crossed into the After fully, she would have been able to takeanother Source; but like her twin ?ame Mark, the Source Mark had only begun to fade. It had been restored when she had called him back. According to all the information they’d been able to ?nd on Sources, which wasn’t much, once a Source was Marked there was no going back. No second chances. They were an Avonleyan’s only source of truly sustaining magic unless death itself separated them.

To ease the strain on Cyrus and Cassius, they had resorted to only doing this cycle of feeding and drawing twice a day, but it was exhausting for all of them. She was conserving her white ?ames and shadows, but not having constant access to that darkness had her on edge. Well, more than she already was because the last days had been nothing but trying to ?gure out how to prepare for the incoming threat to their Courts. Azrael didn’t know when it was coming, only that Talwyn had said it was. Briar had tried to contact Ashtine, but even that had to be planned and carefully executed. As far as she knew, there hadn’t been any type of response yet.

“I don’t like the idea of only you and Cassius going into the Black Syndicate,” Cyrus said, leaning against the wall beside Cassius and crossing his arms.

Scarlett pushed out a breath. “I know you don’t. None of you do, but it makes the most sense,” she argued. “Cass and I know the ins and outs of the Black Syndicate. We know who to watch out for, and we know how to watch for Nuri. She could easily sneak up on any of you.”

“I wouldn’t sayeasily,” Cyrus grumbled.

She smirked slightly. “I would sayeasily. She did it more than once to Sorin. And didn’t she sneak up on all of you in the tunnels when you came to get me in Baylorin?”

Cyrus scowled. “That was different.”

“How?” Scarlett demanded.

“It just was.”

“I’m going to need a better argument than that to change my mind, Darling.”

“I’ll come up with one.”

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