Page 172 of Lady for Embers

Tybalt cleared his throat. “I understand you know far less of the gods’ history than we anticipated. We did not realize how thoroughly the Maraans had managed to rewrite and control history over there these past several centuries.”

“You were outside the Wards,” Scarlett argued. “How could you not know?”

“I was secluded to the Witch Kingdoms as a prisoner. Keeping a male apprised of things happening on the continent was not a priority for them,” Tybalt replied.

Scarlett hummed in acknowledgement, resuming the stabbing of her pear tart. She frowned when she realized it was now crumbs on her plate and no longer edible. Setting her fork down, she leaned back in her chair. Sorin’s arm was draped across the back of it, and his ?ngers immediately began brushing along her shoulder and neck.

“Why does Razik’s shift look different from Cassius’s?” she asked.

Tybalt’s arm froze midway to bringing his ale to his mouth again. He glanced at Razik, and when Scarlett did the same, she found hard, cold sapphire eyes glaring at his plate like it had personally offended him.

Tybalt cleared his throat, slowly lowering his mug. “Their gifts look different because of their differing bloodlines.”

A chair scraping against the ?oor echoed in the room, and Razik was striding for the balcony doors that overlooked the mountain range. No one said a word, but Cethin, Kailia, and Tybalt all watched him go with some variation of pain lingering in their eyes. From where she sat, she could see Razik step up onto the railing as he pulled his tunic over his head and tossed it to the ground. He leapt, his wings appearing at the same moment, then he was soaring for the mountains.

“His father is my brother,” Tybalt said. “His mother is a Shifter. Because of that, he is able to balance his Shift. He can shift into a full dragon when he desires, or he can call forth certain elements of it. Cassius will only ever be able to partially shift.”

“And you?” Scarlett asked.

Tybalt smiled warmly at her, evidently ?ne with indulging her curiosity. “I either look like this or am a fully shifted dragon. There is no in between for me.”

Well, that was something she wanted to see.

“Can all descendants of Sargon shift in some way then?” Sorin asked, beginning to wind a piece of her hair around his ?nger.

“In some way or another, yes,” Tybalt answered. “It was how we were designed.”

“Designed by the Fates?” Scarlett drawled, rolling her eyes.

“The Greater Gods created the Lesser Gods,” Tybalt said, and Scarlett had to admit, his patience seemed in?nite. What she imagined a decent father would be like. Would her father have been like him? Patient and kind and warm? “They each had their favorites though. Sargon was Arius’s. They were close. Like brothers. Together they created the dragons, and thus Edjer and Ranvir. It is why the dragons are brothers. But only those created by Sargon can shift into dragons. They are Arius’s elite guardians and where the Guardian bond comes from.”

“Like the Maraans are to Achaz?” Scarlett asked, her ?ngers drumming on the table.

“Clever girl,” Tybalt answered with that same warm smile. “Yes. The seraphs were Achaz’s answer to the dragons, and the Maraans were his answer to the elite guardians.”

She hummed in thought. “And you are close to my mother, then? Since you are her Guardian?”

Tybalt and Cethin exchanged loaded looks again before Tybalt said, “We are close in that she is my Ward and I protect her, but we are not close in the way I have witnessed you are with Cassius or the bond between Razik and Cethin.”

“She does not con?de in you?” Scarlett asked, her ?ngers ­pausing.

“No. She does not. If she did, I would hope she would have told me about Cassius as soon as she had discovered him.”

“So you do not know why she deemed it necessary to hide me across the sea with a Fae Queen?” Scarlett said bitterly.

He gave a small, sad smile. “I do not know the answers you seek, Scarlett, but the Fae Queens? They came with Saylah to this world.”

“What?” Cethin and Scarlett demanded at the same time. “Why have you never spoken of this before?” Cethin asked.

“By the time I returned to this side of the Wards, it did not seem relevant,” Tybalt said. “Esmeray and Henna were gone. I did not know Scarlett was hidden with Eliné until long after shehad been killed. Queen Talwyn was the one we needed to worry about.”

Queen Talwyn.

Scarlett’s lip curled back at the mere mention of her.

Easy, Love, Sorin soothed down the bond.

“What do you know?” Cethin asked, and Scarlett could hear the annoyance in his tone. She couldn’t blame him.

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