Page 2 of Lady for Embers

“Breathe, Scarlett,” Cyrus said, his own tears spilling down his face. “You are not alone. There are still stars worth ?ghting for.”

Her answer was another scream, before she lurched away from him so suddenly he wasn’t prepared for it. She heaved into the sand beside them, and Cyrus gathered her hair back as she retched and retched and retched. Cassius was there, wiping her mouth in between bouts of hurling, and then she was crawling across the sand to Sorin’s body.

And Cyrus let her go. Because he did not get to say goodbye to Thia, and he would have given anything to do so. He wouldn’t take this from her. Maybe the mania that was coming for her at this loss wouldn’t be as intense as what he’d experienced if she got this chance.

He knew that was wishful thinking.

He turned to Rayner. “We need to make sure the chateau is prepared. I will stay there with her.” He glanced at her Guardian. “Cassius and I will stay there with her. Take Hazel. Put up the same wards he had her put up for me.”

Rayner nodded, moving to speak with Hazel, and Cyrus’s eyes went back to the queen. She was bowed over Sorin’s still body, ?sts curled into his tunic, and her brow pressed to his chest where charred ?esh was visible beneath the hole that had been burned into the fabric.

“You promised,” Scarlett was sobbing. “You promised therewould be no goodbyes. You promised there would always be a you and me. You promised.”

Then she was screaming those words over and over. “You promised! No goodbyes! Always be a you and me!”

They stood around her— Eliza, Cyrus, Cassius, Rayner. The Water Prince. The High Witch.

They stood and watched the Queen of the Western Courts break completely.

“She will not survive this,” Cassius said quietly. Cyrus barely heard him over Scarlett’s renewed screaming.

“You promised!”

“She can,” Cyrus insisted. “I did. She’s stronger than I could ever hope to be.”

“No goodbyes!”

“It is not that she cannot,” Cassius said. “It is that shewillnot.”

“Always be a you and me!”

“She wouldn’t... ” Eliza trailed off, swiping ?ngers across her cheeks, wiping away tears. “She will not do that.”

“She will,” Cassius said. “We can try to stop her, but she will ?nd a way to follow him to the After.”

“You promised!”

“She will want to. Gods, I know she will want to die,” Cyrus said, familiar agony crawling up from the depths of his soul. Agony he lived with every day. Heartache that had become a part of who he was. “That is why we will stay with her.”

“No goodbyes!”

Cassius shook his head, a hand carving through his brown hair. “She will ?nd a way to follow him,” he repeated, swaying on his feet.

Cyrus gripped his arm. “You need to rest.”

“I cannot leave her right now.”

“Always be a you and me!”

“Just sit,” Cyrus said. “I will give you blood in a bit. Can you wait? I know that’s a lot to ask of you right now, but—”

“Yes,” Cassius cut him off. “I can wait.” Briar helped him lower to the sand as he said, “Go to her.”

“You promised!”

Her head was tipped back now, and she was screaming her wrath to the night sky above them. The waves of the sea were crashingviolently against the shore, the icy spray misting across his face, dampening his clothes. Cyrus didn’t know if Scarlett was simply so weak that the most she could do was create turbulent waves, or if Briar was working against her power.

He knelt beside her again, pulling her into him once more. “He promised, Cyrus,” she sobbed. “He promised he would never leave me alone in the darkness.”

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