Page 204 of Lady for Embers

And that was what she didn’t let herself think about. How if she would have asked, he would have helped her ?nd a way out of all this shit.

How if she would have let him, he would have not saved her— no, he would never rescue her— but he would have stood by her. But she couldn’t see past the heritage he’d kept hidden. She couldn’t see past her need for revenge to see it for what it was: a need to prove herself and show she was good enough, that she didn’t need those who had abandoned her.

Azrael had never needed her to prove anything to him. That was what she avoided thinking about the most.

She was her own worst enemy.

If only she’d realized that before, so many things could be different.

But they could be different now. If Nuri was truly going to let her out of here, she could do exactly what the Night Child suggested. Change what she could in the time she had left. She couldn’t bring Sorin back. Scarlett would still kill her for that. But she could get word to Briar. She could start there. It wasn’t only about Ashtine anymore. If Alaric got to her and released the Sorceress, the tides would shift in this war, undoing all the progress Scarlett had made.

“What do I need to do?” Talwyn asked, stepping right up to the bars, her ?ngers wrapping around the cool steel.

Nuri’s smile grew wider, almost in approval at whatever she saw on Talwyn’s face. “You let me drink.”

Before Talwyn could process those words, Nuri’s gloved ?ngers were wrapped around her wrist, wrenching her arm through the bars. Her fangs sank deep into Talwyn’s arm, and Talwyn cursed under her breath.

But insane or not, Nuri was godsdamn brilliant. With Talwyn’s blood in her system, she wouldn’t be able to harm her, even if Alaric ordered Death’s Shadow to kill her.

Nuri drank far more than was necessary, and Talwyn’s other hand tightened around the bar as she held perfectly still for her. When she ?nally stepped back, dragging her arm across her mouth, she sighed. “Gods, I haven’t drunk straight from a Fae since the Fire Prick.”

Talwyn recoiled at the mention of Sorin.

Nuri just smirked at her and held out her hand. When Talwyn lifted her own to her, it trembled slightly, but Nuri gripped the shirastone ring between thumb and fore?nger and slid it off her hand.

Talwyn audibly sighed in relief at feeling her magic ?are to life in her veins. A part of her had worried that it hadn’t been true, that Scarlett hadn’t managed to remove the magical wards, but here she was, wind and earth at her ?ngertips and no Semiria ring on her hand.

“Move,” she said darkly to Nuri, and Death’s Shadow slowly backed away.

Winds coiled and swirled in her palm, and when the force behind them was stronger than a tempest, she blasted the steel door to her cell clear across the dungeon.

Nuri tsked. “So dramatic.”

Talwyn stepped from the cell, jade eyes meeting honey-colored ones. She didn’t know what they were now. They weren’t friends, but they weren’t enemies. They were something in between.

“Until we meet again, foolish queen,” Nuri said, taking a step backward.

Talwyn nodded, preparing to Travel, but she paused for the briefest of moments. “Thank you.”

Nuri disappeared at the same moment Talwyn stepped into the air. She emerged in the Water Court at Anahita’s Springs. If the Wind Court’s sacred place was the top of the Shira Cliffs, then this was the Water Court’s. The water was said to be blessed by Anahita herself, and it was where the Water Fae imbued weapons with magic. Not only water magic. Any weapon could be imbued here. The element of the Fae dipping the weapon into the waters determined what magic would imbue the weapon.

It was also connected to Briar and Sawyer, two Water Gazers. She just needed to catch them near some water. But ?rst she neededto eat. Because now that she was free, she needed her magic back at full strength. The sound of rustling foliage had her spinning, a wooden stake forming in her hand, but what stepped from the trees surrounding the springs made her drop it to the ground.

It was a spirit animal. Not hers.

But his.

Rinji stopped several feet away from her, observing her.

We are not done, you and I, and I will come for you as soon as you let me do so.

Some of his last words clanged through her thoughts, and she felt two tears slip free. The ?rst she had cried in... She didn’t know the last time she’d cried. But when Rinji closed the distance between them, she tentatively reached towards him. The red stag huffed softly. Warm breath caressed her palm. She slid her hand down his broad neck, ?ngers sinking into his coarse fur.

They stood there like that for several minutes until Talwyn whispered, “We have work to do, Prince.”

Chapter 39

Scarlett

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