Page 222 of Lady for Embers

“I need to speak with Briar,” Talwyn repeated, her tone hardening. “Was your education lacking? Do you not understand the meaning of the word no?” Scarlett asked sweetly, her shadow panthers reforming into snakes at her feet.

“It is not for me,” Talwyn spat, her eyes going to the writhing shadows on the ground. “It is for Ashtine.”

“Then tell me,” Scarlett replied. “I will relay the message.”

Talwyn shook her head, blocking Scarlett’s next strike. Scarlett’s sword sliced clean through her wooden spear.

“Only Briar,” Talwyn gritted out, her air magic managing to shove Scarlett back several feet. “I trust no one else to get thisinformation to him. If I can right only one thing before my death, then it shall be this.”

“Then you will fail. Unless you can manage to draw blood,” Scarlett sneered again, her shadows looping around Talwyn’s ankle and yanking hard.

The Fae Queen went sprawling to the ground. Her sword skittered a few feet away.

An arrow of ice left Scarlett’s palm, grazing a shallow cut along Talwyn’s thigh. She hissed between her teeth, and Scarlett smiled tauntingly at her. “Must not be that important, hmm? Or do you simply fuck over and fail everyone in your life these days?”

Talwyn opened her mouth, clearly about to spout something back, but she snapped it closed just as quickly. She reached for her sword, getting back to her feet.

Talwyn lunged ?rst this time, and then it was all swords clanging and magic blocking. Scarlett slowly and steadily shredded through her shields. Talwyn’s wind and earth magic never even dented hers. But Scarlett was waiting for it. She was waiting for that crackling energy to make an appearance. Was mentally preparing herself to see it, face it.

Knew that would be her tipping point.

The moment that magic appeared, everything Scarlett was holding back would be unleashed.

Scarlett whirled, blocking Talwyn’s sword with one hand, the long knife in her other slicing deeply into Talwyn’s forearm.

Talwyn cried out sharply at the pain, but managed to keep her grip on her sword as Scarlett yanked her knife free. She felt a few drops of blood land on her cheeks, and her smile only grew at the feeling of them, warm and sticky.

Something was sliding along her legs, and she looked down to ?nd vines snaking up, as if Talwyn thought she could bind her. Scarlett met her eyes, her head tilting slightly as her shadow armor appeared, shadows clinging to her being as thorns appeared on Talwyn’s vines.

Scarlett tsked under her breath. “One would think you’d have been trained better, Talwyn. This is how you draw blood with vines.”

Talwyn’s cries of pain were indeed music to Scarlett’s ears.

Her shadow snakes slithered up Talwyn’s legs, fangs of razor-sharp ice biting into her skin as they went. They wound aroundher calves, her knees, her thighs, moved up her torso, blood welling and smearing along their path as they went.

They dissipated somewhere around her ribs, and Talwyn was left panting, her sword lowered at her side.

“Any time you want to start begging, I’m listening,” Scarlett said.

“Please let me speak to Briar,” Talwyn said from between her teeth, straightening as she spoke.

“No.”

Scarlett lunged again, and Talwyn barely got her sword raised in time to block her swing, another burst of wind slamming into Scarlett’s shield. It didn’t even faze her. She spun, landing a kick square in the center of Talwyn’s chest, and the female choked on a cough.

“Scarlett, please.”

Ah, there it was. The beginning of her song.

She bared her teeth, tossing her sword aside. Star?re ?ared in her palms, and she sent it at Talwyn, who was forced to dive out of the way. Her wind wouldn’t suck the air from those ?ames.

She was still on the ground as Scarlett advanced, prowling forward like the panthers that took form beside her once again. Talwyn dragged her sword up to block her. A panther snatched it in its large maw, wrenching it from her grip.

Talwyn scrambled to her feet just in time for Scarlett to land another kick to her stomach, knocking the air from her lungs.

“Please,” she gasped out, and Scarlett smiled wider at hearing her gasp for breath.

At hearing that word come from her lips again.

---