Page 227 of Lady for Embers

“Oh my gods,” Scarlett whispered in horror.

Rayner had stopped speaking, and Sorin wondered if he would tell her the rest. If he would tell Scarlett the choice the Baroness had given him.

“They were killed. One that night, one... later,” Rayner said, his eyes still closed as he spoke. “I killed ?fty people and nearly did not make it out, but I managed to escape the cliffs that night. Not without a cost though. The Baroness had taken precautions and had an enchantment around the cliffs. The spell took my memories of the place to keep me from returning. But I swore to her I would be back, that I would be back to kill them all, and I kept that promise.”

“How did you ?nd it? Remember it?” Scarlett asked.

“I spent an obscene amount of money on elixirs and Witches who swore they could help. Little bits came back to me but not enough. Not until I found my way to the Oracle.”

Scarlett started, her legs dropping to the ?oor. “You told me you’d never seen the Oracle.”

“I lied.”

“You lied?” she repeated.

Rayner arched a brow. “You were not my queen then. You were adamantly refusing the throne. I was under no obligation to speak of my past to you. I still am not.”

“You saw one of your sisters when you saw the Oracle, didn’t you?” Scarlett asked in a hushed breath.

Rayner nodded once, eyes hard as he held her gaze.

“What happened to all the people there?”

Rayner’s head tilted to the side, a predatory glint ?lling his eyes, and Sorin leaned closer to Scarlett on instinct. He knew Rayner would never harm her, but he also knew what Rayner had done, what he was capable of.

“Many of the people being used did not make it out alive. Some of the overseers were shuf?ed around wherever Deimas saw ?t.” A sharp smile tipped up on the corners of lips. “Some found their hearts ripped from their chests or other vital organs suddenly misplaced.”

“You are The Reaper.”

They all turned to Kailia, who was sitting up straight now, gaze ?xed on Rayner. His attention went to her, eyes narrowing. “How do you know that name?”

Kailia was visibly trembling, and Cethin ran a hand down her back as he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her shoulder.

“I...” Her throat worked as she swallowed, and she cleared it. “I got out because of you.”

“When?” Rayner asked.

“One of the nights you came. You entered one of the... ” She paused, her amber eyes darting to the window before she lifted her chin. “You came to one of the rooms. There were many of us in there. You killed all the overseers. I was young. Only nineteen. But because of you and another, I got out.”

“This was truly you?” Cethin asked, protectively drawing Kailia back into his side. “You are The Reaper?”

“That is what they began to call me,” he answered. “When I was ?nally able to return and begin freeing some of the people, it took me decades to get them all out. I do not know how many I was able to save. I know that more died than lived, but I did what I could. Deimas was gone by this time, but from what I have gathered over the years and from what I have learned since meeting Scarlett, I am starting to believe many of the children ended up on the streets of the Black Syndicate. That if the Assassin Lord is Deimas’s son and he knew he would need powerful blood to create these rifts or feed his own power, he already had a source of that blood. When it became clear I was coming for them, Alaric moved them.”

“But the children of the Syndicate were born well after this happened,” Cassius argued from where he was seated at a small table, Cyrus next to him.

“Keep people in poverty and they never learn how powerful they truly are. It becomes a cycle. Alaric is smart enough to control that cycle and keep it going,” Rayner said. “Add the magical wards that prevented their magic from surfacing and kept them from entering the Staying, they would have never known. And with Alaric’s ability to sense power, he would have known who the most powerful were.”

“But why would Ashtine say to ask the Ash Riders how to ?nd her?” Scarlett asked.

“Because we bear the brands to enter the cliffs,” Rayner answered.

“What brands?” Scarlett asked, eyes raking over his visible ?esh.

“Magical brands. Beneath the skin. They only appear when we are near the cliffs.”

“Then how did Ashtine get in?” Cassius asked.

“Abrax is with her,” Briar said, the ?rst words he’d spoken since moving to the window. “He must have found a way to get her in.”

---