Page 229 of Lady for Embers

He crossed the room, lowering to his knees before her and reaching up to thumb away her tears. She wouldn’t look at him, staring past him into the ?ickering ?ames.

“Love,” he prompted.

“You told me you would not stand in my way, and yet you did, Sorin.” Her eyes slid to his, icy blue irises staring back at him. She’d used so much magic ?ghting Talwyn. Too much. It had been a foolish move to do so, but he would even give her grace on that. She’d needed to release that rage and wrath, and she had done so. But now? Now they needed to discuss how she had let that ragecloud her judgment, what that could have cost them. But he didn’t speak yet, wanting her to say everything she needed to before he took his turn.

“This was the one thing I begged you not to ask of me, and you did anyway. It is unfair of you. You hurt me, Sorin,” she whispered.

“You asking this of mehurts.”

“I know it does. I am sorry, Scarlett.”

“If roles were reversed, you would not be questioning this.”

“I understand why you feel that me asking this of you is unfair.”

“It feels... ” She huffed out a breath, stray hair ?uttering.

“Tell me, Scarlett. I can handle what you have to say to me.”

Her gaze went back to the ?re. “It feels as if you are choosing her over me.”

“Never,” he said vehemently.

“But you are,” she insisted, her voice cracking. “I need this, Sorin. Not just because I want revenge. I felt your emotions when I went to Rydeon without you. Something felt fundamentallywrongabout letting me go, about not being there to protect me. That is how I feel about this, Sorin. It feels wrong, in so many ways, not to make her pay for this. Not to take retribution for my husband and twin ?ame.”

“I understand what you are saying, Love. I hear you. But even as wrong as that felt, to stay behind while you went to ?ght, I still did it. Because that was what was best for all of us. That was not about just me, and this is not about just you,” he replied. “Can I ask you something?” She nodded once, gaze still on the hearth. “Will killing her stop the memories from surging up? Will making her pay keep the nightmares at bay? Will this vengeance change anything?”

Her eyes slowly slid back to his, and she blinked at him. “If you are asking me to be the bigger person here, Sorin, I am not that. I do not want to be that. I cannot let this go. I will not let this go.”

“I am not asking you to, but perhaps we ?nd another way to make her atone for this. She is already suffering, Scarlett.”

“She deserves nothing less than death.”

“I failed her, Scarlett. I failed her in so many ways—”

“You are not responsible for her choices, Sorin.” Her voice was rising, and here was the anger he had been expecting. “She is decades old. She was a queen. She made her choices. She can suffer the consequences of them.”

“I helped Eliné raise her,” he said, trying to get her to understand.

“And she turned her back on you, your Court, and Briar’s Court by association,” she said, uncoiling from the chair and stepping past him. “Again,shemade choices, Sorin. Choices you are not responsible for.”

He got to his feet, facing off with her.

“She does not deserve mercy, Sorin,” she said, hands raking through her hair. “Not mine. Not yours. For fuck’s sake, shekilledyou!”

“I will not kill her.”

“You do not have to,” she spat. “I will. I would have, if you had not shown up.”

Kailia, of all people, was the one who had told him what was going on, that Scarlett had Talwyn in the arena. He’d been on a veranda with Luan and Briar discussing possible battle strategies for when they were back on the continent when Kailia had shown up. They’d immediately gone to ?nd Cethin, who had Traveled them all to the training arena just in time to see star?re winding down Scarlett’s arm to end Talwyn. He had tried to reach her down the bond, but she had either been too lost to the call of vengeance or the bond was too weak to reach her at that point.

And Talwyn’s eyes, when they had landed on him, were wide with shock and disbelief, but also relief and regret. She had clearly been left in the dark about his survival. Had been living with the guilt, thinking she had killed him.

Even after everything she had done, Talwyn hadn’t always been this way. Scarlett was right. Talwyn had made her own choices, needed to face the repercussions of her actions, but he would always feel somewhat responsible for her. His own actions pushed her away. He had turned his back on her as much as she had turned her back on their Courts. He had forced her to take steps in the wrong direction that led to paths he never imagined she’d follow. His action and choices had consequences just as dire.

He could still see her swinging her feet while she ate frozen cream on the counter. He could still see the way she lit up the ?rst time she’d controlled her wind magic. He could still see her taking the throne for the ?rst time, and he’d been so damn proud of her, even if he’d been reeling over losing Eliné and never actually told her as much.

And would he even be here with Scarlett right now if it weren’t for Talwyn? If she hadn’t sent him to the mortal kingdoms to ?nd a weapon he did not believe existed, would he have found his twin ?ame? Or would they still be lost in their own darkness, trying to ?nd the way alone in an unending starless void?

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