Page 248 of Lady for Embers

Cyrus

"Iexpected someone... not so dirty,” Nuri said.

Cyrus sti?ed his sigh at her complete lack of caring about anything.

The Sorceress moved forward one step, violet eyes brightening. “Child of the Night.”

“Contessa,” Nuri corrected with a saccharine smile.

The Sorceress sniffed the air, her brow furrowing. “You smell of other worlds.”

“I get that a lot.”

“By the gods, Nuri,” Cyrus muttered. He’d drag a hand down his face, but the shirastone shackles on his wrists didn’t provide for much movement and burned with the smallest shift of his hands.

But the Sorceress’s face had been ?lled with an eerie smile that Cyrus did not like one bit.

“You have a lover, Contessa.” Nuri scoffed. “I have many.”

“At one time. But now you have only one.”

Nuri’s mouth snapped shut, her features darkening.

The Sorceress’s eyes moved over Cyrus and Neve with disinterest before landing on Ashtine who was standing between him and Nuri. The princess was studying the Sorceress as much as the Sorceress was studying her.

The Sorceress stepped closer to the bars again, hunger glimmering in her eyes. “You carry power in your belly, Princess of Wind.” Then she let out a shrill laugh. “You broke the rules. Water and Wind. Wind and Water. What will they do about this, hmm?”

Ashtine’s head tilted. “Perhaps one should worry about what they will do to you, yes?”

The Sorceress’s laughter abruptly stopped, her gaze snapping back to Ashtine’s. She sniffed again. “You walk among the winds.”

“Not any longer.”

“The one in your belly will.”

“The other will sing to the water and see among the waves,” Ashtine agreed.

The Sorceress’s eyes dropped to Ashtine’s swollen belly again. “So much power,” she murmured. Then her head whipped to the stairwell. “You lurk in the shadows. Enter.”

Alaric stepped into the room that housed the Sorceress’s cell, an arrogant curve on his lips.

He had taken them from the Southern Islands straight to the Black Halls where shirastone had immediately been slapped onto all three of them. Cyrus had been escorted to the cells below the Halls, but Neve told him she had been allowed to attend to Ashtine in a guest suite. The Assassin Lord had even summoned a Healer to check Ashtine over. Neve had seemed surprised, but Cyrus wasn’t. This was how he operated. Scarlett had told him countless tales of how he had punished her and then taken care of her. Hurt her then soothed her. Broke her and then made her dependent upon him.

He had just ?nished a meager breakfast of cold porridge and a hard-boiled egg when guards had come for him. He’d been brought to the prison with Neve and Ashtine, Alaric apparently not planning to wait for Briar. The Maraan Prince wouldn’t be able to free the Sorceress, but he could talk to her. Why Cyrus had been dragged down here though, he hadn’t quite yet ?gured out.

The Sorceress’s eyes roved slowly up Alaric, and when they landed on his face, she said, “You are older than when I saw you last.”

“So are you,” he answered, hands slipping into his pockets as he sauntered slowly to the center of the room. “The last time I saw you, you were with child.”

The Sorceress hissed at him, a look Cyrus couldn’t decipher crossing her face.

“You do not look well, Gehenna.”

The Sorceress’s lip curled up into a snarl. “Do not call me that here.”

“You do not appear to be in a position to make demands.”

“If you wish me to aid you, you will rethink that position.”

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