Page 52 of Lady for Embers

“I will be ?ne with Drake if Callan chooses to be elsewhere,” Tava replied. “It has long been just Drake and me. This will be no different.”

Callan’s gaze snapped to her. She was poised, her hands in her lap, but her eyes were on Sorin, chin high. He knew her though. He’d watched her work, watched her use words as her weapons rather than daggers. She excelled at speaking in double meanings, and this was no different. She was giving him an out. She was offering him this path to end the courting that had never really started.

And a part of him wanted to take it.

She had gone to Drake instead of him when their father had released her, and Callan didn’t blame her. He’d hardly seen her these past weeks, and when he did see her, they only spoke of Eva. She would ask if he needed anything, and he would send her away, saying he was ?ne. He was so lost in his own grief and trauma, trying to process it all, and she was giving him that time and space, offering to take this additional expectation off of him.

Would she wait for him? It was wrong to ask her to. And what if Scarlett was right? What if he came out so different at the end of all this that he and Tava simply wouldn’t work in the end? He didn’t want to drag her down while he navigated this darkness. It wasn’t fair to her. It wasn’t fair to either of them.

“Well, your Majesty,” Scarlett said, drawing him from his thoughts. “Where do you desire to be stationed?”

He swallowed thickly, glancing at Tava from the corner of hiseye. No emotion showed on her features. She was the portrait of a demure lady, the role she had been raised to play. Submit to the men in her life. Bow to her king. Be seen, not heard.

“Make your choice, Callan,” Scarlett said when he didn’t answer. “We need to get people into positions.”

He looked down at Eva in his lap, her light brown hair braided down her back. Tava must have done that.

“With her,” he ?nally answered. “I will stay with and protect her.”

Chapter 11

Scarlett

Scarlett stood on the main deck of their ship, Sorin and Cassius at her sides. Rayner, Sawyer, Eliza, and Neve were guarding the children and the Baylorin royals. Briar and Auberon were on Briar’s main ship, along with a few other warriors from Briar’s Court. They’d strategically placed the rest of their small forces on the supply ships. They’d had to be crafty with their maneuvers, not sure where exactly the seraphs Lord Tyndell had mentioned were at on the ships. Maybe they didn’t truly have them stationed on every ship. Maybe the Lord had been bluf?ng. It was entirely possible, but they had to treat his words as the threat they were intended to be.

Cyrus had stayed on their ship with them, standing at Cassius’s side, and Azrael was here too. Mainly because Scarlett didn’t trust the Earth Prince not to try to return to his queen’s side by whatever means necessary. She’d been contemplating how to handle the prince this last week. If she was going to bring him into Avonleya with them, she had to be certain he wouldn’t try to pass information back to Talwyn. She had to be sure he was on their side. Time and again she kept coming back to the Blood Bond, but she couldn’t bring herself to demand that of him.

Which left her back at the beginning with no viable options.

But now wasn’t the time to think about this. She’d gotten Callan and Eva below deck, despite Callan being a royal pain in her ass. She’d spoken the truth in that short meeting. He would be a liability. Instead of being solely focused on killing Alaric when he showed his face, her attention would be divided if Callan had stayed above. She’d threatened that she’d instruct her warriors not to make him a priority, but it had been a lie. Everyone knew that,even if no one had called her out on it, but it had gotten her point across. It’s not that the mortals were useless, but they weren’t prepared to ?ght magic-wielders.

Now they stood and waited. For what? She didn’t know. They couldn’t possibly think that a legion of seraphs could just descend on them and win. Alaric was too smart for that.

But how had they found them?

That had been the single question that had been running through her mind over and over. How had they been able to pinpoint their exact location in the entirety of the Edria Sea? They had been sailing for weeks. They could have literally been anywhere west of the continent. So how had they done it?

“You should ?ll your reserves,” Sorin said quietly into her ear.

“You need your magic as much as I need mine,” she countered. “I will not draw from you right before battle.”

“Yours are depleted from training this morning. I have some to spare.”

“No.”

“Scarlett.”

She tipped her head up to look at him. “Silver eyes, Sorin,” she said, pointing to them. “My reserves are ?ne.”

“Fine is not good enough to face Alaric,” he retorted.

Scarlett rolled her eyes. “You’re lucky I’m even letting you stand beside me right now. I should have made you stay below with Callan and Drake. If Lord Tyndell hadn’t already seen you, you would be.” A growl emanated from him, and she patted his chest mockingly. “Glad to see you’re back to being an animal.”

“If you think you could keep me from your side, you are delusional,” Sorin snarled.

“If you think I’m going to draw power from you and weaken you before battle,youare delusional,” she snapped back. “I will not even entertain the idea of doing something that will increase the likelihood of having to repeat the experience of that throne room, so do not ask it of me again.”

Sorin’s golden eyes softened.Scarlett,came a soft caress down the bond.We are going to need to work through this, my love.

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