Page 55 of Lady for Embers

She wrenched them back to herself, strengthening the dragon that was hundreds of feet above the ships and the sea below. Alaric’s lips tilted up slowly as she realized what his power was.

He couldn’t only crush hearts with his ?st. He could draw the life force from a person. Not from her apparently—or he would have surely done so already—but he could draw her magic from her, slowly drain it like the draining Mark he’d placed on her had done. He would absorb every bit of power she threw at him until she had nothing left.

“You are my weapon,” Alaric said coldly. “I created you. I will have you back one way or another.”

He nodded at something over her shoulder, and she looked behind her to ?nd the seraph from the ship hovering. She’d been so focused on Alaric, so blinded by rage, she hadn’t heard him follow them to the sky. She threw one of her ice daggers at him, but his ?re magic melted it before it made contact. Turning back, she tried to keep track of Alaric as well, but he was gone. He must have Traveled. It wasn’t safe to assume anything, but she didn’t expect him to stay and do his own dirty work. That was clearly what this seraph was for.

She swung her shadow dragon around to face-off with the seraph, discarding the ice dagger and pulling a knife from her belt, sending white flames winding around the blade. She cocked it back to throw at him.

“They instructed me not to kill you,” he told her ominously, “but I will hurt you if required to incapacitate you.”

“He really didn’t prepare you for me at all, did he?” Scarlett simpered, sending the knife ?ying, aiming for his chest.

He shielded with ?ames of his own, but she’d expected that. She’d sent her white ?ames hurling for him directly behind the knife. White ?ames met with orange ?re, and the result of those two powers colliding threw her backward.

Her shadow dragon was quick to react, swooping under her and catching her, but she heard the muf?ed cries from below, her name being yelled. No one could reach her here. No one else could get into the sky like she could. Not without some wind magic.

She turned back to ?nd Alaric hovering in the air again, and she cursed. She would not win like this. Not with Alaric’s newly revealed power.

“Come home, Scarlett.” His tone was clipped and edgy. “Come home, and your friends live.”

“I’ve stopped believing anything you have to say,” she spat back. Alaric’s features darkened, the sharp lines of cheekbones going taut.

“So be it.”

Then he was gone, but only for the time it took Scarlett to blink. He appeared again to her left.

With a dozen seraphs.

And again to her right with the same. And then above Briar’s ship with more. And above the ship with the children.

Traveling with that many people had to be draining him. How much longer could he keep this up? And how did the Maraans replenish their gifts for that matter?

It dawned on her then. The Fae. They had to use the Fae the same way the Avonleyans did. There had been times when she and Nuri and Juliette had been ordered not to kill Fae targets, but to bring them back to the Fellowship for questioning. Scarlett had always assumed someone else had interrogated, tortured, and then killed them.

But she’d seen some held in the cells beneath the Fellowship. She’d never thought anything of it, believing Alaric had a good reason for keeping them alive. He’d always given her an explanation for why her targets had to die. The only time he hadn’t was when he’d wanted her to kill Sorin to earn the ending of her stay at the Tyndell Manor.

And it had all been lies. Just like everything else this male had fed her.

He appeared in front of her again, anger and victory glinting in his dark eyes. He stretched out a hand, drawing her shadows to him, and she felt her shadow dragon drop slightly. How the hell was he doing that?

A cruel smirk appeared on his face. “You think you have me all ?gured out, don’t you, Death’s Maiden? I still have cards up my sleeve. I am just as much under your skin as you are under mine. You cannot win. You will not beat me, but you can save those you care for.”

“You can drain my power?” she asked, trying to stall for time while she ?gured out what to do.

“I can,” he answered. “I can draw it to me and strengthen my own.

The stronger the magic I draw from, the stronger I become.”

He’d been feeding fromher, she realized. He’d kept her locked up in the Fellowship for more than one reason.

With a wicked grin of her own, she replied, “Keep your cards close, Alaric. I’m coming for them all.”

Then she sucked every bit of her magic into herself and plummeted to the sea below.

She heard Alaric’s bellowed yell of fury and panic, her stomach in her throat, as she free-fell. She looked up to ?nd ?ve seraphs diving for her, their feathered wings pinned back. They were much bigger than her, gaining on her quickly.

She twisted so she was facing them, her back to the waves below, and sent white ?ames in their direction. Two shielded with ?ames, but the others veered off to avoid their feathers catching alight. She twisted back, ?nding the sea below much closer than she’d anticipated, and quickly grappled for her water magic. It wasn’t seamless enough yet though. She had been practicing ?ghting with her gifts, using her magic, but her water magic had always been her weakest power. Not that she was any less powerful with it, but she leaned on her Avonleyan gifts too heavily. They came more naturally to her, and she wasn’t as pro?cient with the Fae gifts that had been transferred to her.

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