Page 7 of Lady for Embers

“That is not possible,” came a gasp from the High Witch.

And she saw it then. She saw the smallest movement of Sorin’s chest.

Hazel was dropping down on Sorin’s other side, white light ?aring from her hands as Cyrus’s hands slipped from her cheeks.

“His heart beats, yes?” Scarlett panted, continuing to pour power into him. She didn’t dare stop until she knew for sure.

“It does. It should not, but it does,” she replied.

“You can heal the wound now? You can... heal him,” she managed between labored breaths, her gaze shifting to the High Witch. “Tell me that, Hazel. Tell me that he will live.”

Violet eyes met hers. “His heartbeat grows stronger with each passing second. I do not know what deal you made with Arius in your dreams or what cost is to be paid, but he will live, young queen. Your twin ?ame will live.”

And that was all she needed to hear.

She collapsed beside the one star she was unwilling to live without, nestling into his side, and slipped back into her blessed darkness.

Chapter 3

Cyrus

"What just happened?” Cyrus demanded as he looked upon his king and queen unconscious before him.

Again.

He still knelt from where he’d crawled to Scarlett’s side, trying to get her to stop drawing power from Cassius. She’d been pulling from him too deeply too quickly. He’d known she’d eventually get to this point—this place of being too hysterical to understand reason—but fuck. He had not anticipatedthis. He had not anticipated she would be willing to risk Cassius to save Sorin. Saving him should not have been in the realm of possibilities, and yet—

“She brought him back,” the High Witch said curtly, her power ?aring as it continued to wrap around Sorin.

“How?”

He couldn’t look away from his prince and friend. His chest was indeed rising and falling, albeit shallowly. The charred skin on his chest was slowly beginning to heal as her power combined with whatever the hell Scarlett had done.

And the girl who had turned their entire world upside down when Sorin had brought her across their border was curled next to him, hand ?sted in his tunic and face buried in his side. Her breathing was erratic and labored, as if she’d just ?nished a sparring match. Even in sleep, he could see the grief and worry etched into her features.

“I do not know,” the High Witch said. “But I can imagine the cost was great.”

“Cost? What cost?” Eliza asked, appearing at his side. “Like the cost of a Blood Mark?”

The High Witch shook her head. “This was not Blood Magic.”

“Then what was it?” the general demanded.

The High Witch just shook her head again, lips thinning. “I do not know, but I have seen Blood Magic used on many occasions. This was not that. Give Cassius blood. He is weak, and I cannot tend to him at the moment.”

Cyrus twisted, ?nding Cassius ?at on his back in the sand, chest heaving. He rushed to his side, kicking up sand as he crawled the short distance from Scarlett’s side to his. This entire night he had been going back and forth between the two. Trying to console Scarlett. Giving Cassius blood. Trying to stop Scarlett from spiraling into grief. Trying to get her to stop drawing from the male before him. Now back to give him more blood.

“Cassius?” His eye was closed, the patch still covering the other one. Cyrus wasn’t sure if he’d slipped into an unconscious state from his magic being dragged from him so quickly or if he was just resting. When Cassius said nothing, he reached over, shaking his shoulder gently. “Cass?” A groan was his answer, but at least it was something. “You need to drink.”

“How is she?”

Cyrus huffed a laugh of disbelief, beginning to roll his sleeve back more. “You are weakened to the point of not being able to sit up, and you ask of the girl who did it to you?”

“I am her Guardian,” he replied dryly.

“She sleeps,” Cyrus said ?atly, pulling a dagger from his side.

“Maybe we should move before doing this?” Rayner suggested, the cup they’d used for this same purpose only an hour earlier in his hand.

---