Page 100 of Lady for Embers

“How did none of us know this was here?” Azrael asked, examining a mirror across the chamber.

“We took little interest in mortal customs,” Sorin answered, studying some writing on the tomb he stood in front of.

Scarlett was stopped in front of a mirror, the chamber re?ected back to her, but something was off. The re?ection didn’t seem to match up perfectly. The stone walls were... almost darker than the ones here. She stepped closer, as if she could get a better viewing angle, which was ridiculous considering it was a re?ection.

“That one always seemed different to me,” Callan said. “I have only been here twice, but I remember, even as a child, this mirror feeling... different.”

He trailed off, and Scarlett knew what he meant, her head tilting as she studied it more.

“Why would you have been here as a child?” Cyrus asked from their left, standing in front of another tomb. This one appeared tohave more than the usual birth and death dates etched into the stone.

“For the burial and entombment of the last of the Middell bloodline. The king, queen, and prince,” Callan replied, moving to stand next to Cyrus. “The crown went to one of King Dalton’s dukes when the young prince died.”

“They died the same day?” Cyrus asked.

“The king died of a wasting disease. When they learned what he was sick with, it was too late to contain it. Everyone who’d been in contact with him died within days. The queen and his son died only a few days after him. The prince was only four.” Callan paused, rubbing his hand over his jaw. “At least, that was the story we were told. Obviously now we know it was... ”

“Alaric,” Scarlett supplied simply.

The chamber fell silent again, each lost in their own thoughts as they examined the room. She really needed to get that Mark off of Cassius. It was a miracle no one else had shown up yet. She was about to turn away when movement in the re?ection caught her eye.

Scarlett looked back over her shoulder; expecting to see one of the others, but there was nothing. She turned back to the mirror and froze.

A male was staring back at her, eyes of the deepest emerald green she had ever seen. Raven black hair fell forward onto his brow, and his hands were in the pockets of pants that looked like they had been tailored to ?t him perfectly. He wore a white shirt with buttons up the front and some sort of cloth was tied around his neck, hanging down the front of the shirt. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and his head was cocked as he studied her the way she was studying him.

And she suddenly realized why this mirror felt off, felt so different. It was a mirror gate.

So where was this male? In Avonleya with the Lord of Night? In one of the Courts? Another territory? Another continent?

She raised a hand, slowly reaching towards the smooth expanse of the glass. Emerald eyes darted to the movement before he slowly drew his hand from his pocket and brought it up to meet hers.

Then he smirked wickedly, and darkness seemed to seep from his ?ngertips.

She watched the darkness, pooling like ink on his side of the mirror, and she gave him a smirk of her own as shadows coiled upfrom her palm. Then she brought up her other hand, placing that palm against the glass too, and letting white ?ames ?air from the tips of her ?ngers.

The man’s eyes narrowed, a frown pulling on his full lips. ­Suddenly his eyes went wide, his lips forming around a warning, and Scarlett whirled just in time to wrap her shadows around the wrist of Death’s Shadow as she cocked a dagger back.

“I was wondering when you would show up,” Scarlett sneered, her lip curling as she stared into honey-colored eyes.

“Sorry I’m late, Sister,” Nuri replied, her usual mania shining in her eyes. “My invitation seems to have gotten lost.”

Her shadows wrenched Nuri’s hands down and behind her back where Scarlett bound them, the dagger clattering to the ground. Cyrus and Azrael had moved to her side, each clamping a hand onto her upper arm.

“Who brought you here?”

Nuri tsked at her. “Gods, Scarlett, you know I can’t tell you that.”

“How long have you been following us?” Sorin demanded from where he’d made his way to Scarlett’s side.

“I saw you enter the archway,” she answered.

While the others continued to ask her questions, Scarlett glanced back over her shoulder; but the male in the mirror gate was gone, just the re?ection of the chamber looking back at her once more.

“He sent me to see what you are looking for,” Nuri was saying in response to one of their questions, and Scarlett turned back.

“Then why did you let yourself get caught?”

“I wanted to catch up.”

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