Page 129 of Lady for Embers

Tarek cleared his throat. “I suspected, but he sent me with some others to try to ?nd the source of this power in the Southern Islands. I was not told he had summoned you until after we were there. There was nothing I could do, and even if I had known beforehand...”

There was nothing he could have done anyway. He was bound to Alaric, had sworn a Blood Bond to the Maraan Prince.

“You have been ?lling his reserves. For how long?”

“Since Scarlett left the Fellowship. The tonic she took subdued her gifts, but he could still draw from them.”

“How could she not have known?” Talwyn asked, ?nally turning her head to look at him.

His hands were in his pockets, eyes staring at the sea as she had been. “He was discreet. On the nights she took a stronger tonic and slept for days. When they were in power struggles, and when he was caring for her after punishing her.” He shrugged because what more was there to say?

“You should really be commended, Tarek,” she said coldly. And he stilled, his eyes slowly dragging to hers.

“For what?”

“For committing so deeply to your role in his little power plays. For being willing to sacri?ce anything and anyone to get what you want.” She snorted a huff of disbelief. “Really, it is what I would do and have done myself. I cannot fault you. Not really.”

“Talwyn, I do not know what you think—”

She pushed unsteadily to her feet. “You do not know what I think? What I think, Tarek, is that you have been working with Alaric far longer than this last decade. How, exactly, did that rumor of Eliné’s whereabouts reach Sorin all those years ago?” A muscle in his jaw tensed as he watched her. “Did you play a role in luring her there in the ?rst place?”

“No,” he said quickly. “I had nothing to do with Eliné coming to Baylorin.”

“But you did lure Sorin out, knowing he would attempt to come for her. Ultimately leading to yourdeath,” she said.

His gaze cut back to the sea, and she huffed another sound of disbelief. “Well done, Tarek. Truly.”

She could see it all. Every detail laid out before her as if a veil had been lifted. He’d watched her for years. He was around often enough when she was with Azrael, even for some of their more private moments. He was Azrael’s Third. He sat in on meetings, heard things others were not privy to. It would not have been dif?cult to learn her weaknesses, to ?gure out the best way to get to her. All it would have taken was time and patience. Years of it. Years of sitting back, watching and waiting, soaking in the little things, committing them to memory. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to make a move— some type of tragedy or trauma. And when it began taking too long, he initiated it by planting information about Eliné.

Then he had been there, whispering encouragement to her dreams of revenge. Breathing words of disdain for Avonleya that only served to bolster her bitterness. Filling places left empty by her mother, Eliné, Sorin. Playing on her deep-seated fears of abandonment.

Oh, he had played her and played her well.

And now she was stuck. She had no one to blame for it but herself. She certainly couldn’t blame him. Not for a remarkably brilliant plan, and one she would not have hesitated to carry out herself if it would have served her own purposes. Her own actions were just as manipulative, just as callous and unforgivable. The only difference here was that she was the one being sacri?ced.

The ?nest of ironies.

“We can discuss this more tonight, Moon— Talwyn,” Tarek said, his tone carefully neutral. “He would like you to go with us to the Southern Islands, to see if you can discern something we may have missed.”

“I cannot Travel right now,” she snapped. “He made sure of that.”

“No, I... I know that. Lord Tyndell will take us all.”

“All?” She looked past him up the beach to where the Lord stood with Death’s Shadow and another woman she did not know.

“Who is that?”

Tarek glanced back before answering. “Sybil. She is the High Healer in the Black Syndicate. She was also Juliette’s mother.”

“Juliette? The Oracle?”

“Yes.”

“And she sides with Alaric?”

“Sybil has always sided with Alaric. Neither of them realized what Juliette was to become.”

Talwyn nodded, ?ling that away with all the other information she would need to try to process later tonight. When she was alone.

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