Page 151 of Lady for Embers

A sardonic, ?at smile pulled at his mouth as he poured another measure of alcohol, glancing down at his left hand where a Mark had once stood out starkly against his skin. Here he sat, alone in his room again. Feeling everything. Feeling too much. Feeling...

Just feeling.

And maybe he wasn’t ready for this, just like Cassius had said.

Because all he was feeling right now was pain and grief and sorrow that he worked so godsdamn hard to keep locked away, as if that’s what the Fates had found him sodeservingof.

There was a knock on the door before it opened without invitation, and Sorin came in, shutting the door behind him. He’d changed into more casual clothing and had lost his boots, barefootnow. He moved to the dresser, pouring himself some liquor, before tossing some silver and gold marks onto the small table beneath the window where cards were still scattered from last night. Dropping into the chair, he began to gather cards.

“What are you doing?” Cyrus ?nally asked.

“Shuf?ing cards.”

Cyrus’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“I need a distraction from my wife meeting someone I have never met and know nothing about. I have a best friend who is lost inside his own head at the moment, likely believing things that are not true. And I have a purse full of coins that I intend to double after I hand you your ass in cards,” Sorin answered, beginning to deal.

Cyrus walked stif?y to the table, sinking into a chair, fully expecting him to try to talk about things more. Sorin was a ?xer. He problem solved, always looking for the way everyone could win and everyone would be happy. It was part of what made him an excellent prince.

But it made him annoying as fuck when a person just needed a minute to breathe and think and—

“I also have these,” Sorin said. There was a burst of ?ame on the tabletop. When the ?re receded, two rolls of mugweed sat there.

“No shit,” Cyrus said, a true grin spreading across his face as he reached for one. “Don’t we have important meetings or something later today?”

Sorin shrugged, snatching up the other one and lighting it with a ?ame from his ?ngertip. “I’ll be ?ne for dinner.”

Cyrus lit his own before picking up his cards and scanning the hand he’d been dealt.

Maybe that hand wasn’t as bad as he’d thought.

Chapter 29

Scarlett

Scarlett stepped from the air with Cassius beneath the largest arch of the castle. She knew where Tybalt was waiting, butshe hadn’t been expecting to be the one to accompany Cassius here. Not with how close he and Cyrus had been getting, and certainly not when they’d arrived at the arena to ?nd the two with their lips locked together.

“Cass?” she asked tentatively. “Are you sure you want me here with you?”Instead of Cyrus. She didn’t add it, but he would know that was what she was asking.

“I did not mean to kiss him,” Cassius said, looking past her out at the ravine that separated the castle from the other side. “My magic was just so... out of control, and I knew if I didn’t, I would hurt him, and gods...” He met her gaze, his eyes still red, and pupils vertical. He still had his wings. They’d felt leathery and were almost iridescent when the sun hit them just right. “I would not be able to live with myself if that happened.”

“Oh, Cass,” she said, looping her arm around his and resting her head against his shoulder. “It is okay to want something for yourself. You do not have to justify—”

“I do need to justify it, Scarlett,” he said. “He is working through his own shit, and instead of giving him the time and space to do that, I... ”

“Listened to him? Was there for him in his darkness?”

“Scarlett,” Cassius sighed. But before she could argue further, he said, “Let’s get this over with.”

“Yeah, all right,” she said, unwinding her arm and taking a step back from him. She was looking forward to this as much as he was.Commander Tybalt hadn’t known of Cassius’s existence until a few months ago, so ?ne, she was willing to excuse him for not being there for Cass. But they had been here for ?ve days, and he was only now seeking out his long-lost son?

Her own family discoveries had been pushed to the side after everything that had happened with Mikale. How he had trapped her in that dream, touched her, been about to do more when she’d heard Sorin calling for her, pulling her from that dream like he had a year ago. She’d spent the entire next day wrapped up in him, in their bond. She hadn’t cared about anything else. Not about her new brother, her parents, anything she’d learned lately. It had been just him and her and the calm that came from being in their own little world.

They’d talked some the next day, but more so about Sorin’s waning power levels and what they were going to do about it. Sorin had told her all about how Cethin had dream-walked beyond the Veil, begging Sera?na for help. Then he had told her what the cost of coming back likely was.

They had been sitting on the sofa in their sitting room, ­Scarlett wrapped tight in a blanket as she’d listened to him. His face had fallen into his hands, and it was perhaps the first time Scarlett hadever seen him so vulnerable. She’d unwound the blanket fromherself and crawled into his lap, straddling his hips, and taken his face in her hands. Tears had glimmered in his eyes, and she’d leaned in, brushing her lips against his.

“I am so sorry, Love,” he’d whispered against them.

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