Page 170 of Lady for Embers

“You cannot keep us here,” she retorted.

“When you can best me, I will tell you how to leave,” Cethin replied calmly, pushing back to his feet. His gaze cut to Sorin. “But you need to learn to do so quickly.”

Because soon she would not have a Source, and this would become in?nitely more dif?cult.

She let Sorin help her up, and he brushed her hair back. “Love,” he sighed. “The shadow dragon? Again?”

She huffed a laugh. She reached up and cupped his cheek as she said softly, “You held back on your power.”

“You let your temper get the better of you... again.”

“I know.” She blew out a long breath. “I had been thinking of Talwyn, and then he showed up and told me I can’t leave... I immediately felt caged.”

“I promised you no one would ever cage you again. I will keep that promise, Scarlett,” Sorin said, hands on her hips, pulling her towards him. “I know it was a petty argument, and I was picking a ?ght. I needed to get out the anger crawling under my skin. He was a convenient target until I can unleash it on her.”

His features tightened. “I thought we agreed you would not kill her?”

She ?ashed him a sardonic smile. “No. We agreed to discuss it more. Which we are currently doing. I still plan to kill her for killing you.”

“But I lived,” he insisted.

“And she will not,” Scarlett replied, dropping her hand from his cheek and stepping from his hold.

She turned back to Cethin, Cassius having made his way over to her. Razik had already shifted back, his wings and scales gone,pupils normal. Cassius had not, and she could tell by the irritation rippling off of him, he was annoyed by that fact.

“How are we going to do this? If either of us attacks each other, our Guardians will come out to play,” Scarlett said, hands going to her hips.

“Before you lost your temper, we were coming to discuss training,” Cethin chided, his arms folded across his chest.

Kailia was beside him, eyeing them all. She still had an arrow nocked, but her bow was lowered by her side. “The Ash Rider stayed behind?” she asked.

Scarlett looked up at Sorin. “He was taking Tula back to the caregivers,” he explained.

“The wild child?” Kailia asked, her head tilting with the ­question.

“Yes,” Scarlett answered, but then processed what she said. “What do you mean the ‘wild child?’”

“She is a Shifter.”

“We know that.”

“The Shifters answer to Temural, god of the wild and untamed,” Kailia said. “Has she Shifted yet?”

“No,” Scarlett answered slowly, not quite sure how they had gone from discussing training to Tula.

“She will soon.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Because the Shifters answer to Temural.”

Scarlett stared back at her, uncertain of how to respond because the female was not making any sense.

“There is another training arena in the Nightmist Mountains,” Razik said into the silence that had descended. “My...Ourfather is meeting us there. It is more conducive to training while airborne. The arena is also carved into the mountains itself, and the nightstone is more resistant to dragon fire.”

“While Cassius is training there, you and I can train here,” Cethin said. “This way the Guardians are not nearby.”

“But he will sense I am in danger,” Scarlett argued.

---