Page 18 of Lady for Embers

PresentDay

Sorin paced the deck of the ship. She’d been gone too long. They should have been back hours ago. No, not hours ago. Two godsdamn days ago. He could feel her. She was weak and had only managed to get a few words down the bond every couple of hours. He knew she lived, but where the hell was she?

He’d stayed on this deck all through the night, waiting for her and Cassius to appear. That had been the plan. She and Cassius would go into the Black Syndicate. Scarlett would do her thing, and then they would Travel to him. He hadn’t liked it. They had fought about it—for hours— but in the end, he had lost. She had said that he needed to be on the ship so she knew where to Travel to. That was the only way she’d be able to ?nd them—through their bond.

There was also the fact that he was still recovering from nearly dying.

Sorin rubbed at his chest where Talwyn’s power had slammed into him. The raised edges of the scarring were rough against his ?ngers. The High Witch didn’t know if it would get any better.

He hadn’t been able to get to her. Tarek had kept trying to bind him with his fucking vines, and Scarlett had been drained. So godsdamned drained. She had been trying so hard to save Callan’s sister. To save Callan. To save them all.

But hearing her tell him to ?nd her in the After?

That pain was far worse than the bolt of energy that nearly separated him from her.

Seeing her face when she realized he was dying?

That had gutted him and was the last thing he remembered before losing consciousness.

The only thing he remembered during that week of sleep was shadows and white ?ames and embers calling him home, calling him back to her. He’d thought he’d been dead. He’d thought he’d crossed the Veil and was searching for her among the ashes in the voids between the stars, just as he’d always promised he would.

They’d told him how they had gotten out. How Cassius had been able to Travel them all out of there and back to the Black Halls. His heart had been beating, but barely. Scarlett had been in hysterics until Shirina had appeared and somehow made her sleep.

And when she had woken, Altaria had apparently been waiting for her. Sorin hadn’t exactly been thrilled to hear that detail, considering the eagle was bonded to a man that kept appearing in Scarlett’s dreams. No one knew what she was doing. Everyone had thought she’d lost her damn mind. Which wasn’t too much of a stretch since she’d nearly lost her twin ?ame.Hadlost her twin ?ame. According to the High Witch, his heart had stopped, and he had crossed the Veil.

But that wasn’t possible. There was no way to come back from the After once you crossed.

He’d woken to utter chaos. Inter-Court matters, Maraan threats, and plans to go to Avonleya dominated their time from sun up to sun down. Scarlett refused to use their Source bond right now, saying he was still recovering. It wasn’t until he’d been about to board this ship that he had convinced her to let him re?ll her power reserves properly. She’d still been hesitant, but based on the fact she was going to face Alaric, she’d conceded. On top of all that, for the ?rst time in his life, he found himself working on the same side as Azrael Luan.

All their planning and strategizing for invasion by the Maraans had been pointless when a week after he’d woken, Princess Ashtine had shown up and laid out a plan to keep the innocent people of their Courts safe while also sparing their own lives. He didn’t like the fact that it would appear to everyone, including their own people, that they had abandoned them and left. He didn’t like that it looked like they were running away. He didn’t like any of the plan actually, but it was how he had ended up on a ship that was the head of the small unit heading west to get help.

On two of the ships behind him, the orphans had been securedand kept out of reach of Alaric. Although their antics with the keys should have stopped any need for them, Scarlett hadn’t wanted to risk their safety. Especially not with Nuri in a place unable to protect them anymore since she was bound to Alaric. The plan with the keys had been in effect before the events in that throne room though.

He sank down, leaning against the wall of the ship in the mid-morning sun on the quarterdeck. He sat there utterly useless, waiting for his wife to show up.

To lay eyes on her.

To kiss her until she couldn’t stand.

“She is ?ne,” Cyrus said. Sorin looked up. Cyrus’s body blocked the sun, casting a shadow over him. “You would know if she wasn’t.”

“I know.”

Cyrus dropped down beside him. “This is all going to work out.”

“I know,” Sorin repeated.

“You do not sound overly con?dent.”

“He’s crabby,” came Eliza’s irritated drawl. “He always gets pissy when they’re separated. Remember when she’d go for those dinners with Callan in Solembra?”

Cyrus snorted a laugh. “Gods, you were a moody bastard those nights.”

“It was his own fault,” Eliza said. “We all told him to tell her they were twin ?ames. Multiple times.”

“Making him take responsibility for his poor choices,” Cyrus said with a grin. “I like it.”

Sorin grumbled curses under his breath, tipping his head back against the wall of the ship behind him, closing his eyes.

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