Page 242 of Lady for Embers

“That was different,” he sputtered.

“Perhaps,” she conceded, “but you still decided. Sometimes the choice is an easy one. Sometimes it is an excruciating one that will haunt you for the rest of your days.”

“She is not well, Scarlett,” Briar pleaded from across the table. “I cannot leave her in his hands. I will not do it.”

“I understand, Briar,” she said. “We will not leave her there. We will ?gure this out. A different agreement can and will be reached.”

“He said he will only negotiate with you in regards to Talwyn from here on out,” Razik supplied.

“I am sure he did,” she answered.

Callan relaxed the smallest amount. For now, it appeared Tava was not going back to Lord Tyndell, that she would ?gure something else out. Of course she would. This was Scarlett. She had ?gured out ways out of harder situations than this. She had outsmarted the Assassin Lord before. She could do it again.

Beside him, Tava was watching everything unfold around her. Listening to every detail like she always did. Hands in her lap, shoulders back and poised. Ever the Lady she was raised to be. Drake was at her side. Hale was next to him. Both of his fellow kings had solemn looks on their faces as they listened to the Fae and Avonleyans debate the merits of meeting Alaric’s demands. Then the conversation turned to what counteroffers could be made.

But if Alaric’s demands were a life for a life, how could they possibly meet them?

The light knock on his door had him setting aside the book he’d been reading. Or was trying to read. It was well into the night, but he couldn’t sleep. Like every other night. If it wasn’t the memories of the last few months, it was that they had left that meeting with nothing decided. There had not been mention again of agreeing to trade Drake and Tava, along with Briar, for Ashtine and the babesshe carried, but the fact that nothing else had been agreed to told him the possibility was still on the table.

He padded barefoot to the door, not surprised in the slightest to ?nd Tava on the other side. He was surprised, however, to ?nd her in her robe rather than a dress or even pants and a tunic.

She gave him a small smile. “I thought you would likely be awake.”

“You thought right,” he said, stepping aside so she could enter.

She slipped past him, and he closed the door behind her. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” she answered dismissively, already settling onto the sofa.

He didn’t believe her though. She’d hardly said anything at that meeting outside of formalities. When they had all ?nally departed from the council room, it had been late. They’d all taken dinner there, not wanting to pause discussions for a formal meal. Then he, Drake, and Tava had been taken back to the Greybane estate afterwards, and he hadn’t seen her or Drake since.

“What do you think of everything that was discussed today?” he asked, settling down beside her.

“I think there are a lot of hard decisions to be made,” she answered.

“What do you think those decisions should be?”

“I do not think there is a right or wrong choice to be made here. No matter what decisions are made, people lose. Lives are risked. Some are sacri?ced. There is no answer where everyone wins.”

He reached over, brushing golden hair over her shoulder. “Scarlett always seems to ?nd a way to win.”

“Does she?” Tava asked, eyes falling to the sash of her robe she was ?ddling with.

“What do you mean by that?”

“The things she has achieved? Her wins? They have come with great sacri?ces, Callan. You look at her and see a queen who has won, but do you think of what it has cost her?”

“I was not insinuating things were handed to her.”

“And you see her wins, but what of her losses?” Tava continued. “She did not win when she was forced to kill Juliette. She did not win when she was forced to ?ee Baylorin to escape Mikale. She did not win when Tarek found her. She is not winning when her twin ?ame is about to lose his magic.”

“Tava, slow down,” Callan said in alarm when her voice startedquavering the more she spoke. He slid closer, pulling her into his arms. “Tell me what is wrong.”

She let loose a shuttered breath. “I am sorry.”

“Do not apologize to me,” he insisted, hand running up and down her back. “But please tell me what is wrong.”

She shifted slightly, her cheek pressing to his shoulder. “It was an intense discussion today. For both Drake and me. He was never part of these types of discussions back home.”

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