Page 39 of Lady for Embers

She nodded.

“Scarlett.” She brought her eyes back to his. “I am yours, and you are mine.”

“All the way through the darkness,” she whispered.

“All the way through the darkness,” he echoed, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her brow. “Sleep, Love. I’m going to wash up.”

She nodded again, watching him make his way to the bathing room. And when he closed the door and her heart lurched, she forced herself to breathe deep, in and out. She reminded herself over and over that he was still here, just in the other room. Talwyn hadn’t succeeded in taking him from her, but she wouldn’t fail at making her pay as if she had.

Chapter 9

Cyrus

Cyrus tilted his head back, his eyes falling closed, trying to avoid inhaling too deeply.

The godsdamn sea.

Nowhere to escape from the smell of salt water, the sound of gulls crying, even in the night.

No way to escape the memories.

Merrick and Thia. Thia and Merrick. It was nonstop these days. No matter what he did to keep busy. No matter what pressing issues they had to deal with or endless meetings and strategizing sessions they had, as soon as it was over, the memories surged, dragging him back under.

They had been on this godsdamn ship for weeks. How much longer could it possibly take to get to Avonleya? Fuck, it didn’t even need to be Avonleya at this point. Just somewhere,anywhere, away from the godsdamn sea.

Calling ?ames to his ?ngertips, he pushed out a hard sigh, opening his eyes. The star-?lled night sky stared back at him as he sat against the mast on the foredeck. He’d taken on the night watch. Again. He could never sleep at night these days. It was too quiet, and the quiet is where his nightmares liked to lurk.

They were all struggling. They were all barely keeping it together.

Briar. Azrael. The mortals. His king and queen. He was in good company at this point, he supposed. What was that saying? Misery loves company? That wasn’t true though. Company usually lessened the misery. Misery was more like a spirit luring you away from those who could keep you sane. Misery didn’t love company.Misery loved solitude. There it could grow and ?ourish and infest every thought.

A shadow fell over him, the ?ames he was toying with ?ickering at the movement. They illuminated a smirk on a face surrounded by brown hair that had grown back out since he’d cut it while healing from all his injuries. He didn’t have a patch on his eye tonight, his other chocolate-brown eye taking him in on the deck of the ship.

“No alcohol tonight?” Cassius asked, a brow arching.

“Eliza would kick my ass if I drank while on watch,” Cyrus said with a grin. He would never drink while on watch anyway, but a pissy Eliza was something no one wanted to deal with. Ever.

“That’s always entertaining to watch,” he replied with a shrug.

“You are a prick,” Cyrus grumbled, thinking of how Elizahadkicked his ass while sparring earlier that day. This whole lack of sleep thing was messing with him in more ways than one.

Cassius chuckled, lowering down to sit beside him. He stretched out the leg that still gave him trouble at the end of the day, massaging the sore spot.

“You still using compresses on that?” Cyrus asked with a pointed look at his leg.

“Sparingly,” Cassius replied. “Since we don’t know exactly how long we’ll be on this ship, I try to only use them when it’s really bad.”

Made sense.

Cyrus rolled the ?ames along his knuckles again, tilting his face back to the sky.

“How’s Scarlett?”

“She’s... doing her usual thing,” Cassius said. “Trying to keep herself busy to avoid dealing with everything that’s happened these last weeks.”

Cyrus made a noise of acknowledgement. “You’d think she’d have learned by now.”

“Oh, she has,” Cassius countered. “She used to repress and stab things. Now she keeps busy until she figures out how to verbalize her thoughts without daggers.” He paused before adding, “For the most part.”

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