Page 42 of Lady for Embers

“You sparring, Darling?” Scarlett asked, plopping down beside him. He shrugged.

“I need to ask you something,” she said after she took another drink of water.

“What’s that?”

“It will be a hard question.”

He turned to look at her then, unable to read her expression. “Color me intrigued, Darling.”

“And I need this conversation to stay between you and me,” she added, her eyes ?icking to Sorin.

“Scarlett,” he started, his tone full of warning. “I will not be a part of keeping something from your twin ?ame and my prince and king.”

“I understand,” she replied. “Can you just hear me out ?rst? Then if you still think the same, I will tell him myself. He kind of already knows anyway.”

“Kind of?” he asked skeptically.

She pushed out a harsh sigh. “If Thia had lived—”

She paused when Cyrus sucked in a sharp breath. This was not at all where he thought this conversation was going to go.

“If she had lived, would you have still sought revenge against those who had tried to take her life?”

“I would not have stopped burning every last one of them until even the ashes were nothing,” Cyrus said, his voice low and lethal. “Simply threatening her would have been enough of a reason for me to end their lives, let alone nearly succeeding in doing so.”

“What if Thia had asked you to spare them?”

“What?” He balked at the mere idea of that. The deaths he had bestowed upon the Night Children who had taken Thia from him had not been quick nor painless. It had been hours of slow burning, torturous and precise dagger placement, and making sure those fuckers had felt every last bit of it.

“If Thia had asked you not to seek that revenge on her behalf, would you have still gone through with it?”

“Why would she—” He stopped speaking when he realized why she had to be asking this. “Sorin has asked you not to kill Talwyn.”

Scarlett’s lips were pursed, her features tight, and she nodded once in con?rmation.

Cyrus pushed out a long breath. “That is... a hard thing to ask of you.”

“It is. And you are the only one who could possibly understand.”

“If someone hurt you, Sorin would burn them from the inside out without question, let alone if they nearly succeeded in killing you.”

“That was my argument as well. He says we need to consider the fact that she is a queen. I assured him she would not be a queen at the end of this.” Her voice was as dark and lethal as his own had been moments ago. “It is unfair of him to ask this of you, Scarlett,” Cyrus said. “But at the same time, he helped raise her. He may not get along with her anymore, but he still cares for her on some level.”

“I can’t not kill her, Cyrus,” Scarlett said softly. “She nearly took him from me. If I had not been able to bring him back, I don’t know what I would have done. I don’t know what I would have become. I don’t know that I would still be breathing.”

“I know, Scarlett. I understand.”

“I knew you would,” she said. “That’s why I wanted to ask you. Why you are the only one I can talk about this with. Cass will try to convince me to let this go, to not give in to the rage. Eliza will encourage me to go after her. And Sorin... ”

“Has asked you not to go after her.”

“He has said he understands my need for this, but he would like to continue to discuss it. But, Cyrus, the idea ofnotdoing anything... ” She trailed off, staring out over the sea that so often called to her.

Cyrus wasn’t sure how to reply, and before he could formulatea response, Scarlett was bumping his leg with her knee. She jerked her chin, and Cyrus followed her gaze to see Sorin heading their way.

“Why do you two look thick as thieves?” Sorin asked when he came to a stop before them.

Scarlett gave him a small smile as she pushed back to her feet. “We sparring?”

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