Page 147 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“I fled to the Underbelly. I couldn’t return to the palace; she would’ve tried to kill me again—not to mention the first assassin wasn’t actually dead. He chased me and I jumped out my window to escape him. Better death than what he was going to do to me.”
Reina’s posture stiffens. “Why didn’t you try to write us, or anything? Why did you justleaveus?”
“Reina,” Alyse chides softly. “Listen to yourself. She would’ve given away the fact that she was still alive. The queen would’ve found her. She had to stay in hiding until she was strong enough to try to kill her.”
Scarlett scoffs. “But I wasn’t strong enough when I tried, and it earned me these.” She pulls up the sleeves of her black sweater to reveal deep runic wounds that never healed right.
Zane runs his knuckles down the marks and the scars flicker with teal magic. “You’re lovely,” he murmurs, and she smiles sadly.
“It was you the night of Lily’s homecoming ball?” Reina asks and suddenly I’m lost.
Scarlett nods. “Zane and I both faced her in the Dark Room, and I could’ve killed her—”
“Possibly,” Zane snaps.
Scarlett purses her lips. “If someone hadn’t stopped me from killing myself in the process, she very likely would have died with me.”
“Lumi talked about trying to find you so they could have two weapons against the queen,” Reina says, her voice somber. “I thought maybe I could be released from my fate.”
“Always scheming, that groundskeeper,” Lily says as she plops back into her seat.
Alastair takes the cup from her hands before she can drink and sets it aside. She pouts at him and he raises an eyebrow, shaking his head at her.
“Thank the gods she is,” Alyse says. “We wouldn’t have half the resources we do now without her.”
Reina leans her hands against the table. “So, you thought you would become a gang lord to get the power you needed to overthrow her?”
Scarlett shrugs. “It was the best plan a fifteen-year-old girl could come up with.”
Reina looks at me with pleading eyes as she chews her lip.
“I’m not going to tell you what to think of your estranged sister’s story,” I say, feeling sympathy for Scarlett.
Reina groans, “Great help you are.”
“Rei, it was the best I could come up with, too. My people waited ten years for rescue while they were enslaved,” I say, surprising everyone in the room, me included. I didn’t realize how much sympathy I had for Scarlett. Her story is bleak.
Reina swallows hard and nods. She looks at her oldest sister. “Don’t expect it to be like it was—I don’t even remember what that was like.”
Scarlett laughs, but there’s a sheen of tears in her one good eye. “I’m happy to get the opportunity to make something new between us.”
She lifts her glass again. “To family?”
Zane stands beside her and lifts his cup. Lily is back on her feet, Alastair keeping her steady as he pours a very small amount of ale into her glass. Alyse and Kazimir stand too.
“Well?” Lily asks, looking at me.
Reina grabs my hand with a smile. “Come on.”
I rise beside her and raise my glass, a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. These people hardly know me, and I’m not even their race, but they want me to be part of the family.
We raise our drinks and chant together.
“Family.”
After dinner, I let Reina and Alyse talk alone for a while. Scarlett sidles up beside me, arms crossed.
“Thanks for that,” she says, and it sounds forced.
