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She paused at the unexpected warning, and it cost her. Sorin yanked on her boot, and she fell onto her ass, feeling the landing radiate up her spine. She hissed a curse at him as she kicked him in the side with her other foot. Sorin grunted, and she scrambled forward. She pulled another dagger from her boot as she pinned him to the floor.

Another shirastone dagger.

She raised it above her head, but as she brought it down, aiming for his chest, a band of flames wrapped around her wrist abruptly halting her movement. “Stop it, Scarlett,” Sorin growled.

Scarlett found herself baring her teeth at him. “You’re a coward using your magic,” she hissed.

“No, Love,” he panted. “I am smart to use what I have at my disposal. If you would give me a chance to actually speak with you, I would tell you that I could teach you how to access your own magic so that you could do some actual damage to me when you are angry with me.”

“I did do damage to—” Scarlett paused. “Wait.Mymagic?”

A grin spread across Sorin’s face as he reached up and plucked the shirastone dagger from Scarlett’s hand. “You know you would have actually killed me with this if your aim had been true, right?”

The flames around her wrist disappeared once the dagger was out of her reach. “That was the point,” she growled, bringing her fist towards his face once more.

Sorin barked out a laugh as he caught her wrist and again flipped her underneath him. “I tell you that you have magic, and your focus is still on hitting me?”

“Apparently, I am not as easily distracted as you are,” she spat back.

“Apparently that is the case, so allow me to say it again,” Sorin replied. “You have magic, Scarlett. Strong and powerful magic.”

Scarlett let the words sink in, and she froze beneath Sorin. “You are lying.”

“Why would I lie about you having magic?”

“You’ve lied to me about everything!”

“No, Love. I have not lied to you about everything. Actually, almost everything I have ever said to you has been a truth. The only lie I have ever told you, aside from denying my queen’s identity, was that training you would be annoying and not worth my time. It has been somewhat annoying at times, but since you are currently lying underneath me, I would say it was definitely worth my time.”

Scarlett let out a scream of frustration. “I cannot believe you are flirting with me right now.”

“Why? I think I have made it pretty clear I find you attractive,” Sorin replied with a shrug.

“Oh my gods. This is so not the time,” Scarlett muttered.

“It’s not?”

“No, it’s not,” Scarlett snapped. “You can get off of me though.”

“That does not seem wise considering we just had a brawl, and you tried to stab me with shirastone not once, but twice,” Sorin answered.

Nuri let out a cackle of laughter, and Scarlett’s gaze swung to hers. “Nothing about this is remotely funny.”

“On the contrary, Sister,everythingabout this is funny,” she laughed.

Scarlett’s gaze swiveled to Cassius, who was leaning casually against the wall, one foot propped behind him, a grin on his face. When her eyes met his, he said innocently, “What? You told us not to help you.”

“You can both fuck all the way off,” Scarlett snapped.

“If I let you up,” Sorin began, bringing her attention back to him once more,“can we have a conversation that we have needed to have for a while now?”

“Will you explain to me why the hell Callan told meyouare the one ordering our children to be kidnapped and then shipped across the borders to the Fae Courts?”

“What?”

The shock Scarlett saw cross his face was genuine. There was no way he could have faked it. He slid off of her, extending a hand to help her to her feet. Cassius and Nuri were back on their feet as well, weapons drawn, as if they too just remembered what the brawl had been about. “I told you last night that I never harm mortals if I can help it. Why in the world would you think I would hurt innocent children?”

“Because you are Fae! That is what the Fae do! They hurt innocent people!” Scarlett cried.