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“It is something we have indeed kept heavily guarded,” he replied calmly, taking another step. He was maybe six feet from her now. “It is something we kept hidden from view for nearly ten years since Eliné was so tragically taken from us. Something we keep a close watch over. We know how coveted the power it holds would be and sought to keep it from the wrong hands. We kept it hidden deep in the Black Syndicate, protected by those who also have power in their veins. When it became apparent that it was no longer safe there, I arranged a deal with the Assassin Lord to bring it to my home. To keep you safe.”

“You lie,” she whispered. She felt cold at the sound of her mother’s name. The entire cellar felt cold. She could see her breath in front of her in a cloud.

“Do I?” the Lord asked with a raise of his brow. “He knows.” He nodded his head towards Sorin. “Why has he not returned home yet? Why has he risked his life to get you out before he goes?”

Scarlett’s eyes slowly drifted back to Sorin’s. She couldn’t read the expression in his golden ones when she met his gaze. It seemed like a mixture of dread and horror and regret.

“He will hand you over to his queen as soon as you cross the borders, Scarlett,” the Lord said gently. He was close enough to touch her now, was slowly raising his hand, reaching for her dagger.

“No,” Sorin snarled. “No, I am not going to give you toher.”

“Then what do you plan to do with me?” Scarlett didn’t quite recognize her own voice. It sounded hollow and empty and… broken.

“Her Darkness, Balam. The shadows are growing thicker,” Mikale cut in coolly.

It was true. Her shadows were becoming thicker and darker, cocooning around her. The sound of his voice snapped her entire attention to him. She had forgotten he was even here.

“Hold your tongue, boy,” Lord Tyndell snarled.

But the damage was done. The slight distraction was all Sorin needed. He was moving in less time than it took her to draw her next breath. The dagger he was holding flew from his hand, and Lord Tyndell had to jump to the side to avoid a direct hit to his chest. The dagger missed his heart but embedded in his shoulder. The Lord bellowed in rage.

Before the dagger had even hit him, though, Sorin was before Scarlett. With one hand, he gripped her wrist, his fingers pressing onto a pressure point forcing her to drop her dagger. He caught it easily in the same hand while his other grabbed her right hand and nearly ripped her mother’s ring from her finger.

Scarlett jerked her knee up to hit him in the groin, but he had already jumped back and flung a hand out. A wall of flames erupted between them and Mikale and the Lord. It was so thick, she couldn’t even see them on the other side.

“Scarlett, you need to listen to me,” he said, slightly winded.

“Listen to you? You have lied to me. Again!” she shrieked, her hands balling into fists at her sides.

“I haven’t, Love. You know this. Lies have never once crossed my lips when speaking to you,” Sorin replied. Urgency rang in his voice. “I swear I will explain everything as soon as we are out of here.”

“So you can hand me over to your queen?” Her voice was steady and calm as she slipped into a role she had played for years. She plunged into the place she went when she was taking care of assignments. Cold. Calculating. A place of dark calm.

“No. I already said I will not give you to her, Love.”

“Stop calling me that,” Scarlett seethed. A tendril of her shadows started slithering across the stone floor towards Sorin.

He noticed too and stepped back. Something hardened on his features.

Fury. Cold fury.

Hewas mad ather?

It was kindling to her own temper and that careful control she had been leashing snapped entirely.

“So tell me,General, what do you plan to do with me then? Take me the Fire Prince?”

“Would you rather stay here and be handed back over tohim?” Sorin snarled, flames flickering in his eyes. “Back over to Mikale? The man who has raped you? Or stay here and be given back to the Assassin Lord who has beaten you? Who has nearly broken you?”

“He has done nothing compared to whatyouhave done to me,” Scarlett screamed, her hands fisting over her chest where the pain was so deep a dagger may as well have pierced her soul. He hadn’t denied what she’d said, and that was all the confirmation she had needed.

He planned to take her to the Fire Prince.

Sorin’s face seemed to drain of color as it slackened in shock at her words. He was breathing hard, and Scarlett could make out the shapes of Mikale and the Lord prowling along the other side of the flame wall. He was weakening, she realized.

Sorin drew a shaking breath. “Scarlett, you need to make a choice. Choose to stay here. Choose to be given back to Mikale and shoved back into a cage where they control you. Or come to me and we go to Cassius and Nuri. Come to me, and I will take you somewhere they cannot touch you.”

“Somewhere they cannot touch me, but the Fire Prince can? So you can take me somewhere to be shoved into a different cage with other masters?” she sneered.