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“I did not,” she snapped. But she had. She totally had.

“You have truly been eating?” Callan asked doubtfully.

Scarlett had forgotten he was there. “Yes, Callan. I have eaten pears and bread and cheese all morning,” she answered.

“Come, Prince,” Eliza said, walking by with her mare. “Grab Eirwen and bring him for some water.”

Scarlett watched as Callan reluctantly grabbed Eirwen’s lead.“Thank you, Callan,” she said quietly. Callan only nodded curtly at her, and she watched him follow after Eliza. When he was out of earshot, she said to Sorin, who was now crouched before her again dabbing ointment around the wound, “Eliza always seems to show up when Callan comes around.”

“Does she now?” Sorin asked. She could see the hint of a small smile tug up on his lips.

“Yes, she does. Why?”

“She knows that I can be…temperamental,” he said, setting the jar on the ground and picking up the fresh bandage he had balanced on his leg.

Scarlett arched a brow at the response. “She is your buffer?”

“Between me and the prince? Yes,” he answered, affixing the new dressing.

“Only the prince?”

“I suppose she would step in if needed with the guards, but Finn and Sloan seem to wisely keep their distance and try to keep their prince in line,” Sorin answered, standing.

“And me?” Scarlett asked.

“What about you, Love?”

She got a little lost in those golden eyes as they settled on her once more. “Is she a buffer between us as well?”

The tiny grin played on his lips once more. “No, Love. She would likely prefer to interfere with you and me, but she will not.”

“Why?”

“Because she knows how temperamental I can be,” he answered, bending down and grabbing the jar of ointment. “We are leaving shortly. Go walk around a bit, but maybe put your shirt down first.”

Sorin turned and headed in the direction of Eliza, presumably to put the ointment back in the saddlebag. Scarlett slowly lowered her tunic. She walked in the opposite direction along the stream and followed it around a little bend. She could faintly hear the others, and she sighed heavily, bringing her hand to her side. She would never tell Sorin how much the wound actually ached and bothered her. Not having his arm supporting her on Eirwen had put extra strain on it,and she really hoped he wasn’t overselling the Healers in the Fire Court.

There was a soft rustling behind her, and she whirled around to find nothing but trees and bushes. She scanned them, suddenly glad Sorin had given her a dagger this morning. Gods, she had retreated so far into herself since Mikale had come for her. She could hardly remember who she was anymore. The handle of the dagger felt foreign and familiar all at once. She glanced back to the way the others were and, seeing no one, she slowly lifted her hand.

The shadows swirled and wove in and out of her fingers as if dancing among them. They slid and wrapped along her forearm, twisting around the three stars that were inked on her flesh. The words of Mikale in the cellar came back to her.

She bears their Mark, he had yelled to Lord Tyndell.

She traced the stars with her finger, mulling over his words. Could he have meant the beautiful man she often saw in her dreams? The one who had given her the Mark? Who had called her Lady of Darkness?

That was impossible. How could Mikale possibly know any of that? No one else had made any comment about the Mark. If Sorin had seen it, he had never said anything.

The snapping of twigs and crunching of leaves had her hand flying to her dagger once more as Sorin emerged from around the bend. He stopped short when he saw her, and she couldn’t read the emotion on his face.

Probably because there was no emotion to read. He had a mask on like she had so often seen him wear when they had first started training.

“We need to get going,” he said roughly, watching her approach.

“Okay.” She closed the distance between them, but she stopped a foot in front of him, tilting her head up to look into his eyes. “Are you all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be all right, Scarlett?”

“Well, for one you called me Scarlett,” she answered, biting her lip.