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“There is not enough room to relocate thousands of people, Scarlett,” he said quietly. “Furthermore, the Courts may all be Fae,but they are not exactly welcome in each other’s lands, especially when going from the western courts to the eastern courts and vice versa.”

She had not expected that. “It sounds like there are a lot of problems among the Fae Courts,” she said contemplatively.

“Indeed,” was Sorin’s reply.

“And you finding this weapon would ease some of them?”

“Finding the weapon would change everything.”

“What is it? This weapon?”

“That is what I am here to try to figure out.”

“You don’t even know what you’re looking for?” she asked, turning to look at him once more.

His eyes met hers in the briefest of glances. “I have no idea what I am looking for.”

CHAPTER 8

SCARLETT

There was blood everywhere. On her hands. On her bare torso and legs. Her dagger lay beside her as she hugged the body that had stopped breathing to her chest. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t breathe around the sobs.

But this dream was different. The cold hand didn’t grip her elbow and yank her to her feet. He didn’t whisper in her ear. No, the beautiful man was here. He had been appearing in the hallway. Not here. Not in this room.

He crouched before her as she clutched the body to her chest. He reached out, and she felt his finger under her chin, forcing her gaze to his. This close, she could see that the silver in his eyes seemed to swirl like a glass orb. He tilted his head slightly to the side as he studied her.

“I can see why he has been trying to keep you hidden,” he said. His voice was gentle and coaxing. Her entire body almost relaxed as the sound of it washed over her. She said nothing.

Without taking his eyes from her, he pried her hands from the body and, with surprising gentleness, set the woman off to the side. Then he went to his knees before Scarlett, kneeling in the woman’s blood just as she was. “Such beautiful, unrelenting darkness,” he murmured. He brought his hand to her cheek and stroked his thumb across it. Scarlett couldn’t move as she watched him. As he watched her. “Such untapped power that draws all to you like a siren,” he purred.Then he leaned in closer to her so he whispered directly into her ear, “If only you would let it all out.”

She lurched back from his closeness and almost fell backwards, but he was fast and had a hand behind her, catching her before she could crack her head on the stone floor. A smile curved up the side of his lips and movement caught her eye. She whipped her head to the side, looking over the dead body to the wall, where a woman was chained who had not been there before. She was in the same stone chains that Scarlett had been chained with that night. That still encompassed her wrists. The woman was bloody and beaten, but she still recognized her and the mahogany hair. This was the woman she had seen Sorin speaking with.

Scarlett finally managed to speak. Her voice was hoarse and gravelly from the screaming on that night. “Who is she?”

“The embodiment of everything that was taken from us,” he replied. “From you.”

“From me?” she turned to look at him, but his silver eyes were fixed upon the woman. A faint smile played on his lips, and the woman began screaming.

Scarlett’s head whipped back to her. She couldn’t see any new wounds, but the woman was so covered in them, she wouldn’t be able to tell if any were new anyway. She knew that kind of scream. Her assignments had made those kinds of screams.

Dracon had made those kinds of screams.

Her mother had made those kinds of screams.

“Stop,” Scarlett whispered. Then louder, she turned to the man, “Stop!”

His eyes met hers, and the woman’s screams turned to ragged pants. She seemed to be crying a word around gasping breaths, but Scarlett couldn’t make out what it was.

“She will stand between us.”

“Who are you?” she rasped out.

“All in due time,” he answered. Then she was being lifted to her feet, and he draped the cloak that had fallen from her naked body over her, wrapping it around her tightly. “As for him,” he spat the last word. “He will pay for what he did to you on this night. For what he is trying to usurp. They all will.”

Scarlett didn’t understand. If he was referring to—

She jerked back at the contact of his hand brushing hair from her face. “So much strength and power they try to keep locked up,” he murmured. He bent then,picking up her dagger from the ground. She watched as he drew the dagger across his forearm and couldn’t stop the small gasp that escaped from her lips. Faster than she could track, he gripped her wrist, hard so that she couldn’t pull away. “Shh,” he soothed as he pressed a pressure point on the inside of her wrist, causing her hand to spasm open. In a flash, he cut a small gash across her palm. “Those fools are trying to break you,” he murmured. “But they forget.”