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He started into a run to head her off. She couldn’t seriously be planning to sneak into the castle. It was impossible. A building to his right was made of brick, and he made quick work of climbing to the roof. It would be much faster and easier to run along the rooftops. He leapt to the next one and skidded to a halt as another figure in head-to-toe black stepped into his path.

Scarlett had warned him. She had told him if he tried to follow her tonight that it wouldn’t be just anyone who had her back. He threw a wild grin at Death’s Shadow before him. She said nothing. No smart comments or wicked words came from her mouth. No, the woman before him merely pulled two scimitars from her waist. The swords whined as they came from the sheaths.

“You cannot let her go to the castle. She cannot possibly get in there unnoticed,”Sorin seethed. He took a step towards her, and she shifted into a defensive stance. “You are letting her go there like a lamb to slaughter.”

A low, sensuous laugh came from below that hood. “My dear General,” she purred, “how much you care for her.” Her voice of silk and honey caressed him, and he struggled against the effect it had on his nerves and instincts. She laughed again, taking a step towards him. “No, General, if I letyoufollow her, then I am allowing a lamb to go to slaughter. A Fae lamb, of course, but a lamb nonetheless.”

“You know I am Fae?” Sorin asked, drawing his own sword as she took another step towards him.

“I know a great many things that you think you are privy to,” she crooned, “and a great many more that you know nothing of.” She had stopped circling now, pausing before him, and sighed. “I suppose I should give you the choice. You can heed my warning and let her go tonight,Sorin. Trust that she will be fine, will see the prince, and will return to her room before dawn, or we can finally play together. I prefer the second option.”

He could hear the maniacal delight in her voice. He didn’t need to see her face to know she wasn’t lying when she said she’d rather fight him. But Sorin. Scarlett had told her his real name. “She is going to the prince? Crowned Prince Callan?”

“She is, and it isn’t the first time she’s done so. She doesn’t trust you with the information, but I see…what she does to you,” she said, beginning her circling again. “I sense not knowing what she is doing, what is at stake, will make you do something incredibly stupid.”

“Why didn’t you go?” he asked instead.

She huffed a laugh. “For two reasons. One, I am Death’s Shadow, Fae Warrior. If the wind whispers of my lurking around the castle, it would be trouble for more than just me. But if the prince’s former lover graces his presence, no one will think anything of it should she be seen.”

Sorin stumbled a step and cursed. “She was his—”

“That was the rumor for nearly a year, yes,” she laughed.

“Is it true then?”

“That is not for me to say.”

“You said there were two reasons. What is the other?” he ground out between his clenched teeth. He’d have to sort through his reaction to that other bit of news later.

“Why, I was needed here, of course.”

“For what?”

“A distraction.” And she launched herself at him, barely giving him time to raise his sword.

CHAPTER 16

SCARLETT

Scarlett heard the door creak open as she lounged in a chair beside the dark hearth in Prince Callan’s private bedroom. It was dark in the room as she sat and waited. Sneaking into the castle had been easy enough using secret passages and paths they’d mapped out years ago. Once she had left the Elite District, and she was sure Nuri had taken care of Sorin, she’d swung inside the carriage. Tava and Drake were inside, dressed for dinner at court. They needed to be seen arriving without Scarlett. They had chosen this night because of the dinner the queen was throwing for her court. All the Lords and Ladies and their families had been invited, which meant Mikale and Veda would be present, too. They’d be watching to see if Scarlett set foot inside the castle, and while they’d been distracted by Tava and Drake, she had indeed done just that.

She waited in silence as he strode into the room, and she listened, making sure he was alone. She heard him unbuckle his sword belt, and it thudded to the floor. She took a deep breath. Seeing Callan alone for the first time in over a year? She wasn’t sure how this was going to go. They had indeed been much more than friends during the time they worked together, and he did not know what had happened that night.

The bed sighed as he sat on it, presumably to toe off his boots. As she heard them thump to the floor, she steeled herself and uncoiled from the chair. “Hello, Callan.” The prince swore and lurched to his feet, grabbing a dagger from his nightstand. She stepped from the shadows, pulling down her hood and clicking her tongue. “While I understand that you indeed may want to run me through with that, I’m hoping we can talk first.”

“Scarlett?” Her name was a question on his lips, his arm dropping to his side as he took a step toward her. He took her in, from her boots up to her face. In the moonlight that filtered in from the windows, she could just make out his features. He was handsome, as a prince should be. His brown hair was longer than she had last seen it, falling into hazel eyes flecked with green. His high cheekbones were as beautiful as she remembered, and his shirt was unbuttoned revealing his toned abdomen. He must have unbuttoned it on the walk to his bedroom from the adjoining drawing room. She didn’t know what to say. What sheshouldsay. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but Callan spoke again, cutting her off. “Tell me you are really here. Tell me you are standing in my bedroom, completely from the shadows, like you used to do all those months ago.”

“I—” she started, but didn’t get another word out. She heard the dagger he was holding clatter to the floor, and then he was before her. His hands were on her face and his mouth was on hers. Her own hands came up and her fingers slid into his hair. He backed her against the wall, and she gasped as he slid his tongue along her lips, remembering the last time she’d been against this same wall. He was instantly inside her mouth, and she felt him against her teeth, the roof of her mouth. He pulled back, looking into her eyes. His own eyes were glazed and full of disbelief and lust.

This. This would be the most dangerous part of this evening. Not the sneaking into the castle. Not avoiding Mikale. Not distracting Sorin. This. Looking into his eyes and not allowing herself to give in to what they had been, and by the gods, she was failing.

Callan opened his mouth to say something again, but she stiffened and brought a finger to his lips. She looked past him to the open bedroom door. Leaning in so she whispered directly into his ear, she said, “You’re about to have company.” A moment later, there was a light knock on the hall door. “Go. Answer it.”

Callan made to step back, but his hands lingered on her face. “I am afraid that if I let you go, you will not be here when I return.”

“I will be here, Callan,” she answered softly, brushing her thumb along one of those flawless cheekbones. She felt him shiver slightly beneath her touch before he turned and walked to the drawing room of his suite, pulling his bedroom door shut behind him as he looked back over his shoulder at her.

Scarlett steadied her breathing and willed her hands to stop shaking. Nuri had been banking on this happening. “Give him what he wants, and he’ll answer any questions you have,” she’d said last night when they were going over the plan. Nuri and Juliette had never had issues with using their bodies to obtain what they desired. Scarlett, however, while she didn’t mind flirting to gain what she needed, had been far pickier about whose bed she crawled into. In fact, she had only shared a bed with the man now in the other room.