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I love you.

Not fast enough to escape the crushing ache that exploded in her chest at those three syllables.

She was across the castle grounds in less than five minutes. Two minutes later, she was rounding the corner where Maximus was indeed waiting for her. No words were exchanged as he hoisted her up onto the horse and set off through the streets. By horseback, the manor was only a five-minute ride when the streets were deserted. He stopped a block away, and she slid down, sneaking back into the manor the way she had come. But when she crept into the hall from that unused study, it wasn’t her room she went to. She stopped one door before hers and slipped in without even a knock.

The room was dark, the windows wide, letting in the morning breeze. She leaned her head against the door, closing her eyes and breathing deep but an abundance of scents bombarded her.

“See, you Fae ass,” Nuri drawled from the darkness. “She’s home and fine.”

“Can you not see from underneath that hood?” came Sorin’s voice, full of annoyance. “She is clearly not fine.”

Scarlett didn’t even have the energy to ask what he was doing here. And when Cassius’s voice came quietly from her left, “Seastar?,” she didn’t care who was in the room. She dropped to her knees and let the tears come. Cassius was instantly before her, his arms encircling her, stroking her hair.

“Everything went as planned then?” Nuri said grimly from across the room.

“Get. Out,” Scarlett seethed, nearly choking on a sob. She shivered as the temperature in the room seemed to plummet. “I don’t want to see your face or hear your voice.I will find you in two days’ time. Do not send for me.”

“We needed to do this, Scarlett,” she said quietly, but there was no remorse in her tone.

“Get the fuck out.” It took all of Scarlett’s shredded self-control not to scream the words at her.

She must not have made any movement to leave because Cassius growled, “I cannot believe you let her go do this.”

“How long are you going to coddle her, Cassius? We need her.”

“Do you know what she has done for you? What she has sacrificed for you?” Cassius snapped, his own voice rising.

“No one asked her to,” Nuri retorted. “I can look after myself.Theycan’t.”

“You are a bitch,” Cassius said, his voice dropping low. “Go. She’ll come to you when she’s ready.”

After a few moments, when her sobs had lessened, she lifted her eyes to Cassius’s. Worry and fear and sadness filled them as he searched her face. “Do you think they suspect anything?”

“No. They were in the banquet room all night, and I watched them both leave in their carriage. Maximus trailed them home and watched them both enter the house,” Cassius answered gently.

“I… We—”

“I know, Seastar,” he said soothingly. “You don’t need to say it.”

“He is going to hate me,” she choked out. Saying those words was like trying to swallow poison. Then she saw Sorin lingering by the window she assumed Nuri had left out of. She glared at him. “I told you to stay away tonight. What the hell are you doing here?”

“Death’s Shadow and I did not see eye-to-eye on things,” Sorin said with a shrug. “When it was clear that neither of us was going to win and neither of us was going to give in, she agreed to bring me here so I could see for myself when you returned…unharmed.”

“I told you that I can handle myself,” Scarlett said, rising to her feet.

“Easy, Seastar,” Cassius said under his breath. “The manor still sleeps.”

Ignoring him, Scarlett stalked across the room until she was directly in front of Sorin.“I am back. I am unharmed. You can leave.”

“You are back. You are anything but unharmed,” he replied, his golden eyes scanning hers.

“Who is the woman, Sorin?” she demanded, her voice lethal.

“Not the same one from your dream.”

“Then my wellbeing is still none of your concern. Get the hell out.”

She flung off her hood and began unbuckling weapons, Cassius catching them before they could clatter to the ground and wake up the house. She removed her jacket and kicked off her boots and socks. She pulled her tunic from over her head, leaving just the band around her breasts, and crossed the room, crawling into Cassius’s still made bed without another word.