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“A Healer in my Court,” Sorin answered. “Beatrix.”

“Ah,” Hazel said, beginning to line up vials. “She is one of our Sages.”

“What is that?” Scarlett asked, watching the High Witch closely.

“The Sages are the oldest of the Witches. They are wise and keep our history. We go to them for advice and instruction when needed.”

“Do the Witches believe they have a twin flame?” Scarlett asked, walking to the work table.

“Some do,” the High Witch answered, organizing more supplies atop the work space.

“And you?” Scarlett pressed.

“What difference does it make?” the High Witch snapped.

Scarlett shrugged. “Hoping something beautiful exists for you seems far better than believing it doesn’t.”

“Hope is for fools,” the High Witch remarked.

“Hope is for the dreamers,” Scarlett answered, picking up one of the vials from the table to examine it. “And you must be a dreamer.”

“And why would you assume that?”

“Because you sent your son away to save him in the hope that he might have something different, something better than what you could provide him here. That sounds like a dreamer to me,” Scarlett answered, meeting the High Witch’s violet stare once more.

“I suppose it does,” Hazel answered, and Sorin could swear a smile tugged at the corner of the Witch’s thin lips.

Sorin could only watch in awe at this female beside him,conversing so casually with the High Witch of the Witch Kingdoms. The last time he had seen the High Witch, he had come with Talwyn. To say the encounter had been confrontational was an extreme understatement. They had lost two soldiers on that visit, and the High Witch had all but thrown them out of the castle. Talwyn, in true fashion, had been livid, and relations with the Witches had been strained ever since.

Silence had fallen while Hazel worked, tossing various herbs and powders into a cauldron before her. It was just beginning to boil when Scarlett said tentatively, “Hazel.”

“Yes?” the Witch replied, her voice tight, as if she were trying to be pleasant.

“If I bring Cassius here, he will not be welcome.”

The High Witch froze. “The Oracle said when you arrived, it would be safe for him to return.”

“I know what the Oracle said. She said it would be safe for him to return, but to returnhere,though? How will you explain him to your people?”

“That is not your concern,” Hazel snapped, and Scarlett winced.

Sorin felt her brace herself as she said, “It is my concern. I will not bring him here if he is to be ostracized because he is a male. He was an outcast on the streets and has had to prove himself over and over again. I’ll be damned if he receives such treatment here.”

Hazel dropped the vial she was holding, and it crashed to the floor, shattering everywhere. “He grew up on the street?”

“He was an orphan, Hazel. He grew up on the streets until the Assassin Lord took him in and trained him. Then Lord Tyndell discovered him and brought him up in his home alongside his children. Even now, he is treated differently because he does not have noble blood. Do not make him come to a place where he will continue to be treated as such simply because he is male,” Scarlett said gently, going around the table to pick up shattered glass.

“Did Eliné know him?” Hazel whispered.

“She did. She did not tell any of us who or what he is, but yes.She knew him and loved him as if he were her own,” Scarlett answered tenderly.

“I cannot leave him there any longer,” the High Witch said, gripping the side of the table. “Every day I think of him. Every day I wonder if he is still alive, what he looks like. Every day I wonder who he is.”

“I cannot leave him there any longer either,” Scarlett replied, standing and cupping the glass shards in her hands. She stood toe to toe with the High Witch now, and Sorin tensed at her closeness. He had been so worried about realm politics and the proper way to do things. He had never let himself consider that maybe it wasn’t thebestway to do things. That just because things had been done that way for so long didn’t mean they needed to continue on that way.

“He is kind and loyal and funny, despite growing up on the streets,” Scarlett was saying to the High Witch.

“You care for him?” the High Witch said, raising her brows.