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“No idea,” Scarlett answered, hopping off her perch on the table. “But it is something I can contemplate just as well from Baylorin.”

“You still plan to return to the mortal lands?” Nakoa growled.

“Of course I do,” Scarlett replied. “Why would my plans change?”

“So then you have indeed deemed your human friends more important than every other person on this continent?” he snarled. The male’s arms were crossed, and he glared at her with distrust and contempt.

“Watch it, Commander,” Sorin snarled softly from his seat, but Scarlett held up a hand.

“No. It is fine, Sorin. He clearly has something he would like to say.” She leveled a stare at the male. “Let’s hear it then.”

Nakoa glanced at Briar, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Fine,” he growled. He uncrossed his arms and braced his hands on the table, leaning across it towards her. “I think you are being foolish returning to the mortal lands when you are untrained and have barely tapped into your magic. We do not know the full scope of what to expect over there or what exactly is getting in through these tears, and it is unwise to send aqueeninto the middle of that without knowing all the facts. Talwyn’s points were valid, and you dismiss them as trivial, despite the fact that she has more experience than you, albeit not by much. But she at least was raised to be in her position. There are many issues at hand here, and you can only seem to focus on one. And I cannot decide if that is because you do not grasp the gravity of the other issues, because you do not understand the politics of the realms, or because you are so selfish you simply do not care.”

The entire room was still. “Anything else?” Scarlett asked, her voice soft and honed.

“You are a child who is playing queen,” Nakoa continued with a lethal growl. “I do not care that you are Sorin’s twin flame. I do not care that my own prince has pledged his loyalty to you.”

“Nakoa,” Briar warned, his tone sharp and reprimanding. Again, Scarlett held up a hand, silencing him.

“You answer to your people,” Nakoa went on. “When you claimed that throne, you claimed responsibility for all of them. Your people became more important than your mortal lackeys. At least acknowledge the fact that you recognize that your actions affect us all, and that you do not care, while you sit here and make idle banter before leaving us all to figure out and clean up this mess with Talwyn breathing down our fucking necks.”

Scarlett could feel the flames flickering in her eyes as she stared at the male. Her shadows appeared unbidden, and the temperature dropped in the room. “Do not presume things about me, Commander, when you know nothing of who I left behind to come here.” Her tone was calm, icy rage.

“Are they more important than the whole of your kingdom and the threat that is gathering on the horizon?” he growled.

“I did not come here for a throne, but I left dozens of orphans behind in that city. Innocent children that I amresponsiblefor.” Her voice was a whisper of fury. Nakoa’s eyes widened slightly, but he held his ground. “Children who weredumpedthere. Children who have Witch blood and Shifter blood and Night Child blood andFaeblood running through their veins. Children who are being targeted, abducted, and killed because of it. I came here for them and found much more than I anticipated.”

“So it is your habit to leave those in your charge behind?” Nakoa sneered.

A cruel smile spread across her lips.

“Back down, Nakoa,” Sorin said, his tone ringing with warning. He stood, preparing to place himself between the two.

Shadows swirled along Scarlett’s arms and legs, thick and impenetrable, engulfing all of her, and when they cleared, she stood in her witch-suit and leathers. She was armed to the teeth, as she was when she prowled the night, the Spirit Sword at her back. “I left them in the care of a powerful Witch and Death’s Shadow, hidden and warded in the heart of the Black Syndicate, where I was raised and trained and where the darkest of souls watch over them. Forgive me for assuming I could leave two Courts in the hands of full-blooded,lethally trained Fae warriors while I went to aid those innocents in a land where they cannot access their own damn gifts.”

No one was daring to move. It seemed no one was daring to breathe.

“You have made your point, my Love,” Sorin murmured, placing a hand on the small of her back.

Eliza pushed off the wall she had been leaning against. “You were raised in the fucking Black Syndicate?”

“Eliné was one of the five council leaders of the Black Syndicate. The Assassin Lord oversaw Scarlett’s training personally, and she trained alongside Death’s Shadow.” He hesitated, casting a questioning glance at her. When she didn’t react, he continued, “She is one of the Wraiths of Death. She is Death’s Maiden.” She could feel his eyes on her, but she still stood facing Nakoa.

“Ho-ly shit,” Sawyer swore under his breath. He turned to Briar. “Did you know?”

Briar shook his head, his eyes fixed on the wraith that Scarlett had become. “No.”

“That explains your fighting style,” Eliza murmured, more to herself than anyone in particular.

“I was trained by mortal mercs and thieves, a Witch, a Night Child and a—” she paused, before she pushed on. “And an Assassin Lord, and for all that training, I was still captured. Despite all that training,childrenare still being abducted for purposes I have yet to fully learn.”

“Shit,” Cyrus breathed in disbelief. “You said you hadfriendsin the Black Syndicate, not that you grew up there.”

“You never asked,” she purred in response.

“She outranks everyone in the Syndicate other than the Council Members,” Sorin supplied calmly.

“But since my motives and my devotion are being called into question, despite me being here for those in my charge there,” Scarlett said now, “I shall delay my travels two days so that I can assign tasks like a godsdamned babysitter.”