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“Why?”

“I need them. To help me with everything.”

“I can help you. Finn and Sloan can help. With Cassius and Nuri. We can figure it out, Scarlett,” Callan argued. “We will figure this out.”

She finally turned to face him. That was indeed a sad smile on her lips. “There is much you do not know, Callan. I need them with me.”

“And who will take care of his Court, his people? He will just leave them?” Callan demanded.

Again, Scarlett took a deep breath, seeming to steady herself. “Someone from my Court will be in charge of the Fire Court, as well as his own, until we return.”

“Return? You will come back here? You have decided then?” He stilled. The blood in his veins froze. His heart stopped at the words. “You will come back here to be with him?”

“I will,” she whispered, her eyes dipping to the ground.

“Look at me, Scarlett Monrhoe,” Callan commanded. “Look at me and tell me why.”

She brought her eyes back to his. They were full of sorrow, as if she knew that what she was about to say was going to shatter him completely. “He is my twin flame, Callan.”

Her twin flame? No. Sorin was her soulmate, not her twin flame. He’d had the Mark since they arrived here. She had not had one. Everything he had read about the Fae twin flame bond came rushing back to him. Everything Eliza had explained to him. “No. There is a Marking and Trials and an Anointing. You have not had time to…”

He trailed off when Scarlett held up her left hand. He had thought she was keeping her hands warm, but she had been hiding it. The black Mark wound and swirled around the back of her hand and down three of her fingers, a stark tattoo against her golden skin, and a gold band with a large diamond and two smaller rubies adorned her finger.

“When?” he whispered.

“We initiated the Trials a few days ago, but we also had a marriage sanctified.”

“You are married?” Callan breathed, realization and understanding slamming into him, one after another. How Sorin was able to find her in the Lairwood House. How he was able to speak to her when she was lost in the thrall of her magic. His overprotectiveness. Her dancing with him and practically glowing. How he had raged when she had been hurt in the Courtyard. Her shadows dimming, disappearing, in his presence. How they were always godsdamned drawn to each other.

“Yes,” she answered. “He is my husband. I didn’t… I didn’t acknowledge the twin flame bond until a few days ago.Deep down, I’ve known, but I was such a mess, I couldn’t— I wouldn’t let myself accept it. Not until his life was in danger, and I realized…”

She brought her eyes back to his and tears glimmered there. One slipped down her cheek, and he clasped his hands together to keep from reaching out and catching it. Someone else’s. She was someone else’s. He had lost her.

“I loved you, Callan,” she whispered. “I did. I do.”

“But not enough,” he said softly.

“No, Callan,” she said, and she gripped his hands in her own. He tried to jerk them back, but she held firm. “I love you enough to know that it would never have worked. That I could never be what you will need when you are king. We come from two very different worlds.”

“You never gave me a chance,” he argued. “You kept parts of yourself hidden from me.”

Shadows suddenly swarmed her, and he lurched to his feet. The shadows mixed with flame and ice, her eyes becoming flames themselves. Another breath and it was gone, snuffed out. “That fear I see in your eyes, that I cansmellon you, Callan? The parts I keep hidden from you are far worse than what you just witnessed.” She stood facing him now. She seemed different, almost regal. “I couldn’t be my entire self with you because I didn’tknowmy entire self. I did not know I was Fae. I did not know I had magic. I did not know my family name is Semiria, not Monrhoe.”

“What?” Callan’s eyes snapped to hers. “That is the Fae Queen’s last name.”

“Indeed,” she replied, and a crown of ice and shadows appeared above her head, with a red flame like a sun in the center.

Someone from my Court will be in charge of the Fire Court.The words clanged through him.

“If Sorin’s Inner Court is going with you, who shall be left in charge?” Callan asked slowly.

“Briar will be left in charge as he is part ofmyCourt. I am the Queen of the Fire and Water Courts. My mother was the Fae Queen of the Western Courts.My cousin rules the Eastern Courts,” Scarlett answered.

“How is that possible?”

“Much was hidden from me as well,” she said sadly. “There is still much I am discovering.”

“He has not bothered to explain it to you?” Callan snarled bitterly.