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SORIN

Sorin could not have possibly heard her right. He stood, looking down at her. “You are going to go and ask Mikale,” he repeated.

“Yes,” Scarlett said. “Our twin flame Marking will be glamoured in the mortal realm. He won’t know of it or know that we are married. I am going to return to him.”

Sorin just blinked at her. She bit her bottom lip, holding his stare. She was serious. Completely serious. “No,” he said tightly. It was all he could think to say around the rage roaring through his veins.

“It is the only way, Sorin,” she started.

“No.”

“Sorin—”

“No.”

She crossed her arms, leaning back against the table. “I’m going to need you to use more of your big boy words, Prince.”

“Fuck no.”

She huffed a soft laugh, and the sound of it, along with the sight of the slight smirk that accompanied it, had him fighting every urge to lie her on the floor and bury himself in her right here.

“No,” he breathed, not trusting himself to move. “He has nearly destroyed you in so many ways, Scarlett. No. We will find another way.”

“If you have a better idea, I am all ears,” she retorted, remaining in her seat on the bench. “But he is not going to reveal anything to me if he does not believe I have come to his side. It is just a game that we will resume playing.”

“No, it is a game we nearly lost a few months ago,” Sorin argued.

She couldn’t be serious. Not after everything they had gone through. Not after what he had pulled her out of. Not now that she was finally with him, had claimed him. There was no way he was letting his wife, hisqueen, go into enemy hands. Absolutely none. She would literally have to kill him first.

“Come up with a better plan, Sorin, and we can talk about it, but if not…”

“And what? You just claimed your throne, and now you will do exactly as Nakoa said and abandon your people? What if this goes badly, Scarlett? Because we both know this could go very, very bad, and then your lands, your people, are left with no one,” he growled.

He felt something in her shift, but he couldn’t quite read it. She didn’t meet his gaze as she said softly, “They wouldn’t be left with no one, Sorin. If I am a queen, then you are now a king and are far more qualified to lead these people anyway.”

Sorin froze. She couldn’t mean that. She sounded as if she had planned…

“Scarlett Aditya Semiria, look at me right now and tell me you did not choose a marriage before the Anointing for the purpose of making me a king.”

Her eyes snapped to his and something akin to hurt flickered across them. “You know that’s not true. How can you even say that to me?”

“Because you have been keeping secrets, Scarlett. Big secrets. And now you drop this bullshit about me being king—”

“It is not bullshit,” she shouted, jumping to her feet. “And you are a king. You may be the Fire Prince, but you are also, as of thismarriage,a godsdamn king of the realm.” She spat the word ‘marriage’ at him like it burned her tongue and held up her left hand. “And if you honestly think that I only accepted the bond to make you a king and avoid my responsibility, then you do not know me at all.”

Sorin couldn’t tell if the rage he was feeling was his or her own echoed down the bridge. He growled, prowling back to her. She held his gaze the whole way, and he could see the storm in her eyes. A wild storm of ice and rain and wildfire and darkness. A storm his heart skipped a beat at and always made him wonder if he would survive this whirlwind that she was.

“You know,” she chided when he stopped directly in front of her, “you’re looking at me like you did when we first met.”

“Like I want to throttle you?” he ground out.

“Yes,” she snapped.

He tugged her to him as he said gruffly, “Travel us up to our room.”

“Why?”

“Because there are too many ancient books on this table to shove them to the floor so I can properly fuck you.”