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“You need to relax,” Sorin said from across a clearing. He was sitting on a large boulder, sharpening one of his many daggers. They were back in the courtyard he had brought her to nearly every day for the last two weeks. The courtyard branched off into five separate training arenas of stone, the walls towering high to contain fire being wielded by Fae who could not yet control it. Each arena had obstacles to work around that grew progressively more difficult.

“It is sacred ground blessed by Anala herself, and it is where we bring the neophytes when they are first coming into their power,” Sorin had explained to her when they were preparing to leave his chambers two weeks ago for her first training session. She had come out of the closet strapping daggers to her waist. “And you can’t bring those.”

Scarlett had brought her hands to her hips. “You are bringing yours and more,” she’d protested, gesturing to the bandolier of knives strapped across his chest.

“Yes, but I know how to control and wield my power,” he’d replied with a smirk.

“And?” Scarlett had asked, not seeing any sort of connection.

“You need to learn to depend on your magic. That is your greatest advantage. Yes, your weapons are important too, but if you cannot control your magic, it will become a hindrance rather than the great asset that it is,” he’d said, crossing the room. He’d plucked the daggers from her hips and portaled them here.

Since that time, she had produced nothing of value. A spark here and there or an ice crystal. Nothing that mattered.

“This is ridiculous. If I’m so powerful, how come I haven’t been able to do a damn thing?”

“You have done plenty with your magic,” Sorin replied, not looking up from his dagger. How he could just sit there every afternoon and watch her do absolutely nothing was beyond her. He had to have a million other princely things to be doing. “You have frozen branches and thrown fire at poor Briar, to name a few.”

“This isn’t funny,” Scarlett snapped at his teasing tone. Her nightmare last night had been of Juliette’s death, and she’d been on edge all day.

Sorin looked up at her terse response, his gaze finding hers. “Everyone starts at the beginning, Scarlett. Everyone starts at this place,” he said gently.

Sorin had explained on their first day that most young Fae began to show signs of their power around age seven or eight. Depending on the strength they display, they come here to start training and honing their craft around age ten. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

The only task he had given her when they arrived, and the only task he had given her every morning since, was to produce a flame. He didn’t care what kind. He didn’t care how.

And she had failed at that task. Every. Single. Day.

“Why can’t you just tell me how to do it?” she asked. She could hear the whine in her own voice.

“I have told you, it is different for everyone. How I access my magic is different from how you will access it and different from how Eliza and Rayner and Cyrus access theirs. You need to figure out what awakens your magic and then how to control it once it is wide-eyed, or it will control you.”

“So I’m just supposed to stand here, all day long, until something happens?” she protested. The whining had turned to ire that ran in an undercurrent in her tone.

“We can do other things to pass the time if you wish,” Sorin replied with a coy grin.

Scarlett stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Love, there are so many better uses for that tongue,” Sorin crooned.

“And my teeth, I suppose,” she replied, biting the air at him.

Sorin laughed under his breath as he rose from the boulder he’d been sitting on. He sheathed the dagger at his side and crossed the courtyard to her, turning her to face the expanse before them. Standing behind her, she could feel his body lightly pressed against her. He ran his hands down her arms. Once. Twice. Three times.

“What are you doing?” she sighed. “I do not have time for this, Sorin. Every day this takes is a day longer for Mikale to do whatever it is they are going to do.”

“If you are not to rule, it is not your responsibility to protect them,” Sorin replied pragmatically.

“I do not wish to rulehere,” she corrected.

“You wish to rule in the mortal lands? Then perhaps you should have accepted Prince Callan’s offer,” he said, continuing to run his hands down her arms.

“Do you wish me to accept his offer?” she asked. “Here I thought you’d grown fond of having me in your bed.”

“Shush, you wicked thing,” he murmured, and the way he said it made her still. It was lust and desire mixed with awe and wonder. His mouth was so close to her ear, his breath brushed her cheek, causing the few stray hairs that had escaped her braid to tickle her skin.

“Your power,” he said, “is an extension ofyou.”His voice was low and soft, caressing her very soul. “It is interwoven into every facet of your being. It is in your strength. It is in your brilliance. It is in your dreams and your fears. It is connected to every thought. Every emotion.” His fingers came to her neck, and she leaned into the touch,closing her eyes. Every part of her was focused on those fingers as they made idle circles around her neck, dragging along her shoulder, down her back, stopping just before they dipped too low. She felt her core heat as his fingers began trailing back up her spine. “It courses through every part of you. It is in your blood. It is in your bones. It is in your very essence. It is in the parts of you that you have kept hidden for years, afraid no one would want them. It is in the caverns of your soul, the deepest recesses of your mind. Places even you have not dared to venture. Secrets you keep so hidden even you forgot about them. Be you, Scarlett. Just be you.”

She felt like the air had stilled around her. She was in the courtyard with Sorin, and she wasn’t. She stood in an empty chamber and before her a panther as dark as night lay sleeping. As if sensing she was there, Shirina opened an eye. She sat up and cocked her head to the side as she studied her. Then she arched her back into a stretch and yawned. She took a step towards her and then another.