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“Yes, they are. You have evenmoreresponsibilities.” Sorin opened his mouth to say something,but she cut him off. “How is Cyrus?”

“Cyrus is hungover,” he replied, his lips thinning. “So naturally he is in the training ring with Eliza working off a temper.” Scarlett grimaced. “He rarely speaks of her.”

“Did you know her? Thia?” Scarlett asked, her eyes falling to her lap.

“Yes. She was a very powerful female. She was arrogant and a smart ass, and I’ve never seen anyone else so thoroughly have someone wrapped around their finger.” He paused for a moment before saying, “The mission to save your mother. Do you remember in that story that Cyrus and I had a fight? He had wanted a very powerful female to stay on our side of the border, but I had pulled rank and she…”

Scarlett’s eyes snapped back to his as her heart stuttered. “The female was Thia? Your bad call…” She trailed off, unable to say it.

Sorin nodded, pain and sorrow filling his eyes. “I told you that one bad call had so many rippling effects… Thia was his twin flame.”

He seemed to be watching her carefully. “Those are real?”

“Of course they are real. Rare to find your own, even rarer to risk the Trials, but they are real.”

“How long were they together?”

“Nearly two hundred years.”

Scarlett started. “He still laughs and jokes and…”

“He did not. For many years. That he does so now is indeed remarkable. To lose your twin flame is to lose a piece of your soul. But I think his purpose in telling you of her, Scarlett, is that despite whatever hell you are forced to endure, there are still things worth living for.”

The stars are always worth fighting for.

Cyrus's words from the night before echoed in her mind.

“He will always be alone?”

“He is not alone. They are not just my Inner Court. They are my family. He is my brother. As for a partner, he has taken other lovers, but none have come close to Thia. No one likely ever will.He may find someone else at some point, but he is perfectly content with how things are for the time being.” When Scarlett did not reply, he said, “Tell me of Mikale.” He was leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees now with his fingers interlaced, looking at the ground. She could hear him working to control his tone.

She swallowed. “He came to me in a mirror. When I was getting ready, he was there. He touched my reflection, and it was like he was touching me. I could feel him.” She shuttered remembering the feel of his fingers on her neck. “He does not know where I am. I mean, he knows I’m in the Fire Court, but not exactly where I guess. He tried to get me to tell him how you were hiding me and told me his source in the Black Syndicate was upset about the newly enhanced wards around the orphans. When I asked who his source was, he told me if I figured out who had my mother killed, I would figure out who was behind everything.”

“The Assassin Lord? You think he knows who I am?” Sorin said quietly.

“He wouldn’t have had my mother killed though,” Scarlett answered, toeing the dirt of the courtyard with her boot.

There was silence for several minutes. “I did not know you were there. When Eliné was killed.”

“I was nine. I do not remember much of that day. It had been an ordinary day, but I remember my mother tucking me in that night. She had lingered, hugging me extra long, telling me how very much she loved me. There were tears in her eyes. I remember thinking it was strange, and I couldn’t fall asleep after she left my room.

“I went to find her, to ask her for some warm milk, and saw her leaving down the front walk in her cloak. Normally, this wouldn’t have been odd. She was often called out for healing services at all hours, but she did not have her bag of supplies with her. I grabbed my own cloak and followed. She turned down an alley and when I followed, she heard me. She went pale and rushed to me. She asked me over and over what I was doing there. Tears were running down her face. Then she stilled, as if she heard another noise. She slid her ring onto my finger, hid me inside a trash bin in the alley,told me to close my eyes and not to make a sound.

“But I heard everything. There were two men. One asked where her ring was, how she would fight without it. I didn’t know what it meant. Then he asked where she had hidden me. He had gone to the healer’s compound for me first, but I was gone. I could see out of a little hole in the side of the can. I couldn’t see the man who was speaking, but the one I could see was all in black, even had a mask over his face. He drew a dagger from his side, and my mother backed against the wall. The dagger was completely black, blacker than your own blades.

“I will spare you the details of how he took her apart. How she screamed. How I clamped my hands over my mouth to keep him from hearing me. I couldn’t look away. I watched everything. He left the alley when he was done. Left her in pieces there. I vomited over and over in that trash can and sat in there for I don’t know how long. Cassius eventually found me, somehow. He took me to the Fellowship where I was hidden away by the Assassin Lord, until everything began happening with the orphans. But now I wonder, if she had had her ring, if she could have fought.” Her voice cracked in her throat as Scarlett tried to hold back the tears. “If I had not followed her, maybe she would have been able to save herself.”

“No, Scarlett,” Sorin breathed. “You cannot blame yourself. He said he came for you first. Had you not followed, you would have both been slaughtered.”

“But she would have had a chance with her ring.” Scarlett spun it around her finger. “She could have come home, to you and Talwyn, and fixed whatever the hell had gone wrong.”

Sorin tilted her chin up with a finger. “No one gets to see what could have been, Scarlett, but you cannot focus on what is behind you if you want to move forward.”

“Perhaps,” was all she said, laying back down on the bench, resting her head on his thigh once more. The sky was clear blue, not a cloud to be seen. “Few know the details of that night. You officially know all of my secrets, Sorin Aditya.”

Sorin began playing with her braid. “You have endured much in your short life, Scarlett Monrhoe.”

“I am tired, Sorin,” she said softly. “So, so tired.”