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“Because they are not your burdens to bear,” he snarled.

“So you will punish yourself by bearing them alone?” she snapped back. “That’s not how this thing works between you and me.”

“There is no you and me,” he hissed. Scarlett stilled at the venom in his words. “There is you, and there is me.”

“I don’t believe that for one second. We’ve been through too much together.”

“Then maybe that is my punishment, hmm? Going through all this trouble to get you here for nothing.”

The words slammed into her, and she stumbled backwards from him. “I understand that you had a shitty day, but that does not entitle you to be cruel to me, Prince of Fire.”

“I told you to leave. You did not listen,” he snarled, his face colder than she had ever seen it.

“So it gives you permission to speak to me like I am garbage?” she demanded. She could feel her shadows hovering at her fingertips, and she trembled with the effort to control them.

“You have called yourself that on more than one occasion,” he said with a shrug.

Tears burned in her eyes, but she refused to cry in front of him. Not this time. Not when he was the cause of it. Again.

He stared at her with cold indifference. She heard footsteps behind them, and Sorin’s eyes flickered to the movement. “Your escorts are coming to claim you,” he sneered, stepping back to shut the door.

“We are not done here!” she cried, spearing her shadows out from her to block the door from closing.

“Oh, I think we are. I have nothing else to say to you.”

“Then I have something to say to you,” she retorted, stepping right up to the threshold of the door, going onto her tiptoes so she was inches from his face. “You are a fucking coward. You crawled into the pits of hell for me, and when I come to claim you, to return the godsdamn favor, you shut me out. You push everyone who loves you away. You pushmeaway. You say it is to protect us, to keep us safe, but it’s really to keep yourself safe. You know how I know that? Because we’re the same, you and me. We’re the same in every fucking way.”

And she couldn’t stop them. She couldn’t stop the tears from running down her face, hot and angry and full of hurt.

“You sit up here in this fucking house, throwing a fit, sulking and feeling sorry for yourself because you think you what? You deserve this? You deserve to suffer? To be alone? No one deserves that, Sorin. And I certainly do not deserve to be told I am a whoring piece of shit,least of all by you. The only person I have shared my darkest secrets with. You don’t get to call me trash when I am the one who risked baring my entire soul to you. Stupid? Naïve? Maybe, but I am not your godsdamned punishment. I am not some piece of property that you have been inconvenienced with.

“If you do not want this thing we have, that is fine. I can find my own way. I do not need to stay here.” Her shadows swirled around her, a vortex of darkness. “I can find the stars somewhere else with someone who won’t toss me back into the river and shove my head under water when they have a bad day. Someone who won’t treat me like a fucking burden.”

Sorin’s face had paled. She felt a hand at her elbow and whirled to see Cyrus at her side, ire on his face. Briar stood next to him, just as furious. A water portal opened behind them.

Sorin stepped from the chalet, reaching for her, his fingers brushing her other hand. “Scarlett—”

“Do not touch me,” she spat, jerking her hand from him and stepping back into Cyrus. His arm curled protectively around her waist, and a shield of water sprang up between her and Sorin. “It is certainly not a necessity right now.”

“Scarlett, wait,” he tried again, his hand dropping to his side. He flung the door of the chalet open wide and stepped aside. “Come in. I will let you in. Come in. Please.”

“I have dinner plans with mymortal princetonight,” she sneered. “I’ll see you when I see you.”

She turned to step through the portal, but she didn’t miss Cyrus's words to his Prince as she did so.

“You are a fucking idiot.”

CHAPTER 25

SORIN

Sorin made to follow Scarlett and Cyrus through the portal, but Briar stepped into his path, the portal snapping closed behind him. He threw fire at the shield of water Briar still had up, and the flames hissed as they sputtered out.

“Get out of my way,” he snarled at Briar.

“No,” he retorted with quiet rage. “You can give her a godsdamned minute.”

“I need to talk to her,” he growled, hurling more fire at that shield.