Page 33

Chapter 32

Scarlett

"Y ou know how to take down the wards around the mortal lands,” Eliza repeated from where she was sitting on the lawn.

It was the next day, and they’d all decided to help out at the Coventry Estate for the morning with the children. Or rather, it was more so Scarlett wanting to check in on them and feeling like a shit queen for taking so long to do so and forcing her family to tag along. Magdalena had been kind enough to pack small breakfast baskets for them, and now they sat on blankets in the mid-morning sun, watching the children run and play.

“I’m fairly certain,” Scarlett answered, watching Rayner pretend to spar with Tula. She was using the small wooden sword Nuri had given her for her birthday. They were a few feet away, but still close enough that Rayner could hear and be part of the conversation.

“I would prefer more than fairly certain if we are going to Rydeon again,” Rayner said. “Especially with my network of spies there nonexistent at the moment.”

“It is not something we need to worry about right now. Cethin let us in the Wards, but I have not been told how we leave,” Scarlett replied with a frown.

“That is concerning,” Auberon said. “I do not want to stay here.”

“Not to your liking?” she asked, plucking some grapes off a stem.

“It is not enjoyable being the only one of my kind present,” he grumbled, taking a drink from a metal cup.

“But you get Fae blood on tap,” she argued.

Auberon bared a fang at her. “You are godsdamn hilarious.”

“You ?atter me,” she said, bringing her hand to her heart dramatically.

“Back to the matter at hand,” Sorin cut in. “When we learn how we can leave the Wards, the mortal kings will be coming with us.”

That was the trickiest part about this. Scarlett had found a Mark she thought would work for removing the wards around the mortal lands that prevented magic from being used. Deimas and Esmeray had enacted them somehow, citing mortal safety by preventing magic-wielders from being able to access their gifts. The Avonleyans had already been locked away behind their Wards so they hadn’t been worried about them. This was where the Semiria rings had come into play. Eliné and Henna each created one to be able to access their magic wherever.

Of course, Tarek had taken her ring from Sorin in that throne room. She’d take that back when she killed him and Talwyn. She’d take both those godsdamn rings. They wouldn’t be needed anymore if this worked, but the satisfaction of taking them off their dead bodies?

“You look murderous, godling,” Cyrus said, cutting into her thoughts.

She dragged her eyes to him. “Likely because you keep calling me that.”

“Nah. You looked ready to stab something before I said anything,” Cyrus replied. He shifted, slipping his hands behind his head where he was lying on another blanket.

“We have to bring all three?” Rayner asked, getting them back on track like he always did, even while pretending to be stabbed by a wooden sword. Tula giggled in delight as Rayner slowly and dramatically sank to his knees, clutching his hand where she’d hit him as if it was a fatal wound.

Scarlett let her shadows out, the panther forming that always held the Sorceress’s spell book. She found the pages she’d marked and read it again. “Since the wards are around three separate kingdoms, we need a mortal king from each. Since a Marran Lord sits on each of the thrones now, we need to bring all three mortal kings.”

“And we have to go back to Rydeon for this?” Cassius asked, leaning over to take the book from her. He couldn’t read it as well as she could, but he’d been trying to study it daily. “One would think it would need to be done in each kingdom.”

“I thought so when I ?rst started looking at it too, until we went to take care of that tracking Mark,” Scarlett explained. “I think, if we do it at the center of the continent like we did before, because of that being central, it should take all the magical wards down.”

“Even the ones containing the Courts and Night Children?” Azrael asked. He, of course, wasn’t sitting on a picnic blanket eating breakfast. He was standing around, moody and irritated, dressed as though he were going into battle.

“No,” Scarlett said hesitantly, studying the text. “This Mark will reinstate access to magic in the mortal lands. Magic is already accessible in the Courts. We would need to do something different for those wards. Like I did for the Shifters and Witches, but that was tied to the keys.”

“That seems like it would be a wise idea,” Azrael said, rubbing at his jaw. “So our people at least have the option to ?ee if necessary.”

“And go where?” Eliza asked. “The mortal lands? To the people who fear us? The Shifters might take them in, but the Night Children and Witches?”

“Hazel would take in refugees,” Scarlett said instantly, ignoring the way Cassius’s face hardened at the mention of the High Witch.

“And the Contessa?” Auberon asked.

“Nuri would take them in,” Scarlett answered con?dently. “Alaric would not let her.”

“So we have four Courts trying to take refuge in two territories?” Eliza said. “Assuming they can even get there.”

“Do we have any reports of what is happening back home?” Scarlett asked, glancing around at all the Fae. “Nothing?” When silence still greeted her, she said, “Is there anything we can do? Any way I can contact Hazel? The Alpha and Beta?”

“We can try to summon Amaré,” Sorin said. He was leaning back on his hands, legs stretched out beside her, ankles crossed.

“You have not heard from Ashtine?” she asked, looking at Briar.

Briar shook his head. “I sent Abrax to her with a message of Nakoa’s death, but he has not responded to my summons since.”

“Cethin said the spirit animals are resting and preparing for war like the rest of us,” she mused. “He also said they are separated from the ones they are truly bonded to. Almost as if we are stand-ins. He said they are trapped here.”

“Trapped how?” Briar asked.

“I am not entirely sure. We have so many things to talk about when I am with him. We often start on one subject and ?nd ourselves on another within minutes. Important things get missed and saved for next time,” she said. “But I do wish Ashtine were here. She was perplexing, but her insights were invaluable.”

“I am wary of trying to contact her,” Briar said. “I do not want to make it appear as if she is working against them.”

“I understand,” Scarlett replied.

Her gaze moved back to Rayner, where he was down on one knee, adjusting Tula’s grip on her toy sword. The little girl was listening intently, face serious as she watched him move her ?ngers into place.

Shadows fell over them, blocking the sun, and she looked up to ?nd Cethin, Razik, and Kailia standing above them. They were all wearing training gear, and the wicked grins on their faces had the hairs on the back of her neck rising.

“Lord of Night,” she greeted with a mocking smile of her own. “Just the person I was about to go look for.”

Cethin’s brow arched. “For what?”

“To ask how we leave.”

“What?”

“We need to go to Rydeon.”

“Fuck no,” Cethin said. “That is not happening.”

“Shit,” Cassius swore as Cyrus chuckled darkly. Sorin was lurching forward, but not fast enough. Scarlett was already on her feet.

“You seem to be confused, brother . I wasn’t asking,” she sneered, her shadows beginning to swarm behind her.

Cethin rolled his eyes at her. “You forget you are not the only one with darkness here, Scarlett,” he replied, his dark shadows pooling at his feet.

“We should take this discussion somewhere else,” Razik cut in, his voice tense, and Scarlett turned to ?nd his eyes had shifted to vertical pupils and were glowing bright blue.

“We were about to suggest training anyway,” Cethin gritted out.

Scarlett was already Traveling to the arena because she was putting two and two together, and the fact that Cethin had not told them this? In addition to refusing to tell her how they could leave? Oh, she was more than ready to train with him.

By the time Cethin arrived, her shadow armor was in place, and she had an arrow of ice and star?re ?ying straight for him.

And as she expected, a motherfucking dragon stepped into its path, snatching the arrow out of the air with his godsdamn hand.

Smoke was furling from Razik’s nostrils, wings like Cassius’s having appeared at his back. His tunic had ripped to accommodate them, exposing parts of his chest. But Razik was shifted far more than Cassius had ever been. The faint outline of scales could be seen on his skin, as if they were part of his ?esh, and those were de?nitely claws at the tips of his ?ngers.

Razik rolled his neck as if trying to gain control, ripping the rest of his shredded tunic from his chest and tossing it to the ground before those sapphire eyes settled back on her. The arrow went up in black ?ames as he snarled, “Bad idea, Princess.”

“You are his Guardian,” she sneered, her shadows slowly beginning to twist behind her. She brought her hands up, spreading her palms wide, star?re ?aring to life. “Why the secret?”

“My father is your mother’s Guardian. My cousin is your Guardian. This should not be a surprise. The Sargon line has always guarded and protected the Arius line,” Razik growled, beginning to circle her. “Cethin went on and on about how clever you are. I am beginning to question his comprehension of the word.”

Cethin stepped to Razik’s side. “Let’s all take a breath and talk for a second.”

“Do you know how we can leave Avonleya?” Scarlett asked.

Cethin hesitated before he said, “Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“No.”

“Wrong answer,” she snarled, sending the star?re hurling their way.

“Godsdamnit!” she heard Cethin growl as Razik shoved him to the ground before he leapt into the air, his wings ?aring wide.

She was already on her shadow dragon, hovering level with Razik some ?fteen feet off the ground. The male cocked his head, seeming to study her. “Why don’t you ever do this?” he called out, and Scarlett glanced down to see Cethin back on his feet, silver eyes hard as he stared up at her. “You always leave the airborne antics to me.”

Suddenly, another set of wings came out of nowhere, tackling him, and Scarlett was watching as Cassius and Razik were falling to the hard ground of the arena. She winced when they landed because that had to hurt, but ?sts were already ?ying. She twisted to ?nd Sorin, Cyrus, and the rest of her Court. Cassius must have Traveled them all here, but with that many, it had taken him a while. That was ?ne. Cassius could keep Razik busy while she had a little chat with her brother.

She dove for the ground, her shadows dissipating as her feet hit the dirt, and she strode smoothly towards him, star?re winding up her arms. She didn’t falter when Kailia appeared at his side, smoke swirling around her, and an arrow already nocked in her bow, aimed directly at Scarlett.

“I like you,” she said calmly. “But I will not hesitate.”

“Good. It would be the last thing you did if you do,” Scarlett retorted.

“Scarlett, stop,” Cethin said. “You will not win this... ” He trailed off as his eyes lifted to something over her shoulder.

She didn’t need to look to know her Court was behind her. All of them. Three Fae Princes. A Fire Second and General. A Water Second.

She smirked at her brother. “Mine’s bigger than yours.”

Kailia looked up at her husband, before she leveled Scarlett with a look so dark, it reminded her of Nuri. “Mine’s stronger.”

Before Scarlett could process her words, Cethin had a hand raised, his ?st closing...

And she was on her knees, along with everyone else in her Court, her power being pulled from her being.

He stopped as quickly as he’d started, and she glared up at him. “I cannot believe you did that,” she rasped, still feeling the effects of having her power drained.

Razik came to his side, spitting blood to the ground as he sneered down at them. “You all need to train. You will not defeat anyone this way. And you .” He looked over to where Cassius was getting to his feet like the rest of her Court. “You need to master your power.”

“What would you know about battle?” Azrael demanded. “Neither of you were alive before the Wards went up.”

“We were facing our own trials while you were facing yours,” Cethin said darkly.

Scarlett was still on her knees when she felt Sorin behind her, a warning ringing out as Cethin approached.

“I am not going to hurt her,” Cethin snapped, lowering to a crouch before her. “This is why you cannot go to Rydeon. Alaric will win.”

“We defeated him on the water,” she retorted.

“You call that defeat? And at what cost?” he countered. “How many did you lose, Scarlett? Are you willing to lose even more? Because you will. From my understanding, he was not prepared for Cassius. Now they know of his gifts. You lost the element of surprise regarding Sorin’s survival. They will be prepared for all of that next time. You need to be prepared too. You need to train to defend against his gifts, against my gifts. It would be stupid to go back and not make adjustments.”

“You cannot keep us here,” she retorted.

“When you can best me, I will tell you how to leave,” Cethin replied calmly, pushing back to his feet. His gaze cut to Sorin. “But you need to learn to do so quickly.”

Because soon she would not have a Source, and this would become in?nitely more dif?cult.

She let Sorin help her up, and he brushed her hair back. “Love,” he sighed. “The shadow dragon? Again?”

She huffed a laugh. She reached up and cupped his cheek as she said softly, “You held back on your power.”

“You let your temper get the better of you... again.”

“I know.” She blew out a long breath. “I had been thinking of Talwyn, and then he showed up and told me I can’t leave... I immediately felt caged.”

“I promised you no one would ever cage you again. I will keep that promise, Scarlett,” Sorin said, hands on her hips, pulling her towards him. “I know it was a petty argument, and I was picking a ?ght. I needed to get out the anger crawling under my skin. He was a convenient target until I can unleash it on her.”

His features tightened. “I thought we agreed you would not kill her?”

She ?ashed him a sardonic smile. “No. We agreed to discuss it more. Which we are currently doing. I still plan to kill her for killing you.”

“But I lived,” he insisted.

“And she will not,” Scarlett replied, dropping her hand from his cheek and stepping from his hold.

She turned back to Cethin, Cassius having made his way over to her. Razik had already shifted back, his wings and scales gone, pupils normal. Cassius had not, and she could tell by the irritation rippling off of him, he was annoyed by that fact.

“How are we going to do this? If either of us attacks each other, our Guardians will come out to play,” Scarlett said, hands going to her hips.

“Before you lost your temper, we were coming to discuss training,” Cethin chided, his arms folded across his chest.

Kailia was beside him, eyeing them all. She still had an arrow nocked, but her bow was lowered by her side. “The Ash Rider stayed behind?” she asked.

Scarlett looked up at Sorin. “He was taking Tula back to the caregivers,” he explained.

“The wild child?” Kailia asked, her head tilting with the -question.

“Yes,” Scarlett answered, but then processed what she said. “What do you mean the ‘wild child?’”

“She is a Shifter.”

“We know that.”

“The Shifters answer to Temural, god of the wild and untamed,” Kailia said. “Has she Shifted yet?”

“No,” Scarlett answered slowly, not quite sure how they had gone from discussing training to Tula.

“She will soon.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“Because the Shifters answer to Temural.”

Scarlett stared back at her, uncertain of how to respond because the female was not making any sense.

“There is another training arena in the Nightmist Mountains,” Razik said into the silence that had descended. “My... Our father is meeting us there. It is more conducive to training while airborne. The arena is also carved into the mountains itself, and the nightstone is more resistant to dragon fire.”

“While Cassius is training there, you and I can train here,” Cethin said. “This way the Guardians are not nearby.”

“But he will sense I am in danger,” Scarlett argued.

Razik sent her a sharp smile. “He will be too busy to come to your rescue, I assure you.”

“The only other issue was your twin ?ame,” Cethin said, thenhelooked down at his wife. “Kailia will stay to intervene if necessary.”

“Cyrus—” Scarlett started.

“I’m going with Cassius,” he said before Scarlett could ask him to do just that.

“You good, Cass?” she asked, turning to him.

Cassius nodded sharply, and a moment later, the three males were gone, Razik Traveling them out.

“Use your Fae gifts for training for now,” Cethin said, already striding for her, rolling up the sleeves of his tunic. “You need to limit drawing from your Source.”

The others had dispersed, moving to different areas of the arena to do their own training. Kailia was standing next to Sorin, who was watching them with his arms crossed.

“How much smaller are they?” she asked quietly. She knew Cethin would understand she was asking about Sorin’s power.

His eyes met hers, his lips pressing into a tight line. “The sooner you master this, the better.”

That was answer enough.

Every part of her body hurt. She had not ached like this after training since Sorin had trained her in Baylorin. Training with Cethin was just as torturous. She didn’t think anyone could be as brutal in a training ring as Eliza and Nakoa.

Cethin had proved her wrong.

Every time he drained her, it made her very soul ache, and that pain carried over in physical form. To make matters worse, she hadn’t been able to free herself from his magic even once. At least with Alaric she had been able to stop using her magic, pull it back into herself and give him nothing to draw from. Cethin latched on to her gifts as if he had claws, dug them in deep, and refused to let her power go. He said Alaric would be able to do this, depending on how full his reserves were. But even if he couldn’t, Scarlett knew if she could learn to defend against Cethin, it would make defending against Alaric that much easier.

But right now she was sitting at a dining table wanting to lay her head on her arms and sleep. She’d devoured the roasted chicken that had been prepared, had eaten an entire loaf of bread herself, and had inhaled at least three pear tarts. Cassius looked as exhausted as she felt seated a few chairs down from her. She hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to him yet and hear how his day had gone.

“I think you broke them,” Kailia commented, lifting a chalice to her lips.

“They’ve just spent too much time lazing about on ships these last weeks,” Razik said, reaching for another helping of chicken.

“Fuck you,” Scarlett spat, reaching for her chalice of wine. She’d taken a bath before dinner, but she was already dreaming of another one, the hot water soothing her aching muscles.

“Razik,” Tybalt said sternly from the other end of the table.

A muscle ticked in Razik’s jaw, but he said nothing else, and Scarlett was surprised to see the male respected at least one person at this table.

Scarlett stabbed at another pear tart Sorin had slipped onto her plate as she asked, raising her voice to be heard above the various dinner conversations, “Can I ask you a question, Commander Tybalt?”

“Of course,” he answered. “And please, call me Tybalt. Only my warriors call me Commander.”

She nodded at that as she said, “Why would a goddess need a Guardian?”

The small chatter around the table died out, the Fae as curious as she was, and the Avonleyans were obviously interested to see how Tybalt would answer the question.

Tybalt picked up his mug of ale (which Scarlett had absolutely adored when he’d been served, the staff already knowing he’d want ale over wine), settling back in his chair with it. “I do not know that a goddess needs a Guardian per se,” he answered.

“She was just sel?sh enough to want one?”

At those words, both Cethin and Tybalt tensed. “Sargon descendants are natural protectors,” Tybalt said. “It is in our nature. The Guardian bond is not a burden to us. Many feel as though a piece of themselves is missing without it.”

She had continued to stab at her pear tart while he’d spoken, but she looked up at that. “You asked for the bond?”

“No, but I was not against it. None of us who are selected as Guardians are against it,” Tybalt said.

The sound of a chalice dropping heavily to the table had them all looking at Razik, whose features were hard and sharp, his pupils already vertical and eyes glowing a faint blue.

Tybalt cleared his throat. “I understand you know far less of the gods’ history than we anticipated. We did not realize how thoroughly the Maraans had managed to rewrite and control history over there these past several centuries.”

“You were outside the Wards,” Scarlett argued. “How could you not know?”

“I was secluded to the Witch Kingdoms as a prisoner. Keeping a male apprised of things happening on the continent was not a priority for them,” Tybalt replied.

Scarlett hummed in acknowledgement, resuming the stabbing of her pear tart. She frowned when she realized it was now crumbs on her plate and no longer edible. Setting her fork down, she leaned back in her chair. Sorin’s arm was draped across the back of it, and his ?ngers immediately began brushing along her shoulder and neck.

“Why does Razik’s shift look different from Cassius’s?” she asked.

Tybalt’s arm froze midway to bringing his ale to his mouth again. He glanced at Razik, and when Scarlett did the same, she found hard, cold sapphire eyes glaring at his plate like it had personally offended him.

Tybalt cleared his throat, slowly lowering his mug. “Their gifts look different because of their differing bloodlines.”

A chair scraping against the ?oor echoed in the room, and Razik was striding for the balcony doors that overlooked the mountain range. No one said a word, but Cethin, Kailia, and Tybalt all watched him go with some variation of pain lingering in their eyes. From where she sat, she could see Razik step up onto the railing as he pulled his tunic over his head and tossed it to the ground. He leapt, his wings appearing at the same moment, then he was soaring for the mountains.

“His father is my brother,” Tybalt said. “His mother is a Shifter. Because of that, he is able to balance his Shift. He can shift into a full dragon when he desires, or he can call forth certain elements of it. Cassius will only ever be able to partially shift.”

“And you?” Scarlett asked.

Tybalt smiled warmly at her, evidently ?ne with indulging her curiosity. “I either look like this or am a fully shifted dragon. There is no in between for me.”

Well, that was something she wanted to see.

“Can all descendants of Sargon shift in some way then?” Sorin asked, beginning to wind a piece of her hair around his ?nger.

“In some way or another, yes,” Tybalt answered. “It was how we were designed.”

“Designed by the Fates?” Scarlett drawled, rolling her eyes.

“The Greater Gods created the Lesser Gods,” Tybalt said, and Scarlett had to admit, his patience seemed in?nite. What she imagined a decent father would be like. Would her father have been like him? Patient and kind and warm? “They each had their favorites though. Sargon was Arius’s. They were close. Like brothers. Together they created the dragons, and thus Edjer and Ranvir. It is why the dragons are brothers. But only those created by Sargon can shift into dragons. They are Arius’s elite guardians and where the Guardian bond comes from.”

“Like the Maraans are to Achaz?” Scarlett asked, her ?ngers drumming on the table.

“Clever girl,” Tybalt answered with that same warm smile. “Yes. The seraphs were Achaz’s answer to the dragons, and the Maraans were his answer to the elite guardians.”

She hummed in thought. “And you are close to my mother, then? Since you are her Guardian?”

Tybalt and Cethin exchanged loaded looks again before Tybalt said, “We are close in that she is my Ward and I protect her, but we are not close in the way I have witnessed you are with Cassius or the bond between Razik and Cethin.”

“She does not con?de in you?” Scarlett asked, her ?ngers -pausing.

“No. She does not. If she did, I would hope she would have told me about Cassius as soon as she had discovered him.”

“So you do not know why she deemed it necessary to hide me across the sea with a Fae Queen?” Scarlett said bitterly.

He gave a small, sad smile. “I do not know the answers you seek, Scarlett, but the Fae Queens? They came with Saylah to this world.”

“What?” Cethin and Scarlett demanded at the same time. “Why have you never spoken of this before?” Cethin asked.

“By the time I returned to this side of the Wards, it did not seem relevant,” Tybalt said. “Esmeray and Henna were gone. I did not know Scarlett was hidden with Eliné until long after she had been killed. Queen Talwyn was the one we needed to worry about.”

Queen Talwyn .

Scarlett’s lip curled back at the mere mention of her.

Easy, Love , Sorin soothed down the bond.

“What do you know?” Cethin asked, and Scarlett could hear the annoyance in his tone. She couldn’t blame him.

“I wish I could give you more insight, but I know little,” Tybalt said. “I was not sent here until after Saylah had been here for a century. I did not come here until Achaz discovered her whereabouts. It was then that Arius decided his children required Guardians.”

“Why?” Scarlett asked, leaning forward slightly.

“Because the war in this world? It is nothing compared to the war that has been raging for a myriad of years beyond this realm. The war in this world will merely be a battle in a much bigger war. But the outcome of the war here? It will not only determine the fate of the world here, but it will also determine the course of war there.”