Page 44

Chapter 43

Sorin

H e ?exed his ?ngers where his hand rested on his thigh. Sorin was seated on the arm of Scarlett’s chair, his other arm resting along the back of it. He itched to touch her, but she was angry with him. She was just angry in general, and he could feel all the effort she was putting into holding back the storm under her skin. Any extra sensations would set her off right now, and they needed to not be in an enclosed room when that happened.

“You did?”

The question came from Kailia, who had lifted her head from Cethin’s shoulder. She was studying Rayner intently, as if seeing him for the ?rst time. Cethin was watching his wife just as closely, and Sorin knew that look. It was how he looked when he was anticipating Scarlett about to get incredibly violent.

Rayner nodded.

“So the islands are deserted now?” Scarlett asked tentatively.

Rayner nodded again. “We were housed within the cliffs Talwyn spoke of. They contain an inner city of sorts. Various levels with thousands of rooms.”

Scarlett’s nose scrunched. “Like its own kingdom then?”

“No,” Rayner said. “Those who ran it answered to Deimas. He wanted powerful beings to aid him from what I understood.”

“So people were matched based on power? Like arranged marriages for status in the mortal kingdoms?”

Rayner’s eyes swirled faster, all of his muscles tensing. “No, Scarlett. They were not arranged marriages. The males were forced to rape the females to produce powerful offspring. If those offspring did not emerge with the power desired, they were considered to have weak blood and were killed.”

Scarlett lurched back in her chair, audibly gasping as a hand flew up to cover her mouth. Sorin ran a hand down her hair, resting his arm around her shoulders. He knew this story. Knew why Rayner never spoke of his past. Knew he wouldn’t tell Scarlett everything today either because some of it, quite frankly, never needed to be spoken of again. He was fairly certain Rayner had never shared all the details with anyone.

Scarlett opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to ?nd something, perhaps the right thing, to say, but there was no right thing to say to this. Finally she managed, “What did you do to them?”

Rayner held her gaze. “I killed them. All of them. It took some time, but I eventually found them all.”

“How long did it take?”

Rayner tipped his head back against the wall again, arms still crossed. “There was a powerful female who oversaw everything. We knew her as the Baroness. She warded the cliffs, enchanted them, and made them what they are today. We were born there, raised there. I did not know there was anything beyond the rocky walls until I moved among the ashes for the ?rst time without meaning to. That was the ?rst time I saw the sky. I was twelve. After they realized what I could do, I was given private trainers and special privileges. I did not understand why until much later. I was late into my third decade of life and serving as a guard to the Baroness herself when I stumbled upon documents I was not supposed to see. When I learned that I had blooded sisters. One half. One full. My mother had apparently died giving birth to the younger one, and my father had managed to take his own life at some point. I did not even know my parents were there. Had never really thought about it. The children were all raised together with various caretakers and tutors. It was all we knew.”

Scarlett had pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them to her body.

Her chin rested on top of them as she listened to Rayner speak.

“My sisters were ?ve and seven when I learned of them,” Rayner continued, his voice getting tighter as he spoke. “I learned they were trying to force their gifts to emerge early, wanting to know if they were Ash Riders too. It took me two weeks to ?gure out where they were being kept. I found them in a tiny room dressed in rags. The older one told me they hadn’t eaten in three days. They were trying to force their magic to surface and keep them alive, trick it into survival mode. I started looking after them, moving among ashes and smoke to keep my movements hidden and discreet.”

That wasn’t the half of it though. Sorin knew Rayner had made plans to get his sisters out. He began secretly making contacts outside the cliffs, off the islands, for the next couple years. He had been ready to take them and go until...

“But the Baroness eventually found out. She always knew everything going on. When I went to them one night, I found her in their room instead. She always wore this bright red color. Always. And she was sitting there on one of their small beds, legs crossed, waiting for me. When I walked in, she smiled and told me their magic had emerged that day. That it was basic ?re magic.”

“Oh my gods,” Scarlett whispered in horror.

Rayner had stopped speaking, and Sorin wondered if he would tell her the rest. If he would tell Scarlett the choice the Baroness had given him.

“They were killed. One that night, one... later,” Rayner said, his eyes still closed as he spoke. “I killed ?fty people and nearly did not make it out, but I managed to escape the cliffs that night. Not without a cost though. The Baroness had taken precautions and had an enchantment around the cliffs. The spell took my memories of the place to keep me from returning. But I swore to her I would be back, that I would be back to kill them all, and I kept that promise.”

“How did you ?nd it? Remember it?” Scarlett asked.

“I spent an obscene amount of money on elixirs and Witches who swore they could help. Little bits came back to me but not enough. Not until I found my way to the Oracle.”

Scarlett started, her legs dropping to the ?oor. “You told me you’d never seen the Oracle.”

“I lied.”

“You lied?” she repeated.

Rayner arched a brow. “You were not my queen then. You were adamantly refusing the throne. I was under no obligation to speak of my past to you. I still am not.”

“You saw one of your sisters when you saw the Oracle, didn’t you?” Scarlett asked in a hushed breath.

Rayner nodded once, eyes hard as he held her gaze.

“What happened to all the people there?”

Rayner’s head tilted to the side, a predatory glint ?lling his eyes, and Sorin leaned closer to Scarlett on instinct. He knew Rayner would never harm her, but he also knew what Rayner had done, what he was capable of.

“Many of the people being used did not make it out alive. Some of the overseers were shuf?ed around wherever Deimas saw ?t.” A sharp smile tipped up on the corners of lips. “Some found their hearts ripped from their chests or other vital organs suddenly misplaced.”

“You are The Reaper.”

They all turned to Kailia, who was sitting up straight now, gaze ?xed on Rayner. His attention went to her, eyes narrowing. “How do you know that name?”

Kailia was visibly trembling, and Cethin ran a hand down her back as he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her shoulder.

“I...” Her throat worked as she swallowed, and she cleared it. “I got out because of you.”

“When?” Rayner asked.

“One of the nights you came. You entered one of the... ” She paused, her amber eyes darting to the window before she lifted her chin. “You came to one of the rooms. There were many of us in there. You killed all the overseers. I was young. Only nineteen. But because of you and another, I got out.”

“This was truly you?” Cethin asked, protectively drawing Kailia back into his side. “You are The Reaper?”

“That is what they began to call me,” he answered. “When I was ?nally able to return and begin freeing some of the people, it took me decades to get them all out. I do not know how many I was able to save. I know that more died than lived, but I did what I could. Deimas was gone by this time, but from what I have gathered over the years and from what I have learned since meeting Scarlett, I am starting to believe many of the children ended up on the streets of the Black Syndicate. That if the Assassin Lord is Deimas’s son and he knew he would need powerful blood to create these rifts or feed his own power, he already had a source of that blood. When it became clear I was coming for them, Alaric moved them.”

“But the children of the Syndicate were born well after this happened,” Cassius argued from where he was seated at a small table, Cyrus next to him.

“Keep people in poverty and they never learn how powerful they truly are. It becomes a cycle. Alaric is smart enough to control that cycle and keep it going,” Rayner said. “Add the magical wards that prevented their magic from surfacing and kept them from entering the Staying, they would have never known. And with Alaric’s ability to sense power, he would have known who the most powerful were.”

“But why would Ashtine say to ask the Ash Riders how to ?nd her?” Scarlett asked.

“Because we bear the brands to enter the cliffs,” Rayner answered.

“What brands?” Scarlett asked, eyes raking over his visible ?esh.

“Magical brands. Beneath the skin. They only appear when we are near the cliffs.”

“Then how did Ashtine get in?” Cassius asked.

“Abrax is with her,” Briar said, the ?rst words he’d spoken since moving to the window. “He must have found a way to get her in.”

“Why take her there though?” Scarlett asked.

“Because the islands are believed to be cursed. That if you visit them, The Reaper will come for you,” Razik said. He was standing near the hearth, and for once, he didn’t look bored out of his mind. He was looking at Rayner with a sort of respect Sorin had never seen from the male.

“I tricked the Baroness before I killed her,” Rayner supplied. “They are believed to be cursed because I made her connect me to the wards. I know if anyone enters those islands, and I kill them without question. Those islands are graveyards and will remain so. Only the dead will inhabit them. I can only assume the Wards around Avonleya are interfering with my ability to feel the wards there since I did not feel anyone cross them. I have not had to go there for nearly seven decades.”

“Then you can get me into the cliffs to ?nd her,” Briar said, stepping forward. “You or Queen Kailia?”

A snarl came from Cethin. “Kailia will never step foot on those islands again.”

Sorin could only imagine what the Avonleyan Queen had experienced there as an obviously powerful Ash Rider.

Rayner had tipped his head back against the wall again. “I have not been inside the cliffs in a very long time. Not since I killed the Baroness.”

“Rayner, please,” Briar pleaded.

“I am not saying no,” Rayner replied. “We will go get her.”

“When?” Briar demanded. “When can we go?”

Rayner scrubbed a hand down his face. “Two days. We take two days to plan and make sure our reserves are full. It would be foolish to go and not be properly prepared.” His gaze slid to Cyrus. “Very idiotic to go on a mission without proper planning.”

Cyrus gave him a sardonic smile while simultaneously ?ipping him off. “We didn’t know how long she would be there, jackass. We made a call.”

“Without discussing it with anyone ?rst,” Sorin interjected.

“They discussed it with me,” Scarlett cut in, leaning away from his touch.

“He is my Second,” Sorin retorted.

“And Cassius is my Hand,” Scarlett countered. “And Razik does not answer to either one of us.”

“Why are we even arguing about this? It is done and over with,” Cyrus said. “We went. We accomplished what we set out to do. We weren’t caught, seen, or injured. It was successful.”

“You were lucky,” Sorin bit back.

“Still successful,” Cyrus said with a shrug.

“The only part of the plan that failed was the fact that she still breathes,” Scarlett said, glaring at Sorin.

“This needs to be discussed later,” Sorin replied.

“It will be.”

From the look on her face and the emotions ?ooding down the bond, Sorin knew there would be no preparing for what was to come. That was ?ne. He had just as much to say to her. They could burn together.

The door clicked shut behind him, Scarlett walking straight through the sitting room to the bedchamber. They’d spent another hour planning before everyone agreed to get some sleep and resume preparations in the morning when they were refreshed. Luan had not yet returned when they’d dispersed. He could ?ll them in when they met tomorrow.

Sawyer had promised Sorin he would try to make sure Briar slept, but they both knew it would be no use. Sorin knew better than anyone what it was to have the female you love in the hands of Alaric. To bring children into the mix? He could not fathom how he would be feeling. Rayner had said two days. He had a feeling this would be happening tomorrow, and he would support Briar in that if at all possible.

But ?rst he needed to deal with the female in the other room. He had felt everything she was feeling down the bond. He had given her a small pass for walking out on Briar. Knew she would be able to think clearer and more rationally if she had a few minutes to breathe away from everything that had happened in that arena. So he’d given her that, but this? This would be an entirely different battle.

He sighed as he removed his boots, setting them near the door before moving to follow his wife. He was exhausted. His power levels were a quarter of what they had once been, and it had been taking a toll on him physically as much as mentally.

Which made this little secret expedition to the continent all the more irritating. It felt like one more thing she was pushing him to the side on.

He braced himself, preparing for anger and fury and the whirlwind that she was—

And he fell still when he found her curled up in an armchair before the ?re, tears tracking down her face. Either she was blocking the bond or it was part of the bond fading, but he couldn’t feel her.

He crossed the room, lowering to his knees before her and reaching up to thumb away her tears. She wouldn’t look at him, staring past him into the ?ickering ?ames.

“Love,” he prompted.

“You told me you would not stand in my way, and yet you did, Sorin.” Her eyes slid to his, icy blue irises staring back at him. She’d used so much magic ?ghting Talwyn. Too much. It had been a foolish move to do so, but he would even give her grace on that. She’d needed to release that rage and wrath, and she had done so. But now? Now they needed to discuss how she had let that rage cloud her judgment, what that could have cost them. But he didn’t speak yet, wanting her to say everything she needed to before he took his turn.

“This was the one thing I begged you not to ask of me, and you did anyway. It is unfair of you. You hurt me, Sorin,” she whispered.

“You asking this of me hurts .”

“I know it does. I am sorry, Scarlett.”

“If roles were reversed, you would not be questioning this.”

“I understand why you feel that me asking this of you is unfair.”

“It feels... ” She huffed out a breath, stray hair ?uttering.

“Tell me, Scarlett. I can handle what you have to say to me.”

Her gaze went back to the ?re. “It feels as if you are choosing her over me.”

“Never,” he said vehemently.

“But you are,” she insisted, her voice cracking. “I need this, Sorin. Not just because I want revenge. I felt your emotions when I went to Rydeon without you. Something felt fundamentally wrong about letting me go, about not being there to protect me. That is how I feel about this, Sorin. It feels wrong, in so many ways, not to make her pay for this. Not to take retribution for my husband and twin ?ame.”

“I understand what you are saying, Love. I hear you. But even as wrong as that felt, to stay behind while you went to ?ght, I still did it. Because that was what was best for all of us. That was not about just me, and this is not about just you,” he replied. “Can I ask you something?” She nodded once, gaze still on the hearth. “Will killing her stop the memories from surging up? Will making her pay keep the nightmares at bay? Will this vengeance change anything?”

Her eyes slowly slid back to his, and she blinked at him. “If you are asking me to be the bigger person here, Sorin, I am not that. I do not want to be that. I cannot let this go. I will not let this go.”

“I am not asking you to, but perhaps we ?nd another way to make her atone for this. She is already suffering, Scarlett.”

“She deserves nothing less than death.”

“I failed her, Scarlett. I failed her in so many ways—”

“You are not responsible for her choices, Sorin.” Her voice was rising, and here was the anger he had been expecting. “She is decades old. She was a queen. She made her choices. She can suffer the consequences of them.”

“I helped Eliné raise her,” he said, trying to get her to understand.

“And she turned her back on you, your Court, and Briar’s Court by association,” she said, uncoiling from the chair and stepping past him. “Again, she made choices, Sorin. Choices you are not responsible for.”

He got to his feet, facing off with her.

“She does not deserve mercy, Sorin,” she said, hands raking through her hair. “Not mine. Not yours. For fuck’s sake, she killed you!”

“I will not kill her.”

“You do not have to,” she spat. “I will. I would have, if you had not shown up.”

Kailia, of all people, was the one who had told him what was going on, that Scarlett had Talwyn in the arena. He’d been on a veranda with Luan and Briar discussing possible battle strategies for when they were back on the continent when Kailia had shown up. They’d immediately gone to ?nd Cethin, who had Traveled them all to the training arena just in time to see star?re winding down Scarlett’s arm to end Talwyn. He had tried to reach her down the bond, but she had either been too lost to the call of vengeance or the bond was too weak to reach her at that point.

And Talwyn’s eyes, when they had landed on him, were wide with shock and disbelief, but also relief and regret. She had clearly been left in the dark about his survival. Had been living with the guilt, thinking she had killed him.

Even after everything she had done, Talwyn hadn’t always been this way. Scarlett was right. Talwyn had made her own choices, needed to face the repercussions of her actions, but he would always feel somewhat responsible for her. His own actions pushed her away. He had turned his back on her as much as she had turned her back on their Courts. He had forced her to take steps in the wrong direction that led to paths he never imagined she’d follow. His action and choices had consequences just as dire.

He could still see her swinging her feet while she ate frozen cream on the counter. He could still see the way she lit up the ?rst time she’d controlled her wind magic. He could still see her taking the throne for the ?rst time, and he’d been so damn proud of her, even if he’d been reeling over losing Eliné and never actually told her as much.

And would he even be here with Scarlett right now if it weren’t for Talwyn? If she hadn’t sent him to the mortal kingdoms to ?nd a weapon he did not believe existed, would he have found his twin ?ame? Or would they still be lost in their own darkness, trying to ?nd the way alone in an unending starless void?

Talwyn hadn’t always been like this. Scarlett had only known her as a vengeful Fae Queen. Sorin had known her as so much more.

“If I had not shown up, you are right. You would have killed her, Scarlett,” he replied, his tone getting sharper. “And then we would not know about Ashtine. Briar would not know she carries his children. We would not know she is in danger, and we would not know that Alaric is going to attempt to free the Sorceress. Whether you want to admit it or not, she is an asset at the moment. Even if I did agree to it, it would be foolish to kill her now.”

Scarlett was staring at him, shaking her head in disbelief.

Sorin took a deep breath, exhaling sharply. “I do not want to ?ght with you, Scarlett. We have so many other things to be worrying about.”

“Then for the love of the gods, stop ?ghting me on this!” she cried, more tears spilling over. “Please just give me this, Sorin!”

“You were not the only one wronged here, Scarlett!” he said, his own temper ?aring despite her tears, and her eyes widened at his tone. “You are not the one who nearly died. If anyone has a say in her fate, it is me. Not you.”

She stared at him, shock ?lling her features. “If this was Mikale, you would have killed him a thousand times over already.”

“But it is not.” She started to argue more, but he cut her off. “No. You got to say your peace. Now I get to say mine.”

Her mouth snapped shut, lips pursing. She crossed her arms, nodding once at him to continue, her eyes going to the window.

“This situation with Talwyn is very different from Mikale, Scarlett. You want Mikale dead as badly as I do. This is not him. This is not Tarek. This is not Alaric. None of them are comparable. You know who is? Nuri.” Her gaze whipped back to his. “Nuri betrayed you as much as Talwyn betrayed me, and you cannot bring yourself to end her, can you? I know the reason you will not give Auberon an answer as to her fate. I saw you protect her in the Eternal Necropolis. I was told how you and Juliette spared her in the last ?ght too.”

“She did not kill you, Sorin!”

“But she would have,” he argued. “If Alaric orders it, she will try. And now? With my power nearly nonexistent? She will succeed. You know who she did kill? The Contessa of the Night Children. For all intents and purposes, a queen . Auberon’s queen. He has asked you for retribution. You have denied it. Because it is Nuri. Someone you have cared about for much of your life, despite her many, many faults and ?aws.”

She was shaking her head in ?erce denial.

He took a single step towards her. “If you insist on this, Scarlett, you do not have my support. If we are equals as you claim we are, you will consider my feelings in this. If you kill her, you are no different than she is—a queen who puts her own vendetta ahead of her Courts and what is best for her family and people.”

Scarlett recoiled as though he had struck her, and perhaps he had. Not with a physical blow but a verbal one, and it was one she needed to feel.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” he replied calmly. “And to clarify, I am not choosing her over you. I am choosing our Courts, that we are responsible for, over her. I am choosing the kingdoms and territories that you swore to put above all else when you took the throne. I am choosing the Shifters and the Witches, the Avonleyans, Ashtine, Briar, the rest of our family, over her.” He closed the small distance between them, taking her chin between his thumb and fore?nger. “We are not the only ones who have faced darkness, Scarlett. Just because we have found the love and loyalty and laughter within does not mean there are not others still lost in it. She hasn’t allowed anyone to pull her from the river yet.”

“She does not deserve stars, Sorin,” she said, her voice full of agony.

“My love, neither did we,” he said, taking her face in his hands. “Just because her suffering looks different from ours does not mean she is not suffering. And you?” He pushed hair back off her brow before resting his against it. “You are the bigger person, Scarlett. Maybe not before, when you were prowling the streets and ?itting across rooftops with your sisters, but now? You are the bigger person. You just have to choose it, my Queen.”

Then she was clutching at his tunic, burying her face in his chest as she cried, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. Eventually, he scooped her up and carried her back to the armchair, settling her in his lap as he smoothed his hand over her hair.

“I do not know how to let this go, Sorin,” she whispered into the quiet room some time later. The ?re had died down to embers, casting a soft, shadowy glow over them.

“I did not say we needed to let this go, Scarlett. She will still be held accountable for her actions. She will still answer for them.”

“She will no longer be a queen.”

“I am amenable to that,” he replied. “But I think this is a discussion that can be tabled for now. She is in a cell. She is not going anywhere. We need to focus on Ashtine ?rst, and once we have her back safely, then we deal with Talwyn. Together.”

“Always together,” she murmured, ?ngers tracing the Marks along his chest through his tunic. Another minute of silence ticked by before she said, “Will it take me centuries to become a wise old sage like you?”

“By the gods,” he muttered, pinching her hip.

She sat up, her small smile slowly fading as she met his gaze in the dark. “I’m sorry, Sorin. For... Well, for all of it.”

“I understand the need for retribution, Scarlett. I really do,” he said, twining a lock of her hair around his ?nger. “But from what I witnessed earlier, it would appear you got your pound of ?esh, both for you and our family. Now we decide her fate together.”

Her eyes fell to her lap. “I was never taught to forgive. Not that it is an excuse,” she continued in a rush. “I was... It was never an option. I would have been punished for even considering the idea, and I sometimes forget that... ” Sorin waited, continuing to toy with her hair while she collected her thoughts. “I sometimes forget that being free of that cage means I can choose to be something different from what he required me to be.” She paused again, worrying her bottom lip. “We’re... okay, right?”

He often forgot how young she truly was. This girl who had been forced to grow up far too quickly with daggers and swords in her hands. This female who had repeatedly had her world upended over the last year. If this had happened a year ago, he would have found Talwyn already dead when he’d arrived in that arena. He would have never gotten through to Scarlett like he had tonight. She certainly would not have apologized to him. She had come so far, yet was still growing into her crown.

“I will always choose you, Scarlett,” he said, pulling his ?nger from the hair wound around it.

“Even when choosing me means calling me out on my bullshit?”

He ?icked her nose. “Especially then, but I still love hearing those three little words.”

She sighed dramatically, her cheek settling back onto his shoulder just as they settled back into what they were and always would be. “You were right.”