Page 49 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

Cyrus

C yrus refilled his glass with liquor after knocking back the first. He sipped on the second, aimlessly pacing back and forth in his bedchamber. This was the longest he’d been awake at one time since returning. He’d bathed and cleaned up a bit, ate some food, and now here he was. Just being.

He wished he were still sleeping.

In sleep, he couldn’t dwell on the promises he’d made and the vows he’d broken.

Then again, in sleep, his nightmares found him more easily.

The memories the Sorceress had altered played on repeat, one after another.

He suspected it was her, making his life a living hell from thousands of miles away.

Reminding him she was waiting for him to fulfill his bargain with her.

It had to be her because the last memory, the final nightmare that always jolted him awake, was the one memory she’d altered of Cassius.

Cyrus knew it for the threat it was. If he failed in this, she would take every memory he’d sacrificed so much to save and ruin him.

He knocked back the liquor again, his fist clenching around the glass so tightly it was a miracle it didn’t shatter.

Someone had cleaned up the glass on the bathing room floor.

It had been gone when he’d awoke the first time.

A new mirror had not appeared yet, and he was secretly grateful for that.

Although, he had a feeling the male who rarely left his rooms was responsible for both cleaning up his mess and making sure he couldn’t see the mess he’d become.

Cassius wasn’t here now, though. Neither were Sorin or Scarlett or Rayner. One of them was always here. Now they weren’t even in the sitting room. He was completely alone. At first he had been relieved, but now … Alone meant his thoughts went places he knew they shouldn’t.

Setting the glass aside, he slipped on boots and headed out of the room. Pausing, he looked at Cassius’s door for a moment. He toyed with the idea of checking to see if he was in there, but he was obviously doing something important. He didn’t need to bother him.

Cyrus made his way down the various halls and stairwells until he found himself outside a decent-sized den, much like their own back in Solembra. There were two billiard tables off to one side, and with nothing better to do, he grabbed a cue and racked the balls.

He was sinking the last two balls when he heard footsteps approaching. He didn’t need to look up to know who was leaning in the doorway across the room.

“What?” Cyrus said, setting his cue aside and beginning to collect the balls from the pockets of the table.

“I’ve been looking for you,” Cass replied.

“For what?”

“You left your rooms.”

“Glad to see all that assassin training made you such a keen observer,” Cyrus replied, rolling a few more balls down the green felt.

“I did not mean to be gone when you woke.”

“As I have repeatedly told all of you busybodies, I do not need to be watched,” he replied, gathering the balls to rack them.

“Are you going to look at me? Or just speak to the table?”

Cyrus stilled, breathing suddenly difficult. He raised his eyes, connecting with two glowing amber-red ones, pupils vertical slits.

“Why are your eyes shifted?” he asked quietly.

“I was flying,” Cass answered, moving into the room. “With Razik back, I wanted to get in some training in the sky before he leaves again.”

“Is he leaving again?”

Cassius swiped up the rack that was set off to the side and began placing the various balls inside it. “He hasn’t said anything, but with Eliza across the sea, I’m sure he will.”

Right. Because Eliza was Razik’s Source. Cyrus hadn’t been able to ask if Cassius had taken one. That had been his plan before he’d gone to the Southern Islands. Not that it really mattered anymore. He’d need a Source before they went to fight.

Cassius finished racking the balls in silence, then held the cue out to Cyrus. He took it, watching while Cass went to grab another.

“Where is everyone else?” Cyrus asked.

“Scarlett and Sorin have been gone for quite some time. Rayner is trying to track them down.”

“We don’t know where they are?”

Cassius shrugged, but Cyrus could see the tension in his limbs he was trying to downplay. “They’ll turn up. She always does,” Cassius muttered. He gestured to the balls on the table. “You break. We’ll clean it up together.”

Cyrus held his stare for a brief moment before he pushed past him and lined up his shot.

The crack of the balls was loud in the silence that had engulfed them.

Neither of them spoke through the first game or the second.

Razik appeared in the middle of the third.

It was the first Cyrus had seen any of the Avonleyan since returning.

“How’s Eliza?” Cyrus asked when the dragon shifter stalked into the room.

“Infuriating,” Razik grumbled, crossing his arms and watching Cassius take his shot.

Cyrus snickered. “Is that all? She’s infuriating on a good day.” He watched as Cassius sank ball after ball. “When is she coming back?”

He saw Cass glance at Razik, his lips pressing into a thin line, before he went back to lining up his next shot.

“She is likely not,” Razik answered tightly. “You will meet up with her across the sea at some point I assume.”

“And after this is said and done?” Cyrus asked while Cassius proceeded to clear the table. Gods, he swore billiards was part of their training at the Fellowship. Cass and Scarlett always won. So much so, the others didn’t allow them to be on the same team anymore.

A muscle in Razik’s jaw feathered. “No one can say what the world will look like when this is all said and done.”

“Fair point. You in?” Cyrus asked as Cassius started racking the balls again. Razik shrugged, but reached for a pool cue.

Razik broke the balls, and as he began working the table Cyrus asked, “But Eliza is all right?”

Razik’s gaze flicked to him for a moment. “She is healed and well, Cyrus.”

“I lost her arrows.”

They’d bickered before he had left. It was nothing new.

They always did. He’d insisted on needing her Fiera arrows, and she had finally given in with a threat to never come to his aid again if he lost them.

He knew it for the empty threat it was, but he still felt terrible about losing them.

He’d have to get her a new set, he supposed. It was the very least he could do.

“I assure you, she does not care about the arrows,” Razik replied in that bored tone he always spoke in. He hit the cue ball towards a striped ball, sending it into a pocket.

“Did you know it took her years to say more than five words at a time to me and Rayner? She would snap at us, of course, like she does at others in the forces, but truly talk to us?” Cyrus shook his head as he trailed off, heading to a liquor cart in the corner.

He poured three glasses of alcohol, passing them out.

“That seems fitting,” Razik said, lining up his next shot.

Cyrus nodded. “She’ll either be your greatest asset as your Source if you can get past her defenses, or the biggest pain in your ass.

Either way, probably both.” Razik huffed in a way that had Cyrus thinking he knew exactly what he was talking about.

“Does she? Talk to you, I mean?” he asked curiously.

“Not like she should,” he answered roughly.

“Legacy and their Sources are not meant to be separated by thousands of miles.” He hit the cue ball, but it ricocheted at the wrong angle.

He didn’t seem to care as he swiped up his liquor glass and drank the liquid down.

“She does not seem to care how things are meant to be,” he added, his words laced with a growl.

Cyrus snorted a laugh, setting up his shot. “She never has. How do you think she became the Fire Court General?”

Two hours later, the three males all paused at the sound of laughter. Rayner came stalking through the door looking more than irritated, grey eyes swirling slowly but violently. The Ash Rider went straight to the liquor cart, and Cyrus caught a glimpse of his hands smeared with …black and gold?

A minute later, Scarlett and Sorin burst into the room, and Cassius and Cyrus both straightened at their appearance. Both of them had eyes bright with exhilaration, but the rest of them …

There was dried blood on various places— arms, necks, faces. Scarlett’s hair was half out of her braid, and their clothing was torn in random spots. A fine layer of what appeared to be ash covered every inch of them. Sorin’s ebony hair was speckled with grey from it.

“Where have you three been?” Razik asked, his eyes narrowed.

“Out,” Scarlett said far too sweetly for Cyrus’s liking. “I want in the next game.”

“My team,” Cyrus said immediately.

Scarlett smirked, flopping down on her back onto the sofa. Some ash fluttered to the ground at the movement. Sorin took a seat next to her, and she rested her head on his thigh. Lifting a hand, shadows appeared, and she let them flow and coil around her fingers.

“Are you going to tell them where you were? Or do I have to?” Rayner asked, his low tone cutting through the room.

“Oh, you can,” Scarlett sighed dramatically.

“They were in some rocky lands. Looking for a fucking mirror gate,” Rayner muttered, taking a sip of his drink.

“There is no mirror gate in the Nightmist Mountains,” Razik said sharply.

“Not those,” Scarlett answered bitterly. “These had snow. Or the mountains to the west did. The cliffs we were in just had small bits of snow here and there, but it was still miserably cold.”

Razik went rigid. “You were in the Runic Lands?”

“Is that what they’re called?”

“If you were between the Olwen Mountains and the Nightmist Mountains, then yes,” he snapped. “And you’re lucky to be alive. Cethin is going to be livid.”

“We killed some of those floating beings with the gold swords,” Scarlett said with a smirk.