Page 59 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

Scarlett

“I am going to Elshira,” Scarlett announced.

Everyone at the breakfast table went silent. Food paused halfway to mouths. Cethin and Tybalt exchanged stilted glances.

Cethin slowly lowered his fork back to his plate. “Why are you going to Elshira? And when? And does our mother know?”

Mother.

Scarlett held back her eye roll.

“You said there are ancient texts there. That Saylah would spend days locked away studying them,” Scarlett said, reaching for a roll. Sorin immediately took it from her, spreading jam atop it.

“I can see if Saylah is open to this,” Tybalt ventured carefully.

Scarlett waved her hand dismissively. “No need. She does not need to be there.”

“We did discuss speaking with Saylah,” Sorin added casually, passing her the breakfast roll. “Perhaps we should accept Tybalt’s offer.”

“ Perhaps ,” she mimicked, not bothering to hold back her eye roll this time.

Sorin smirked, picking up his glass of fruit juice.

“I’m just glad she told us where she was going this time,” Cyrus drawled from down the table.

“No shit,” Rayner muttered.

“Honestly, Rayner. I thought we’d moved past this.” She sighed dramatically, then barked a laugh of delight when the Ash Rider flipped her his middle finger.

Cyrus snickered again, popping a slice of bacon into his mouth.

Cassius sat beside him, cutting off a piece of ham and stacking it on his fork with some eggs.

Cyrus had seemed a little better the last few days.

Both of their scents had shifted. Everyone at the table knew it, but neither Cass nor Cyrus had acknowledged anything.

“When are we going?” Cyrus asked.

Her brows rose. “I didn’t think you’d want to come.”

That was the truth. He rarely left his rooms. That day they’d returned from the Runic Lands to find him playing billiards with Cass and Razik had surprised both her and Sorin.

When Cass would go train with Tybalt, Cyrus insisted on resting or bathing, not wanting to talk to anyone.

In fact, this was the first time he’d joined them for breakfast since returning.

She had a feeling based on the way he’d dragged his feet coming into the dining room that Cassius had forced his hand today.

“Your Guardian is becoming as big of a mother hen as your twin flame,” Cyrus said. “I need to leave my rooms to make him happy.”

Cass sent him a flat look as he took another bite of eggs.

“Perhaps they should start a club,” Scarlett mused. Then she added, “This afternoon sometime. I need to check in with Hale.”

The Toreall King had been graciously helping with all the children.

He’d even gone so far as to arrange for private tutors to come in so the children could attend lessons.

Neve had been going to the estate to help more and more these days as well, and both she and Auberon had been helping Hale with the history of their own continent.

They all started when a silver hawk came swooping in the open window, all chatter around the table dying down. Nasima flew straight to Scarlett, dropping a rolled piece of parchment directly atop her eggs and fruit before she went right back out the window.

Scarlett frowned as she reached for the parchment.

She hadn’t seen Nasima since she’d left Ashtine’s side months ago.

Even when Scarlett took control of the spirit animals, she didn’t control them.

They just answered to her instead of Saylah.

She hadn’t quite figured out how all that worked yet.

Her desire had never been to rule over the animals, but Saylah certainly didn’t deserve to have them at her beck and call when Scarlett was doing all the godsdamn legwork.

“Who’s it from?” Cyrus asked around a mouthful of biscuit.

She gently unrolled the message, sitting back in her seat.

“Talwyn,” Scarlett murmured, confused as to how Talwyn had found Nasima.

Quickly scanning the message for the important bits, she’d go back and reread it more thoroughly, but a line near the end drew her entire attention.

She forgot everything else she had read. She forgot everything else entirely.

Sorin’s head whipped to her, clearly feeling her drastic shift in emotions. “What is it?” he demanded, his fork clattering to his plate.

Oh gods. She had been prepared to comfort him if Talwyn had been killed when Alaric realized how he had been tricked again. A part of her had even been prepared to mourn for the female after what she had sacrificed for all of them. But this?

She hadn’t been prepared for this. She didn’t know how to tell him.

Briar.

How was she going to tell Briar?

“Scarlett,” Sorin said sharply.

He tried to grab the paper from her, but it was bunched in her hand, clutched too tightly for him to pry it from her fingers.

“Scarlett?”

That was Cassius.

Everything was impossibly loud, but their voices were muffled.

Her fault.

This was her fault.

There were hands on her face. Golden eyes boring into hers.

Scarlett.

The voice in her mind was a snarled order. A mate calling to his twin flame.

Her cheeks were wet. She was crying.

She was vaguely aware of everyone crowded around them, of Cyrus trying to force the note from her hand, but all of her attention was on Sorin.

“He killed him,” she whispered, her breakfast roiling in her stomach.

“Who? Who killed who, Scarlett?”

“Alaric,” she gasped, breathing too difficult. “He had Sawyer killed.”

“What?” Cyrus demanded, his fingers stilling on her hand. “How? Why? We made the exchange.”

“But it was a trick. We tricked Alaric with Talwyn,” she said, eyes still on Sorin who had gone so still, she wasn’t sure if he was breathing. “He sent Nuri after Ashtine.” Her voice broke as she whispered on a choked sob, “Sawyer took her place.”

“Fuck!”

That was Cyrus cursing. Cyrus who had been tortured by the Sorceress and who had now lost yet another friend.

“Sorin,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Sorin. I’m so sorry.”

“I just …” he rasped, hands still framing her face. “Just give me a moment, Scarlett.”

His hands were trembling against her skin.

She’d known Alaric would retaliate. She should have seen this coming. Should have known he wouldn’t go after Talwyn. Talwyn would be too easy. The effect wouldn’t be the same.

Her fault.

This was her fault.

She wanted to go. To run. To the sea. To the country estate. Anywhere. Anywhere but here. She needed to breathe, but her family needed her more. Sawyer had been her friend, yes, but the others had known him for centuries. Family. The Drayces were part of their family. She had done this.

Her movements felt heavy and slow as she turned to her family. Cassius had Cyrus in a tight embrace. Rayner was staring down at the ground. Sorin was still holding her face.

She sucked in a sharp breath, shoving the note into her pocket. Then she gently pulled Sorin’s hands away before she wrapped her arms around him and pulled her husband close. He buried his face in her neck, and she reached over and grabbed Rayner’s hand, squeezing his fingers tightly in hers.

Everything else was forgotten. They summoned Neve, and Sorin broke the news of another loss for the Water Court. They spent the day in a cozy den, Cethin and Kailia giving them space, but also bringing them anything they needed throughout the day.

And when the day was over, when everyone had gone to their rooms and Sorin was fast asleep, she slipped from their bed.

She tugged on her pants and tunic, not bothering with shoes before she Traveled to a section of beach south of Aimonway.

Pulling the note from her pocket, she read it over and over.

It wasn’t much. Talwyn had clearly been in a rush.

Short, scribbled words that gave the barest details of what had happened, and where she and Ashtine were now.

Scarlett memorized every detail before she let the note go up in white flames.

Her eyes fell closed, the sea breeze kissing her face.

All she could see was the last line of that note in Talwyn’s elegant scrawl.

Get Briar here now. Or it was all for nothing.

With fire warming her veins, Scarlett walked straight into the waves, and when she could no longer touch the bottom, she swam out a little farther. She cast an air pocket and sank beneath the water, letting the sea wash away her tears.

Then she started planning.

The stars were fading when she emerged, using her fire to dry her clothing before she was back on the dry sand. She sent a message off amidst a swirl of shadows as she moved, ignoring the person waiting on the shore.

It wasn’t Sorin or Cassius. It wasn’t even Cethin.

It was Saylah.

“I do not have the time nor the energy for you right now,” Scarlett said with a quiet snarl.

Her mother was still. Her entire being seemed to have a faint silvery glow about her. “You are very much like your father.”

It was Scarlett’s turn to still.

“You take after him more than me,” Saylah added. Scarlett stood gaping as the goddess lowered to the sand. “He would spend hours listening to the waves. Said it was a song that soothed his soul.”

Scarlett swallowed thickly, not knowing what to say.

Her mother looked up at her, eyes shining as brightly as the disappearing stars. “You have suffered another loss in all of this. I am sorry.”

“His death should not have happened,” Scarlett replied in a harsh whisper. “My people are continuing to pay the cost for your failures.”

“Many have paid the price for my failures. I pay the cost for the failures of others. It is a vicious family cycle, I am afraid,” Saylah answered, her gaze going back to the sea.

“I wish it had been me to pay the cost to get you outside the wards. Tethys would have been better suited to raise a king and queen of this realm. He was one of the most treasured things in my long, immortal life, aside from you and your brother.”