Page 64 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

That was all he could think as Cass straightened and started heading back to the bedchamber to change.

“Cass,” he called out, his voice a hoarse rasp.

Cassius paused, looking back over his shoulder.

“I love you too.”

“You could at least put on pants,” Sorin grumbled as he emerged from his room behind Scarlett.

She waved him off with a yawn. “If I’m going to be dragged from bed with the sun, I’ll wear whatever I please.”

While Sorin had put on pants and a tunic, Scarlett had only slipped on a dark silk robe that scarcely came to her knees over her nightgown. Or at least, Cyrus assumed there was a nightgown under there. The way Sorin was fretting over her attire, he wasn’t so sure.

“Morning, Seastar,” Cassius said, ruffling her hair while simultaneously pressing a pastry into her hand.

“Thank you,” she grumbled, taking a bite.

“You think I would wake you at dawn and not feed you?” he teased, crossing the room and taking a seat beside Cyrus on the sofa. Cass’s hand landed on his thigh, and it was only then that Cyrus realized he’d been bouncing his knee with his nervousness.

Sorin was eyeing him. So was Rayner, who had only bothered to put on pants and was drinking a cup of tea.

The male looked exhausted. Granted, he was still recouping the power he’d used to save Sorin and Scarlett from those feline-type creatures.

In fact, Rayner was the main reason Scarlett hadn’t gone for the lock yet.

But this was a different type of exhaustion.

As if the mere idea of putting on a shirt was too much.

Cyrus arched a brow in question at his appearance. He was the early riser of the group. Him and Eliza. They were always up before the sun.

“When I checked on Tula in the middle of the night, she was not in her bed,” Rayner muttered.

Everyone stopped and turned to him at the words. He had recently been given a two-room suite. Scarlett had insisted when he kept sleeping on the sofa so Tula could have his bed. Tula had been absolutely smitten to have her own room.

“I found her. Nearly two hours later. As a godsdamn mouse nestled deep under the blankets at the foot of my bed,” Rayner continued, tipping his head back against the chair, his eyes falling closed.

Scarlett slapped a hand over her mouth, but it didn’t stifle the sound of her laughter.

“She’d had a nightmare and didn’t want to wake me, so that was her solution,” Rayner went on. “When I woke her and demanded she Shift back, she refused to go to sleep in her own room.”

“Rayner,” Scarlett said around another laugh, “please tell me you did not spend the night on the sofa again.”

“She wouldn’t leave my side,” he sighed.

“I let her stay in my bed, and when she fell asleep, I tried to go to her room. She woke because she was clutching my fingers and felt it every time I tried to disentangle them. Every godsdamn time. I finally tucked her in tightly among the blankets and tried to sleep atop them, but she’s a restless sleeper. She kicks in her sleep.”

Scarlett didn’t bother trying to hide her laughter this time. “How is her training going?”

“Clearly fine. She seems to be able to Shift at will into whatever she chooses,” Sorin said with a grin as he ushered Scarlett to another chair.

He tried to cover her with a blanket, but she scowled and shooed him away, tucking her legs beneath her.

Cassius chuckled under his breath as Sorin gave her an unimpressed look.

“She does well with small forms,” Rayner said, taking a drink of his tea. “We haven’t worked up to larger ones yet.”

“How will that work?” Scarlett asked, her nose scrunching. “She can’t shift into a full-sized tiger, can she?”

“No,” Rayner answered. “She’d shift into a tiger cub, but even those forms are too large right now. So we stick with smaller forms.”

“Anything with wings?” Scarlett mused.

Rayner’s eyes went wide. “Fuck no. Never anything with wings. She can keep her feet, paws, scales, whatever, on the godsdamn ground.”

Scarlett huffed another small laugh at that, batting her lashes at Sorin when he handed her a cup of tea. He took a seat on the arm of her chair, and Cyrus looked away when his gaze settled on him.

“Cyrus,” he said, his tone the same one he used when they spoke of Thia. “What is this about?”

He’d been so careful to keep the Mark on his arm covered.

Cas sius was the only one who knew about it.

He didn’t know why Cass had never told them, but that wasn’t true either.

Even if Cassius had known what kind of Mark it was, he wouldn’t have betrayed his trust like that.

So when Cass flexed his fingers against his thigh, Cyrus pulled the sleeve of his tunic up over his shoulder, gaze fixed on the floor.

No one spoke for a long moment. Not until Sorin said, “What are the terms?”

“In exchange for keeping particular memories untouched, I agreed to …give her a few things,” Cyrus answered.

“Explain that,” Sorin said calmly.

Cassius’s hand did not leave his thigh while he told them what Gehenna had done with his blood, how she’d altered his memories, and how she’d made him relive his nightmares over and over.

He didn’t share every detail, not like he had with Cassius, but he shared enough.

Or he hoped he had. He hoped he shared enough that they understood why he’d made the bargain with the Sorceress.

That they wouldn’t completely hate him for it.

Cyrus chanced a glance up at his king and queen. There were silent tears tracking down Scarlett’s face. Sorin’s face was that of his friend who understood the desperation it took to make a deal with her. There was worry and sorrow there. Some guilt perhaps, but not anger. Not disappointment.

“What do we need to do, Cyrus?” Scarlett asked, a fierceness in her tone that told him she was descending into that place where she would do whatever was necessary to protect her own.

“You do not need to do anything,” he said hoarsely. “I will do it. I can buy you time before I do, but—”

“Name the costs,” Sorin said. A demand from the Fire Prince.

Cyrus rubbed at the back of his neck. “There were three. One of blood. One of betrayal. One of time. I had to give her more blood. I have to keep supplying her with blood until I fulfill the bargain. She can reach me, even here. She said …” He glanced at Sorin.

“She said to tell you that one was because your bargain was fulfilled by deceit.”

“By deceit?” Sorin asked, his brow furrowing. “How so?”

“Because you technically died?” Rayner asked. “Did that nullify the Bargain Mark?”

Sorin was studying his arm where a Bargain Mark had once been to solidify the deal made when he had needed to get to Scar lett in the mortal lands. “All of my Marks came back as before, but not that one. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“No,” Cyrus said, shaking his head. “She said it was because of Scarlett. That she had ruined everything.”

Scarlett suddenly gripped Sorin’s arm. “What if it was fulfilled before you died? With everything else going on, we just didn’t notice the Mark was gone? It’s not like it was front and center.”

“I don’t know, Love—”

“When we went there and got the key. Don’t you remember what she said? ‘You have ruined everything. I have nothing anymore. No more debts to call in. Nothing.’ What were you to bring her?”

“The blood of a god,” he answered.

“Which flows in my veins,” Scarlett said. “I spilled my blood across her Marks to find the key. Technically, you fulfilled your end of the deal.”

“But you’re not a god,” Rayner said, rubbing at his brow with his thumb and forefinger. “If you go by that logic, any Avonleyan blood would have been payment.”

“Perhaps with a goddess as my mother?”

Rayner and Sorin didn’t seem convinced, but it didn’t matter. “Somehow it was fulfilled and not the way she wanted,” Cyrus said. “And that was why she demanded one of my payments be unlimited access to my blood until the bargain is fulfilled.”

“And the one of betrayal?” Scarlett asked. Her chin was propped in her hand as she watched him carefully, already calculating and clearly still thinking through Sorin’s fulfilled bargain.

“I am to deliver her spell book to her.”

Scarlett straightened. A moment later, a shadow panther appeared, a book in its maw. She took the spell book and tossed it unceremoniously atop the low table before them.

“Done,” she said. “What else?”

Cyrus gaped at her. “Just like that? You cannot simply give that back to her.”

“Actually, I plan to do just that. She just provided me with a reason to do so,” she replied. “What else, Cyrus?”

“I …” This was not how he had envisioned this conversation going. “I have to get something for her from the Black Syndicate.”

That had both Scarlett and Cassius going unnaturally still.

“Absolutely not,” Scarlett said. “How is that a sacrifice of time?”

“It will take time for me to find what she wants. Time and planning,” he said, fiddling with the seam of one of the sofa cushions.

“What does she want from there?” Cassius asked. His hand had tightened around Cyrus’s thigh, and Cyrus was sure he hadn’t realized it.

“Apparently, Alaric had something that allowed him to communicate with another realm. He believes it was destroyed when the Fellowship was burned, but Gehenna said it couldn’t be destroyed.

Not by starfire alone,” Cyrus explained.

“I am to find it and bring it to her when I bring her the spell book.”

Scarlett stood, beginning to pace back and forth. “What is it you are supposed to find?”

“I am not entirely sure,” Cyrus said. “Alaric mentioned it once when he was there. Was pissed you destroyed it.”

“She did not tell him it was not destroyed?” Rayner asked.

“Why would she when she wants it?” Sorin said. “But why? What does it do?”

Cyrus shrugged again. “Lets him communicate outside the realm, I guess.”

“Like a mirror gate?” Scarlett asked, still moving.

“There wasn’t a mirror gate at the Fellowship, Seastar,” Cassius said, his grip on Cyrus’s thigh finally relaxing some.

“In his rooms maybe?” she pushed.

“We were never allowed in there.”

“I know,” she murmured, speaking more to herself at this point. “I was in there twice. Once as a child and once when I burned the Fellowship down. I suppose I would have noticed a giant mirror, even as an eight-year-old.” She frowned, tugging her robe tighter around herself.

Cyrus cleared his throat. “She’s growing impatient.”

“It’s only been a few weeks,” Scarlett grumbled. “She’s been locked up there for centuries. You’d think this wouldn’t be a big deal.”

“I need to start working on this,” Cyrus said. “If she thinks I’m backing out on this bargain …”

“You cannot break a bargain,” Rayner said. “The Mark will force fulfillment after a time, and if it is physically impossible to do so, you will be cursed.”

“I’m aware, Rayner,” Cyrus sighed.

Not to mention the Sorceress would take her own revenge for failure. He was fairly certain he’d rather cross the Veil than live with any of that.

“Okay,” Scarlett said. “This will be …okay.”

“How do you figure that?” Cassius demanded.

“You and Cyrus can go find this …thing the Sorceress requires. Or, at the very least, figure out what it is.”

“He is your Guardian,” Sorin cut in. “He cannot simply leave you in the middle of war.”

“He can,” she insisted.

“It goes against the Guardian Bond,” Cassius argued.

“Only if I am in danger,” she countered. “You two can go, but after we get the lock. We need a second Traveler with us when we go. Just in case.” Her gaze shifted to Cyrus. “Can you wait? Until Rayner is back to full strength, and we accomplish this?”

“I mean, yeah, but I can go. This is my mess I created. I can fix it—”

She stopped pacing, turning to face him fully. “We are a family. We choose each other. We claim each other. You said something. Now we face it together. You taught me that, Cyrus.”

He swallowed thickly before nodding his head, eyes falling to his lap.

“You deserve a family, Cyrus,” Cass said before the voices could start up in his mind again. “You deserve people who fight for you.”

“This might be better in the end,” Scarlett said, heading towards her bedchamber. “I was already altering our plans a bit. This isn’t a big deal.”

“What do you mean the plans are changing? Scarlett, where are you going?” Sorin asked, getting to his feet.

She sent him an incredulous look. “I cannot very well scheme in a robe , Sorin. It’s incredibly indecent. I’m going to get dressed.”

Rayner tipped his head back, his eyes falling closed again at the same time Sorin muttered, “That godsdamn tongue.”

They disappeared into the bedchamber, the door snicking shut behind them.

“I’m going to sleep for a few hours. I’ll meet you all later,” Rayner muttered, immediately disappearing among smoke and ashes.

“Cyrus,” Cass said.

“Yeah?” he muttered.

“We’re still here. None of us looked at you with derision or contempt. No one told you to leave. We’re all still here.”

Cyrus slowly lifted his gaze to meet Cass’s eyes, that patch still gone as it had been for days now.

“We’ll help you remember which memories were real. The ones we can anyway, and we’ll create new ones to help you remember that you deserve this. To help you breathe when you feel like you’re suffocating.”

Cyrus said nothing. He just leaned forward, erasing the space between their lips, and kissed him deeply.