Page 66 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

“I know,” she ground out in frustration. She glanced up at the sky, still in awe at seeing a dragon flying around. Tybalt couldn’t half-shift like Cassius and Razik could. It was either his human form or his dragon.

And the dragon was magnificent.

Smaller than Ranvir, the spirit animal of Sargon, he was still huge.

His charcoal scales seemed to absorb the sunlight as he soared above them.

Black wings flapped as dragon fire spewed from his mouth with a roar that forced Cassius to back flap and guard at the same time.

Cass would never be able to shift fully into a dragon due to his Witch blood, but Razik could.

Scarlett hadn’t seen it yet, but she was sure it was just as spectacular.

“We should take a break before—” Cyrus started.

“No,” she interrupted. “No breaks.”

“Scarlett. I still don’t think—”

“We’re doing this, Cyrus,” she retorted, catching Cethin’s eye. Her brother nodded in understanding.

Kailia sent an arrow into the sky. The signal they’d all agreed on as Tybalt turned sharply and began to dive straight for her.

They’d all agreed Sorin needed to lose control.

For centuries, he’d had his fire mastered.

He was training with his new gifts, sure, but she needed him to be ready faster.

She needed him to understand what he was capable of now, because if she was reading those scrolls in the catacombs correctly …

Well, if she was, neither of them truly knew what they were capable of.

In the Runic Lands, he’d only given in when they were in danger. Even then, he’d waited until she had leashed his power with her shadows. She understood the twin flame bond thing. She truly did.

Which is why there was currently a dragon flying straight for her. Tybalt could protect himself with his dragon fire, and Scarlett had already leashed Sorin’s fire once. She could do it again.

Cyrus and Rayner were keeping Cassius busy. Despite knowing the plan, the Guardian Bond would still try to force him to come to her aid. Everything was going to plan.

Except when Kailia appeared directly in front of her, a wicked glint in her amber eyes, as she slipped a band onto Scarlett’s wrist before disappearing amidst her ashes.

Scarlett looked down as she felt her starfire thrash in her veins. Her shadow armor vanished. Her fire and ice slipped away to nothing.

And when Tybalt hurled dragon fire in her direction, she was left with only her training and wits, and that did fucking shit against godsdamn dragon fire.

She ducked and rolled out of the way seconds before the fire hit directly where she had been standing.

She tried to reach Sorin down their bond, to tell him what was going on, but there was nothing.

There was silence in her head. Deathstone killed every thing .

It nullified her Marks. She could feel her power draining, a steady trickle from her soul.

She clawed at the band on her wrist as she ran, but it was stuck. There was no removing it.

“Rayner!” she screamed, ducking when Tybalt swooped low again. Rayner knew about deathstone. He’d know what to do.

But the deafening boom of flames colliding with dragon fire drowned out her scream. She was thrown back by the meeting of those two powers, and the breath was knocked from her lungs as she landed hard on her back. Not only that, she’d landed wrong, and her ankle was screaming in pain.

She was going to kill Kailia for this. She didn’t care if the female was her brother’s wife or not. She didn’t care that the female was a queen.

Coughing, she rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. A low snarl she felt in her bones had her lifting her head as she tried to suck down air, but the air got caught in her throat.

Sorin was striding towards her, and he looked like a god of fire.

There was no other way to describe him. Flames of orange and red and blue wound around him.

Glowing embers sparked with every furious step.

His golden eyes were pure flame as they zeroed in on her, and there was nothing but primal wrath on his features.

“Sorin,” she gasped, trying to push to her feet, but her ankle gave out.

Another roar drew both of their attention to the sky where Tybalt was diving once more, but a wall of flame erupted that had the dragon banking hard to avoid colliding with it.

And then Scarlett was gaping as that wall of flame took on a new shape.

One with a tail and wings and scales of embers.

A fire dragon.

A godsdamn dragon of pure fire was sweeping past, and Sorin was throwing a rope of blue wildfire around its neck before he leapt atop the thing and took off into the sky after Tybalt.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Rayner!” she screamed again, and the Ash Rider was there, crouching before her. “Get it off! Get it off!” Scarlett cried, thrusting her arm at him.

His eyes went wide at the band, and he uttered a vicious curse as he tore the deathstone from her wrist. She was already running, ignoring the agony in her ankle.

Her shadows shuddered as they broke free, and she immediately had them forming into her shadow dragon beneath her.

It cried a roar of its own as it took flight, racing for Sorin, who was gaining on Tybalt with every flap of flaming wings.

Sorin! she screamed down their bond. Sorin! Stop!

She had seen him like this only one other time, and she barely recalled it.

From what Eliza had told her, Scarlett hadn’t seen the worst of that time when Talwyn had surprised them in the Fire Court courtyards.

Scarlett had broken her arm and acquired cracked ribs, and while Beatrix had healed her just fine, Sorin had been blinded by primal rage at his twin flame being injured.

They’d only drawn him out of that state when Briar had put her in his path of destruction as he’d sparred with Eliza on the front grounds.

His power had been grand then. Now? It would be catastrophic.

Faster , she urged her magic, but she wasn’t going to make it. She was close, but not close enough. She wasn’t fast enough to avoid the blast of the impact when dragon fire and Sorin’s upgraded flames collided again in the air.

Scarlett was thrown from her shadow dragon, and she hissed a curse, grasping for her magic as she free-fell through the air.

But Cassius was there, scooping her out of the sky, and she clung to his neck as he shot to the ground, holding her close.

His grip was still tight as he set her on the ground, and she gave a cry as her ankle barked in pain again.

But Sorin had seen her falling, and he’d immediately come after her too. His fire dragon disappeared at the same moment Sorin’s feet hit the ground, and he was tugging her from Cassius’s grip.

“Are you all right?” he demanded. His voice was a guttural snarl, and his eyes were still flames.

She reached up, cupping his cheek. “I am fine, Sorin. I’m sorry. I am fine.”

“You are not fine,” he snapped, dropping to a knee to examine her ankle.

“It will heal before we go.”

“Their Healer can manage it faster,” he said sharply, pushing back to his feet and pulling her into him once again. His heart was beating rapidly beneath her ear, but he was eerily calm as he held her to him.

“Sorin,” she whispered tentatively.

“Don’t, Scarlett. Not right now.”

“We needed to know. You needed to know.”

“We could have found another way,” he retorted.

She didn’t move, didn’t try to push back from him knowing he needed to feel her against him, but she said, “We don’t have time for you to experiment, Sorin.

We leave in two days. We will face seraphs and Maraans and who knows what else in the Southern Islands.

Better to know now then to be surprised by a godsdamn fire dragon inside the cliffs. ”

“She has a point,” Cassius said.

Scarlett had forgotten he was there. She’d forgotten entirely that they were standing in the middle of a training arena surrounded by others.

“You were all in on this?” Sorin demanded. Scarlett lifted her head to find the flames in his eyes had banked some. Now they just glowed like hot coals.

“Like she said, you needed to know,” Cyrus said, coming up beside Cassius. “If this had been someone else, you’d have done the same thing, and you know it.”

“Not like this,” he snarled, his grip on her tightening involuntarily. “Not with her in the mix.”

“It was the only way to draw it out,” Cethin said.

Her brother’s voice reminded her—

“What the fuck was that?” Scarlett spat, spinning to face Kailia.

The Avonleyan Queen tilted her head, her bow and quiver slung across her back. “You said to do whatever it took. I simply sped up the process.”

“With godsdamn deathstone? Sorin and Tybalt could have been seriously hurt, or worse,” Scarlett cried.

“Were the desired results not achieved?” Kailia asked with a shrug.

At Sorin’s growl, Cethin was stepping in front of Kailia. “How about we all head back and take some time? I can send Niara to look at your ankle, Scarlett.”

When no one answered, Scarlett Traveled with Sorin, leaving Cassius to worry about Cyrus.

Scarlett wasn’t even sure her feet had landed on the ornate rug before Sorin was scooping her up and setting her on the bed.

Then he dropped down before her to gently remove her boots.

She hissed as he pulled off the one on her sore ankle, and his mouth tightened.

A knock on their chamber door had them both looking up in confusion. Sorin pushed back to his feet and strode to the door, stepping aside when he found Rayner.

“What is it?” Sorin asked tightly, already back at her side and removing her weapons for her. She let him. Let him take care of her in whatever way he wanted, knowing it was pure instinct to do so right now.

“I wanted to …” Rayner let out a sharp breath, carving his hand through his hair. Scarlett had never seen him so …unsure. “Don’t be too upset with Kailia,” he finally said.