Page 67 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

Scarlett’s brows shot up, and Sorin went preternaturally still.

“Repeat that?” Sorin said in a voice that made Scarlett far too nervous. “Because she used deathstone against your queen , Rayner.”

“I know what she did, Sorin,” Rayner said. “She was acting on our queen’s behalf.”

“I did not tell her to use deathstone,” Scarlett admonished.

“No, but you did say we needed to do whatever it took to get his magic to surface, and that’s how things were done beneath the cliffs,” Rayner countered sharply.

Sorin and Scarlett glanced at each other. Rayner rarely spoke of his time on the Southern Islands.

“When they were trying to force gifts to emerge, they used whatever means necessary. And those of us trained for killing purposes? Our training was grueling. Deathstone was likely used against her, and she was likely forced to use it against others. She knew it would accomplish what you wanted,” he continued.

“Did you know her?” Scarlett asked. “Before we came here I mean?”

“No,” he answered, striding for the door. “But I know what she faced beneath those cliffs, and I know how she was trained there. This would have seemed mild compared to that.”

As Rayner was walking out the door, Niara was coming in, a small satchel in her hand. “Cethin asked me to stop by,” she said, attention already fixing on Scarlett’s ankle, as though she could sense the discomfort. “May I?”

“Of course,” Scarlett said, scooting back on the bed. Sorin was hovering like the mother hen he was as Niara gently laid a hand on her ankle, faint light flaring. “Thank you again for everything you did for Eliza,” Scarlett said around a wince as the Healer rotated her ankle.

“I am glad I could be of service,” Niara said. “This is a deep sprain. Your own magic will heal it in a day or so, but I assume that is undesirable?”

Scarlett nodded. “We leave in two days’ time.”

Niara stood, reaching into her satchel and producing a tonic. “Take this. It will speed the healing, but will also make you sleep.”

She tensed. “For how long?”

“Likely into the evening.”

That wouldn’t be so bad. The mention of taking a tonic to make her sleep had memories surging of a tonic that had made her sleep for days while forcing her magic to slumber. It had not even been a year ago, but felt like another lifetime.

“Thank you,” Sorin was saying as he escorted Niara out. Scarlett had already downed the tonic and was settling in among the pillows when he returned to her side.

“You are not even going to change?” he asked, a brow arching.

She was asleep before she could answer.

When she did wake hours later, it was indeed well into the evening.

There were candles burning throughout their room, and she had shifted onto her side at some point.

Sorin was propped against the headboard beside her, one knee bent and a book balanced on it.

She studied him as he studied the text, referring every once in a while to what she assumed were notes set off to the side.

She could see the book was in Avonleyan, and while he was steadily becoming more proficient, he still struggled to translate some of it.

Shifting a bit, she tucked her hand beneath her cheek, drawing his attention to her. He immediately set the book aside. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Your ankle?”

She rotated it a few times beneath the blanket he’d draped over her. It was a little stiff, but nothing like the agony of earlier.

“Fine,” she replied again with a small shrug. He huffed a chuckle and reached for his book. “What are you reading about?”

“I am trying to find information about this name Beatrix told me before she Faded.”

She perked up at that. “Did you come across it?”

“No,” he grumbled. “But it has been guarded for centuries. I did not think it would be easy to find.”

“True,” she murmured. After several moments of silence, she said, “You created a fire dragon today.”

Sorin kept his gaze on the text, but his lips lifted into a small smile. “I did.”

“You couldn’t have come up with something more creative? I already did the shadow dragon thing.”

He was tossing the ancient book aside and moving atop her in the next blink. “You and this godsdamn tongue today,” he murmured into her neck as his lips began making their way down her throat.

She arched into him the moment his hand slipped beneath her tunic, warm, calloused fingers dragging along her ribs. “Sorin,” she rasped, one of her hands sliding into his hair. “We should eat.”

He glanced up at her from beneath thick lashes, his golden eyes nearly glowing once more. “I intend to.”

“Sorin!” she admonished around another rough laugh as he tugged at the ties on her tunic.

She was about to argue that they truly did need to eat so she could draw from him and refill her reserves, and then he could sleep and refill his own.

But the heat coursing through her at the moment drove all those thoughts from her mind, and it took her a moment to realize the heat wasn’t entirely from want.

Sorin’s flames were slowly licking along her flesh, starting at her toes, moving up her legs, and across her torso, burning away her pants and tunic.

“Stop burning all my clothing,” she chided breathlessly. “I am going to have nothing left to wear soon.”

“Perhaps that is the plan, Love,” he rumbled against her skin as he kissed along her navel.

“Then I want to hear no more complaints when I attend meetings in nothing but a robe.”

He paused, glancing up at her. “Good point.”

She gave him a taunting smirk. Which he returned before nip ping along her inner thigh.

His gaze had dipped between her legs where he watched as his thumb slid across her center.

Liquid fire shot through her, and her hips bucked forward of their own accord.

His eyes lifted to hers, and he held her stare as his tongue swept out and licked the pad of the same thumb, a low groan escaping him.

And then starfire was flaring, burning his clothing away without nearly the same sensual flare he had used.

He chuckled darkly when Scarlett surged forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.

His hand came up to cradle the back of her head, fingers digging into the strands to hold her close to him, to keep her at his mouth when he sent his flames licking along her flesh again.

Her gasp became a moan as she let her shadows out to tangle with the fire, and then it was Sorin’s turn to groan as his grip around her waist turned bruising.

“Let go,” she murmured onto his mouth. “Your power will not hurt me. You’ve said it yourself. It can’t. We are designed that way. For each other.” She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes. “You speak to me of fate and destiny? You are the only fate I will ever accept.”

Sorin slid his lips along her jaw before she felt his canines drag along her throat.

And then she was swallowing another gasp of surprise as he flipped them and thrust into her with one hard, fast movement.

Fire danced across her stomach and up around her breasts.

Hot. She was hot and wanting, and gods, she needed him to— Fuck, she just needed him.

She lifted her hips, grinding against him as he bent down and took one of her peaked nipples into his mouth, his fire flitting among the strands of his hair. He reached down, hooking one of her legs around his waist as he sank in impossibly deeper.

“Fuck,” Scarlett moaned when he sent another wave of flames over her. Sorin huffed another dark laugh that had her impatience tipping over the edge. “Damnit, Sorin. Move. Please. ”

He sat back then, hands grasping her hips and tilting them up the smallest amount to allow him to drag himself slowly out before he thrust back into her hard.

“Thank the gods,” Scarlett gasped when he did it again.

“Not the gods, Love,” he growled, tilting her hips up even more and slamming into her again.

She sent her shadows raking down his chest, his arms, his back.

Felt him arch into her, hitting that spot that made her see stars.

He spit out a curse when she sank those shadows into his flames, and then sent her starfire to mingle with the shadowfire.

Reaching up, she curled her hand around his neck to haul herself up to him.

She coiled a tendril of starfire around his ear and heard him suck in a ragged breath as she whispered, “ We are the gods now, Sorin.”

She felt his growl in her soul as he hauled her up and shifted beneath her so she was in his lap.

He yanked her back down onto him, another sharp gasp forced from her lungs.

Her hands were on his shoulder, nails leaving indents in his flesh.

His hand slid up her spine, embers left in its wake as he wound his fingers into the length of her hair and pulled, forcing her head back to look into his eyes.

She found pure lust. Primal desire and need.

She took over the movements as his other hand snaked around her belly and down to play with those nerves.

There was no rhythm. There was no rhyme or reason to their push and pull, not as he drove her to the edge of pleasure with his thumb on her center, his tongue in her mouth, and his cock buried deep inside of her.

Their magic swirled around them—fire and shadows, light and dark.

It was power she had never felt before. It was them. Fierce and raw and wild.

And when release slammed into her, when she tipped her head back in pure pleasure, Sorin followed, hauling her into his chest and clutching her tightly as his movements slowed.

Their breathing was erratic as they clung to each other, clung to this moment.

Sorin eventually pulled back, tenderly brushing his lips along her brow, her temple, her mouth before there was a burst of flame and a dagger appeared in his hand.

They said nothing as he cut across the Source Mark, and she held out her palm for the same.

He only pulled her back to his chest, letting his magic feed hers.

The same way he fed her body. The same way he fed her soul.

And later, when her power was brimming and after they had eaten with their family, when Sorin was deep in sleep restoring his own power reserves, Scarlett slipped from their bed yet again. She pulled on pants and a loose tunic, along with some silk slippers, before she slipped from their rooms.

She made her way up one level of the castle, to the entire floor that was Cethin and Kailia’s. When she rounded a corner that would take her to the main doors of their suite, a swirl of ashes and smoke appeared before her, just as she’d known it would.

Kailia stood there, amber eyes narrowed and an arrow nocked loosely in her bow. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you, actually,” Scarlett said. Then she jerked her chin at the arrow. “No need for that. I’ve had enough deathstone for one day, thank you.”

Kailia eyed her, leaving the arrow in place. The female certainly didn’t trust easily, but that was to be expected, she supposed, given where she was raised.

“I came to see if you wanted to come with us in two days.”

At that, the queen jerked back a step. “No. I will never step foot there again.”

Scarlett held her palms up placatingly. “I can understand that, but our plans have changed slightly, and I think … I think you may just want to be part of them.”

Slowly, Kailia removed the arrow from the bowstring, and it disappeared among a swirl of ashes. She looped the bow across her back as she met Scarlett’s gaze and said, “I’m listening.”