Page 71 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

“Keep that hidden,” she said to Rayner, the lock a lifeless grey sphere once more. “I do not care who falls today. I do not care if everyone lies dead around us. I do not care if Alaric has me and does not release me. Keep it hidden and get it out of here. Take it to Cethin and no one else.”

His eyes went wide. “Scarlett—”

She shook her head. “I would tell you to leave now, but he will be suspicious if you do not appear with me.”

“And Sorin?” Rayner asked.

She sucked in a sharp breath, her chest tightening. “He will find his way to us.”

Lifting her palm, shadows swirled again, forming a sphere she encased in ice. Just like the shield she had formed around the lock. She’d let her magic study it, learn every detail of the thing.

And now her magic formed a perfect replica in her hand.

“Everything else is ready? You and Kailia accomplished the task? Most seraphs are inside the cliffs?” she asked as smoke and ashes thickened around Rayner to hide the real lock.

“Yes, but if we are atop the cliffs, we cannot go through with this, Scarlett.”

“So we will not be atop them when the time comes,” she replied, more shadows sliding into place along her body. “Stay on guard. Keep your weapons out. Travel us up, Cass.”

Cassius grabbed her outstretched hand, his other hand clamping onto Rayner’s shoulder. When they stepped from the air, her shoulders were back, her chin high, and her shadow panthers were stalking along at her side.

Before Alaric had a chance to open his godsdamn mouth, two of his seraphs were burning with starfire, their screams echoing in the air.

Her former master stared at her impassively, his lips pursing the smallest amount. His dark hair was tied back at the nape of his neck, cloak billowing behind him in the breeze. “You always did throw a tantrum when things did not go your way.”

Scarlett’s gaze went to Kailia first. She was huddled with her knees drawn to her chest. Her hands and feet were bound in what Scarlett was sure was nightstone.

It had to be to keep her from moving among her ashes.

Cyrus still had an arrow embedded in his shoulder, blood steadily streaming from it.

She could see it on his leathers, his tunic, dripping to the ground where he was on his knees.

A seraph stood behind him, a sword in hand.

“Release them. Now,” Scarlett gritted out.

And even Alaric had the good sense to pause at her dark tone.

“Why would I do that when you have reneged on our agreement, my Wraith?” he asked, taking a single step towards her. “I am told my Water Prince is no longer in my possession.”

“I am simply following the example of my benevolent former master,” she retorted. Then she let starfire flare in her eyes. “How dare you come after Ashtine and her babes.”

“Oh, I dare , Scarlett Monrhoe, because you sent me back a false Fae Queen,” Alaric spat, taking a few more steps towards her. “You thought you could play me, and there would be no consequences?” He clicked his tongue in disappointment. “You know there are always consequences for disobedience.”

Cassius and Rayner stepped closer to her, a force of power at her back, and her panthers snarled a warning.

Alaric simply gave her a small smile. Cassius went to his knees with a curse.

“Cass!” Cyrus cried, lurching forward, but the seraph had the blade at his throat in the next blink.

“Release them all, or you will never have this,” Scarlett snarled through clenched teeth, lifting the fake lock into the air before them.

Alaric’s dark eyes fixed onto the object, Cassius sucking in a sharp breath as their former master released his magic from the hold of his draining power. “I knew you would be the one to find it,” Alaric said, taking another step towards her.

“And you will never see it again if you do not release Cyrus and Kailia. Now,” she said in a deadly hiss.

“I am to trust your word after all of this, Scarlett? I think not,” Alaric said, moving closer still. Her panthers snapped at him, but she held them back. And when Alaric lifted a hand to touch the lock, she snatched it back from his reach.

“Terms, Alaric,” she said. “I give you this lock; you let us all leave. Alive.”

He smirked at the added caveat, and his raised hand came to her face instead.

She made herself stand there. Let him drag his fingertips along her jaw until he gripped her chin.

“You are such a godsdamn pain in my ass, and yet I find myself so incredibly proud of you. You are exactly what I envisioned you becoming.”

She swallowed, holding his dark stare. “Are we in agreement?”

“No.”

Scarlett blinked. “No? Is this lock not worth more to you than all of our lives?”

He tilted her chin even more. “That lock is only valuable to me if I can wield it. Something you can clearly do if you were able to find it, my Wraith. So no, I am not agreeable to your terms. I will let everyone else leave alive. You and the lock stay behind. And together?” His other hand trailed up her arm.

“Together we will keep this world safe. Is that not what you desire most?”

She clamped down on everything roiling through her. Her eyes fell closed as she breathed it all in. The anxiety of what she was about to do. The fear of knowing she might fail. The revulsion at having him touch her. Of knowing if this failed, Mikale would touch her next.

She felt Sorin’s snarl of rage ripple through her as he felt all her emotions.

Mine, Scarlett. The crown is yours. This world is yours. But you? You are mine.

She opened her eyes, connecting with Alaric’s once more. “Yes,” she said, letting her voice soften. “Yes, that is what I desire most.”

“Then we have an agreement?”

“I give you this lock and stay to wield it. You let everyone else leave alive without further harm,” Scarlett said.

“Agreed.” A victorious smile tilted on Alaric’s lips, and he nodded to the seraphs to release Cyrus and Kailia. The Avonleyan Queen was gone among ashes in the next blink. Cassius was racing for Cyrus, but Rayner stayed at her back.

“Go,” she snarled at the Ash Rider.

“I cannot leave you here, Scarlett,” he argued.

“It is an order from your queen,” she snapped in reply, locking eyes with him. She could tell this went against everything he was, to leave her behind, but he did it. With a muttered curse, he was gone.

“This could have all been avoided if you had come to my side to begin with,” Alaric chided, again reaching for the lock she held.

“This could have all been avoided if you hadn’t come for a world that is not yours to take,” she retorted.

“But it is mine,” he said calmly, lifting the sphere from her hand and holding it up before him.

Her magic swirled, just as the glyphs on the real thing had.

“It has always been mine, just as it was always my father’s.

When the beings who created this realm were defeated by Achaz and his armies, they lost their rights to this land.

To the victors go the spoils, Scarlett. You know this. ”

“Serafina and Arius were not defeated,” she countered, dragging up her starfire as quickly as she could.

“Ah, but nor did they create this realm,” he replied.

He held the sphere out to her, the false glyphs fading in and out.

“And this? This tells of all worlds, Scarlett. Every one that was, is, and is yet to be.” He turned, striding away from her as he continued speaking.

“And this is how I will save you from Achaz’s wrath.

With this, he can truly eradicate those who tipped the balance.

His own princes can rule the realms, and he can finally rest.”

“All of this because Serafina chose another?” Scarlett asked, feeling her veins begin to crackle.

“That is only part of the story, Scarlett,” Alaric said, passing the false lock to a seraph. He turned back to her, extending a hand. “Come. Your sister will be glad to see you. The two of you can convince Juliette to come home, and with the three of you back at my side—”

But the gurgled cry of a seraph had him whirling around.

The seraph he’d passed the lock to was slumping to his knees, an arrow through his throat.

An arrow with a deathstone tip.

The false lock tumbled from his hand, jolting her magic.

It was already unstable as she’d had to split her focus to dredge up every last bit of her starfire.

The false lock shattered apart at the same moment Kailia appeared again, another arrow going through the skull of the seraph who’d held a sword to Cyrus’s throat.

Then she was once again gone in smoke and ashes.

The seraphs went up in flames of orange as two others fell from the sky encased in black flames.

She looked up at the same time Alaric did, finding Cassius setting another alight. She spun. Cyrus was at the cliff edge, the arrow gone from his shoulder and fire in his palm.

“The agreement said nothing about his people,” Cyrus said, that mischievous smirk that often mirrored her own on his lips.

Then he leapt from the cliff. Before she could utter a cry of concern, Cassius appeared in the air, snagging Cyrus’s outstretched hand and Traveling them both out. They were gone. Her family had gotten out.

“That was not the lock,” Alaric snarled in a voice that was not of this world.

“But it was the lock we agreed on,” she replied, finally releasing her shadows. They rose up around her, a flood of darkness that blanketed the entirety of the cliffs. She shrugged. “And I suppose agreements can always be undone. You taught me that.”

She felt Alaric’s magic reach for her. Felt it trying to latch on to something.

And she let it.

She let it latch on to her Fae fire and water, and she let her Fae gifts bite back, sinking in just as deeply.

“How?” Alaric demanded.

“I think you should be more concerned with how you will survive this day,” she replied, starfire flaring to life in her hands so brightly, Alaric cried out a curse, turning away to shield his eyes.

“It will not be enough to end me, Scarlett,” he bellowed at her.

He was right. His draining magic would not let her end him. Not yet. She knew that from training with Cethin. When she came for Alaric, everything would be in place.

But this day had been about the lock.

It had been about Briar.

It had been about destroying these godsdamn cliffs forever.

She dropped to her knees, and with everything she was, she slammed her hands to the rock, sending every bit of her starfire into the depths.

Into the pristine halls and forgotten passages.

Into the rooms of nightmares and horrors.

Into the places that had haunted Rayner and Kailia and so many others.

Into the hell that had stolen so much innocence and life.

Into the walls that Rayner and Kailia had already weakened with their ashes, decaying so much inside, that when her starfire collided with it, it gave out completely. The cliffs swayed beneath her, a groaning sounding from deep within.

“You foolish girl,” Alaric snapped, reaching to grab her arm. But the minute he touched her skin, her shadows bit into flesh, and he jerked back with a bellow.

She only smiled as she sent one last blast of starfire into the belly of the cliffs. The last of her magic.

Then the world tilted.

She was thrown into the sky as the rock and stone exploded, dust and debris filling the air.

The cliffs crumbled, the sound deafening, but they’d done it.

She’d promised Rayner and Kailia they would destroy this place when they left today, and they had.

They’d gotten Briar out, sent him to Ashtine. The lock would get to Cethin.

It was enough.

She’d given enough.

The raining rock slammed into her arms, legs, torso. Jagged stone tore through her witchsuit, sliced her flesh, and she fell.

She fell and fell to the sea below and the rocks within. She had nothing left. The Water Prince was not here to save her. She would not be able to breathe beneath the waves. The impact into the water alone would likely kill her.

She was not panicked or remorseful like she thought one would be moments before crossing the Veil. They’d gotten out. They’d all gotten out. Sorin lived. She could feel him down the bond. He would make sure they’d find a way to save this realm.

She’d given enough.

Those were her thoughts when a large rock slammed into her temple. Her vision went black as she tumbled down and down.

No, Scarlett. Not like this.

She blinked, trying to keep conscious. The world was blurry as it raced past.

The world was on fire.

She blinked again. No, it wasn’t on fire.

But the dragon coming for her was.

Claws of flames wrapped around her torso, hauling her back up. Her stomach lurched at the sudden change in direction.

Scarlett. Reach, Love.

She blinked her eyes open again. She wasn’t sure when she’d closed them.

Sorin was hanging off the side of his fire dragon, hand outstretched, fingers reaching.

You …you came …

Always, Love. Reach.

But she couldn’t. She had nothing left to give.

And as her eyes fell closed again, she saw Sorin let go of his fire.

She felt his arms wrap around her as they fell.

And Sorin pulled them through a rip in the air.