Page 94 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

Sorin glanced at him as he pulled the vial of blood from his pocket. “I suppose you have experience with that. We’d have to figure something out.”

“Anyone ever tell you that you are an ass?” Cethin deadpanned.

“Your sister. Daily,” Sorin answered, tipping some blood into his palm. He could smell her in it. Embers. Citrus. Lavender. Jasmine. Taking a deep breath, he crouched before the mirror. He didn’t let himself second guess it as he traced the symbol with her blood.

They were silent, waiting. For what, he had no idea. Would she appear in the mirror? Out of the air like Traveling?

“Your blood too,” Cethin said after a moment.

Sorin glanced at Rayner, who shrugged. “It couldn’t hurt.”

Sorin sliced his finger before tracing over her blood on the symbol.

“She said it would take more,” Kailia chimed in, still perched on the table. “Blood of the same blood perhaps?”

Cethin lowered beside him, taking the dagger and slicing his finger to trace the symbol.

Still they waited, and still there was nothing.

“Family blood too,” Kailia said, jerking her chin at Rayner.

“But I am not blooded family,” he argued.

“Chosen family is often stronger than blood,” Kailia countered. “You know this, Ash Rider. Love, blood, and family.”

Sorin pushed to his feet, stepping back to give Rayner room. “How do you know of this?” he asked the Avonleyan Queen.

She shifted cool amber eyes to him. “Some knowledge is learned. Some is innate. Some is both.”

She spoke as nonsensically as an Oracle at times.

“Sorin.”

Rayner’s voice was tight and drew his attention back to the mirror.

Where all the symbols and glyphs around it were now glowing.

“Shit,” he murmured, Cethin and Rayner backing away.

The mirror was no longer reflecting the room back at them. There were images whirling past too quickly for Sorin to make them out. They were simply blurs of color, morphing from one to the next.

“Different worlds?” Rayner asked.

“Likely different mirror gates,” Cethin said, tucking his wife protectively into his side. “What is her plan, Sorin?”

“If things work out, she will alter the mirror gates,” Sorin answered, looking for any flash of silver hair among the swirling images.

“What do you mean alter them?” Cethin demanded, his eyes fixed on the mirror gate too.

“The theory is if a World Walker’s power was used to fuel the mirror gates, a World Walker’s gifts could also alter them. If it were powerful enough,” he explained.

“The theory?” Cethin deadpanned. “You are placing the fate of the realm and your twin flame on a theory?”

“I know you do not know your sister well,” Rayner muttered. “But she bases nearly every plan on a theory. Just be grateful she shared this one with some of us before putting it into motion.” Then he added, “Somehow, they usually play out in her favor.”

“Usually,” Cethin repeated.

“More than half of the time,” Rayner amended.

“Those are good odds,” Kailia commented.

“By the Fates,” Cethin muttered, dragging a hand through his hair.

Sorin glanced at him, his trepidation growing at Scarlett not returning yet. “She has a theory about you and the mirror gates too.”

At that, her brother froze. “What does that mean?”

“She thinks that if you travel through a mirror gate, you are not technically crossing the Wards. You would be able to leave without taking them down.”

“Even if that were true, my people would still be trapped here,” Cethin argued.

“Yes, but you could fight. The Wards could come down after the Maraans are defeated, so that—” Sorin cut himself, realizing how insensitive this was about to sound. Perhaps now wasn’t the time to discuss this.

“So that Avonleya will be safe, even if the Wards coming down takes my life,” Cethin finished for him.

Sorin nodded, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. He was bent down, murmuring into Kailia’s ear. She shook her head, and he took her chin, turning her face to his. Sorin returned his attention to the mirror gate, trying to give them some semblance of privacy.

Then he felt her. Shadows and stars, wildness and darkness. But also something more.

Still the mirror before them swirled.

Scarlett.

“Sorin,” came Rayner’s warning.

He hadn’t realized he’d taken a step towards the mirror.

Scarlett? You’re close, Love. Come home.

Home?

His breath caught. Yes, Love. Home.

I can’t … It’s too much. It wants too much. Demands too much.

No , he snarled down the bond, placing his palm on the mirror. It does not get to have you.

I’m sorry, Sorin. I tried.

No! Only I get to consume you, Scarlett! Me. Not the Chaos. Not the Fates. Me.

I love you like the stars love the night.

“No!” he bellowed, slamming both palms against the glass.

There was no way. There was no way they had come this far, gone through everything they had, to have it end here.

“We knew this was a possibility,” Rayner said quietly, his hand landing on Sorin’s shoulder. “We need to go through with the plans.”

“No,” Sorin retorted, shaking his head. “No.”

It was the only thing he could think to say.

“Sorin, you promised her—”

“I know what I promised her,” he spat, shrugging Rayner’s hand off his shoulder. “I promised her I would find her among the stars. I promised her I would always come for her. I promised her I would not fail her.”

Scarlett! Love, answer me. Now!

And when no answer came to him down the bond, he slammed his palms against the mirror again before he took a step back and hurled flames at the glass. Not a small flicker of embers, but a stream of fire that had Cethin throwing himself over Kailia and Rayner putting up a shield of smoke and ash.

When the flames receded and Sorin’s chest was heaving, the symbols around the mirror were glowing brightly, as if the mirror itself had absorbed the power. The symbol where they’d smeared their blood was glowing the brightest, a brilliant white. The same color as Scarlett’s starfire.

More than her blood will be needed.

That’s what the female had said.

“Power,” he said, turning to Rayner, who was glaring at him over his loss of control. He still had a thin shield of ashes swirling about himself. “It requires more than blood.”

“So we have to give it magic? What if it keeps it, Sorin?” Rayner asked doubtfully. “This is Blood Magic and matters of the gods we should not be messing with.”

“I will mess with it if it brings her home,” Sorin snapped.

“Your power will not be enough.”

They all spun around as Cethin said, “Mother?”

“You are right in your assumption, Prince,” Saylah continued, moving towards them.

Her ethereal grace made it appear as though she were floating.

“The blood of the three of you called to her, but power calls to power.” She stopped before the mirror, shadows beginning to pool in her hand.

“Your flames alone will not be enough to call to her Chaos. Others in the universe know this. They will try to call to it too.” She nodded at Rayner.

“Your smoke with his flames. My shadows with Cethin’s darkness and Kailia’s ashes. ”

An Ash Rider.

A Fae Prince.

A goddess of shadows and night.

An Avonleyan King.

Some unknown power only Chaos would recognize.

Would it be enough?

Saylah sent her shadows spearing towards the glowing symbol that the female had shown him, and Sorin followed suit.

He glanced at Rayner. The Ash Rider’s jaw was tight.

Sorin could tell he still wasn’t sure about this, but he lifted a hand and smoke joined the shadows and flames.

A moment later, there was darkness and ashes mixing among it all.

Sorin could feel it. Their powers all twining around each other, being absorbed by the mirror gate, and for the briefest moment, he wondered if Rayner was right. Were they all giving power that they wouldn’t be able to get back?

“That’s enough,” Saylah said sharply enough that it startled him, his flames stuttering. Everyone stopped.

Everyone except Saylah.

Her shadows kept flowing to the symbol, around the mirror, obscuring the reflective surface.

Sorin glanced at Cethin, who was watching his mother closely.

And then a dagger appeared in the goddess’s other hand. Before any of them could react, she had sliced her palm and was drawing a Mark on the glass of the mirror.

“Mother?” Cethin asked cautiously.

The goddess seemed to stumble before she sank to her knees, and Cethin lurched forward. Kailia’s hand on his arm had him pausing.

“Look,” Kailia whispered.

As the shadows receded, she stood there, her mother kneeling at her feet.

Slowly, she lifted her eyes to his. Silver and glowing, wisps of shadows swirled faintly among them.

Her shadows wound around her arms, starfire embers drifting among them.

She was different. He could feel the power radiating off of her.

“Scarlett?” he said tentatively.

Her head tilted as she studied him. It took a moment. An excruciatingly long moment, where it seemed as though she were trying to remember why she knew that name.

Sorin swallowed thickly. Love?

Her lips tilted into a wicked smirk. His chest tightened, and he knew.

“Hello, Prince.”

He was moving, stepping around Saylah, where she still knelt on the ground, and taking her face in his hands.

“I was trying,” Scarlett said, her eyes swirling with shadows the same way Rayner’s swirled with smoke and ashes. “I was trying to come back to you. I heard you calling, and I—”

But she was cut off by his lips landing on hers.

His tongue forced its way in, taking her mouth as he slid it along hers.

One hand slid into her hair and tilted her head, angling it so he could take the kiss even deeper.

His other hand slid down to her waist, pulling her into his chest, and she melted against him.

He pulled back a moment later, brushing light kisses along the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her temple. “I would have come for you,” he murmured into her hair.

“I know, Sorin,” she whispered, clinging to him. “I know.”

“How?”