Chapter 2 Sorin
CHAPTER 2
SORIN
S orin Aditya stared at the map of the mortal kingdoms before him. They were in his personal study at the Fiera Palace; his Inner Court and Briar’s Inner Court were debating amongst themselves where she could be. The same thing they had been doing for the last two days. Nakoa, Commander of the Water Court armies, had been left in charge of the Water Court border, and Neve, Prince Briar’s Third, had been stationed at the Fire Court border. Sorin’s own entire Inner Court would be accompanying him whenever they decided where they were going. The problem was, they had no idea where to even begin to look. She’d left no clues or indications of where she was going, and then she’d blocked their twin ?ame bond.
The most obvious place was the mortal lands, but there was no concrete evidence that that was where she had gone. Sorin could only assume she had gone to Mikale Lairwood, despite him adamantly refusing that being an option. They had never ?nished the argument though, and she would do whatever was necessary to protect those in her charge.
He had known something was wrong. Unease had ?lled him with each step he’d taken away from her. He should have sent Eliza and Cyrus over the border to speak with the vampyres. He should have stayed behind and watched with her until she had been ready to tell him everything she’d ?gured out; but she had already blocked him out by that point. She had already put some type of resistance on their bond, before she’d somehow enacted that Blood Mark in the dirt, her blood splashed across it, obstructing their bond.
Scarlett. Scarlett. Scarlett.
He kept throwing her name down the bridge between their souls, kept feeling his words slam into an ancient wall. One glimmer. That’s all he wanted. One ?icker that she was all right. One glimpse to get an idea of where she had gone.
Sorin glanced down at the twin ?ame Mark that ?owed over the back of his hand, down his thumb and ?rst two ?ngers, showing that they’d completed three of the ?ve Twin Flame Trials. It was still there. She had to still be living. Cyrus’s Mark had faded when Thia, his twin ?ame, had been killed. Talwyn’s had done the same when Tarek had died. Although hers had taken longer to disappear. He assumed it had been because they had still been in the Trials that needed to be completed to become fully bonded twin ?ames. If Scarlett was—
No. That was not a possibility. He would know. He would know if she were gone from this world.
And if she was, he’d rip apart everyone involved before he tore down every realm in existence to ?nd her beyond the Veil.
The entire room fell silent as the lit braziers roared higher, and Sorin clenched his jaw, reining in everything that was coursing through him. His hands were ?at on the table beside the map he was staring straight through. Embers rolled off of him, and he knew there were likely ?ames ?ickering in his eyes.
“Sorin,” Cyrus said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We will ?nd her. You’d know …” He swallowed thickly. “You’d know if she were somewhere you could not follow.”
“There is nowhere she can go that I will not follow,” Sorin snarled. Before Cyrus could reply, a breeze ?uttered through the room and Princess Ashtine stood before them all. She bowed to Sorin. “I apologize for coming unannounced and uninvited, Prince of Fire.”
Sorin blinked at the show of respect. Ashtine had always been incredibly considerate, but he could count on one hand the number of times he’d interacted with her without Talwyn present. Briar was striding for her, and it took Sorin a moment to remember that the Water Prince and the Wind Princess were involved. He glanced to his Court and found the same recollection crossing their faces. Sawyer Drayce, Briar’s brother and Second, however, was still focused on the maps before them. Clearly seeing his brother with Ashtine was not a rare occurrence for him.
“Ashtine,” Briar said, stopping in front of her. He reached up and stroked Nasima’s head, and Ashtine closed her eyes to the touch as if she could feel it herself. When his ?ngers moved from her hawk to her cheek, her sky-blue eyes opened to meet his icy blue ones. “Something has happened?”
“You do not know that your queen is missing?” she asked with a tilt of her head, her gaze ?itting around the room.
“Yes, my dear, we know this well,” he said softly. “Do the winds speak of where she has gone?”
“I do not know where she currently sits, but I know where she Traveled to when she left these lands.”
“Baylorin?” Eliza asked sharply.
Ashtine’s gaze fell on her with that piercing intensity. “No. She was seen closer to your other homeland.”
“The Earth Court?” Sorin growled. “Why?”
“The winds do not know why your wife traveled there, but Prince Azrael reports that she took on and defeated many Night Children in Toreall near the border. He and Talwyn will arrive shortly. I do not know what they plan to reveal to you.” She spoke swiftly and softly. Nasima clicked her beak, and Ashtine’s head tilted, listening.
Sorin glanced at his Ash Rider. Rayner nodded and disappeared in the smoke of the braziers, understanding the silent order to go and investigate the border himself.
“Did the winds reveal anything else, Ashtine?” Briar asked.
Ashtine stepped closer to him. “The winds have all changed, my heart,” she whispered. “They speak …” She shook her head, and Nasima’s feathers ruf?ed. “They speak differently. I cannot walk among them as easily.”
Sorin could only stare at the princess. The odd female who never showed emotion. The princess who spoke in quirky riddles and vague references. She was visibly trembling as Briar’s arms came around her and pulled her into his chest. Her cheek rested lightly against his chest, and this time the room fell silent at what stood before them.
Sawyer looked up from the map, a grim expression on his face. “The last time she spoke like this was right before we learned of Eliné’s death,” he said quietly.
“She is not a Seer. She cannot possibly know such things,” Eliza snapped, stepping to Sorin’s side. A snarl that Sorin rarely heard from the male rippled from Briar, and Eliza’s brows shot up at the ferocity of the sound. Sawyer opened his mouth to say more, but another voice spoke ?rst.
“She may not be a Seer, but I am.”
Everyone turned to see a young woman who appeared to be around Scarlett’s age. If she had gone through her Staying, however, who knew how old she actually was. She had long, red-brown hair that was half up. She wore gray pants and a white top that laced up the front, and was barefoot as she stood in the study that had quickly become far too overcrowded with people. But beside the woman stood Shirina, the goddess Saylah’s panther, her tail switching back and forth and her silver eyes pinned on Sorin. Every Fae in the room bowed deeply to the panther.
“Who are you, and how did you enter these walls?” Eliza asked, stepping in front of Sorin and Cyrus. Briar and Sawyer had moved in front of Ashtine, but she seemed unconcerned.
“I am many things to many people,” the woman answered, stroking the panther’s fur.
“But to you,” Ashtine said, stepping around her lover and his Second and dropping to a knee before the woman, “she is an Oracle outside of her cave.”
Sorin knew then as he sank to his own knee. Juliette.
A hand came to her slender hip. “Normally I am incredibly formal when it comes to things like this, but since you have been dealing with my sister, who is anything but formal, I am hoping this can be a rather casual affair.” Sorin’s head snapped up, meeting her eyes. She gave him a soft smile as she continued. “And please, for the love of Reselda, do not tell her you all just bowed before me. I would never hear the end of it.”
As one, the Fae all rose to their feet, and Sorin stepped forward. “I have heard much about you,” he said. “She misses you greatly.”
“I know, Prince,” Juliette replied softly. “And I wish we had more time to discuss such things, but I cannot stay long. Shirina brought me here because she cannot get to her.”
“What do you mean she cannot get to her? She is her spirit animal,” Briar cut in, stepping to Sorin’s side.
“You are correct in your thinking that she has learned to read and interpret the ancient magic, Prince of Fire,” Juliette went on, ignoring Briar’s question. “You are also learning that she will go to extreme lengths for those she views as in her care. Those she claims as her own. She saw that moment as a way to save many, to save all of you, but she did not understand the cost.”
“There is always a great cost for that magic,” Sorin replied.
“Indeed. She thought she knew it. She thought you would be the cost. That she would have to sacri?ce her bond with you. But she was willing to do so to save your Courts. However, the cost was greater than she anticipated.”
Sorin stepped closer to the Oracle. “What was it? What was the cost?” Juliette shook her head. “I cannot tell you more than that Prince of Fire. I can tell you, though, that you will need more than the people in this room to get her out. And that when you ?nd her, she will not be the same as when she left.”
Sorin reached to grab her hand, but Shirina gave a snarl of warning, and he dropped his hand back to his side. “Can you tell me where she is? Does Mikale have her?”
“At this moment? No. Will she be turned over to him once more? Even I have not seen.”
“Lord Tyndell or the Assassin Lord?” Sorin asked.
“Act quickly. Time is not on your side,” Juliette replied.
There was a ?ash of soft light, and she and Shirina were gone a moment before Talwyn and Prince Luan stepped into the room from the air.
“Princess Ashtine,” Talwyn said curtly when she spotted her near Briar. “You beat us here.”
“I anticipated you would be here sooner,” Ashtine replied, her voice having returned to its usual lilt.
“And what have you told our Western Court friends?”
“Little that they did not already know,” she answered.
Talwyn studied the princess for a moment while Luan’s eyes swept the room with distaste.
Eliza and Cyrus were immediately ?anking Sorin once more, but he gave Talwyn and Luan a mocking smirk as he drawled, “I am glad you are both here. We are in need of your assistance.”
Every head in the room whipped to him. “Come again?” Cyrus asked.
But Talwyn spoke before Sorin could say more. “Were you planning to ask us for help before or after you informed us that Scarlett had gone missing again?”
“Since she went missing after defending the Earth Court border, I ?gured the least you can do is help us get her back,” he answered, casually strolling behind his desk and lowering into his chair, leaning back.
“Excuse me?” Luan growled.
“My queen went to aid your border, did she not?” Sorin asked with a raise of his brow.
“We did not request her aid.”
“We were monitoring the situation just ?ne,” Talwyn said, stepping to the edge of the desk, bracing her hands and leaning over it. “Perhaps if you had taught my cousin the proper procedures and politics of our Courts, this could have been avoided.”
“My queen does things her own way. Something you should be familiar with Talwyn,” he quipped, holding her gaze as he laced his hands behind his head. “Proper procedures aside, you were right, Little Whirlwind. We have found ourselves planted on the same side.”
Talwyn had gone still as death at her childhood nickname, and fury poured off of her. “That is not the way to gain my assistance, Prince of Fire,” she whispered with lethal calm. “I suggest you try a different tactic.”
Lightning ?ashed across the sky outside, and Sorin glanced at it, a bored expression on his face. “Someday you will learn to control that temper, Talwyn.”
“Be very careful with your next words, Sorin.”
Sorin unlaced his hands and leaned forward, bracing his palms against the desk before him. “Through our own resources, we have narrowed down her whereabouts to Baylorin. Most likely in one of two places.” He waved his hand across the map on the desk. A swirl of smoke had it morphing to a map of the capital of Windonelle. “The problem is that I cannot simply walk into either of them. Due to the little quest you sent me on, I am fairly well acquainted with both establishments. I will be expected and not welcome.”
“And how exactly can we help with that?” Talwyn asked through gritted teeth.
“ You can help by giving Luan use of your ring to Travel us in and back out once we have her. I will not risk another queen of the Courts going into the mortal lands until we know what we are up against.”
“That does not explain how exactly you are going to get to her,” Luan cut in, studying the map before them. His dark shoulder-length hair swaying around him.
“I do not need to explain the full scope of my plans to you. Not any longer,” Sorin answered, maintaining his bored air.
Talwyn snorted. “How happy you must have been to ?nally be rid of me, hmm, Sorin?”
Sorin studied her jade green eyes and mahogany hair braided down her back. And for the briefest of moments, he saw the child she had been. He saw them in the gardens of the Black Halls working on controlling her magic. He saw her picking ?owers to bring back to Eliné. He saw her sipping hot chocolate in his Fiera Palace after playing in the snow all afternoon, while Eliné had been away on a trip to another Court or territory.
And he found himself saying quietly, “No, Talwyn. I have never once been happy to not be on the same side as you.”
Talwyn pulled back from the desk, straightening. Her tone had softened almost imperceptibly when she said, “We will help in whatever way we can to get her back, so that we can proceed with ?nding the keys.”
Sorin nodded. “I need to ?nalize a few things. Be ready to depart tonight. We will go in under the cover of darkness.”
Everyone was quiet while Talwyn held Sorin’s stare. “Do not lose another one of mine, Sorin,” she said quietly.
“I swear to you on my life, Little Whirlwind. He will come back to you.”