Chapter 3 Scarlett
CHAPTER 3
SCARLETT
S carlett.
Scarlett. Scarlett.
Her name was a faint knocking at the back of her mind. A voice she could almost make out. A voice that pulled at her soul. A voice that was sometimes echoed by a growl. But then it would become silent once more. Kept just out of reach.
Tarek had slapped shirastone shackles to her wrists and ankles and hauled her atop a horse. There was nothing she could do. She was too weak and drained. She had slipped in and out of consciousness as they’d ridden well into the night.
Until a voice that made her entire body tremble spoke out of that night.
“Death’s Maiden. I have missed you.”
Darkness swallowed her whole and when she woke again, she found herself still in shackles, her wrists chained to the wall above her head. At least she was able to sit on the ?oor; though her ankles were still shackled as well. Her lips were wet, and the taste of blood ?lled her senses as she slowly cracked her eyes open.
She took in the room around her and immediately recognized it as the Assassin Lord’s dungeon study. She still wore her witch-suit and witch-leathers. All the weapons had, of course, been removed. She twisted her wrists and winced slightly as shirastone dug into her skin.
Shirastone to hold Fae and block their magic. Shirastone to hold her. She tried to summon her shadows, but there was nothing. No ?re or water or ice.
Footsteps outside the door had her gaze swiveling to it as the Assassin Lord entered. He paused for a moment upon seeing her awake, but she couldn’t see his face. His hood was in place as always. She’d never seen it off.
“My Darkest Maiden. You wake,” he said with harsh pleasantry.
Scarlett said nothing, waiting to see what kind of mood he was in. The man had basically raised her and overseen all of her training. His mood would determine how she would interact with him.
“Come now,” he said, walking closer to her but staying out of range of her chained feet. “No greeting after we have been separated for months?”
“How long have you been working with Tarek?” she rasped, her throat dry and hoarse from disuse.
The Assassin Lord walked to a nearby table and poured a glass of water. “How do you think I learned the identity of the Fire Prince?”
“You knew. The whole time he was with me. When I brought him to the Syndicate,” she croaked out.
“Yes, Scarlett,” he answered, crossing back to her. “I knew who he was. Tarek informed me he had entered the city shortly after he arrived three years ago.” He stooped down beside her, bringing the glass of water to her lips. Scarlett twisted her head to the side. “It is only water, Scarlett. You will not accept a drink from me?”
Scarlett huffed out a gravelly laugh. “Only water? I’m sure that’s all it is. There’s not a tonic mixed in there to drug me and quell my magic?”
“I was not the one who started your tonic. Your mother was. She did not want your magic manifesting in the mortal lands. I simply continued it because there was no way to train you in your power here,” he answered, reaching over and placing a ?nger under her chin to turn her head back to him. “Furthermore, your magic is wide awake now. I believe the only way to force it to slumber once more would be to force you to do the same. I would rather not do that. You are of no use to me asleep. Now drink.”
He brought the glass back to her lips and tipped it up. The water was cool against her parched throat, and she gulped it down greedily, draining the entire glass. The Assassin Lord rose and strode to the pitcher once more, re?lling the glass.
“What’s your plan, then?” she drawled. “Keep me chained in shirastone so I cannot access it? What use to you am I in that way?”
He crossed back to her, crouching down once more. “The shirastone will keep your ?re and water contained until we come to an understanding,” he answered, bringing the glass to her lips. She again drank the entire glass down, leaning her head against the wall behind her when she was done. “Is your thirst quenched, or do you need another glass?”
Scarlett closed her eyes. So incredibly … familiar. The Assassin Lord had brutally trained her, yes. He had denied her retribution for Juliette’s death. He had punished her and caged her and tried to break her. But he had also raised her, after her mother had been murdered. He had also cared for her. Just as he was doing now.
When she did not answer, he stood and crossed to his desk. It was smaller than the one upstairs in his much grander main study. There were no chains on the walls in that study.
He perched on the edge of the desk, and Scarlett opened her eyes, feeling his piercing gaze on her from beneath that hood. “Tarek tells me you ?gured out a number of things during your time away.”
Scarlett gritted her teeth. She would wait him out. Force him to reveal his hand ?rst.
The Assassin Lord chuckled. “I taught you well, Death’s Maiden.” He ran his ?ngers along the edge of the desk. “I know that physical punishment will be of no use with you.”
Scarlett stiffened at what he implied, but immediately forced herself to relax. They were all safe. The orphans. Nuri. Cassius. They were all safe behind wards that they could not penetrate.
That the Maraan Lords could not penetrate.
But did the Assassin Lord know where they were?
She kept her face neutral, a mask of carefully trained boredom as she held the Lord’s gaze beneath his hood. He folded his hands and placed them in his lap, and Scarlett worked to control her breathing. That was a mannerism she’d seen him make numerous times. When he was about to reveal exactly what her punishment was to be.
It often involved hurting Cassius or one of the others in front of her and refusing to allow her to tend to them. She had been chained in this very spot numerous times, for hours, with Cassius unconscious before her. “I am surprised that your Fire Prince has not yet attempted to come for you,” he said casually.
Scarlett’s heart constricted with fear and longing. “You are keeping me as bait? For him?”
“Do not be ridiculous,” the Assassin Lord said harshly. “I am keeping you because you are powerful. Him coming to attempt to rescue you will simply be a bonus. But alas, he has yet to do so.”
“How long have I been out?” Scarlett demanded.
“You have been in and out of consciousness for several hours.”
“That’s impossible. We could not have traveled all the way here from the far edges of Toreall in just a few hours. It would have taken at least two weeks and that’s riding with very few stops,” Scarlett argued.
“True,” the Lord replied. “But you did not ride. You were Traveled back here.”
“Tarek is a Traveler? How did he do so in the mortal lands?”
The Lord laughed softly. “No, Scarlett. Tarek is not a Traveler. Tell me, do you know where the Traveling gift came from?”
“I would assume from the Avonleyans like the other Fae gifts,” she ground out, drawing her knees to her chest. The chains on the shackles scraped along the ?oor.
“Very good,” the Lord replied. “But they are not the only ones who possess such gifts.”
“Let me guess,” she drawled. “The Maraans?”
The head beneath the hood nodded. “The Maraans are even more powerful than the Avonleyans were when it comes to Traveling,” he answered.
“That doesn’t explain how they accessed their magic in these lands.”
“You can access your magic here, can you not?”
“Not currently,” she muttered, wriggling her wrists and causing her chains to rattle once more in emphasis.
“Yes, well, can you really blame me there?” he asked with a shrug.
“Scared of a little ?re and ice and darkness?” Scarlett crooned.
“The ?re and ice, yes. The darkness, however … We have not given you enough to restore the depths of that magic.”
Scarlett bit the inside of her cheek, unsure how to respond to that. A game. The Assassin Lord was playing a game, dangling information in front of her. She knew if she were to ask what he meant, there would be a price for the answer.
When she didn’t say anything, he went on. “However, I do believe that the little bit we are giving you is also the reason the Fire Prince has not been able to ?nd you yet. If I were to let you weaken to such a state that the Blood Magic Mark you enacted were to wear off, a certain bond may be reestablished.”
For all her years of training, Scarlett could not hide the shock that came over her face.
“I ?nally have your full attention,” the Assassin Lord mocked as he rose from the desk. He came to stoop before her once more. “While I am not entirely surprised that you learned how to interpret and use Blood Magic so quickly, I am amused that you did so without understanding the costs of such things.”
“I know the cost I paid,” she spat at him.
The Assassin Lord reached out and stroked ?ngers down her cheek. She jerked her head away from him, but had nowhere to go. “You really do not. I am guessing you had no idea that when you enacted that particular Mark to block your twin ?ame bond, you also blocked all bonds to you, including the bond with your spirit animal.”
Shirina. Scarlett had not even thought of the panther. He was right. She’d had no idea. The thought had not even crossed her mind.
“Did you not wonder why she did not come to your aid in Toreall? Or here?”
Scarlett swallowed. She didn’t know what to say as she processed what he was revealing to her.
“Not only did you sti?e those two incredibly important bonds,” he continued, “but you blocked the bond to your Guardian.”
“My what?”
“Your Guardian. I am not sure when or how she did it, but your mother bonded you to another as your Guardian. That is ancient magic of the gods, but I have seen the Mark on both of you at various times over the years,” he said bitterly. “She bonded you, and then a Witch cast a spell to make you both forget the encounter.”
And the dream came ?ooding back to her. The memory of her mother taking her to the beach where they met the strange woman with silver hair. She had drawn on her and Cassius and made them drink a mixture of their blood. She had told her of a kingdom where people were bonded as Guardians and where they danced under the stars.
“So you see, Scarlett, the cost of that Mark was blocking every single bond put in place to keep you safe. To keep you from the Maraan Lords.”
“How do you know all of this?” she whispered to the Assassin Lord.
A soft chuckle escaped from underneath that hood. “I know plenty about Blood Magic, Scarlett. For example, I know that is how you obtained your powers of ?re and ice.”
“My mother’s magic was ?re and ice. I inherited them from her,” Scarlett snarled.
“No, child,” he said with a shake of his head. “Those were Eliné’s gifts. Not your mother’s.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Scarlett said with a shake of her head, as if to clear her thoughts.
“Your mother’s gifts were of shadows and night, Scarlett, not ?re and ice.” And Scarlett couldn’t decipher the Assassin Lord’s tone. It wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t harsh either. It was just … factual. “Your mother is also the one who could have done the Blood Magic to transfer Eliné’s gifts to you, since she did not have an heir of her own.”
“You’re lying,” she whispered. Tears were burning in the back of her eyes, but she refused to let the Assassin Lord see them.
And with no small amount of shock, Scarlett watched as the Assassin Lord reached up and wrapped his long ?ngers around the edges of his hood and pulled it back. Long onyx black hair was tied back at the nape of his neck, and eyes just as black were ?xed on her. He had a long, handsome face with thin lips that were pressed together and pointed ears arching up into his hair. “I do not think you will believe me unless you can look into my eyes,” he explained.
Scarlett couldn’t say anything. She had lived with this man for over half her life, had trained with him even longer, and had never seen his face. Not once.
“I am not lying about your mother. Your mother is the one who bonded you to Cassius, and she is the one who linked Eliné’s gifts to your own,” he said. There was nothing soft in his features. Only a calculating stillness as he watched her take in the information.
“I don’t believe you,” she ?nally managed to say to him.
His brows rose in surprise. “Tell me, Scarlett, did Prince Aditya tell you that the Fae cannot practice Blood Magic? Nor can the Witches? In fact, there are only two bloodlines in this world who can practice such magic.”
“Which ones?” Scarlett whispered, closing her eyes. She knew.
She knew in her gut that whatever the answer to this was, it was going to crush her in some way. Because if what he was saying was true, then that meant the woman from the memory, the woman with the silver hair who had called her Star?re and who had told her she loved the night and the dark and the stars, was her real mother. That meant that she had been standing on that beach under the night sky with her mother.
The Assassin Lord seemed to know what she was ?guring out, because now his features were morphing. They were becoming the face of the Assassin Lord that she had always imagined, as a cruel grin came across his lips and lined his sharp features. “The Avonleyans and the Maraans,” he ?nally said.
Scarlett felt the air whoosh from her lungs, but she managed to get out, “And how exactly do you know all this?”
“Because before my father was defeated, he made sure I knew our people’s history,” the Assassin Lord said coldly, his eyes boring into hers.
Any air she had managed to get down was ripped from her lungs once more as she gasped, “Deimas was your father? And Esmeray your mother? You are a Maraan Lord?”
“I am a Maraan Prince,” the Assassin Lord corrected as he stood. “You, however, are not Maraan, and perhaps now you ?nally understand why you have been kept under constant watch and caged.”
“You … You were keeping me as a weapon. Not just to kill the Fae, but …” She trailed off as her eyes came back to the black eyes of the Assassin Lord.
No. Of Alaric. The Maraan Prince.
“You plan to use me to break the wards and enchantments around Avonleya.”