Chapter 10 Sorin
CHAPTER 10
SORIN
D ammit!” Sorin snarled, ?ames hovering in his palms and embers dancing in his vision.
“Sorin,” Cyrus said cautiously. “I do not have my magic right now, brother.”
The two were in the small bedroom they were sharing. Rayner was in a room with Luan next door, mainly because he was the quiet one, and the two could pretend the other wasn’t there. Arianna and Eliza were across the hall, with Callan and his men in a room next to theirs.
They’d stayed up until nearly dawn going over what everyone knew and coming up with plans. The biggest issue was they didn’t know where exactly Scarlett was. Their best guesses had been the Tyndell manor or the Lairwood estate, but Cassius said he hadn’t felt anything different with the wards. They’d started making plans for areas to scout. Places to search. Ways to get into the castle to check the dungeons there.
They’d ?nally all had to go rest. The Fae who didn’t have access to their magic had been exhausted. Cassius had managed to make a small batch of the tonic, and Sorin’s Inner Court had all taken small doses to ease some of the discomfort. The few hours of sleep they had gotten were not nearly enough, when Sorin had been jolted from sleep, his left hand burning.
He could feel her. It was faint. So faint it was hardly there. But he could feel her. She was weak. Far too weak. And he heard her. He heard her say his name. His magic hummed at the sound of her voice in his mind, seeking its counterpart as much as he was seeking her physical being.
And he’d tried.
Gods, he’d tried to reach her. He’d begged her to tell him where she was. There was so much resistance down that bridge between their souls, hairline cracks ?ssuring along whatever barrier was there. He’d thrown ?ames against it, trying to weaken it further, all the while reaching for her, telling her he was coming. But he needed something. He needed a direction to go.
And just when he thought that wall blocking their bond was going to shatter apart, the cracks disappeared. It repaired itself, and a force seemed to emanate from the wall, shoving him back, away from her. But not before he heard her voice one ?nal time, full of pain and pleading.
Alaric .
The Assassin Lord had her. Not Mikale.
Not Lord Tyndell.
This changed everything. They didn’t need to scout anywhere or try to ?nd a way into the castle. They needed to get into the Black Syndicate, into the heart of hell itself.
“Sorin!” Cyrus snapped. “Get it under control, or I’ll be forced to get Luan.”
Sorin glanced down to ?nd the ?ames in his palms had grown, tendrils of ?re snaking up his wrists and around his arms. And allhecould think about as he watched his ?re was how much it reminded him of Scarlett’s shadows doing the same.
Why weren’t her shadows helping her? They’d protected her from the Night Children all those months ago. They’d bit at him. They’d cocooned around her when she was at her darkest. They’d been there when he couldn’t, so why wasn’t she using them now?
“We will get her back, Sorin,” Cyrus said, his voice low and tense as he watched his prince. “We will ?nd her, but you need to remember that you are the Prince of Fire. There are innocent children in this building. Get it under control.”
He inhaled deeply, but it didn’t feel like enough air. Nothing felt like enough. Not without her here.
Cyrus was right. They would ?nd her.
And then he’d burn every motherfucker who’d touched her until even the ashes were nothing.
“Get the others,” Sorin said, his tone low and lethal as he strode for the door. “Meet me on the beach.”
Without another word, he left the room. He was down the four ?ights of stairs and out the back door facing the docks within minutes. He ?nally stopped when his feet sank into wet sand, the waves lapping at his toes. He hadn’t even bothered to put on boots when he’d left the warehouse, despite the winter weather. With a bellow full of every bit of rage and helplessness and longing building in his soul, he released a stream of ?ames across the water, steam rising and hissing.
He heard his Court come up behind him, but they said nothing. There was nothing to say. There had been nothing to say for four days. Their queen was missing. His wife had been taken. She was in the hands of perhaps the one person who was worse than Mikale. She was in the hands of the person who knew how to break her. She could handle Mikale. She could take every touch and every foul thing that man would do and say to her. The Assassin Lord, though? That man was a master manipulator. That man knew her inside and out. That man knew just how strong she was and exactly how to wreck that strength. That man knew how to break her in ways he didn’t know that he could help her walk through twice.
When you ?nd her, she will not be the same as when she left.
The Oracle’s words had haunted him since she’d said them in his study two days ago. He’d tried not to assume the worst. An Oracle’s words were often vague and misconstrued. The true meaning of them not becoming clear until the events had come to pass. But knowing she was in the hands of her former Master?
She will not be the same as when she left.
The only sound was the waves. A gull occasionally squawked as it ?ew overhead. He didn’t know how long they stood there, his Court a solid presence at his back. He stared across that sea until he ?nally began registering the chill air against his skin. And when he turned to face his family, it was the Prince of the Fire Court who looked at them. It was the face of the Court that ?lled the nightmares of mortals; and the looks on the faces of his Inner Court told him they had gone to this place, too. They had come for what was theirs, and the gods help anyone who stood in their way.
“We need to ?nd Nuri and Cassius,” Sorin said, his voice low and lethal. “She is in the Black Syndicate. They will know the layout and what we need to do.”
“You can feel her?” Rayner asked.
“For a brief moment. She is … not well,” he answered, quelling the rage that immediately tried to surge up once more; the wet sand beneath him beginning to steam.
The faces of his family darkened even more, and they all turned and headed back into the warehouse. Sorin went to the room he shared with Cyrus and got dressed, stopping in a washroom to run some water over his face and hands. By the time he stepped into the ?rst ?oor room, his Inner Court was there along with Luan, Arianna, and Nuri.
“Cassius is coming with Drake and Tava,” Nuri said tightly. She had several knives in her hand and was hurling them into a wooden beam at the other end of the room. They landed nearly on top of each other. When she had thrown the last one and was stalking to retrieve them, she said, “You believe she is with Alaric.”
It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, and Sorin could hear the skepticism in her tone.
“I know she is with Alaric,” Sorin corrected.
“I have eyes inside the Fellowship, General ,” she replied. “No one has said a word about her being there.”
“She is there,” Sorin ground out from between gritted teeth.
“All I am saying is that we shouldn’t entirely abandon our other plans,” Nuri argued, prowling back towards him, her knives in her hand. “Yes, we can investigate the Syndicate, but I think we should also still look into the Lairwood house—”
“There is no need,” Sorin interrupted. “All of our efforts need to be focused on the Black Syndicate.”
“And if you are wrong?” she snapped. “We could at least have other leads to follow if we still look into—”
“No,” Sorin growled. “She is with your Master. She is in that hellhole you call home, where you knew what was happening to her for years and did nothing. You and Juliette let her—”
One of those knives in her hands was ?ying through the air in the next blink, and he barely managed to get a shield up to avoid it. His Court was instantly before him as Nuri prepared to hurl another knife at him.
“If you release that blade, you will regret it,” Cyrus said, his voice low and full of warning.
A sinister grin twisted onto Nuri’s features, and she let her fangs slide free. “I think you will ?nd that you will be the one with regret, ?re bastard,” she retorted.
Sorin could feel her voice of silk and honey scraping down his soul as she tapped into her entrancing abilities. Before Sorin could do anything, vines were snaking up Nuri’s legs and torso, snagging her wrists and pinning them behind her back. She hissed in outrage, and Sorin turned to ?nd Azrael leaning casually against the wall. His face was hard, and he looked bored out of his godsdamn mind.
“If you are not going to play fair, Nuri dear, neither are we,” Sorin taunted with a mocking grin.
“Fuck you, Sorin,” she spat. “You sit here and blame me for what Scarlett endured in the Black Syndicate? She was not the only one there. Juliette and I were trained just as harshly. We were treated just as brutally. In fact, I would say our training was even more vicious because everything was always about her . She had to be protected at all costs. She was the one that mattered above all else. She was the reason Juliette gave her life to begin with. So do not stand here, berating me for doing nothing, when you let her get taken from your own godsdamn Court, right from underneath your arrogant ass. Do not sit here and tell me how much she suffered for years at the hand of my Master when there was nothing I could do but endure the same beside her. She is not the only one who has made sacri?ces.”
“What the hell is going on in here?”
Cassius and the Tyndells stood in the doorway of the warehouse, the door clicking shut behind them. His eyes bounced from Nuri, restrained in vines, to Sorin, where ?re simmered at his ?ngertips.
“Sorin wants to march into the Black Syndicate and take on the Assassin Lord,” Nuri quipped with a sneer.
“That is not what I said,” Sorin retorted, the ?re at his ?ngertips ?aring brighter.
“Sorin,” Rayner said, in quiet warning.
“Why do we think he has her?” Cassius asked, stepping further into the room.
Drake and Tava stayed near the entrance.
“Because he had a super special feeling,” Nuri sneered again.
A hand clamping onto his shoulder from behind had Sorin halting mid-step when he began to move towards the Night Child. He bared his teeth, Cyrus’s ?ngers digging into his ?esh.
“Sorin, you are riding a very dangerous edge right now. Maybe you should take the ring off for this conversation,” he said, his voice low.
“Maybe we should be making plans to enter the Black Syndicate and ?nd her, rather than arguing with a godsdamned vampyre,” Sorin snarled in reply.
Nuri hissed again, but Cassius interrupted before she could say anything. “What did you learn and how?”
“I felt our bond brie?y. She managed to tell me she was with Alaric. She is weak, Cassius. She is not—” Sorin paused, swallowing the smoke curling in his mouth and pushing it back down with the rage and worry and helplessness that were surging up once again. He would not be able to contain it much longer. They needed to come up with a plan and put it into action. Now. “She is there. Tell me what we need to do so we can get her the hell out.”
Cassius blew out a deep breath, running his hand through his hair. “It will not be that simple, Aditya. We cannot just go into the Black Syndicate. It will take at least a couple days to plan and—”
“We do not have a couple days,” Sorin spat, jerking free of Cyrus’s grip and stalking forward. “Did you not hear what I said?”
“I heard you,” Cassius replied, his voice even and strained. “I want to ?nd her as badly as you do, but there are dozens of places he could have her. Even at that, the places that are most likely …” He ran his hand through his hair again, letting out another heavy breath. “They will be nearly impossible to get into undetected. This plan will need to be precise and intricate, and if we make one error, the consequences for her, for everyone involved, will be horri?c. You think she is weak now? You think she is hurting now? Alaric is just getting started.”
The room fell silent. Sorin’s chest was heaving with every breath. He let the ?ames spring to life around him once more. “The Assassin Lord will not be an issue for two Fae with access to their magic, let alone if the others take the tonic you brewed to access theirs as well. The only thing we need to do is ?gure out where the fuck she is. Once that task is done, getting to her and getting her out should not be an issue.”
Nuri snorted derisively, still bound by Luan’s vines. “You think they do not expect you to come for her? I assure you, asshole, they are more than prepared for you and your ?re tricks.”
“She is right,” Cassius said. “Also, I would release her. She has likely already planned ?fty different forms of revenge.”
Nuri’s face twisted into a half-grin as her eyes narrowed on Luan. The Earth Prince glanced once at Sorin, and Sorin gave a jerk of his chin. The vines unwound, and Nuri slowly rolled her neck and shoulders, her honey-colored eyes closing. When they reopened, a Night Child stared back at them. Her face was cold, her eyes hard as they stared down Luan. She said nothing, that half-grin growing more wicked, and Cassius casually stepped between them.
“As we were saying,” Cassius continued, his eyes ?xed warily on Nuri, “?guring out where exactly she is being kept is likely the least complicated part of this. We are not going there today.”
“The fuck we aren’t,” Sorin snarled.
“Sorin,” Rayner warned, “we cannot risk it. We need to listen to them.”
“It will take us several days, if not weeks, to ?gure out where she is. And even at that, we’ll be lucky,” Cassius said. He glanced at Nuri again. “I have a few suspicions about where she might be, but getting into them to see will be … dif?cult.”
“So you send me in,” the Shifter Beta interjected. She had been standing silently near Luan, observing everything taking place, listening and calculating. Everyone turned to look at the female, the beads on her braids clinking as she sauntered forward. “I will ?nd her, and then we can make a plan to get her out.”
“That would not be wise,” Luan cut in. “Your brother would be very opposed to this idea.”
“My brother is not here,” she countered, her eyes shifting to Sorin. “Let me ?nd your bride. That is why I am here, is it not?”
“This was not the part of the plan you were brought for, Lady,” Sorin replied, but the Shifter had a point. She could get in and out of wherever they suspected Scarlett was, likely undetected … Unless there were wards.
“I have never been asked to put up wards in the Syndicate,” Cassius said when Sorin posed the question. “Even if somehow there are wards, would he be able to tell the difference with Scarlett there? Or me? Or Nuri?”
“This is not a good idea, Sorin,” Luan cut in again.
“It is the best option that has been proposed,” Sorin retorted. “Unless you have another idea?”
“Do you really believe the two of us cannot handle a mortal assassin?” Luan countered, his doubt clear in his tone.
“He is not a mere mortal assassin. He runs the entire Black Syndicate,” Sorin answered.
“Again, a district of mortals.”
“Clearly not just mortals,” Nuri countered with a wicked smirk, toying with her knives.
Luan glanced at her brie?y. “That is a valid point, I suppose.”
“Is the Assassin Lord mortal, then?” Tava asked, drawing attention to her and her brother for the ?rst time since they’d arrived. Sorin had forgotten they were even here.
Cassius and Nuri glanced at each other, some form of silent communication passing between them.
“What?” Sorin demanded. “Do you know something?”
“No,” Cassius answered, shaking his head. When Sorin continued to stare at him in expectation, he sighed. “It would not surprise me to learn that he is not mortal at all.”
“You think he is what? A Night Child?” Sorin asked. Nuri shrugged. “Perhaps.”
“But you have your suspicions,” Sorin pressed. She shrugged again. “Perhaps.”
Cyrus’s hand was again on his shoulder, forcibly holding him back as he lurched towards Death’s Shadow.
“ Perhaps ,” Cyrus drawled, “you could share your suspicions so that we are better prepared when we go for our queen.”
“This is not your domain, ?restarter,” Nuri replied lazily. “I do not answer to any of you.”
“No,” Sorin sneered back. “You answer to a master who has my wife, my twin ?ame, and my godsdamn queen.”
“You forget that before she was any of those things she was my sister and his ward,” she shot back, with a jerk of her chin towards Cassius. “We have not seen her in months, and we desire to have her back just as much as you do.”
“Then why are you withholding information that could help us?” Sorin demanded.
“We are withholding nothing, Sorin,” Nuri cried. “We have told you that storming in there unprepared will kill us all. We are trying to tell you that every detail needs to be planned out meticulously. We were raised here. We are the nightmares on these streets. Not you and your merry band of Fae. We know its secrets. It is you that keeps refusing to listen to us. It is you that keeps refusing to accept the fact that our knowledge is superior here.”
Sorin ground his teeth together so hard it was a miracle he didn’t crack molars. Cyrus still had a hand on his shoulder, but his grip had loosened, waiting to see what he was going to do. After several moments of silence, Sorin said, “What do you propose we do then?”
Nuri glanced at Cassius again before she said, “If we can get your Shifter into the Syndicate, she could scout it out. Cassius and I can draw a map of the Fellowship. The problem will be getting her in, and it’d be best if she did not go alone.”
“The Lady is de?nitely not going into the Black Syndicate unaccompanied,” Luan cut in.
The Beta’s eyes ?ashed to his. “While I ?nd it adorable that you are so protective of me, Azrael, do not forget that I have just as much power as my brother. You would be wise to fear my wrath as much as you appear to fear his.”
“It is no slight to you, Arianna,” Luan countered with a bow of his head. “We are facing unknown forces. It is simply not wise to send any one person in alone, let alone a leader of the realms.”
“Whether or not she can handle herself is not the issue here,” Nuri cut in. “We can only assume that Alaric has some sort of wards around the Fellowship. We cannot be foolish enough to think they are around the Tyndell and Lairwood estates and not around the Fellowship. Nor can we be foolish enough to think they are not all working together.”
“No one said that,” Cassius cut in quickly, glancing at Drake.
“It seems it was implied,” Drake shot back.
“We are on your side, and Scarlett’s side,” Tava interrupted, her chin lifting slightly. “Our family matters will not interfere with our involvement here.”
“How can they not, when your father is part of the issue?” Eliza countered.
“Is he? Do we not now believe that the Assassin Lord has her?” Drake retorted.
“Why are we arguing about this?” Sorin cut in. “At this point, we are going to assume Alaric knows of Lord Tyndell and Mikale. I agree that it would be foolish to think he doesn’t know, since he clearly knew about Scarlett’s heritage. As for the allegiance of Drake and Tava, until they prove otherwise, we trust them. They have done nothing but aid us from the very beginning, and nothing else will be said on the matter,” Sorin added, as Eliza opened her mouth to argue. She pursed her lips, but lowered her eyes in acceptance.
“If we’re not sending Arianna in by herself, how are we getting her in?
Who is going with her?” Cyrus asked.
“Assuming any wards around the Fellowship are like the ones Cassius put around the Tyndell manor, another immortal would need to go with her,” Nuri answered.
“But the wards would still detect them,” Cyrus countered.
Nuri rolled her eyes. “That’s the point. They will assume whomever is accompanying her set off the wards, leaving her to move about freely.”
“But what happens to the one that goes with her?” Rayner asked quietly.
“They would be caught, likely alerting the Assassin Lord to the fact that we are coming for her,” Nuri answered.
“How is any of this helpful?” Sorin snapped.
“You didn’t let me ?nish,” Nuri replied casually, beginning to throw her knives at the beam across the room again. “If we go in ourselves, that would be the outcome. But if we could somehow orchestrate a member of the Fellowship to be summoned by the Assassin Lord, she could go in with him undetected.”
“That’s … brilliant,” Cassius breathed, staring at Nuri. “Obviously,” Nuri scoffed, throwing another knife.
“Gods, it’s like talking to Scarlett,” Cyrus muttered under his breath.
Sorin’s chest tightened at the words. Because it was. She had always said she and Nuri were two sides of the same coin. Her mannerisms. Her arrogance. All of it was so damn similar to Scarlett.
“So we get Cassius summoned, and then what?” Sorin pushed. “Before we get that far, we need to make sure Arianna has the layout of the Fellowship memorized,” Cassius said. “We don’t want to risk having to send her in twice. This needs to be a one-time thing until we go back for Scarlett, if she is, in fact, there.”
“And we will need to know which members are stationed where that day. We have a few people on the inside. It needs to be a day when they are patrolling the perimeter of the Syndicate,” Nuri added casually, another knife leaving her gloved hand.
But it didn’t embed itself into the beam across the room with the others she had thrown. No, this knife went ?ying at Luan’s face. No one saw it coming, and the blade grazed a shallow cut along his cheekbone before sticking into the wall beside his head. She had another knife already posed as Luan let out a growl, a whip of thorny vines appearing in his hand.
“Bind me again in your pretty plants, earth prick, and my next blade will be aimed lower and won’t just give you a little scratch,” Nuri sneered with a pointed look between his legs, her face a cold mask of wickedness.
A drop of blood was sliding down the Earth Prince’s cheek, everyone holding their breath as he stared down Death’s Shadow. Sorin wasn’t sure if he should interfere or not, and he honestly didn’t really care at this point. He didn’t want to be focusing on a petty squabble between Luan and Nuri. He wanted to be focusing on getting to Scarlett.
“Sorry to interrupt.”
Everyone turned to ?nd Lynnea standing in the stairway. Her cheeks ?ushed slightly at the sudden attention, and some of the tension in the air dissipated. She tucked some stray hair behind her ear. “I made a meal for you all. If you’re hungry.”
The last thing on his mind was food, but before Sorin could politely decline, Eliza was already striding for the stairwell.
“Thanks, Anala,” the general groused. “I’m starving.”
Sorin sighed. A hungry Eliza was a cranky Eliza, and he didn’t need to deal with an unruly general right now. He turned and began to follow everyone across the room, and Rayner fell into step beside him.
“This is good, Sorin,” he said quietly. “We are getting a plan together.”
Sorin only nodded, not looking at his Third, but Rayner grabbed his arm, tugging him to a stop. Cyrus glanced over his shoulder at them before nodding to Rayner and trudging up the stairs, leaving Rayner and Sorin alone.
Rayner released his arm, sliding his hands into his pockets. His swirling grey eyes were pinned on Sorin as he waited for him tospeak.
Sorin swallowed thickly, his eyes roaming around the now empty room, before he ?nally found the courage to say the words he hadn’t wanted to voice. The words that had been haunting him since he found her marriage band ?oating on a bed of shadows.
“What if we are too late?”
“You would know, Sorin. You would know if she were gone,” Rayner answered.
When you ?nd her, she will not be the same as when she left.
“What if …” Sorin swallowed again, dragging a hand down his face. “What if the Oracle is right? What if she is not the same?”
“She will be different, Sorin,” Rayner answered. “We do not know what she has been experiencing, but no matter what it is, it will have left its mark.”
“What if I do not know how to help her, Rayner? What if I cannot be what she needs when we ?nd her?”
Because at the heart of it, that was what scared him most. What if the mark left on her by this, by her former Master, was so deep, was so raw and brutal, he couldn’t help her? What if he was no longer what she needed? What if he could no longer help her ?nd the stars in the darkness? What if she was so lost to her shadows that he couldn’t reach her? What if there was no way out?
Rayner was quiet for a long moment, staring out a dust- and grime-covered window. “I think that if there is anyone who will be able to be what she needs, it will be the one who has always seen her for exactly what she is. I think she will need the one who has never once given up on her, even when she wanted to give up on herself. I think that the Fates gave her exactly who she needed, and I think the Fates gave you exactly who you needed, and this will not change that.”
“And if it is not enough?” Sorin asked, meeting Rayner’s eyes.
Rayner shrugged. “Will you give up? Will you ever stop trying to be what she needs?”
“Of course not.”
“If she is so different you hardly recognize her, will you walk away from her? Will you help her ?nd someone else to ful?ll what she needs?”
“No,” Sorin growled, the mere idea of that making thoughts of violence rise to the surface. “She is mine, and I am hers.”
“Then there is your answer, Sorin. Be hers, and you will be exactly what she needs, just as you were always meant to be.”
They stood in silence for a few more minutes before Rayner said, “Are you ready to go eat?”
Sorin nodded, following his Third to the stairwell and climbing the stairs to the second ?oor. The sound of chattering and laughter reached him through the door when they came to the landing. Rayner reached for the door handle, pulling it open and leading the way through the converted mess hall. They would eat in the kitchens, at the private tables set up where they’d all congregated last night.
They were halfway across the room when a delighted squeal reached Sorin’s ears, making him pause and turn to the source.
“Sorin!”
A little girl with blonde curls was sprinting across the room. He hardly had time to open his arms to catch the child as she ?ung herself at him.
“I got you this,” she squealed again excitedly, shoving something into his face.
He leaned back, trying to see what was in her hand, and burst out laughing when he realized she was holding a cookie. He took a bite of the treat, giving her a wide smile in return.
“Little Tula, I think you have grown since I last saw you,” he said, shifting her slightly in his arms.
The little girl nodded seriously, her baby blue eyes wide as she replied, “I had my birthday. I am so big now that Nuri started teaching me how to ?ght.”
“Has she now?” Sorin asked, his brow arching at that.
She nodded seriously again. “She made me a sword out of wood for my birthday, and she practices with me. Do you want to see it?”
“I do, but I need to eat ?rst,” Sorin answered.
“Do you want to sit with me?” Tula asked, her little head tilting to the side with her question, as she ?ddled with the collar of his tunic.
“I need to eat with my friends this time, but I promise to eat dinner with you,” Sorin added quickly, when a frown pulled at her mouth.
Tula glanced over his shoulder, and her eyes widened again when they fell on Rayner. “Does he need a treat, too?” she asked. “I can get another cookie. Lynnea has more in the kitchen.”
Sorin huffed a laugh. “Rayner will give you smiles for free, Little Tula. Just ask.”
Tula glanced back at Rayner in suspicion. “Why are your eyes like that?” she asked the Ash Rider.
Rayner’s lips tilted up at the frankness. “So that I can see in the dark.”
“Really?” Tula asked, her eyes widening with amazement this time.
“Sort of,” Rayner answered with a deep chuckle.
“Tula, this is Rayner. Rayner, meet Tula,” Sorin said, turning slightly so they could face each other properly.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Tula,” Rayner said, holding out his hand to shake hers.
“Do you know Scarlett, too?” Tula asked when she put her little hand in his big palm.
Rayner glanced at Sorin before looking back at the little girl. “I do know Scarlett.”
“Is she here?” Tula asked, looking around the room again. “I want her to see my sword, too!”
Sorin swallowed, the smile slipping from his face. “She is not here yet,” he answered.
“But she will be soon,” Rayner added.
“Scarlett is the one who told me Sorin’s secret,” she whispered loudly to Rayner.
“What secret is that?” Rayner asked in amusement, another smile hooking up on his lips.
“That treats make him smile,” she answered, squirming to make Sorin set her down. She reached up and grabbed his hand, tugging him towards the kitchens. “But I ?gured out his other secret all by myself.”
“Oh?” Rayner questioned, falling into step beside her. “Mhmm,” she hummed. “He smiles biggest when he sees her.”