Chapter 16 Scarlett
CHAPTER 16
SCARLETT
W hen she came up from the depths of slumber this time, she couldn’t clear her head. It was fuzzy. Sound was muf?ed. Her vision was blurred when she tried to open her eyes. Her mouth was dry.
And she wasn’t chained in the dungeon study.
Her ankle chains were anchored to the ?oor. Her wrists were still shackled, but they weren’t suspended above her head. She could freely move her arms. She was lying on the ?oor, the stone cool against her cheek, and she sucked in a sharp breath as memories surged up.
She pried her eyes open, and then she couldn’t breathe at all. The room around her came into focus, and she realized where she was. She was still in the dungeons of the Fellowship, but this room had a drain in the center. This room had manacles on the walls. A chair to be restrained in. A table to be strapped to. It had numerous devices to in?ict immeasurable pain.
And chained to the wall across from her was Cassius.
Scarlett jerked upright, her head throbbing in pain. All she could hear was the rush of blood pulsing in her ears.
“No,” she whispered, crawling across the ?oor as far as she could go.
Her knees split open through the thin gown as she struggled to get to him. “Cassius.”
His eyes were ?xed on her, wide and full of dread. He looked exhausted, as if he’d been struggling against his restraints for hours, yet he still let out a bellow of rage around the gag in his mouth as he watched her dragging herself across the ?oor to get to him. Not that it mattered. Her ankle chains stopped her, her ?ngers a foot from his bare feet.
This was a vision. It had to be. Lord Tyndell was doing this to her. She’d heard nothing from the Assassin Lord since he had left the study to verify Callan was back. That had been at least two days ago. Tarek or Mikale had been giving her the tonic they were forcing her to swallow along with small meals. Mikale never answered her when she asked about the status of Callan, and she’d stopped speaking to Tarek after their last conversation.
It’s not real , she told herself over and over again. It can’t be real.
“The Guardian bond is so much more powerful when the Guardian chooses it for himself, rather than being forced into it,” came Alaric’s cold voice from the corner of the room. She heard his footfalls on the stones, but her eyes stayed ?xed on Cassius. He was pale, and she could see every ounce of apology and regret shining in his brown eyes.
She tried to swallow, but her throat was too dry. She felt the tears welling at the back of her eyes, as those footsteps came to a stop beside her. This was it. This was checkmate. This was what would break her. She didn’t know what the choice would be, but she had no doubt it would end with Cassius losing his life.
Scarlett couldn’t take her eyes off of Cassius, as she felt Alaric lower to a crouch beside her and slowly stroke her hair, as if trying to soothe her. His hood was down. Apparently, he had deemed Cassius worthy of knowing his identity before he killed him.
“His need to protect you goes beyond any magical bond enacted, when it is entered into willingly. He may not feel your physical pain like he once did, but he has been quite tortured seeing you lying here unconscious these last several hours.”
Two tears slid free, and Cassius slowly shook his head. Sheknew he was trying to tell her not to cry, not to show weakness. She knewhe was trying to convey how much this was not her fault. She knew if he could speak to her right now, he would tell her this sacri?ce was worth it and not to blame herself or carry this guilt with her.
But none of that helped. None of that eased the splintering happening inside her chest.
“He was furious when I told him how I had Tarek drug you with your last meal,” Alaric continued, reaching over and swiping the tears away with his thumb. “It was the … safest way to get things into place for this next bit of business.”
He stood back up and walked to a low table, swiping up a dagger before coming to stand by Cassius. Scarlett saw Cassius’s breathing increase, his chest rising and falling faster and faster as he mentally prepared for what he was about to endure.
“What he said was true,” Alaric mused, studying the dagger in his hand. “Prince Callan has returned.”
Scarlett’s breath hitched at the words. She ?nally broke her gaze with Cassius, turning her head to look up at Alaric. His jaw was clenched tight, his shoulders tense. He seemed to be lost in thought as he tapped the tip of the dagger against his ?nger.
“If Callan has returned, then why is Cassius chained to the wall?” she demanded, her voice hoarse and raw.
His black eyes slowly came to hers, and Scarlett had to ?ght the urge to ?inch back from him. “Callan has returned, but he returned betrothed to someone,” he gritted out.
Her brows ?ew up, and her head whipped to Cassius, who looked as surprised as she was. He shook his head again to tell her he had no idea what Alaric was talking about.
“Yes, we were all quite surprised by it. Especially Balam,” Alaric continued. “Considering he is betrothed to Tava Tyndell.”
Scarlett couldn’t help the bubble of hollow laughter that escaped from her lips. Somehow, some way, they had learned of the plans to force Callan into a marriage to Veda and had saved him from that fate.
And Tava. Brilliant godsdamn Tava.
Tava would be on the inside, next to a man who felt nothing but contempt for Scarlett these days. She would be a source of information for the others.
“I am failing to see the humor here, Death’s Maiden,” Alaric said coldly.
Another breath of laughter escaped her. “You’ve spent centuries putting things into motion, carefully laying plans, and then Lord Tyndell’s own daughter derails them. The humor is the irony. One would think Lord Tyndell would be thrilled.”
Without warning, that dagger in his hand went into Cassius’s thigh, right atop the place he had been stabbed by Veda nearly two years ago. Cassius bellowed around the gag in his mouth, and Scarlett screamed, lurching forward only to be halted violently by the chains.
“Stop!” she cried. “Stop!”
But he didn’t. Instead, Alaric twisted that dagger in deeper. Cassius was jerking against his chains, the veins in his neck straining as he endured the pain.
Alaric left the dagger in his leg and dropped down to a crouch before her, taking her chin in his hand and tilting her face up to his. “I have given you time. I told you what the consequences of continued disobedience would be. This is your fault, Scarlett. You have caused this fate.”
Scarlett tried to shake her head in denial. She tried to look at Cassius over Alaric’s shoulder, but he refused to allow her such movement. “We will work around this thing with Tava and Callan. That is not a be-all, end-all issue. But while I am dealing with that, I need to know where the Black Syndicate orphans are.” She tried to jerk back from him at the words, but his grip on her chin only tightened, becoming bruising. “You will tell me, Scarlett. I am through playing games. For every hour you do not tell me, you bestow more pain upon your Guardian.”
Alaric shoved her away from him as he stood, and she fell back, catching herself on her elbows. He jerked the dagger roughly from Cassius’s thigh, causing another bellow of pain. He pulled the gag from his mouth in the next breath.
“Maybe you can talk some sense into your charge,” he snarled at Cassius. “Your life depends on it. I will be back in an hour.”
Alaric wrenched the door open, stalking out, but before it swung closed, Tarek strolled in.
“What are you doing here?” Scarlett demanded.
Tarek tsked under his breath. “You didn’t really think he would leave you two alone in here, did you?”
“We have never been alone, Scarlett,” Cassius said from between gritted teeth, drawing her attention back to him. “Someone was always here while you were out.”
“I am so sorry, Cassius,” she whispered, her voice catching.
“Look at me, Seastar.”
But she couldn’t. She couldn’t meet his gaze.
“Now, Scarlett,” he commanded.
Blue eyes met brown ones brimming with intensity. “This is not your fault. Do you understand me?”
“This is Juliette all over again, Cass,” she breathed. “I cannot do this. Losing you—” She swallowed down the sob that cracked her voice. “I will not come back from this, Cassius.”
“You will, Scarlett. You will have Sorin and the others from—”
“They are not you!” she cried. “Yes, I love Sorin. Yes, he is my twin ?ame. But you are as much a part of me as he is. I will not survive this.”
“You will, Scarlett,” Cassius repeated. “You will survive this because you must. You will survive this because others depend on you. You will survive this because when it is all over, I know Sorin will give you a place to rest. To heal. To live. Hang on, Seastar. Hang on just a little longer. Promise me you will hang on.”
She was shaking her head, tears streaming down her face.
“I will make the choice for you, Scarlett. You do not need to make it. I choose the innocents. I choose the children. Let me do this for them. Let me make this choice,” he begged.
She reached for him again, wishing she could just fucking touch him. Blood continued to spread from the wound, soaking into his pants. “What difference will it make?” she asked. “When you are gone, he will just ?nd another thing to threaten me with.”
“You know he will not leave you behind, right? That he will come for you,” Cassius said, his voice so quiet she almost didn’t hear him. His features had softened slightly, and a small smile graced his lips as he looked down at her.
Scarlett pushed herself up, drawing her knees into her chest and looping her arms around them. She rested her chin atop them as she stared up at Cassius. “If the prick by the wall wasn’t in here, I would have so much to tell you,” she said.
That small smile tilted up a little more. “I’m sure there are other tales you could tell while we wait,” he replied, shifting slightly and trying to hide his grimace.
So she did. She told him of the Fiera Mountains and the Tana River and the Twilight Wild?res. They reminisced over days past, of moving through the night and drinking more than anyone should. They talked about when they were younger and he would take her to pick pears in the groves. He teased her about how awful she was with a sword when he ?rst started training her, and she teased him about how she’d surpassed his skill.
And when Alaric would return, every hour just as he promised, when he would ask where the orphans were and Scarlett would press her lips together in refusal, her eyes stayed on Cassius, lending him strength the only way she knew how. She did not cry for him. She did not beg on his behalf. She gave him this gift of letting his suffering not be for nothing. When he was gone, she would shatter so completely that not even Sorin would be able to reach her any more, but until then, she would give him this. She kept her eyes on him, to remind him he was not alone. She became his ?nal star in the darkness.