Chapter 35 Scarlett
CHAPTER 35
SCARLETT
“ I don’t know how to work this out,” Scarlett said when they stepped from the air into their rooms at the Black Halls. “Is Tava’s key the mortal key, or is she the unknown bloodline?”
“We likely will not know until we ?nd the other keys, I imagine,” Sorin answered, reaching over and undoing the clasps on her cloak before slipping it off her shoulders.
She pulled a dagger from the sheath on her thigh and began idly ?ipping it as she mused, “It would be helpful to know so we knew where to focus our search.”
“Or we could focus on the Fae key, the one we know is still missing, and see if the last one ?nds its way to you as the rest seem to be doing,” Sorin countered, swiping the dagger when she ?ipped it into the air again. She was about to protest, but he pressed a glass of wine into her hand with a wink.
She took a sip before she said, “You don’t happen to have a spirit amulet lying around, do you, Prince?”
A low chuckle rumbled from him. “I do not.”
She huffed a dramatic sigh, taking another sip of wine, and a comfortable silence settled over the room. Sorin had disappeared into the dressing room when she called out to him, “You said there were libraries here.”
His voice ?oated out to her from the adjoining room. “There are.”
“Can you take me to them?”
“Perhaps we should explore that tomorrow.”
“Why?” She glanced at the delicate clock by the bedside. “It’s still early. Unless your ancient ass is tired?”
“Careful, Love …”
She smiled to herself, taking another sip of wine before she set the glass down and began removing weapons. They hadn’t been sure what they would encounter at the Baylorin castle. She was hoping that by Traveling directly to Callan’s rooms they would come and go without detection. And while that was how it had played out, she would never underestimate Mikale or Alaric again. So they had gone in with more weapons than likely necessary and her Semiria ring on Sorin’s ?nger.
“If you won’t take me to the library, I will just have to hunt it down myself. I’m sure some of the help would be happy to point me in the right direction,” she called to him, shucking off her jacket. What was he doing in there?
“I never said I wouldn’t take you there. I simply said tomorrow would be better.”
“Tomorrow we are meeting with Talwyn,” she argued.
“In the afternoon. We have all morning.”
“We train in the mornings.”
“Perhaps we should take tomorrow morning off.”
“Stop saying perhaps .”
Another faint chuckle was her response.
“Seriously, Sorin. I want to see if there are any books on Avonleya there.”
“And we will. Tomorrow.”
She gritted her teeth in frustration, inhaling deeply through her nose before she said tightly, “And you think this is your call why?”
“Because, Love, we have something else to take care of tonight.”
“Which is what? Because if you’re about to suggest sex, you can take that thought and shove—”
She was reaching for her wine glass again when the scent that hit her made her still. It was luscious and metallic and … all-consuming. Her shadows rose unbidden, reaching out from her in tendrils, and embers white as starlight danced on the edges of her vision. She slowly turned in the direction her shadows were stretching, to ?nd Sorin leaning casually against the doorway of the dressing room, her dagger in his hand with blood dripping off the tip. There was a thin cut on the opposite forearm, a steady trickle of crimson seeping from it.
“What are you doing?” she rasped, forcing her eyes to move from the blood to his face.
“We are meeting with Talwyn tomorrow,” he replied. “But even if we were not, your magic needs to be re?lled, Scarlett. You have avoided this long enough.”
“I have avoided nothing,” she hissed. “I think I would know my power reserves, my strength, my body , better than you.”
“We will leave the argument about who knows your body better for another time,” he said with a ?ash of a smirk, “but you need to do this, Scarlett. I understand it is not ideal, but—”
“Not ideal ?” she scoffed. “While that is certainly true, it is not the point.”
He arched a brow, waiting for her to go on.
“The point is that I do not need to do that right now, and if and when I do need to, it will be my call, not yours.”
“Why do you refuse this, Scarlett? If this were Cassius you would be forcing Cyrus’s blood down his throat, which you have actually done by the way,” Sorin replied.
“To save his life,” she cried. “I should hope if I were unconscious with a foot across the Veil you would do the same.”
“I am trying to prevent that from ever happening,” he retorted.
“This is not your call to make,” Scarlett snarled.
“So I am supposed to … what? Watch you weaken? Watch your power drop more each day? Knowing I literally carry the answer in my veins?” Sorin asked, stalking forward. “And what happens when we go to the mortal kingdoms and things do not play out like they did today? What happens when we are required to ?ght, and you are not at your strongest? What happens when you are taken from me again because you refused this?”
“This is not your call to make,” she repeated.
The thin cut on his arm was already beginning to knit itself back together, and his grip tightened on the handle of her dagger.
“You recognize that if you do not do this, you will continue to weaken? You will begin to draw power and strength from Cassius, slowing his healing?” Sorin demanded.
Scarlett looked away from him, sucking on a tooth.
She felt his hand cup her cheek, a thumb brush along her cheekbone. “Talk to me, Love,” he said softly. “There has to be more to this than you simply not wanting to drink blood.”
“There isn’t,” she ground out.
“You are lying.”
“Can you just trust that I will know if and when I need to do this?”
“No, I cannot. Not without a reason,” he replied. “And if you continue to refuse, I will no longer train with you. I will order the others to stop as well, even though an order will not be necessary. They all agree with me, and so would Cassius if I asked him.”
“I am their queen,” she said incredulously.
“And I am their prince and king,” he said simply, his hand slipping from her face.
“Sorin! I need to train!”
“It will be utterly pointless if you are not training with all of your power, Scarlett. It will be useless if you do not have any power to wield,” he shot back.
“Gods, I truly do hate you sometimes.”
“I know, Love,” he said, bending and pressing a light kiss to her cheek. “Let me know when you have changed your mind.”
She pushed him away from her, stalking to the door. He didn’t say anything to stop her, and she was ?ne with that. She didn’t particularly want to see his face right now.
She wasn’t sure where her feet were taking her, but she also wasn’t surprised when she found herself on the beach, staring out across the sea. The stars were muted tonight, clouds casting them in shadows, and the half-moon was lost among them too.
Sorin wasn’t wrong. She was weakening. She could swear all of her power reserves were draining far faster than they ever had before. Not just her shadows and white ?ames, but her ?re and ice too. How often had she used her magic in the Fire Court when she was trying to master it? She still had never weakened this quickly. She was exhausted every night when she climbed into bed. And sure, maybe all the evening activities with Sorin kept her up later than was really necessary, but there had been a few nights where she’d gotten ten hours of sleep or more and was still dragging by the end of the day. Of course Sorin had noticed. She was honestly surprised it’d taken him this long to confront her about it. She’d known it was coming. She was the one who’d turned it into an argument because she was on edge. She was tired and worried and that made her agitated and dif?cult. More dif?cult than usual anyway.
I sent you someone.
She sighed. She really just wanted some time by herself to ?gure all of this out, and if he’d sent Cassius down here when he could barely stand on his leg …
“And so the sea calls to those who understand her song.” She turned to ?nd a water portal snapping shut behind Briar. “Hello, Sunshine.”
She snickered. “I do believe you are the only one who comments on the little light I possess before my darkness.”
“An occasional reminder that the light does, in fact, exist alongside the darkness, does not seem like a bad thing,” he replied, coming to a stop beside her. His hands slid into the pockets of his pants. His hair had grown longer. It was past his shoulders now.
After several minutes of silence, she said, “Sorin says you think I can breathe under water.”
“You can,” he con?rmed.
“How?” she demanded, turning to look up at him.
“You control the water element, Sunshine. You can simply will it to part and create air pockets,” he answered with a shrug.
“Just like that, hmm?” she mused sarcastically.
“It will take practice, of course, like anything does.” He paused. “It will also require the use of your gifts, which will not be possible if your power reserves are not adequately ?lled.”
Scarlett rolled her eyes. “If that is what you wish to discuss, you can take your leave.”
“I have no desire to discuss it,” Briar said dismissively. “Simply stating a fact.”
“Mhmm.”
Waves rolled to the shore, the sound soothing her soul as she stood in the night.
“Could you show me to the library here?”
“I could.”
“Will you?”
“What is it you are looking for?”
“What am I not looking for at this point?” she said with a huff. “Information on the Maraans. The Avonleyans. Figuring out what a Source is. The keys.”
“Ah.”
“So will you? Show me where they are?”
“I don’t see why not,” he replied. “However, I think you would have better luck in the libraries of the Wind Court. They are much more extensive.”
Her gaze ?ew back to his. “Why would you just bring this up now?”
“Why would a young queen refuse to keep her magic fully replenished? Mysteries of the universes, I suppose,” he mused.
“Funny,” Scarlett deadpanned.
Briar merely shrugged.
“Will Ashtine let me visit them?”
“I may be able to persuade her.”
Scarlett snorted a laugh. “I bet, Prince.” Another bout of silence before she asked, “Why is Nasima not with Ashtine?”
Briar visibly stiffened. Even in the night she could see his features darken, his twinkling eyes harden. “Because she chose Talwyn over the winds,” he ?nally gritted out.
“What does that even mean?”
“The winds favor Avonleya. You have an idea of how Talwyn feels about the kingdom. She became upset with Ashtine when the winds stopped whispering of the kingdom across the sea. Ashtine has kept Talwyn’s secrets, so I do not entirely know what has been said or done, but her loyalty was called into question. When she chose to stand by Talwyn, the winds stopped speaking to her all together. Nasima left, and she finds it very difficult to walk among them.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. She could feel the aggression rolling off of Briar. “You do not agree with her choice?”
“No. I have tried to convince her to reconsider, but in the end, it is her choice to make.” He paused, then added, “Just as it is yours to allow yourself to weaken, I suppose.”
“Where is she now?”
“At her Wind Citadel in the Shira Cliffs. She is … not well.”
Scarlett nodded. “At least you are accepting of her choices,” she grumbled.
“Understanding and accepting are two very different things,” Briar said. “But that argument aside, she has given me reasons for her choices, to help me understand. We have discussed them as much as we can. The bigger issue is that her duty to Queen Talwyn prohibits her from being able to give me detailed explanations. Something that is not a hindrance for you and Sorin. He seeks to trust you.”
“It is my own fault he does not,” she replied quietly.
“Yes,” he agreed, never one to say something simply to try and make her feel better or assuage her guilt. “But it is also in your power to rebuild such a thing.”
“Such a thing takes time.”
“It does, but refusing to start somewhere will only make it take longer.”
“I often forget you are as old as Sorin,” Scarlett replied. “Then you speak like an ancient sage, and I remember you are the same age.”
“For the record, Sorin is older by three seasons.”
A laugh bubbled up from Scarlett’s throat. “And Sawyer?”
“I am older than him by nearly seven decades.”
Scarlett nodded, folding her arms in front of her, her gaze settling on the water once more.
“None of us wish to make decisions for you, Scarlett,” Briar said after another beat of silence. “We only wish to understand why you make them the way you do.”
“I think even if I gave him a reason, he would not ?nd it a valid one,” she replied.
“Perhaps,” Briar conceded. “But again, understanding and accepting are two very different things.” When she didn’t say anything in response, he said, “I will let you listen to the sea, Sunshine. I just wanted to make sure you did not need to be pulled from the river.”
“Thank you, Briar.”
“Send word if you need anything.”
She nodded, and a moment later, she heard the sound of his water portal.
Sometime later, when she ?nally turned to head back to the Black Halls, she spotted Sorin sitting atop a small dune a ways up the beach. He stood when she started in his direction, meeting her halfway.
“How long have you been down here?” Scarlett asked when he reached to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“Since Briar left.”
“Just sitting there?”
“Mhmm.”
“That’s kind of creepy.”
He ?icked her nose. “You are the queen. More than that, you were recently held captive. If you honestly think someone does not have eyes on you at all times, you are sorely mistaken.”
“Not creepy at all,” she said.
A quick smile graced his lips. “How are you?”
“Tired.”
“Sleep in tomorrow. Then I will take you to the library,” he said, taking her hand and opening a ?re portal.
“You’re really not going to train with me?” she asked, letting him lead her through.
“Not until your power well is ?lled, no. And neither will anyone else,” he added.
“Maybe I will just train by myself then,” she bit back.
“I cannot stop that, but I will choose not to partake in it.”
She released his hand and silently made her way to the dressing room. She pulled her boots off and stripped off her tunic and pants before pulling on one of his shirts. When she re-emerged, he was sitting on the sofa, studying texts and comparing them to her translation notes.
She sighed loudly. “If you put it in a cup, like Cyrus does for Cassius, I will drink it. But I won’t … Not directly from you. I don’t like the loss of control that comes with that.”
Sorin slowly set the book on the low table before him. “Is that what this has all been about, Scarlett? You are afraid of losing control? Do you even remember when you fed last time?”
“Don’t say fed ,” she groused, her nose scrunching in disgust.
“Do you refuse this because you are afraid of losing control?” he repeated.
“No. Not entirely anyway,” she replied, moving to the bed and sitting cross-legged.
“Care to expand on that?”
“Not particularly.”
He gave her a pointed look from where he still sat on the sofa, angled to face her over the back of it.
She blew out a long breath. “I lived years without any control over my own choices and decisions. I do not like that this forces me to do something that I ?nd abhorrent.”
It was not entirely lost on her that she found drinking blood to be more abhorrent than taking life for payment. She tried not to let her thoughts linger on what that said about her.
“You never seemed upset about Nuri having to do so.”
“I suppose not,” she agreed, ?ddling with a crease on the blanket.
“It is no different than your body requiring food or water, Scarlett,” he added. “Do you feel as though those things control you?”
“No,” she replied. “Although the necessity is rather a nuisance at times.”
He huffed a laugh under his breath. “Only you would ?nd eating a nuisance.”
“Think about all the other things one could accomplish if you didn’t need to eat, sleep, or even use the bathing room.”
Sorin blinked at her. “I can honestly say, in all my years, I have never contemplated such a thing.”
Scarlett shrugged, her eyes dropping back to her lap. “Anyway, if you put it in a glass …”
“I have offered a glass before, and you still refused.”
“As I have already said, I ?nd all of this … I am not a Night Child. I do not like the idea of doing this, and having it forced upon me makes me want to resist it even more.”
“Fair enough.”
“That’s it? After all of this, that’s all you have to say.”
Sorin shrugged. “I understand why you have been resisting this so adamantly. I can also only assume the Avonleyans outlawed it and found an alternative for a reason.” He stood, crossing the distance to her. He planted his hands on either side of her on the bed, the mattress dipping under his extra weight. He leaned forward, nearly nose-to-nose with her. “I swear to you we will ?nd another way, Scarlett, but until then, you need to do this. I need you to be at your strongest. I need your magic to protect you. I need you able to ?ght when required. I need you . And if you are ever taken from me again, I cannot promise I will not burn everything and everyone to the ground until I ?nd you. It will not matter if they are enemy or innocent, friend or family. It will not matter if the entire world is nothing but ash by the time I get to you. None of it will matter because my need for you is all-consuming.”
She cupped his face in her hands. “Thank you for loving me like the stars love the night, Sorin.”
His forehead fell forward, resting against hers. “All the way through the darkness, Love.”