Chapter 48 Scarlett
CHAPTER 48
SCARLETT
S orin leaned over, whispering something to Rayner, who disappeared a moment later among the ashes of Veda’s burning corpse. The woman’s blood was still splattered across her face. The rush of the kill still coursed through her veins.
And that kill?
It had been one of the most satisfying deaths she had ever bestowed. She hadn’t felt that much satisfaction after a death since … Lord Winston, perhaps? Or maybe the night she had made that man renting out young girls choke on his own body parts?
She could only imagine what it would feel like to kill Mikale. Lord Tyndell.
Alaric.
But now another male who needed to die stood before them, a giant wolf at his side.
“How rude of you not to extend an invitation,” Tarek continued. “You have hurt my tender feelings.”
“Allow me to demonstrate just how much I can hurt you,” Scarlett sneered, taking a step towards him, but Sorin was holding her back. His ?ngers curled around her elbow.
“Now, now,” Tarek chided. “We both know you could not do much right now. Fae gifts are suppressed within these wards, and you have not taken enough from your Source to re?ll what it took to put on that spectacular display of violence.”
“I still have a sword,” Scarlett sneered, Sorin passing the spirit sword to her. Rayner had handed it to him while Sorin was whispering orders.
“Ah, yes. That could be a problem, but …”
“Fuck,” she heard Sloan mutter as more ?gures prowled out of the shadows.
Night Children. Dozens of them.
Remind me why you just sent Rayner off on an adventure, Scarlett shot down the bond to Sorin.
He went to get reinforcements.
Who?
Luan.
Azrael?
That made sense, she supposed. He was the only one who could Travel. If he had ?nally regained the ability that is.
They had pivoted, their backs to each other, as they monitored the Night Children closing in. Fangs appeared and hands reached for Tava and Callan.
“Stop,” Tarek said casually, and all the Night Children froze.
“Since when do you command vampyres?” Scarlett asked.
“Since the Contessa pledged loyalty to the Assassin Lord,” Tarek replied.
“What?” Scarlett said, unable to keep the shock from her voice.
The Contessa was still with Nuri. There was no way they had gotten to her. Absolutely none.
“I am going to need you and your entourage to come with me, your Majesty,” Tarek continued. “There are some people who simply cannot wait to see you again.”
“We are going to go nowhere with you,” Sorin retorted.
“But I really think you are going to want to be there to see the new king take his throne,” Tarek countered.
“What are you talking about?” Callan demanded.
He was still holding Tava to his side. Drake, Finn, and Sloan had closed ranks around them.
“And you, Crown Prince? You are de?nitely going to want to come with me to say your goodbyes.”
They all filed silently into the castle, having had no choice but to let this play out. It was that or watch the mortals be slaughtered in front of her. Tarek had forced her and Sorin apart, not allowing her to continue drawing from him to refill her power. She now walked beside Tarek, the wolf at his side. Sorin was in the middle of the company, ten Night Children escorting him.
They spoke down their bond though. There was nothing Tarek could do to stop that. They’d discussed possible escape plans, ways to ?ght their way out, but with this many vampyres surrounding them? There was no way to do so without risking the lives of Callan, Tava, and the others.
But Sorin had also informed her of another little problem. Only it wasn’t a ‘little’ problem in the slightest.
Talwyn is the wolf, he’d told her while they’d passed silently through the Elite District.
Obviously it is one of her wolves.
No, Love. Talwyn is the wolf. She has shifted.
She can do that?
Apparently, she can now. I would recognize her eyes anywhere. And Queen Henna could shift. Into a wolf.
Scarlett did not even want to entertain what it meant that Talwyn was here, with Tarek, escorting them to the castle. It obviously couldn’t mean anything good for them and wasn’t that just fantastic.
Tarek led them to the throne room, where he took Scarlett to the foot of the dais. The others were herded off to the side.
“I thought there’d be a bigger welcoming party,” Scarlett drawled, looking dramatically around the room.
“They will be here momentarily,” Tarek said, a hand gliding down Talwyn’s fur. “But to be sure we are not interrupted by anything unnecessary …” He crossed to Sorin and held out his hand. “I will take that ring from you.”
Sorin pressed his tongue to his cheek before slipping it off his ?nger and slamming it into his palm. Tarek immediately slid it onto his own digit, sighing deeply as his magic clearly sprang to life. “You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment,” Tarek murmured.
“I would venture to guess it has been around ten years,” Sorin said. “Oh no, Prince of Fire. Far longer,” Tarek replied, turning his back on him and moving back to the dais. He sat down on the edge, seeming to get comfortable, stretching his legs out in front of him. Talwyn moved to sit at his side. “This is going to be quite the show,” he quipped. “And I am so delighted to have a front-row seat.”
Footsteps echoed a moment before the double doors of the throne room were opened and Mikale Lairwood came strolling through. He paused a moment, looking around at everyone gathered.
“You are supposed to be gone with my father,” Tava said, shock and fear in her voice.
Mikale nodded in acknowledgement. “And I was,” he agreed. “But apparently your allies failed to inform you that some of the Maraans can Travel. It takes but a heartbeat to cross the continent.”
Callan’s gaze swung to Scarlett. “Is that true?” he demanded.
“I … Alaric can Travel. He is the only one I know that can for sure,” she admitted. “But I didn’t know your plans hinged on them being gone. I would have told you, Callan. I would have—”
But he just turned away from her, shifting more to block Tava from view.
“Anyway,” Mikale went on, striding forward, “when I was alerted that some special visitors had crossed the wards of my property, we came straight home.” He stopped in front of Scarlett, glancing over his shoulder at Sorin as he reached out to ?nger a strand of her hair. Sorin went rigid, a hand sliding to the sword at his waist.
“Don’t,” Tarek said as though he was bored, vines immediately snaking along Sorin’s wrists before yanking them behind his back.
Mikale’s gaze settled back onto Scarlett, a cruel smirk pulling on his lips. “What happened to me seeing my death the next time you saw my face, my pet?”
Scarlett tilted her head, pretending to contemplate his question. “Did I say your death? I meant your sister’s.” Her voice went icy with the words.
He went still. “You lie.”
“I really don’t,” she simpered. “The Crown Prince was there. So was Tarek. They all saw it,” she added, gesturing in Callan’s direction.
Mikale glanced at Callan, who gave one nod of his head from where he stood shielding Tava behind him. Then he looked to Tarek who merely shrugged.
Mikale’s head swung back to her, his eyes going pitch black. “You little cunt.”
Her hand came over her heart in mock dismay. “My Lord! Such foul language in front of a Lady .”
“When he gives you back to me, you are going to regret every bit of that smart mouth,” Mikale snarled, raising a hand as if he were going to strike her, but Scarlett just smiled, a shadow panther forming beside her. It probably wasn’t the smartest move to touch that magic right now, but she had a godsdamn point to make.
“There it is,” came Lord Tyndell’s voice when he entered the room with a hooded man at his side. Hood or not, Scarlett recognized Alaric. Lord Tyndell clapped his hands together. “Look at that beautiful darkness.”
They were all here. All the Lords, and trailing behind them, all bound and gagged, was the royal family— King Theodore, Queen Meredith, and Princess Eva. Callan lurched forward but halted just as abruptly, clearly torn between leaving Tava’s side and going to his family.
Sloan and Finn didn’t hesitate in the slightest, though, both rushing forward, swords drawn.
Alaric merely raised a hand, and both of them froze. Literally froze, as if they were unable to move at all.
At the display of power, Scarlett sucked her shadows back into herself. This was suddenly not the time nor place to make a point. She was going to need every drop of power to get them all out of here alive.
But then Alaric was closing his ?st, and Finn and Sloan were crumpling to the ground as though they had been hit on the back of the head. And they were not moving. Their chests were not rising.
“What did you do?” Scarlett demanded, her voice a harsh whisper as she moved towards them.
“Do not move, Death’s Maiden,” Alaric said, reaching up and pulling back his hood, revealing his face to the room.
“Oh, my pet,” Mikale crooned mercilessly. “Did I not tell you that you have yet to experience his power?”
“What did he do?” she repeated, her eyes ?xed on the unmoving guards.
Mikale leaned in to whisper into her ear. “He squeezed their hearts until they burst.”
“No!” Scarlett cried. Her head swung to Callan, who was staring in shock at his guards, his closest friends, dead on the ?oor. “Callan, I am so sorry. Callan, I—”
Mikale pulled back, a dark laugh coming from him. “There’s that curse I spoke of. Simply because they knew you. How many more will you allow to die because you refuse to submit?”
“Do not listen to anything he says, Scarlett,” Sorin was suddenly yelling to her. “Do you hear me? You are not a curse on anyone. Their deaths are not your fault.”
But they were. Mikale was right. All because they knew her. All because they were wrapped up in whatever this was. All because—
“Enough of this.” Alaric ?nally spoke, his cold, calculating voice cutting through everything, despite the fact he spoke at a normal volume. His gaze raked over Callan and Tava. The latter had silent tears tracking down her face as she clutched Callan’s hand, staring at Sloan and Finn on the ground. “Where is Veda?”
Rage surged through Scarlett, hot and ?erce. “She’s the one with the golden wings, right?” Scarlett sneered at him.
Alaric blinked slowly at her. “Yes.”
“Dead,” Scarlett spat. Then she looked directly at Mikale. “I chased her into the sky, cut those wings from her back, sliced her up, and then let her burn until there was nothing but ashes. Not shirastone, but it seems to have done the trick.”
“That is unfortunate,” Lord Tyndell tsked. “Veda was one of our most powerful females.” He looked at Alaric. “They will not send another. Not again.”
“Pity,” Scarlett drawled.
“It is,” the Lord agreed. “For now we have no choice but to put another on the throne.”
“Your own daughter stands to take the throne,” Drake suddenly cut in. “Why were you all so adamant about Veda being on it? What does it even matter?”
“There is so much you do not understand, Drake,” Lord Tyndell said. Scarlett could swear his tone had almost softened a touch, but that couldn’t be. They were not his actual children. “You were never meant to be involved in any of this.”
“Veda being in the position of queen would have simply made this transition smoother,” Alaric said. “Like it was in the other kingdoms.”
“The other …” Callan trailed off, seeming to snap out of some kind of daze. “Rydeon and Toreall?”
“Those transitions were quiet, happening naturally. Much like this one would have been if certain assets had been kept under control.” Alaric’s piercing stare settled on Mikale, whose hands clenched at his sides.
Scarlett winced in mock sympathy. “How many times have I evaded you now? You might need two hands to count.”
Mikale opened his mouth to say something in response, but Alaric was already speaking once more. “The plan to take this throne has been in place for decades, and sometimes those plans must be altered,” he said, moving to stand behind the king. The royal family had all been forced to their knees, Queen Meredith trembling beside her husband. Princess Eva’s face was pressed into her mother’s side, her small body shaking violently, and all Scarlett could see was Tula trying to cling to Juliette.
Moving as fast as a Night Child, Alaric had a dagger dragging across King Theodore’s throat. Queen Meredith screamed, but it was cut short when the same dagger slashed across her neck next.
“No!” Callan bellowed, releasing his hold on Tava and lurching towards his parents. “Spare her! I beg of you! Let Eva live!”
“A Solgard heir cannot remain alive,” Alaric said casually, already closing a ?st around the princess’s light brown hair. The little girl screamed around the gag in her mouth as he jerked her head up.
“Please! No!” Callan was yelling, trying to get to her, but Mikale and Lord Tyndell were holding him back. Drake was clutching tightly to Tava. Sorin was still bound by the vines, unable to move with Tarek holding his leash.
“Stop!” Scarlett cried, shadows leaping from her and creating a shield around Eva. “Alaric, stop!”
The dagger halted, unable to pierce her shield, and she grunted at the effort to keep it in place.
“Stop!” she panted.
Alaric shrugged, sliding the dagger into his belt. “You will not be able to hold that shield in place forever, my Wraith. By all means, please drain that power. You are far more amenable when weakened.”
He strode for the dais, stepping up and settling back onto the king’s throne.
“That is not yours,” Scarlett snarled. “Callan still lives.”
“For now,” Alaric agreed, propping his head on a ?st to apparently wait her out.
“So this is what? All for you to become the king?”
A slow smile lifted on his lips. “You know what is required of you for that information, Scarlett.”
“Never,” she sneered.
He sighed heavily. “Did you bring the keys?”
“Did I … What?” she asked, thrown by the sudden change in subject.
“The keys. I assume you have found them all by this point. It is why I allowed you to be retrieved all those weeks ago.”
“Allowed me to be … You did not allow me to escape.”
“I knew they were coming for you that night,” Alaric replied, his dark eyes studying her.
“Impossible,” Sorin snarled.
He arched a brow, looking at the Fire Prince. “I knew you would come for her at some point. You are all under this delusion that she is yours.”
“She is mine,” Sorin growled, jerking against his binds.
“She has never been yours,” Alaric said sharply, and Scarlett couldn’t help but wonder why he wasn’t using that power he possessed against any of them. He could easily control them all with a ?ick of his wrist if what he’d done to Finn and Sloan was any indication. Why had he not just done that to the king and queen? Or Princess Eva?
“How did you know?” Scarlett asked, swallowing thickly, trying to hide the tremor working its way through her limbs. Tarek was right. She hadn’t drawn nearly enough from Sorin to be expending this much of her power. She still had ?re and water, but she needed to save something, anything. “How did you know they were coming that night?”
“The Contessa told me,” Alaric said simply.
“The Contessa?” Scarlett repeated. “How would she have known?”
“I suppose that was not her title at that time,” Alaric mused, relaxing back against the throne. “No, that didn’t become her title until you delivered the former Contessa directly into her hands.”
“What?”
“Imagine our surprise when you walked out of Dresden Forest a few months ago. We were planning to go in for her ourselves, but you ?gured that out, didn’t you?” Alaric said, an almost fond smile ?lling his face. “So damn clever. Just like I taught you to be. So our plans were altered. It was for the better, to be honest. We had no idea where Rosalyn had hidden herself away. So I let you escape and sent one of my own with you, knowing you would stop at nothing until you found her. To keep her from me.”
“No,” Scarlett whispered, her knees threatening to give out. Not from her waning power, but because of what he was insinuating …
“Oh, yes, Scarlett,” Alaric said, pushing to his feet and stepping off the dais to stand in front of her. His hand came up, cupping her cheek. “You found her, then sent her off with the one who now holds her place.”
At his words, his hand slipped from her cheek, and Nuri stepped from the shadows. Her hood was down, her eyes were bleak as they stared back at her. Slowly, she raised her hand. There were no gloves in place this night. Nothing to hide the Blood Mark in the center of her palm. The Mark that matched the one on Tarek’s palm.
“Oh, Nuri,” Scarlett whispered, her heart breaking with agony and betrayal as she looked at her sister standing beside her master.
“You were …” Nuri swallowed, looking away from her. “He agreed to leave the children alone if I agreed to the Mark. You were taking too long to come back. I didn’t … You were taking too long.”
She’d been playing them all along. She would disappear for hours, days even, when at the Black Halls. How many days was it before Scarlett had even seen her when they’d arrived there? She’d always been in her hood and gloves, but Scarlett had never suspected a thing. She was Death’s Shadow and a Night Child. She needed to be protected from the sun. She …
She was in the perfect position to do exactly what she’d done. What she’d felt she’d needed to do.
This had always been about the children for her. Always. The forgotten orphans on the streets that no one seemed to care about. That were being used, slaughtered, and discarded.
“Do not look at her with such pity,” Alaric soothed, slowly beginning to circle her. “She was raised for this role. Trained for it. Just as you were. Nuri just accepted what was always intended to be her place.”
But Scarlett couldn’t look away from Nuri, who refused to meet her gaze again. She had killed the Contessa. She now controlled the Night Children, and Alaric controlled her. The violent, vicious, uncontrollable Night Children were now controlled by someone just as volatile. Conditioned to take on this role since Alaric had snatched her off the streets, always knowing what she was.
Breathe, Love, came down the bond. Hold that shield. Protect Callan’s sister. There is much you cannot control right now, but you can control that.
I can’t, Sorin. Not much longer …
Rayner will be here soon. Help will be here soon. Hold on, Scarlett. You can do this. Breathe. In and out.
She gritted her teeth, reinforcing that shield around Eva. Callan was still being held by Lord Tyndell and Mikale, but now Tarek was pushing to his feet. Before Scarlett could do anything, Alaric was gripping her arms, holding them in place behind her back. He spoke softly into her ear. “Do not struggle, my Wraith, or I kill Prince Callan next.”
She nodded her understanding, and Tarek began patting down her torso, her hips, until he reached the pockets of her pants. His hand slipped inside, and he pulled out the amulets.
“There are only six,” he said to Alaric.
A ?ash of light, and Talwyn stood before them in her usual attire. “I have the last one,” she said, her voice monotone and cold. She wouldn’t look at any of them.
“You do not,” Scarlett corrected.
“I possess one of them,” Talwyn insisted.
“You did,” Scarlett replied listlessly. “An amulet of Celeste, right?” She nodded at the amulets Tarek held in his hand.
Talwyn stalked forward, ?ngering through them until she found hers. “How?” she demanded.
“Juliette lifted it from your pack the evening we stayed at the Contessa’s northern villa. When we went to the kitchen to get food. She replaced it with a fake. You are bonded to Maliq. I took a chance on you having Celeste’s amulet,” Scarlett answered. “I guessed you knew its whereabouts after you learned of them at our meeting. I ?gured you’d keep it close after discovering I was searching for them so diligently.” She shrugged. “I was right.”
Alaric chuckled behind her, releasing her arms. “Finally putting that cleverness to use. I bet you even know where the ?nal key is, don’t you?”
“Fuck off,” she spat at him.
Which earned her a quick ?st to the gut.
Sorin roared with rage behind her but was quickly choking as vines wrapped around his throat, squeezing tight.
Scarlett snarled, throwing a ball of ?ame at Tarek, who barely managed to avoid it, but the distraction cost her, and her shield fell around Princess Eva. Alaric was already drawing the dagger from his belt, striding towards the girl, and Scarlett started when she saw the blade. Up close, she could see it wasn’t just any blade but one as dark as night itself.
He possessed a dagger of nightstone.
“No!” she screamed, grappling with the dregs of her shadows, trying to get a shield around Eva, but then the air was shifting. There was the deafening sound of some kind of explosion, and black ?ames of some sort seemed to radiate out from her.
But they weren’t from her.
They were from her Guardian who stood beside her, having stepped from the air.
And he wasn’t alone.
Ashtine, Briar, and Azrael were with him.
The entirety of the Fae Royals now stood in this room. “Briar! The girl!” Scarlett cried.
But their gifts didn’t work here. Not in the mortal lands. And even if they could, they didn’t possess Semiria rings to overcome the wards. That was the only way she ?gured Tarek and Talwyn were accessing their gifts.
Everything was happening so fast. Too fast. Scarlett couldn’t keep track.
Alaric was already striding for Eva once more as Cassius’s arm looped around Scarlett’s waist when her knees buckled under the strain of her power. She began drawing from him, the Guardian link sensing the threats against her, and she leaned against Cassius, throwing an ice shield around Eva.
But Alaric switched directions, heading for Callan, his hand raising.
Callan winced, clutching at his chest.
“No!” Tava screamed. “No! Callan!” Drake had his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her back as she strained, kicking and thrashing, trying to get to Callan.
Sorin had managed to get his sword and a knife free when Tarek and Talwyn had been thrown across the room by Cassius’s power. He was ?ghting his way to her, cutting away the vines that kept reappearing. But that was lightning at Talwyn’s ?ngertips.
Azrael was yelling at her, trying to get her attention over the chaos of the room. Briar had twin swords raised, Ashtine at his side with blades that were curved into a sickle shape. Mikale and Lord Tyndell were drawing near them with their own blades.
And death. It hovered. She could feel it all around them. She’d bestowed it enough to know when it had come to stake a claim.
And tonight it would feast.
Sorin, I love you, she sent down the bond. Find me in the After. In the places between the stars .
No! He shouted down the bond, and Scarlett watched as he swung that sword again and again.
She watched as a bolt of energy from Talwyn’s hand hit him straight in the chest.
She watched as he staggered once before dropping to his knees. His eyes found hers.
And the pain in her chest.
Oh gods. Alaric had to be squeezing her heart because the pain in her chest was pure agony. She couldn’t draw a breath, but somehow she was screaming. Her lungs wouldn’t expand, but that was sheer anguish pouring from her lips.
There was pressure around her waist, her ribs. Arms wrapped tightly around her, lifting her off her feet and tugging her back against a hard chest, keeping her from going to him. Someone was speaking into her ear, but she couldn’t hear what they were saying. Because he was dying. And she was dying. Her soul was dying.
You do not feel your soul ripping apart the way I did at her death if half of it is not being torn away from you.
That was what Cyrus had said to her, when he’d spoken of Thia dying.
But this? This was not half of her soul being torn away from her. This was her entire being shattering into nothing.
Love … His voice ?ltered down the bond, breathless and raspy. I would still choose to stay in the darkness … Even now.
“Sorin!” Her scream ripped through the room, piercing and full of despair. A vortex of ?re and ice and shadows burst from her, swirling around her and Cassius as she lost control of everything.