Chapter 14 Sorin
CHAPTER 14
SORIN
“H ow is she?” Sorin asked, coming up beside Cassius in the mess hall. It was time for lunch, and this was the first time he’d seen the commander since that night.
Cassius cast a sidelong glance at him as he picked up a tray in the line. “If you honestly think I’m going to join you on Scarlett’s shit list, you are sorely mistaken, Renwell,” he answered grimly.
Sorin picked up his own tray as he said, “Is she awake?” Cassius just stared at him as if to say ‘ Are you serious?’ Sorin gritted his teeth as food was placed onto his tray. “You won’t even tell me that?”
“Sorry, Renwell,” Cassius said with a low laugh. “We may have become something like friends as of late, but my loyalty lies with the one who said not to tell you a damn thing about her wellbeing.”
“Then I shall go check on her myself,” Sorin snapped, slamming his tray onto a table. Soldiers down the benches glanced up at his tone, scooping up their trays and moving elsewhere. A pissy general was someone no one cared to be around.
Cassius sat down at the table as if they were having a pleasant conversation and motioned for Sorin to do the same. Nothing seemed to ever rile him— unless it concerned Scarlett. Once Sorin had sat, Cassius said, “Why do you care so much?”
“What?” Sorin growled.
“You’ve known her for what? A month now? The woman had to resort to cheating in a sparring match to get you to agree to train her. So what is she to you?”
“I cannot ask about someone who was ill? I cannot simply wish to know how she is faring?” Sorin replied, his voice low and vicious.
Cassius raised a brow. “If that were the reason you were asking, sure, but we both know it’s not. You’ve taken an interest in her from that first day you laid eyes on her, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why. You don’t want her for your own the way Mikale does. The two of you seem to barely tolerate each other most days. Up until she launched herself into your arms the other night when you pulled her from that nightmare, I’d never seen her even look at you without some hint of distaste.” When Sorin didn’t say anything, he continued. “It does make me wonder if she has something to do with your own land, wherever it is you came from.”
Sorin stared the Commander down, and to his credit, Cassius didn’t so much as flinch. He didn’t know how to answer him. He couldn’t tell him his suspicions about her. He couldn’t tell him she had magic, and he was beginning to suspect her tonic did more than she’d been led to believe. He hadn’t pieced everything together yet, let alone trying to explain it to a mortal. He didn’t care about her. No, he cared about getting that ring from her and returning it to where it belonged. She was just a means to an end.
“She is nothing to me,” Sorin finally answered.
“Well then,” Cassius said, pausing to cut his piece of roasted pork and take a bite. He chewed slowly, then continued thoughtfully, “Should you indeed go to check on nothing , you will find she is likely not at the Tyndell manor. More than that, should you try to track her down, you shall likely find a dagger poised at a most inconvenient place.”
“Are you threatening me with a dagger to the throat?” Sorin growled.
“Me? Gods, no. Nothing however? She’ll go for the balls.”
Sorin snorted. “I have been training her. I know what she is capable of.”
Cassius said nothing. He just continued to eat, a faint knowing smile on his lips.
Despite Cassius’s warning, here he was. Sorin had left the castle at the end of the day and gone to the manor. He’d been crouched on a rooftop across the street for two hours now and hadn’t seen anyone on the grounds other than the usual patrols. It was nearly twilight. Lord Tyndell was likely still at the castle meeting with the king’s council. Drake hadn’t come home yet. Tava was doing whatever it was Ladies did here during the day and evenings, but then where was Scarlett? Cassius had hinted she was up and fine and moving about. The servants knew him at the manor. Maybe he should just go and knock on her door.
He shifted slightly, his legs getting stiff from crouching for so long. He scented her a moment before he felt the tip of a dagger at his back.
“Hello, General,” a female voice purred into his ear. “Lord Tyndell would be so curious to know what you’re doing on the roof across the street.” The voice was like silk and honey. It made every nerve in his body both tense and relax all at once. He slowly began reaching for the hunting knife at his side. “I wouldn’t do that,” the voice crooned, obviously noting his movement. “I’ll slit your throat before you even get that knife out of your boot.”
“Let him be,” came another voice. This one he recognized, and a part of him inexplicably sighed in relief to hear it in all its arrogant glory. Then, “Oh for the love of Saylah, let him up.”
Saylah? The goddess of shadows and night? Interesting choice of goddess to invoke.
“We’re just playing,” the first female voice purred again, right next to his ear, that dagger digging in a little harder. He felt it pierce through his jacket. He needed to see the person that voice belonged to. Her scent. He’d found it lingering here and there around the manor, but it was muted. He had scented it that first morning of training with Scarlett, too, when he’d thought someone else was in the gardens.
“Fucking hell,” Scarlett sighed, adding a string of other choice words. Sorin choked down a laugh. The female may reside with nobility, but her mouth was as vulgar as a warrior in a war camp. Whoever she was with, there were no filters, no pretenses. He felt the dagger leave his back, and he whirled, pulling a dagger from his own side as he did. He blinked in shock at what stood before him.
And completely understood her reference to Saylah.
Two women. Side-by-side. Both were completely in black, hoods up, hiding their faces, and they were walking arsenals. He couldn’t keep track of how many weapons they each bore. How they had managed to sneak up on him was even more baffling. Completely silent. Their scents almost completely obscured. One was a little taller than the other, and he honestly couldn’t tell which one was Scarlett. Had she not spoken, he wouldn’t have even guessed she was one of the women on the rooftop.
The slightly shorter one on the left reached up to pull back her hood. Silver hair glinted in the almost set sun. Sorin noted the vambraces at her wrists and a sword peeking over her shoulder. He had been training this girl, this woman, for nearly a month. He would have never, in ten centuries, pictured her the way she looked now. Despite her claims that she was not a Lady, he hadn’t been able to picture her outside nobility, outside of the life living in the Tyndell manor would be. Before him stood a Lady of Darkness and beside her was her twin.
A dark smile spread across Scarlett’s face, a look he’d only seen on her face one other time— that day he had tackled her in the training quarters. The day she’d said she would gut him and hinted that she’d taken life before. He hadn’t believed her then, but looking at her now, he had no doubt she’d been telling the truth.
She held a dagger in her hand. Not just any dagger. It was a wicked crooked blade of shirastone. A dagger that could kill a Fae if a user knew where to strike. He was guessing she knew where to strike. Cassius had clearly shared his Fae revelation with her then.
She slid the dagger into her boot as she said to him, “What is a lying bastard like yourself doing on top of the roof across from his commanding Lord’s manor at sunset?”
Sorin was still too stunned to say anything. He had been training this? Had he known she could transform into what stood before him, his training techniques would have been very, very different. They would be from now on.
“Doesn’t it speak?” the woman beside Scarlett asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Yes, he speaks,” Scarlett sighed, her hands going to her hips. “Although sometimes you have to entice him with a treat.”
Sorin, finally finding his voice, snarled low and deadly. “It seems I am not the only one on this rooftop who has kept secrets.”
Scarlett raised her brows at his implications and a sultry look came over her face, her smile becoming cunning and cruel. She crossed the distance between them slowly, her companion standing back, crossing her arms over her chest. Scarlett stopped less than a foot in front of him, bringing her hand to his chest. She slowly, so slowly, walked two fingers up to his throat, then drug her nails along his collarbone. Her hand finally came to rest on his shoulder as she purred, soft and low, “I’ve never lied to you, General Renwell. I told you the first time I ever spoke to you. I am no Lady. ”
Sorin had to work to keep his breathing even. He’d been so damn focused on that ring, on who her mother had been, he’d missed this deadly weapon right in front of him. If she learned to wield whatever power lay dormant in her veins? She was a wildfire waiting to be unleashed. “No, no you are not,” Sorin answered, his own voice low and callous. He reached up and gripped her wrist. Her companion tensed and palmed the dagger she’d been holding. It was also shirastone. How did they even have these weapons? They were extremely rare and very expensive here. “It appears you are walking death, and it makes me wonder why you have been holding back in training.”
Scarlett dragged her eyes from his grip on her wrist to his face, her smile savagely cruel now. “I find people to be a bit more… relaxed around me when they do not know the full extent of my abilities. I do love the element of surprise, but you’ve mistaken me, General. I am not Death Incarnate, and she is not your worry tonight. Death’s Shadow is who you must beware of.”
Sorin’s eyes snapped to the other woman. This was Death’s Shadow? This was the one whom people only whispered of in the streets? This was the one they feared more than death itself because it meant that the Wraiths of Death were coming for them? Death’s Shadow always found you first. Mortals believed Night Children and Witches were bedtime stories, but the Wraiths of Death were nightmares made flesh. And Scarlett was casually in her company? Piece after piece fell into place, and his head whipped back to Scarlett. “You were trained in the Black Syndicate? You were trained by them. She’s the ‘her’ you are constantly referring to around me.”
The wicked smile remained on her face, void of any compassion. “See? I told you he wasn’t entirely moronic,” she called to Death’s Shadow.
“Maybe not entirely, but it still doesn’t explain why he’s on this roof when Cassius explicitly told him what would happen should he try to track you down,” the woman crooned, her body relaxing again.
“Cassius told you I would be here?”
“Cassius told me you’d asked about me and that you mentioned coming to check on me yourself,” Scarlett said, clicking her tongue in admonishment. “I do believe you were told my wellbeing was none of your godsdamned business.”
“Cassius has a big mouth,” Sorin muttered under his breath.
“Holy hell. At least we agree on something,” Death’s Shadow grumbled from beneath her hood.
Scarlett shot her a glare before returning her attention to Sorin. “Since you’re a stubborn ass, I assumed you wouldn’t heed his warning, so here we are. You’ve seen me. You can see I’m perfectly fine and up and…better than ever,” she added with a grin. “And now, I am warning you. Stay away from me, Ryker .” She emphasized his fake name with a hint of amusement. “I have matters to attend to and cannot risk you becoming a pain in my ass when my focus needs to be elsewhere.”
Now that she was up close and in his face, he could see the dark circles under her eyes and the exhaustion that lined her features. She may be up and sneaking around on rooftops, but she was anything but fine. He glanced quickly to Death’s Shadow and then back to her. Dropping his voice low, he said, “Let me help you.”
Her voice became stern, her mouth becoming a thin line. “No,” she answered, stepping back from him.
To his surprise, Death’s Shadow, who shouldn’t have been able to hear him, said from behind her, “If he’s offering, Scarlett, maybe we should take him up on it. He could—”
“No,” Scarlett said again, her voice lethal as she looked over her shoulder at the other woman.
“Why the hell not?” he spat, his temper rising.
“Who was that woman?” she asked sweetly, looking at him from under her long lashes.
Sorin gritted his teeth. “Not the same one from your dream.”
He could have sworn her icy blue eyes flickered like flames. He looked to her hand on the wrist he still held in his grip and found no ring adorning her finger. “That is why not,” she seethed, noting his gaze. “I won’t work with lying pieces of shit.” She jerked her wrist from his hand in a quick, expert maneuver and stalked back over to her companion. “Stay away from me, General. I mean it. Unless you’re planning to tell me who that woman is, stay the hell away from me. If you interfere with what I am doing, whether intentionally or not, she will be keeping you busy while I finish what needs to be done,” she said with a jerk of her chin to Death’s Shadow beside her. “Then I will come take care of you myself.”
Death’s Shadow leaned over and whispered something to Scarlett that Sorin could not hear. Scarlett merely nodded, and before his eyes, the woman stepped back and seemed to disappear into the shadows. She was gone before he could take another breath. He stepped towards Scarlett, and she snarled at him. He froze involuntarily, as if his body had no choice. Her Fae instincts were taking over, and she had no idea.
Fae were clever and cultured enough, but they were also far more primal when it came to instincts. It’s why their senses were impeccable. It’s why they could smell and hear better than mortals. It’s why they became territorial and protective and could become savage on the battlefields when they let those survival instincts take over completely. A snarl like the one she’d just given? That was a command to stand down, an order, but he was not her subject.
He took another step, and it felt like dragging his foot through mud. His face was hard and challenging. “Why didn’t you tell me you were trained in the godsdamned Black Syndicate?”
A vindictive smile spread across her face. “Oh, so you’ve heard of it?”
“Heard of it? It is well known even in the—” he stopped himself. “Even where I am from. Some of the most wicked and foulest of the world come from there. It is said King Deimas himself aided in establishing it for his own dark dealings.”
“Mind how you speak of us, General. We are not as we appear. Not entirely anyway,” she added with a lazy grin.
“You grew up there? Your mother was a healer there?”
Her face hardened at the mention of her mother, and she clicked her tongue. “So many questions. You already owe me four. You will not answer my one . I don’t feel the need to share anything else with you.”
She took a few steps to the right, inching towards the edge of the roof. He growled at her, low and rough. She only laughed at him, as if he were a pup playing with a toy, thinking he was bigger than he was, and stuck out her tongue at him.
Quicker than she could move, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, baring his teeth. He wrapped an arm around her waist as he growled into her ear, “You and that tongue still have not learned manners. I am a general in your king’s armies. I will not be dismissed.”
Scarlett only smirked at him, pressing herself up against his front. He could feel every inch of her that touched him. Oh, she knew how to wield every weapon in her arsenal and how to wield them well. “If only I answered to the king,” she purred. Then she leaned in close to whisper in his ear. “Careful, Sorin. I bite.”
Before he could respond, she whirled from his grip with a maneuver he himself had taught her. With one last wicked smile, she stepped from the rooftop. A moment later, he could just make her out, running in the shadows across the top of the wall surrounding the manor. She leapt down onto the grounds, no one on patrol even turning to indicate they’d heard a sound. A few minutes later, a light flared in the windows of what he now knew to be her room.
He stared at those windows, running over everything he’d just seen and heard, and as he watched them, she appeared there. Her cloak was off, along with her jacket. She seemed to look right at the rooftop he was standing on…and flipped him off.
“She is delightful, isn’t she?”
He whirled at that voice of silk and honey, expecting to see her standing right behind him, but the rooftop was empty. Then directly into his ear, that voice purred again, and he froze. “She might bite, but I grow fangs.”
He whirled once more, his fingers grazing her cloak as she danced backward. She laughed, and it was one of the cruelest sounds he’d ever heard. The sun had set completely now and in the darkness, he could barely make her out in all the black she wore. Even her hands were in black gloves. “Show me your face,” he growled.
Death’s Shadow merely laughed again and said, “Oh, we shall have fun, you and I. I look forward to it, General.” Then she was gone.