Page 176 of Lady of Ashes

“Your husband would know,” Briar cut in.

Scarlett seemed to miss a step, but she kept walking. “Sorin?” A clear demand for an explanation.

He glared at Briar again. “She is how I found you in Baylorin after we fought. When you Traveled and could not get home.”

“She was your work around?”

“Yes.”

“And the cost?”

“I made a bargain with her.”

“What did you barter with?”

“The blood of a god.”

Scarlett stiffened, but she kept walking. “How do you plan to attain such a thing?”

“I don’t,” Sorin answered.

“It seems unwise to break a bargain with this Sorceress.”

“I will not be breaking it. She said if I did not ?nd such a thing before my death, my bargain would be ful?lled. I have not looked very hard,” he said.

Scarlett glanced back at him once more but only said, “We need to go see her.”

“Prince Briar is the only one who can grant such access,” Ashtine lilted.

She handed the amulet she still held back to Scarlett as they came to a stop in front of a set of towering white doors. He had been to the Wind Court libraries before, but he’d never entered through these doors. A guard was stationed on either side, and when Sorin reached out a hand to touch the doors, spears blocked his access.

“Touching without permission is rude, Prince,” Scarlett chided.

“Says the queen whose manners only appear when—”

“Sorin!” Scarlett exclaimed, her cheeks ?ushing.

He smirked tauntingly, arching a brow at her and latching on to this small piece of normalcy between them.

You are an ass, she sent down the bond.

Sorin only chuckled softly, looking at Ashtine. “These doors are skystone.”

“Yes,” the princess replied. “Only the Royal family and priestesses have been in this section of the catacombs.”

“You think the books I need are in there?” Scarlett asked, turning back to the doors with renewed interest.

“Perhaps,” Ashtine replied simply. “But that is not why I brought you here.”

Ashtine nodded to the guards who immediately stepped aside, one grabbing a handle and pulling the door open for them to pass. They crossed the threshold, and Scarlett audibly gasped. Sorin nearly did the same.

Everything beyond the doors was skystone. The shelves. The tables. Even the godsdamn ?oor was skystone. A few priestesses moved among the stacks, bowing when Ashtine passed. Scarlett was moving towards a shelf as though she were being drawn to it by some force she couldn’t control.

Touching without permission is rude,he taunted down the bond.

She ?ipped him off over her shoulder, not bothering to look back at him.

Her ?ngers glided along book spines. Ashtine stood back, her hands clasped in front of her, a small smile on her face as she watched Scarlett move along the books. “I am afraid those books will likely not provide the answers you seek.”

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