Page 43 of Lady of Ashes

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the image of Sorin before her. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly as she tried to suck down air, her heart hammering. He wasn’t here. It hadn’t been real. He wasn’t real.

“Open your eyes, Scarlett.” Alaric’s voice ?lled her ears, and she shook her head, pressing her lips together. She could feel the shackles against her wrists, her hands suspended above her head. She was in the study, still chained to the wall. “You need to breathe, Scarlett,” he soothed. “Open your eyes.”

“This was fruitless,” Mikale snarled. “We already ?gured Callan was in the Fire Court with her. We learned nothing.”

“Stop speaking until she is under control,” Alaric ordered, his tone cold.

Something was pressed to her mouth, that same metallic syringe they used to force some kind of tonic down her throat. She still hadn’t ?gured out what it did. A glass of water followed.

“Look at me, Scarlett,” Alaric demanded. She felt a finger under her chin, tilting her face up, and she finally opened her eyes. Depthless, black orbs stared back at her. He seemed to search her face, for what she had no idea. She’d been waiting for the other shoe to drop. She’d been waiting for him to reveal his next punishment for disobeying him, but it had been days since he’d held her in his lap in a panic. She didn’t know how many days. Maybe it had been weeks. She’d long stopped trying to keep track.

Mikale and Lord Tyndell stood nearby, their eyes ?xed on her, as Alaric said, “I need you to tell me where in the Fire Court Prince Callan is, Scarlett. Was he in Solembra with you?”

She pressed her lips together, turning her head and looking towards the wall in clear refusal.

Alaric sighed. “I can only assume he stayed close to you. You did let him fall so hopelessly in love with you, after all.”

She was focused on her breathing, trying to shut out his words.

“The king is very upset he has been gone for so long, Scarlett,” Alaric continued. “In fact, he has decided that young Callan is showing a great lack of responsibility and is feeling the need to rectify the situation.”

Scarlett slowly opened her eyes, turning her head to meet his gaze once more. She still said nothing, waiting for him to volunteer information.

Alaric reached over, smoothing down her hair, his ?ngers dragging along her jaw. “He has decided that Callan needs to take a bride, hoping that having a family will make him stop … wandering off and shirking his duties.”

Her eyes widened. Callan would hate that. He would be furious. He would … blame her. For more than he already did.

“An arrangement has already been agreed to,” Mikale cut in smoothly, a cruel smile curling on his lips. “Veda is so very excited.”

Scarlett’s head whipped to him, and she let out a hollow huffof laughter. “How very unbecoming of her,” she rasped out. “She couldn’t hold his attention herself, so she went above him to the crown.”

Mikale’s face darkened with rage, but Lord Tyndell cut in. “It was the king’s idea, my dear. After a little push in that direction, of course.”

“Why would you care if Callan married Veda? What does that possibly matter to you?” she demanded, her gaze bouncing from Lord Tyndell to Alaric.

“My Dark Maiden,” Alaric sighed, patting her cheek patronizingly. “We have been moving pieces into place for a very long time. This is simply another move that needs to be made.” He braced his hands on his knees, pushing himself to his feet. “But that is neither here nor there. We need Callan to come home, even if that means we must retrieve him ourselves. Where is he?”

His tone had grown harsh and commanding, the voice of the Assassin Lord. He glared down at her, his hands clasping behind his back. When she merely glared back, his lips thinned. The room was quiet for a long moment before he said evenly, “So be it, Scarlett. I am out of time and out of patience. I know how much you like your choices, so it is time to make one. Tell us where Callan is and how to bring him home, or you can watch Cassius suffer. Slowly. Over several days. I will make sure he is alive for all of it. Feels every single thing we do to him. And then I will let you watch while he slowly fades over hours. You will ?nd you feel the death of your Guardian on a very deep level, even if you cannot currently access that bond.”

Her eyes widened in horror, and Mikale let out a chuckle. She couldn’t think of a word to say. She couldn’t think at all. Not at what was being presented to her again.

“Isn’t this scene familiar, my pet?” Mikale asked cruelly, leaning down to stroke her hair. “Will you choose to save one you so deeply care for, or an innocent? Whom shall you sacri?ce this time?”

“I will give you some time to think about it,” Alaric said, turning and striding to his desk. He quickly wrote a note, folding the paper in half. “When I return with some food, be prepared to make your choice.” He passed the note to Lord Tyndell as he continued, “I will make sure Cassius is here so that the repercussions of your decision can begin immediately. It would be very unfortunate foryou to not make a choice at all.” He swung his cloak over his shoulders, pulling the hood up and over his head, once again hiding his features from view, as he swept from the room.

Lord Tyndell followed Alaric from the room, and Scarlett peered back up at Mikale who stood over her. His malicious grin of victory, that she had witnessed so often when she had been held in his house, was back on his face as he stared down at her.

How was this happening again? How was she again faced with the choice of saving her family or protecting someone simply caught in the cross-?re? Granted, Callan wouldn’t be dead. He would just be forced into a marriage that would slowly suffocate him. But wasn’t that always a possibility anyway? He was the Crown Prince. The likelihood of him ever marrying for love was practically nonexistent to begin with. His marriage was always destined to be a political move.

Mikale slowly lowered to a crouch before her, reaching out to cup her chin in his hand. “This isn’t really that hard of a decision, is it, my pet? Would you really sacri?ce Cassius to keep Callan from my sister?”

“Why are you so desperate to have her marry him? Simply so she can be queen? I cannot believe it is that simple. I cannot believe that there is not more to it. Everything Alaric does has motive behind it. If he is involved with this, I have no doubt that is the case,” she spat back at him, her voice hoarse and raspy.

Mikale released her chin, pushing back to his feet. He strode to the water pitcher, returning with a glass of water. He brought it to her lips, and she drank, having stopped resisting this particular offering a while ago. “And what of our own arrangement, my pet? We had an agreement,” Mikale said, placing the glass on a nearby table. He lowered into a chair, his arms coming to rest on the armrests.

“Fuck off, Mikale,” she snapped. “That is never happening.”

“Never?” he repeated, his head cocking to the side as his dark eyes slid over her. He let out an exaggerated sigh. “Then I suppose I shall have to ful?ll my end of that bargain. You remember the cost of refusing, do you not?”

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