Page 53 of Lady of Ashes

“I would not expect you to understand any of this, Luan,” Sorin sneered. “Your motives have always been purely about gaining the upper hand for the Earth Court any way you can.”

“Of course it is,” Luan drawled. “They are who I answer to. They are who I am responsible for. Theyexpectme to ?ght for them, to go after whatever advantages we can.”

“At the expense of the wellbeing of others?”

“As if you and your Court are any different,” Luan countered. “Tell me, Aditya, who were you thinking about when you dragged a small unit across the border torescueEliné? Was that for you, your Court, or the good of the world? Were those lost worth the sacri?ce you asked them to make?”

Sorin snarled, lurching towards him, but Rayner got there ?rst, casually drawing his short sword with a dark grin.

“Oh, Luan,” Eliza sighed from behind them. “When will you learn not to spout off when we’re all present?”

“When will you all learn that I am not concerned by your little threats and pretty blades?” he returned, the dirt beginning to swirl at his feet.

“Sometimes I forget how young and petty you all are,” Arianna cut in, sauntering to the center of the room. She held out her palm where a piece of iron sat. Where she had found it, Sorin had no idea. “Which one of you is going to give me what I need?” she asked, glancing between the princes.

Luan crossed his arms in clear refusal of giving Arianna his Semiria ring when Sorin didn’t need his. Sorin gritted his teeth, sliding Scarlett’s ring from his ?nger and feeling his ?re magic stutter out in his veins. He handed it to Arianna. She slipped it on and her attention turned to the iron in her palm. It immediately began shifting, shrinking and thinning out, into a long, small key.

Her olive eyes landed back on him, and they had softened a touch, some form of sympathy looking back at him. “This key willunlock her chain anchors,” she explained. “She wouldn’t let me close enough to look at the actual manacles.”

Sorin snorted a small laugh at the thought of Scarlett kicking the Beta Shifter off her foot, even if the Beta was in the form of a small mouse, but the laugh died in his throat as quickly as it had come. He swallowed thickly before locking eyes with Arianna again. “She is chained? To a wall?” he asked, the Beta’s words on constant replay in his mind.

Cassius had carried her into the Fellowship in his pocket. While he had been intercepted and questioned, before apparently being taken directly to Scarlett, Arianna had slipped from him and made her way along the halls and rooms. She’d spent hours the last few weeks studying the maps Cassius and Nuri had drawn, learning everything she could about the Fellowship and memorizing the places Scarlett might be held.

When Arianna said she had found her, laid eyes on her, and heard her speaking, Sorin had been ready to charge into the Black Syndicate immediately. Of course, he knew Nuri and Cassius were right. This plan was multifaceted and figuring out where she was at was only one of many, many steps. Besides, who was to say she was always held there? Was she constantly moved to throw them off ? Or had she been chained to that stone wall since she’d fallen back into the Assassin Lord’s hands? Had she once again been sleeping on a stone floor? Had they been withholding food? Giving her water? Had he been letting Mikale have her?

Fury, hot and acidic, ?ooded him at that last thought, and he was suddenly grateful he didn’t have that ring on his ?nger. He was certain something would be on ?re if he did. His eyes fell to the ring on his left hand though. His marriage band. His only mark of their union in this land. His only connection to her here. Another wave of fury washed through him at the thought of her blocking their bond. That anger was nearly as potent as the rage he felt about Mikale laying a single ?nger on her.

“Yes, Sorin,” Arianna replied. “Shirastone shackles adorn her wrists and ankles. While her wrists are anchored above her head, her feet are not secured to the ?oor. This key should unlock the anchor. If another key needs to be made once we have her out, I can do so here.”

“Why can you not just make another key there?” Eliza asked. She was leaning against the far wall, her face calculating and grim.The face of his general, going over battle plans and strategies. “If she can have access to her magic, it will certainly aid us in getting her out.”

“Because there are wards around that place,” Arianna answered, her face going dark. “They are wards like I have never felt, that block my abilities, even with a Semiria ring on my ?nger.” At the mention of the ring, she slipped it off her ?nger, handing it back to Sorin.

“You have met Cassius. He is very powerful,” Sorin countered, feeling his ?ames spring back to life with the ring back in place.

“Those were not Witch wards, Sorin,” Arianna said.

“Cassius also stated he’s never been asked to put wards around the Fellowship,” Rayner supplied.

“Then we can only assume that these wards will affect us when we go in to get her,” Cyrus chimed in.

“I will not need my magic to get to her. My blades and my own hands will be enough,” Sorin said darkly. “When I come for her, she will walk out of that cesspit with me, or I will stay there with her. There will be no in between. There will be no middle ground.”

“Your blades and your hands will be enough in a house and district full of lethally trained assassins, thieves, and mercenaries? I think not, ?re prick,” Nuri drawled from a shadowy corner.

Where the hell had she come from?

“Would you care to test that theory, Daughter of Night?” Sorin answered with a dark grin.

“You take that ring off and tell your lackeys not to interfere, Sorin, and I will certainly be willing to make you bleed,” she answered with a wicked grin of her own.

“If you need a drink, Nuri dear, you only need to ask,” Sorin taunted. Nuri hissed at him, her fangs snapping out. “Every time I start to think you’re not as bad as I remember, you prove just how big of a dick you truly are.”

“Let’s just focus on getting her out,” Rayner cut in again, but his low voice was dark and tense, and it snapped Sorin’s attention back to where it should be. Rayner was always so stoic, always so impassive, that when some sort of emotion did make its way to the surface, you took notice. Mainly because if his Third lost control, there would be more than blood littering the ?oor of this warehouse, and his tone said he was riding an edge Sorin had been on for weeks now.

“How far out did you feel these wards?” Luan asked, his eyes ?xed on Nuri, watching her every move.

“Not until outside the grounds of the Fellowship,” the Beta answered. “As much as we’re going to want to go in and kill everyone we come across, I think it’s going to be best if we can get in and out undetected. Can we go in disguised somehow? As servants, like I did for so long at the Tyndell estate?” Eliza asked.

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