Page 231 of Lady for Embers

“I will always choose you, Scarlett,” he said, pulling his ?nger from the hair wound around it.

“Even when choosing me means calling me out on my bullshit?”

He ?icked her nose. “Especially then, but I still love hearing those three little words.”

She sighed dramatically, her cheek settling back onto his shoulder just as they settled back into what they were and always would be. “You were right.”

Chapter 44

Talwyn

Another set of bars.

That’s what she was staring at.

For the second time in a week, Talwyn was in a cell. Her entire body ached. Scarlett had de?nitely taken her time in that arena, drawing out her pain. And by the gods, she was powerful. So godsdamn powerful.

She winced as she ?exed her wrist. Scarlett had hit tendons with that knife to her forearm, and the manacles on her wrists were keeping her from healing any time soon. She tried to avoid moving the shackles. The metal burned against her skin every time she shifted too much. She didn’t know what they were, but it sure as fuck wasn’t shirastone.

But Sorin was alive. She hadn’t dared to believe it when Scarlett had snarled at her about “trying to kill him.” Trying. As if she hadn’t succeeded. As if she hadn’t committed one of the sins she regretted most in her life. She didn’t know how it had happened. She had seen the wound she had caused, knew there was no surviving it. Knew she had damned herself with that one impulsive act.

But he had survived, and there he was. Saving her, protecting her as he had when she had been a child. His eyes had met hers for a brief moment while he had spoken softly to Scarlett, persuading her to stop, and giving Talwyn the chance to tell Briar of Ashtine. That was all she’d wanted. All she’d needed.

She didn’t need saving anymore.

The distant sound of a door had the four guards outside her cell straightening. Two sets of boots sounded, males judging by the heaviness of the footfalls. The male who had been in her dreams afew times and who had found them on a spiritual plane had escorted her down here earlier, not saying a word other than to bark orders at the guards, but she had already ?gured out who he was.

The King of Avonleya.

The dragon shifter had told her Scarlett was the sister of the king, which made the male who’d escorted her Scarlett’s brother. That was who she was expecting to see once again, but that was not who appeared on the other side of the bars.

Azrael stepped into view. There was another sentry with him, but Talwyn didn’t pay any attention to the male. Her entire focus was on the Earth Prince. For the ?rst time in months, the scent of forest and ?r and soil ?lled her nose, and she inhaled sharply, letting it wash over her. She didn’t deserve this last bit of comfort, but she was too sel?sh not to take it. Azrael’s dark hair was longer than it had been before, and he had it knotted on top of his head. His bronze skin seemed darker in the low light of the sconces across from her cell, and his muddy brown eyes were staring right back at her. No emotion on his face, jaw hard, mouth set in a ?rm line.

He glanced at the sentry who had come with him. “Can we have a moment?”

“His Majesty will not like that.”

“She will not speak as freely if you are all here,” Azrael said, focus shifting back to her.

So that’s what this was. He had been sent to extract information from her. She almost laughed out loud. They could have sent the cook from the kitchens, and she would have told them everything she knew.

The sentry, however, seemed to consider his words for a moment before he nodded. “We’ll be at the top of the stairs. Send a message when you are done. She is not to be left unattended.”

Azrael nodded in agreement, continuing to stare at her while the sentry and guards ?led out of the hall that contained her cell. She heard the door creak and shut again, and then it was only them. Talwyn was certain there were no other prisoners in this section of the dungeons.

“You have not been sleeping well.”

Talwyn pursed her lips. Out of all the things he could have said to her,thatwas the ?rst thing he chose to say?

She hated it. Did not deserve for him to continue to care about her well-being.

When she did not reply, his tone was a touch softer when he asked, “Do you sleep, Talwyn?”

“It is not the night and the dark that haunts me, Azrael,” she replied. “It is when I am awake, when the sky lightens, and I am forced to live another day with my choices. Sleep is a reprieve from hell. A reprieve I am not worthy of but one my body takes when it can no longer survive without it.”

“Talwyn.”

“What do you want to know?” she asked sharply. “I will tell you anything I can.”

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