Page 226 of Lady for Embers

Then her gaze fell on Rayner. He was leaning against the far wall, arms folded across his chest, swirling eyes already on her. She held his gaze because this was something she’d been avoiding, but now it needed to be addressed.

“I need to know, Rayner.”

His eyes fell closed, head tipping back against the wall. Scarlett glanced at Kailia, who had stiffened next to Cethin. He was murmuring low into her ear. When Scarlett looked back at Rayner, he was looking at her again.

“The islands were set up by Deimas centuries ago. He used them to essentially breed more powerful beings,” he said.

“That is where you are from?” Scarlett asked softly.

“That is where I was born.”

“What happened to them?”

A smile as wicked as any Wraith of Death ?lled his face, dark and terrifying. “I did.”

Chapter 43

Sorin

He ?exed his ?ngers where his hand rested on his thigh. Sorin was seated on the arm of Scarlett’s chair, his other arm resting along the back of it. He itched to touch her, but she was angry with him. She was just angry in general, and he could feel all the effort she was putting into holding back the storm under her skin. Any extra sensations would set her off right now, and they needed to not be in an enclosed room when that happened.

“You did?”

The question came from Kailia, who had lifted her head from Cethin’s shoulder. She was studying Rayner intently, as if seeing him for the ?rst time. Cethin was watching his wife just as closely, and Sorin knew that look. It was how he looked when he was anticipating Scarlett about to get incredibly violent.

Rayner nodded.

“So the islands are deserted now?” Scarlett asked tentatively.

Rayner nodded again. “We were housed within the cliffs Talwyn spoke of. They contain an inner city of sorts. Various levels with thousands of rooms.”

Scarlett’s nose scrunched. “Like its own kingdom then?”

“No,” Rayner said. “Those who ran it answered to Deimas. He wanted powerful beings to aid him from what I understood.”

“So people were matched based on power? Like arranged marriages for status in the mortal kingdoms?”

Rayner’s eyes swirled faster, all of his muscles tensing. “No, Scarlett. They were not arranged marriages. The males were forced to rape the females to produce powerful offspring. If those offspringdid not emerge with the power desired, they were considered to have weak blood and were killed.”

Scarlett lurched back in her chair, audibly gasping as a hand flew up to cover her mouth. Sorin ran a hand down her hair, resting his arm around her shoulders. He knew this story. Knew why Rayner never spoke of his past. Knew he wouldn’t tell Scarlett everything today either because some of it, quite frankly, never needed to be spoken of again. He was fairly certain Rayner had never shared all the details with anyone.

Scarlett opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to ?nd something, perhaps the right thing, to say, but there was no right thing to say to this. Finally she managed, “What did you do to them?”

Rayner held her gaze. “I killed them. All of them. It took some time, but I eventually found them all.”

“How long did it take?”

Rayner tipped his head back against the wall again, arms still crossed. “There was a powerful female who oversaw everything. We knew her as the Baroness. She warded the cliffs, enchanted them, and made them what they are today. We were born there, raised there. I did not know there was anything beyond the rocky walls until I moved among the ashes for the ?rst time without meaning to. That was the ?rst time I saw the sky. I was twelve. After they realized what I could do, I was given private trainers and special privileges. I did not understand why until much later. I was late into my third decade of life and serving as a guard to the Baroness herself when I stumbled upon documents I was not supposed to see. When I learned that I had blooded sisters. One half. One full. My mother had apparently died giving birth to the younger one, and my father had managed to take his own life at some point. I did not even know my parents were there. Had never really thought about it. The children were all raised together with various caretakers and tutors. It was all we knew.”

Scarlett had pulled her knees to her chest, hugging them to her body.

Her chin rested on top of them as she listened to Rayner speak.

“My sisters were ?ve and seven when I learned of them,” Rayner continued, his voice getting tighter as he spoke. “I learned they were trying to force their gifts to emerge early, wanting to know if they were Ash Riders too. It took me two weeks to ?gure out wherethey were being kept. I found them in a tiny room dressed in rags. The older one told me they hadn’t eaten in three days. They were trying to force their magic to surface and keep them alive, trick it into survival mode. I started looking after them, moving among ashes and smoke to keep my movements hidden and discreet.”

That wasn’t the half of it though. Sorin knew Rayner had made plans to get his sisters out. He began secretly making contacts outside the cliffs, off the islands, for the next couple years. He had been ready to take them and go until...

“But the Baroness eventually found out. She always knew everything going on. When I went to them one night, I found her in their room instead. She always wore this bright red color. Always. And she was sitting there on one of their small beds, legs crossed, waiting for me. When I walked in, she smiled and told me their magic had emerged that day. That it was basic ?re magic.”

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