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12. Scarlett

Chapter 12

Scarlett

" Y ou need to relax," Sorin said from across a clearing. He was sitting on a large boulder, sharpening one of his many daggers. They were back in the courtyard he had brought her to nearly every day for the last two weeks. The courtyard branched off into five separate training arenas of stone, the walls towering high to contain fire being wielded by Fae who could not yet control it. Each arena had obstacles to work around that grew progressively more difficult.

"It is sacred ground blessed by Anala herself, and it is where we bring the neophytes when they are first coming into their power," Sorin had explained to her when they were preparing to leave his chambers two weeks ago for her first training session. She had come out of the closet strapping daggers to her waist. "And you can't bring those."

Scarlett had brought her hands to her hips. "You are bringing yours and more," she'd protested, gesturing to the bandolier of knives strapped across his chest.

"Yes, but I know how to control and wield my power," he'd replied with a smirk.

"And?" Scarlett had asked, not seeing any sort of connection .

"You need to learn to depend on your magic. That is your greatest advantage. Yes, your weapons are important too, but if you cannot control your magic, it will become a hindrance rather than the great asset that it is," he'd said, crossing the room. He'd plucked the daggers from her hips and portaled them here.

Since that time, she had produced nothing of value. A spark here and there or an ice crystal. Nothing that mattered.

"This is ridiculous. If I'm so powerful, how come I haven't been able to do a damn thing?"

"You have done plenty with your magic," Sorin replied, not looking up from his dagger. How he could just sit there every afternoon and watch her do absolutely nothing was beyond her. He had to have a million other princely things to be doing. "You have frozen branches and thrown fire at poor Briar, to name a few."

"This isn't funny," Scarlett snapped at his teasing tone. Her nightmare last night had been of Juliette's death, and she'd been on edge all day.

Sorin looked up at her terse response, his gaze finding hers. "Everyone starts at the beginning, Scarlett. Everyone starts at this place," he said gently.

Sorin had explained on their first day that most young Fae began to show signs of their power around age seven or eight. Depending on the strength they display, they come here to start training and honing their craft around age ten. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later.

The only task he had given her when they arrived, and the only task he had given her every morning since, was to produce a flame. He didn't care what kind. He didn't care how.

And she had failed at that task. Every. Single. Day.

"Why can't you just tell me how to do it?" she asked. She could hear the whine in her own voice.

"I have told you, it is different for everyone. How I access my magic is different from how you will access it and different from how Eliza and Rayner and Cyrus access theirs. You need to figure out what awakens your magic and then how to control it once it is wide-eyed, or it will control you. "

"So I'm just supposed to stand here, all day long, until something happens?" she protested. The whining had turned to ire that ran in an undercurrent in her tone.

"We can do other things to pass the time if you wish," Sorin replied with a coy grin.

Scarlett stuck her tongue out at him, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Love, there are so many better uses for that tongue," Sorin crooned.

"And my teeth, I suppose," she replied, biting the air at him.

Sorin laughed under his breath as he rose from the boulder he'd been sitting on. He sheathed the dagger at his side and crossed the courtyard to her, turning her to face the expanse before them. Standing behind her, she could feel his body lightly pressed against her. He ran his hands down her arms. Once. Twice. Three times.

"What are you doing?" she sighed. "I do not have time for this, Sorin. Every day this takes is a day longer for Mikale to do whatever it is they are going to do."

"If you are not to rule, it is not your responsibility to protect them," Sorin replied pragmatically.

"I do not wish to rule here ," she corrected.

"You wish to rule in the mortal lands? Then perhaps you should have accepted Prince Callan's offer," he said, continuing to run his hands down her arms.

"Do you wish me to accept his offer?" she asked. "Here I thought you'd grown fond of having me in your bed."

"Shush, you wicked thing," he murmured, and the way he said it made her still. It was lust and desire mixed with awe and wonder. His mouth was so close to her ear, his breath brushed her cheek, causing the few stray hairs that had escaped her braid to tickle her skin.

"Your power," he said, "is an extension of you." His voice was low and soft, caressing her very soul. "It is interwoven into every facet of your being. It is in your strength. It is in your brilliance. It is in your dreams and your fears. It is connected to every thought. Every emotion." His fingers came to her neck, and she leaned into the touch, closing her eyes. Every part of her was focused on those fingers as they made idle circles around her neck, dragging along her shoulder, down her back, stopping just before they dipped too low. She felt her core heat as his fingers began trailing back up her spine. "It courses through every part of you. It is in your blood. It is in your bones. It is in your very essence. It is in the parts of you that you have kept hidden for years, afraid no one would want them. It is in the caverns of your soul, the deepest recesses of your mind. Places even you have not dared to venture. Secrets you keep so hidden even you forgot about them. Be you, Scarlett. Just be you."

She felt like the air had stilled around her. She was in the courtyard with Sorin, and she wasn't. She stood in an empty chamber and before her a panther as dark as night lay sleeping. As if sensing she was there, Shirina opened an eye. She sat up and cocked her head to the side as she studied her. Then she arched her back into a stretch and yawned. She took a step towards her and then another.

"Easy," Scarlett heard Sorin murmur so softly it was barely a whisper.

As the panther neared, Scarlett reached out a hand towards it, and the panther's silver eyes glowed as bright as starlight. She could swear the giant feline was smiling. Shirina stopped before her and bowed her head low. As the panther lifted it once more, Scarlett brought her fingers up, barely brushing its soft fur. Sorin's breath brushed against her ear again.

"Scarlett," he whispered. "Look."

She opened her eyes, and all around her in the cavern, flames glowed. They lined the perimeter, running along the walls. Oranges and golds and reds danced amongst each other in rhythm with her own heartbeat.

She spun around to face Sorin, her eyes wide. Sorin's eyes were bright with fascination. "I did this?" she whispered in disbelief.

"You did this," he answered. She could have sworn that was pride lining his features.

"You didn't help at all?" she asked suspiciously.

"This, Love, was all you," he replied, his eyes staring into hers.

Then she was kissing him, her lips pressing onto his fiercely, and his hands encompassed her face. His tongue ran along the seam of her lips, and she instantly parted them for him. His tongue swept in, and she felt her knees buckle slightly. His hand was instantly around her waist, pulling her closer to him, steadying her. Her own fingers were woven into his hair, and the bandolier of knives pressed into her chest as she pressed into him. She couldn't get close enough. Something was drawing her to him, drawing her home.

He pulled back after a minute, breathing just as hard as she was. She could see the desire lining his face, and his gaze dropped to her mouth. Her flames still burned around them, reflecting in his eyes. He grinned at her as the flames winked out, and he whispered, "Do it again."

"The fire or the kissing?" she breathed.

"Your magic, smart ass, and then maybe I will think about kissing you again," he said, stepping away from her. She scowled at him. She tried to muster that magic, that flame, even an ember again, but all she could think about now was the feel of his lips on hers and the taste of him on her tongue.

Sorin jumped to the top of a boulder. "Come now, Princess, you must not want to kiss me again that badly," he crooned, as he jumped to another one. Flames licked down her arms like he was touching her himself, trailing along her body.

She whirled to him. Frustration overcame her, and she clenched her fists at her sides, darkness swirling around them. She had more control over these damn shadows than she did her magic. She gritted her teeth as she turned to watch him casually leap from boulder to boulder, a teasing grin on his face. Without even realizing what she was doing, she threw those shadows at him. He was in mid-leap when they reached him. They twisted around his arms, and she closed her fists. Those shadows gripped his arms as if they were an extension of her own hands. She threw him to the ground and heard him let out a grunt at the impact. She stalked over to him, pinning him to the dirt with that swirling darkness.

His eyes were wide when she came to stop over him, a feline grin on her face. With a finger, she drew a tendril of a shadow up to his face, stroking down his cheek, his jaw. She traced his lips with that shadow. Then she bent down close. His eyes were dancing with delighted amusement mixed with ravenous hunger. She stopped close enough to share breath with him. "You're right," she whispered. "I don't want to kiss you again that badly."

She stood, pulling her shadows back to her. She leapt onto a relatively flat-topped rock, sitting down and crossing her ankles. Sorin lay on the ground, a slightly shocked look on his face. Scarlett just smirked at him.

"How did you do that?" he asked, slowly getting to his feet.

She shrugged. "No idea, but it was fun."

"It was…"

"Impressive? Remarkable? Superb?" Scarlett offered, bringing a hand to her chest in mock flattery.

"Unexpected and dramatic," he said, flicking her nose with his finger as he climbed up the rock and sat beside her. He leaned back on his palms.

She held her hands up and watched the shadows swirl. She opened her palm in front of her and slowly those shadows began to swirl in the center of it. She concentrated, sending every wisp of dark there, and when it was all contained in one spot, she held it. She could feel sweat forming on her brow as she worked to keep them in one spot until she finally had to let them go. They snaked back along her arms and around her torso. She closed her eyes, panting slightly. How did Sorin do it? That much concentration to control so little and his power was so mighty.

"It gets easier," he said quietly, as if he'd read her thoughts. "With practice, it gets easier to control until it becomes second nature." She only nodded, leaning back on her own palms now. "Tomorrow is Samhain." Scarlett stiffened. How had she not realized that? "We do not have a formal masked ball here, but we do have a traditional masked feast with dancing. Much less formal than things were in Windonelle. It's held in the palace Great Hall. You do not have to attend, but I do. I have been gone for the last three years. My people will expect me to be there knowing I have returned, but you do not need to attend, Scarlett. "

"Callan?" she asked, staring across the courtyard. Her shadows darkened, and she twirled them around her fingers absentmindedly.

"He has been invited along with Finn and Sloan," Sorin confirmed. "You do not need to attend, Scarlett," he repeated.

"No, I will," she said, sending those shadows up her arm. "I do not want to sit up in your chambers all night by myself, especially on the night the dead are free to walk among us."

"So you believe in Samhain legends but not the gods and Fates?" Sorin asked, raising his brows.

"I do not wish to tempt either right now should they exist."

"Fair enough."

Silence ticked by for a few minutes, leaving them each to their own thoughts. Scarlett was too occupied by Samhain, both past and future, to concentrate on her magic any more. It would be good to be around people, even if Callan was going to be there. Maybe it would be good to be in a casual setting with him too, rather than a meeting room where Sorin and Cyrus were constantly serving as a buffer.

"Love?"

"Hmm?" she murmured, getting lost in the shadows swirling around her fingertips.

"I am finding there is a necessity arising."

Scarlett stilled at the change of his voice. It was low and intense and rough. She kept her eyes on her shadows as her heart rate jumped. "Really?"

"Yes, but I am afraid you will not view it as such," he answered.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"The thing is, it is your fault."

"What?" Her head swung to him where her eyes met golden ones burning with, well, need . "How is your need my fault?"

"Because you kissed me," he answered, pushing off his hands and sitting up, leaning closer to her. "Then you told me you did not want to kiss me again that badly."

"Because I don't." But her stomach dipped as he brought his hand up. His fingers brushed down her check and then her neck, sliding around to cup her nape .

"See, Love, I feel like this is the problem. Either you are lying to me, or I need you so much more than you appear to need me."

Scarlett bit her lip, and Sorin's eyes shot to the movement. That lush, smokey spice mixed with his ash and cedar scent, and a light ache began throbbing between her legs. "Sounds to me like your plan backfired when you tried to use a kiss to get me to access my magic again," she purred with a smirk.

"That it did," Sorin said softly, as his hand fisted gently in her hair and tilted her head back and up to him.

"Sorin?" she whispered.

"Yeah, Love?" His eyes were fixed on her mouth. His other hand was braced on the rock beside her hip.

"I want you to kiss me again."

"Thank fuck," he answered, his voice near guttural. His lips were instantly on hers, and she was kissing him back without any hesitation. Her own hand came up to his chest while his other came to her hip. She let herself get lost in all of him as he kissed her deeply, thoroughly. And when he gently began guiding her onto her back on that rock, she let him. He held her head in his hand, not letting it touch the hard stone as his other hand explored her torso, her hip, her backside.

She let her own hands explore a little of their own, sliding over his broad chest, his shoulders, down his arms. He growled against her mouth when she slid them down his back, and the sound rumbled through her. All she wanted was to feel him. She slipped her hands under his tunic, and when she lightly dragged her fingers up his spine, he shuddered against her.

"Gods," he swore, breaking their kiss. "You are…"

"What?" Scarlett whispered. She kissed one corner of his mouth, then the other.

"There are not words, Love. I do not think there are words to adequately describe you," he answered, his hand sliding down her hip to her thigh once more.

She gave him a slight frown. "I'm not sure if that's a good thing. "

He huffed a laugh. "Has anyone ever told you that you overthink things?"

"I was trained to kill very prominent people. I was taught to overthink all the things."

Sorin pulled back to look into her eyes. "But you do not have to be that here. You can just…enjoy being."

"Being what?"

"Just being, Scarlett. Just enjoy living," he answered, brushing a light kiss to her lips.

She'd never had such a luxury. She'd never been allowed to just be.

So she brought her lips back to his and kissed him in the courtyard, enjoying every swipe of his tongue against hers and every brush of his fingers and feel of his skin beneath her own. They kissed and kissed until Sorin pulled back, his lips swollen and eyes wild with predatory hunger. His voice was gruff and low. "We should go. We are expected at dinner later."

"You're the prince. No one can really scold you if you're not at dinner," Scarlett pointed out, nipping at his lower lip.

He groaned softly, pressing kisses along her jaw. "No, but Cyrus will come looking for us and not care what he is interrupting."

"Cyrus is a busybody," she murmured, tilting her head back to allow him access to her neck once more.

"That he is, and he enjoys being one. If he knew what we were doing up here right now, he would show up just to tease us," Sorin answered, obliging her silent request and sliding those lips down to her throat.

"I totally would," came an amused male voice.

A string of curse words came from Sorin's mouth as he pushed himself off of Scarlett and took her hand, hauling her into a sitting position. She glared at Cyrus from atop the rock.

"Darling, if I knew that was the kind of magic training you were doing, I'd have offered to train you myself," Cyrus smirked as she adjusted her top and smoothed out her hair.

"Darling, if I thought you had anything to teach me, I'd have asked," Scarlett retorted as Sorin hopped down from the rock and reached a hand up to help her down as well.

Cyrus burst into laughter. She leapt down, landing before him, and Sorin's arm came around to rest casually on her hip. "What exactly are you doing here?" Sorin asked, not even trying to hide the bite of annoyance to his tone.

"Checking on my prince, of course," Cyrus answered, trying and utterly failing to act innocent.

Sorin sighed as he pressed a kiss to her temple and a fire portal appeared before them. He nudged her forward, but Scarlett dug in her heels. "Wait. That's it?"

Sorin raised a brow in question. "What do you mean?"

"He didn't even give you a reason as to why he's up here," Scarlett replied, glaring at Cyrus.

Cyrus's own brows rose in surprise. "But I did. I was checking on my prince."

"Mhmm." Scarlett crossed her arms.

"Come, Scarlett," Sorin urged, again nudging her towards the waiting portal.

"He must have needed something to come all the way up here," she protested.

Cyrus exchanged a look with Sorin, and Scarlett glanced back and forth between them. The realization drove any lingering desire from her as she stepped out of Sorin's reach. "He actually was checking on you?"

"As we have already established, Cyrus is a busybody," Sorin said, stepping towards her and reclaiming the space she had put between them.

She whirled on the Second. "You don't trust me alone with him? You are aware we share chambers, right? That we sleep in the same damn bed? "

Cyrus's face hardened slightly. "I am well aware of your sleeping arrangements, Darling," he drawled. "I am also well aware of your extreme lack of control when it comes to your power and your delightful temper. So, yes, I am not entirely happy with the idea that the prince is up here, isolated from everyone, teaching you to try to control your unknown well of magic."

An icy smirk curled up her lips.

"You find this amusing?" Cyrus asked, his brows rising once more in surprise.

"No, Darling. What I find amusing is that your fear is of my magic." A tendril of her shadows curled towards him and slid along his jaw like a finger. She walked towards the fire portal as she said over her shoulder, "My magic should be the least of your concerns."

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