Scarlett
The Fallen Star dropped the woman’s broken body, letting it fall to the floor with an ugly thud.
“I’m sorry you had to see that.” He stepped over the body to reach Scarlett, and only then did his mouth fall into an impeccable frown. “It seems you’re still not quite there, but I’m glad you’re finally making progress.” His fingers ignited. He brought one to the ruby bars imprisoning her head. At once the entire cage sparked and vanished, freeing Scarlett’s head and neck.
Her shoulders sagged, finally rid of the weight of the cage. Her head had never felt so light. But she couldn’t bring herself to thank him. After the initial relief passed, all she could do was stare at the dead woman on the floor. “Was that really necessary?”
“Don’t feel bad about her death. Long ago she betrayed me. I was always going to kill her. I almost killed her when I found her imprisoned by the Temple of the Stars, but I thought she might be useful first.”
He reached out to smooth a damp lock of Scarlett’s hair from her cheek, his t
ouch surprisingly light.
Scarlett still wanted to pull away; she wanted to use the Reverie Key and finally flee. She’d failed at getting the blood; she’d failed at conquering her power. But, as the Fallen Star continued to push away the hair stuck to her face with something like affection, Scarlett flashed back to the first time they’d met and how he’d mentioned the striking resemblance she’d had to her mother—the woman he’d made a child with, the woman he’d killed, and, according to a note that Tella had sent, also the one woman the Fallen Star had loved.
Maybe Scarlett had been going about this entirely wrong. Maybe she didn’t need to conquer her powers to make him love her. Maybe Scarlett could bring back the feelings of love Gavriel had had for her mother and make him human long enough to kill him.
She took a shuddering breath at the thought. She didn’t want to use real love as a weapon, or to murder or kill. But love was the only weapon Scarlett had. And this wasn’t just about her. This was about the woman lying dead on the floor, and all the people across Valenda and the entire Meridian Empire who would suffer if she did not stop Gavriel.
“How did you meet my mother?” Scarlett asked softly.
His hand stilled against her hair.
The question instantly felt like a mistake, but Scarlett pressed on. “My other father—”
The hand on her hair dropped away entirely and the peaceful peach colors that had briefly surrounded him darkened to an orange on the verge of catching fire.
But at least she was still getting him to feel. Apathy was the opposite of love, so even though she was clearly taking his emotions in the wrong direction, at least she was taking them somewhere. She just needed to do a better job guiding his feelings so that he felt what she wanted him to.
“I meant to say, the man who raised me,” Scarlett corrected. “Although, he wanted nothing to do with me until I became old enough to marry off. I hate him.”
The Fallen Star’s eyes sparked with a little more interest. Hate was an emotion he understood. But Scarlett would have to be careful, or he would latch on to it instead of love.
“I don’t want to hate you, too. But you keep frightening me,” she said. “And I don’t believe that makes me weak, I think it makes me smart. I’m grateful you took the cage off, but if you want me to keep working to unlock my powers, you need to give me a reason to trust you. Clearly, my mother had a relationship with you. Or, she slept with you at least once.”
His nostrils flared. Scarlett was dancing on a knife’s edge. “Our relationship was more than that.”
“Then tell me about it,” Scarlett said.
“I think I’d like to hear this story, too,” chimed Anissa.
Flames licked the bars of her cage as Gavriel shot her a glare.
“You’re being scary again,” Scarlett said.
“I am scary. But I do not wish to scare you.”
The corpse on the floor gave Scarlett a different impression, but she didn’t want to argue with him. Not when he was motioning for her to follow him out of the room and into the halls.
He rarely let her leave her rooms.
Everything was monstrously large and tinted with magic, making Scarlett even more aware of her fragile humanity, as they passed ancient pillars that were as thick as small cottages and frescoes covered in chimeras and human-animal hybrids. As one of the Fated places, the Menagerie’s appearance had been restored once the Fates who’d been trapped in the cards had woken up. But Fated places required blood and tithe sacrifices to become fully alive, so thankfully the creatures in the paintings weren’t real. Even so, Scarlett swore their eyes watched and their ears listened when the Fallen Star finally spoke.
“Paradise was the boldest thief I ever met. There was nothing she was afraid to steal. She loved the thrill and the danger and the risks. I think that’s why she was attracted to me.”
“Why were you attracted to her?” Scarlett asked.
“It started when she threatened to kill me.”