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“Mother, I’m tired,” Scarlett complained, rubbing her eyes. “Can’t we go to the beach in the morning?”
“You love the beach, Scarlett,” her mother said gently. “There is something very important we need to do tonight.”
Scarlett fell silent as her little five-year-old legs worked to keep up with her mother’s long stride towards the beach. It was so dark, but the sky was clear. The stars glittered and twinkled above them with a full moon reflecting on the sea as they finally came to the beach. Her mother stopped when they neared the water and seemed to breathe in deep, closing her eyes.
“Mother?” Scarlett asked tentatively in her small child’s voice.
Eliné stooped down to slide Scarlett’s shoes from her feet. “Go feel the sand between your toes, baby. They will be here soon.”
Scarlett didn’t know who they were waiting for as she ran along the waves gently rolling to the shore. She giggled at the cool water spraying her legs, and she waded out farther, the bottom of her nightgown becoming soaked in the surf. She turned back to make sure her mother was still nearby and found her standing with another. The newcomer was wearing a cloak, the hood up and covering the person’s face. The giggles and smile instantlyvanished as she quickly and quietly came to her mother’s side, hiding behind her skirts.
“It is all right, Scarlett. Sybil will be here soon with your Cassius,” Eliné said softly, running her fingers through Scarlett’s silver hair.
Scarlett nodded mutely, staring at the person standing beside her mother. Cassius was always assigned to watch over her when her mother had to work. He was so strong and always took her to pick pears in the grove. Everything would be better once Cassius got here.
“Her tonic?” the stranger asked. A woman. Her voice was feminine.
“I only gave her half so I could wake her. I will give her the other half when we return,” her mother answered. The woman nodded, and although Scarlett couldn’t see her face, she knew the woman was watching her.
A moment later, Sybil was indeed coming down the beach with Cassius in tow. Where was Juliette? Nuri? Why hadn’t they come?
“This is him?” the woman asked.
“This is Cassius, yes,” her mother answered. “This is the one you seek.”
“Give me your hand, child,” the stranger said, extending her own hand to Cassius. Cassius glanced from Eliné to Sybil, who both nodded to him. He did as they indicated, and in a flash, the stranger had a dagger drawn and had slashed a cut along his palm. Scarlett cried out, but Eliné was already comforting her. “It is all right, baby. Look. Cassius is fine.”
Indeed. Cassius had his teeth gritted, but he didn’t look scared. He wasn’t crying. Brave. He was always so brave. She could be brave, too.
The stranger dipped her finger into the blood pooling in his hand and sniffed it. “Has Ranvir appeared yet?”
“We have not seen him, but we have not seen Shirina yet either,” Eliné answered quietly. “I am assuming it is because we are in these lands.”
“You have confirmed who sired him, though?”
Sybil eyed the stranger. “Can you not smell it in his blood?”
“I can,” the woman answered. “It is just still a wonder to me. He never indicated he would ever take a lover, let alone one with whom to sire a child.”
Then the stranger was stooping down before Scarlett. She scooted back farther behind her mother’s skirts. Sybil’s hands came to Cassius's shoulders to hold him in place as he lurched for her. The woman reached up and pulled back her hood. Her silver hair glinted in the moonlight, and Scarlett’s eyes widened. “Your hair is beautiful, Little One,” the woman said gently with a soft smile.Her eyes were silver and glowed in the night. “Tell me, Scarlett, do you like the sun or the moon better?”
“The moon,” Scarlett whispered, “but I like the stars best of all.”
“Me too,” the woman answered. Her throat bobbed, and Scarlett wasn’t sure, but she thought the pretty woman might cry. “I have a secret to tell you. Can you keep a secret?”
Scarlett nodded her head, taking a step out from behind her mother, towards the woman. “The world will tell you that the night houses the wicked and cruel, but what they do not know…” And the woman paused as a flame of pure white glittered in her palm, cold as the space between the stars. “Is that the darkness is where the most beautiful things grow.”
Scarlett smiled at the woman, and without thinking, reached out to touch the flames in her hand. The woman smiled again, but even at the age of five, Scarlett could tell it was a sad smile. The woman took Scarlett’s little hand in her own, the flames vanishing. “I need you to do something for me, Scarlett. I need to make a cut on your hand like I did for Cassius. To keep you…” The woman paused, swallowing thickly again. “It will help keep you safe. Can you be really brave right now, Starfire?”
Despite the nerves in her stomach, Scarlett grinned at the name the woman had given her. “Yes,” she said, nodding in emphasis. She turned her palm over in the woman’s, extending her fingers.
“So brave,” the woman murmured.
Scarlett closed her eyes tight as the woman slashed her palm just as quickly as she had cut Cassius's. A moment later, she was tipping Cassius's palm into Scarlett’s, mixing their blood together. The woman swirled it in her palm with her finger. “Turn them,” she said to Eliné and Sybil.
The women turned to the children, and Scarlett felt her nightgown being lifted and the woman’s finger drawing in the middle of her back. She glanced over as the woman lifted Cassius's tunic and drew on his lower back, too. Two overlapping circles with a line through the middle of them. The red blood flared bright and then turned a pale silvery white against his skin.
There was another flash of bright white flames and a small cup appeared in the woman’s hand. She gently tipped Scarlett’s palm into it, the blood dripping steadily down until it was half full. “You each need to drink,” she said plainly.
