He stared at her with wild eyes. “That’s all you have to say? Fuck off?Youfuck off, Scarlett. You’ll regret this for the rest of your life, and don’t think I’ll take you back!”
Scarlett, filled with rage, strode toward Cass. “Let’s wait on the dock.”
Cass nodded and fell into step beside her. “That was intense. Are you all right?”
“Yes. I’ll be fine.” Scarlett kept her gaze ahead. “It’s for the best.”
It wasn’t long before Charlie had pulled up in her family’s sleek speedboat. Alastair didn’t follow them, and Scarlett was glad. He could find his own way home.
“Sorry you had to listen to that,” she said as they waited for Charlie to secure the boat.
“Don’t be sorry,” said Cass, amused. “He seems like a prick.”
“He’sneveracted like that before. You saw the worst of him back there.”
But deep down, Scarlett wasn’t entirely sure that was true. It was why she felt relieved to be free, whatever that meant. Given their respective roles in Soleil, she feared she’d never be trulyfree of Alastair Spencer. She tried her best not to dwell on the thought as the boat sped off into the night.
CHAPTER
TWO
The next morning Scarlett sat in bed staring at the sunlight sparkling on the water outside her window, mulling over the events of the previous night. The police raid, the breakup—it all seemed like a dream. She’d been using magic in secret for years, but that was the first time she’d seen anything like those shifters. It was definitely the closest she’d come to being caught. All because of a magical spectator sport.
She nuzzled into her pillow as she wished for the thousandth time her country would change. Soleil’s magic ban was in place to prevent darker kinds of magic, such as the mind control and possession her country had been subjected to centuries ago. That, Scarlett understood. But along with all the dark stuff, Soleil had also gotten rid of the good magic and closed itself off from the outside world. The country had developed incredible technology to make up for its magical disadvantages, but despite interest from foreign buyers eager to merge magic with the advanced tech, Soleil still hadn’t legalized cross-border trade. Other countries used magic to communicate across far distances. Soleil had to rely on letters for legal communication beyond the border. It was all so stupid.
Barely anyone foreign-born was allowed into Soleil, andanyone caught using magic in the country was arrested and shamed, though the black market was well-known. She’d never understood how a black market was allowed to exist. After last night, though, she wondered if its days were numbered.
She sighed, looking at the time. Normally, she’d be waking up in Alastair’s bed. It was a relief to be alone in her room instead. The emotional hangover from her breakup had dissipated somewhat overnight, and she was ready to wreak new havoc on her life.
He should be awake by now…
Scarlett slid off her bed and padded into her dressing room. The expansive adjoining room between her room and her grandmother Manon’s room was quiet when she entered. She looked to the huge gilt mirror hanging between two bureaus. The secret mirror that could get her and Manon arrested if it were ever discovered. The mirror that connected her to the outside world of magic even though she lived in Goddess-damned isolationist Soleil. Most importantly, it was the mirror that connected her tohim.
At first, she simply saw herself at an angle as she approached the mirror. Only when she was standing directly in front of it did the image change to a room full of meticulously ordered bookshelves, a tweed couch, and a grand mahogany desk. The rest of her tension melted, and she smiled.
There he is.
On the other side of the mirror, Brayden Maddox was on the carpeted floor of his father’s study, bent over as he stretched his hamstrings for his morning run. Though they’d never actually met in person, Brayden had been Scarlett’s friend through the mirror since she moved into the room. She was eleven when she accidentally found the contraband magical mirror linking her home to his. Now she was twenty-two, and Brayden was one of the few people in her life who cared for her unconditionally.Their relationship was so precious to her. She’d never felt that kind of love from her father and had lost it from her relationship with her ex-boyfriend in recent months.
As he straightened, Brayden noticed her watching. “There she is. Good morning.” He flashed her a charming smile that accentuated his prominent cheekbones. “You look a little keyed up. What has you so bright-eyed this early in the morning?”
Goddess, that deep voice of his. Brayden was from Clair de Lune, the country to the east of Soleil, and his accent always hit her hardest first thing in the morning. Even after all these years. She’d never get enough of the way he pronounced “you.”
Focus.
“I have news,” she said excitedly as she approached the mirror. “Alastair and I broke up yesterday, and today I’m telling my dad I’m going abroad to tour the embassies instead of working for him this year.” Telling her dad counted as news, because he fully expected Scarlett to join his staff now that she’d graduated from university, to prepare her to one day inherit his seat in Parliament.
Scarlett scanned Brayden’s face for a reaction. He pushed his messy dark brown hair out of his even darker eyes and blinked a couple of times. He definitely looked surprised. It might have been wishful thinking, but was that a glimmer of happiness in his expression? Tempered happiness?
He stood. “Are we playing that game where only one of those things is true and I have to guess which?”
She beamed at him. “Nope. Both things are true. I’ll have to talk to my dad today if I’m going to get my plans together in time to leave in two weeks. That’s when the Soleil Embassy in Sigur Viður has agreed to host me.” Scarlett gathered her long hair and twisted it into a bun.
He stared at her. “That’s huge, Scarlett. And you split with Alastair…” He was unnaturally still. “Are you all right? Was ityour decision?”
She nodded. “Yes, it was my decision.”
His shoulders relaxed, and Scarlett exhaled.
