Page 173 of The Iron Flower

Lukas barely pauses when he reaches me. He holds out his elbow, and I wordlessly take his arm, an enraged fire whipping through my lines.

“You’re dismissed,” Lukas tells my guards without looking at them, his voice taut with anger.

I want to scream at Lukas and strike him. I want to take every last Gardnerian soldier down with my bare hands. Instead, I match his long stride down the field.

At the field’s base, we veer off toward the forest, the silence between us crackling with an almost unbearable tension. Lukas’s hand slides down to grasp my arm as he pulls me through the dark woods, the lights of the military encampments and the University rapidly fading as we move farther in.

The trees’ hatred strafes at us from all sides, and Lukas blasts his fire lines out at the same time I do, the forest abruptly withdrawing.

We come to a small clearing, and he releases me and turns, our eyes locking with savage emotion. All artifice instantly breaks down, the Dryad pull an overpowering wave, overtaking me.

“How could you be part of this?” I snarl at him, teeth gritted. “Did you know the Gardnerians were about toslaughterthe Lupines?”

“I didn’t know.” His eyes are incendiary.

“I don’t believe you!”

“Can I lie to you?” he asks, his voice daggered.

“No. You can’t,” I slice back at him. “So, tell me, Lukas. Now that all of youdoknow, is your whole divisioncelebrating?”

“Yes,” he says. “They’re celebrating.”

“And what about you, Lukas? Are you celebrating, too?”

Combative fire lights his gaze. “No, Elloren. I am not. Vogel just destabilized the entire Western Realm.”

“That’s what you care about?” I lash out, my rage blistering and raw. “That the Realm isdestabilized? Not that large numbers of innocent people have beenmurdered?”

I’ve a sudden sense of ferocious conflict slashing through his lines. “Is this still just the normal cycle of history, Lukas?” I demand. “Just the way of things?”

He remains infuriatingly silent, but I can feel it building inside him—fire exploding all over his earth affinity lines. I want to harness that fire and throw it at him. To watch him ignite.

I stalk close to him, fists tight, fire raging. “Thisis what it was all leading up to, Lukas. Erthia for Gardnerians. The idea that we are the First Children, and everyone else is an Evil One. The mobs. The burning blessing stars.Thisis what comes of it. Not some shining, blessed Gardnerian paradise. Deadchildren. Deadfamilies. And Gardnerianscelebratingbecause our cursed book tells us that it’s alljust fine.”

I get right up into his face. “I don’t care if this is the normal cycle of history. Over and over and over. This needs to be foughtnow. This needs to endnow.”

“Vogel would have to be deposed.”

The world tilts. “What did you say?”

Lukas’s lip curls into a grimace. “You heard me, Elloren.”

My throat pulls in tight, my voice reduced to a scraping whisper. “What are you telling me, Lukas?”

“The truth.” He glares heatedly at me. “Because you and I are incapable of anything else.” His hard gaze falters. “I wish I could lie to you, Elloren, but I can’t.”

“Then tell me the truth,” I say, my thoughts reeling.

“Vogel’s too powerful, and so is our military. He can’t be fought from the outside—he’d have to be taken down from within.”

“How?”

“The Gardnerian military would need to overthrow him.”

Lightning flashes. I pull in air, stunned.

I search Lukas’s eyes, but he’s giving nothing away. Nothing except the turbulent fire that I can sense raging through his lines.

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