Page 140 of Spark of the Everflame

His eyes skimmed over my body and paused on the pants Luther’s cousin had dressed me in.

“So you’re wearing a Royal Guard uniform now?”

“My clothes were destroyed in the fire.”

He frowned, concern slipping through a crack in his dour mood.

“Were you injured?”

“No. I mean, I don’t think so.”

“You’re not sure?”

“I was unconscious.”

“Are you hurt now?”

“No. I’m fine.”

His features hardened. “So you weren’t injured, but you slept at the palace and played dress-up with the Royal Guard?”

I flinched and looked down. My fingers nervously toyed with the sleeve of the tunic—Luther’s tunic. A deep breath had his woodsy scent filling my nose.

“You shouldn’t have run,” he said flatly. “You made things so much worse.”

“Seems to be a trend for me,” I mumbled.

“You lied to Vance’s face. Tomyface. You pretended to be with us and took off as soon as I let you go. Do you know how that looks?”

I gritted my teeth. “I wasn’t your prisoner. You had no right to stop me in the first place.”

“I was trying to keep you from doing something I knew you would regret.”

“What I regret is ever joining the Guardians in the first place.”

His head jerked back. “One night at the palace and suddenly you’re ontheirside?”

“Of course I’m not, but the Guardians’ methods went too far.” I shook my head. “People died last night, Henri. They died horrible, painful deaths.”

“Mortals die horrible, painful deaths every day at the hands of the Descended.”

“And that’s wrong, too. No one deserves that, mortal or Descended.”

“Evrim Benette deserves it. That King deserves it. They’re bad people, and they deserve to pay for what they’ve done. The sooner they’re gone from this world, the safer every mortal will be.”

“Buttheyaren’t the ones who died last night. The guards who were killed were just doing their jobs—”

“And the executioner who kills children under the progeny laws is just doing his job. The soldiers who slaughtered mortals in the Blood War were doing their jobs. The army assassins who round up and kill every Guardian they can find are just doing their jobs. And none of them are going to stop until we force them to face consequences.”

“If the Guardians hurt innocent people to get power, they’re no better than the Descended.”

“No better than the Descended?” He drew back in disgust. “How can you even say that? The Descended are monsters, Diem. The Guardians are trying to protect our people and take back what they stole from us.”

“I know you trust them, but...” I winced and rubbed at my temples to soothe the sharp, pounding headache that had begun to form. “Henri, I think they poisoned that Benette girl to arrange the call for a healer.”

He looked away, a shadow passing over his features. I’d seen that look on him before, and it struck me deathly still.

“Tell me you didn’t know about that.”

---