Page 141 of Spark of the Everflame

He pulled his hands from his pockets and stood straight, but his gaze remained distant, lips pressed tight.

“Henri.”

No response.

“By the Undying fucking Fire, Henri, tell me you didn’t send me into that home knowing a little girl was poisoned just so I could—”

“She was fine,” he snapped. “It was only deathshade.”

I gaped at him, breathless. “Youknew?”

“She was only ill for a day. We knew you could treat it and she wouldn’t face any real risk.”

“Deathshade can be lethal if it’s eaten. If any of it had gotten into her food or in her mouth—”

His eyes blazed with rage, his cheeks flushing an angry scarlet. “They’ve killed thousands of our children.Thousands.”

“And you think that justifies the Guardians hurting theirs?”

“She’s fine now, isn’t she? It was a calculated risk, and you have no idea how many lives it will save. We set Benette’s shipments back for months. We recovered enough weapons to arm half the rebel cells in Emarion. If one spoiled Descended child had to have a mild rash for a day so thousands of mortals could live, how can you say that’s not a price worth paying?”

I glared at him, working my jaw. “You should have told me. I never would have done that mission if I’d known—”

“What did you think the Guardians do, Diem?” he exploded, veins straining on his neck. “Did you think we would hold hands and sing tavern songs? Did you think we would take the Descended down through the gods-damnedpower of friendship?”

“More violence can’t be the right solution.”

“It’s theonlysolution!” He slammed his fist against the wall, tiny cracks webbing out from the point of impact. His voice and his shoulders shook with roiling fury. “In all of mortal history, violence is the only thing that’s ever worked. Every right that we have, we’ve had to scrape and claw and kill for. People with power don’t give it away out of the kindness of their hearts. They do it when we leave them no other choice. When they fear what we’ll do to them if they don’t. And they sure as hell aren’t giving us our homeland back unless we have a knife to their throat—a knife that can actually make them bleed.”

Images of Luther flashed in my head—my blade at his neck, his blood on my hands. His lips on my mouth.

Henri seized my chin in his hand and tilted my face up to make me look at him, his expression feverish. “Tell me I’m wrong, Diem. Tell me you honestly believe we can win this war without bloodshed.”

I couldn’t.

And I knew from the grim satisfaction that washed over him that he could see it on my face.

He released me and let loose a shaky breath as he carved a hand down the back of his neck, suddenly looking world-weary and exhausted.

“I love you, Diem. And I am not blaming you for this, but your mother kept you away from the Descended, and your father’s history means your family has never been targeted. You have been protected from them your whole life. But the rest of us haven’t.”

I looked down, cheeks burning. “I know that.”

I did know. There was hardly a family in all of Lumnos that hadn’t been touched by some kind of tragedy or injustice at the hands of the Descended.

I saw the evidence of it every time I walked through Mortal City and saw mourning flags in too many windows. I saw it every time I treated an impoverished patient who had to risk their life for food or when I passed by the mass graveyards full of tombstones from the Blood War. I saw it every time I looked into Henri’s eyes, where the loss of his mother had cut a permanent scar.

An arm slid around my waist as he pulled me close. My body stiffened instinctively at the movement. I tried desperately to shutter the awareness of how Luther had done the same thing, and how my body had had a very different reaction.

I rolled my shoulders, forcing my muscles to relax.This is where I’m meant to be, I reminded myself.This is where I belong.

Henri tapped a knuckle on the tip of my nose. “You have a big heart, D. You want everyone to be safe and happy, no matter who they are. But you have no idea how bad it is out there. Here in Lumnos, things are peaceful enough, but some of the things the other rebel cells are dealing with...”

I watched him for a moment, the way his jaw worked with the tension of barely suppressed rage. “I want to know,” I prodded.

“Do you know how they cleared the mortals out when Ignios closed its borders?”

“I heard they went to Umbros.”

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